Understanding The Dynadot Beta API System
Dynadot.com has a powerful API system in place. It is currently in Beta mode – but to me, it’s in production mode. I have been using their API for over three years now. It’s the most forgiving API in my opinion – meaning you can run it 24×7 & they don’t care.
To those of you that are new drop catching, A registrar API system is made so you can send domain reistration attempts via a script or program you write. I write a few different versions of API software for Dynadot. Basically this software serves to let me carry on about my day without having to sit in front of the computer.
If you spend over $500 a year at Dynadot, you get a free API key. If you spend more than $500 across multiple accounts, then each has an API key. Dynadot allows you to create multiple accounts without any penalty whatsoever.
The Dynadot API is very simple. It uses HTTP POST or GET methods & can even run from your browser to catch drops. If you have white listed your IP – copy & paste the following to your web browser, you’ll see what I mean:
https://api.dynadot.com/api.html?version=1.0&key=##API KEY##&command=register&domain=mydomain.com&duration=1
Whitelist your IP address & Replace ##API KEY## with your API key.
Hit enter & the Dynadot API will attempt to instantly grab the domain: “mydomain.com” & register it for 1 year. Feel free to change the variables around.
Dynadot’s API is basically a gateway to Verisign’s internal commands. Verisign is the official handler of all .com & .net domains (other extensions too). Drop catchers like Snapnames, Namejet, Pool & ALL partner & preferred registars use the same type of “Live” connection to Verisign.com.
So can you beat snapnames & pool with Dynadot’s API? Not likely. However, there have been a couple times that I have succeeded with a grab.
In this post at the forum NamePros Dynadot’s API & my software secured the domain: bamn.net. It was later revealed that a backorder for the same name was put in at GoDaddy & Snapnames.
More recent examples include: Wealthier.us & Suffixes.net. Which both had backorders put in at various registrars & Dynadot’s API caught the name with my software.
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I believe it’s $500/year, not $500/month as you stated.
Thanks for catching that Kevin, post is now updated.
I’m assuming those $500 accounts won’t collectively add up to make the $5000 level needed for Dynadot’s lowest pricing. In other words, that one must spend $5000 per account for the $7.25 rate? Still worth it to have 10 APIs running at once… just asking though.