3 Absolutely Essential Mac Apps for Domain Owners (+ Bonus iPhone App)

3 min read,
Published Mar 12, 2012

So, you switched to a Mac? Congratulations! You must be very happy and proud of your new shiny computer.

The first thing switchers usually do is discover Apple’s guide. Once they get that in order, they try to find their favourite Windows programs for Mac OS X. Maybe you used some kind of domain tool program and you want to have it on Mac OS X, too? Let’s see some of your choices.

Domainer

[youtube width=”555″ height=”340″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ggEknotnXo[/youtube]

Domainer is a pretty popular choice, and reasonably priced. It is available on Mac App Store for $30, but you can track up to three domains for free. It lets you easily see all relevant domain details including creation and expiration dates, registrar and owner details. However, Domainer also gives you access to important Search Engine Optimization (SEO) details about all the domains you are currently tracking.

My favourite feature would probably be syncing domain expiry dates with iCal & FTP passwords with KeyChain. Of course, my iCal is synced to iPhone and Google Calendar so there is no way I could ever forget to renew my domains. 😉

Domain Name Analyzer

Tabular layout displays multiple information

Domain Name Analyzer might be a good choice if you are looking for a free application, available in Mac App Store. It will help you create domain names from keywords you pick and automatically check them for availability. The application supports International Domain Names (IDNs).

You can also lookup the availability of domain names using a quick check method and check if the registered domains have a corresponding website (or if they were simply registered and abandoned). However, this is a very simple tool and will not be sufficient for advanced users. Of course, this application has a big brother called…

Watch My Domains

Watch My Domain is a powerful application for managing your domains

Watch My Domains is what Domain Name Analyzer should be. It will cost you $49 via Mac App Store (but there is a free 30 day trial available here). This application is completely configurable, and it will create a spreadsheet where you will be able to see the following information about your domains:

  • Domain Name;
  • TLD;
  • Registry Expiry;
  • Registrar Expiry;
  • Last Updated Date;
  • Created Date;
  • Whois Lookup Time;
  • Registrar Name;
  • Domain Status;
  • Name Servers (NS1, NS2, NS3…);
  • IP Address the domain points to;
  • Domain Contacts;
  • Notes Columns.

Bonus: iPhone app

While doing my reasearch for this article, I found an interesting article by Timo Reitnauer from Smashing Magazine. Here is a part of his article, as a bonus tip for all of you new to Apple world:

“DomainApp is a free application from domain management service iWantMyName that lets you search and register domains directly from your iPhone. Like their website, the application is very clean, user-friendly and intuitive. The domain search covers many international domain extensions and results can be saved as bookmarks for future reference. To register domain names you need an account with iWantMyName and connect the application via a remote key.

The application might be useful for brainstorming sessions, client meetings or the occasional fun domain registration.”

Ivana (Ivy) Gutierrez