If you landed here from a soft Reddit tip or a launch-week mention: Vacato is a domain watchlist with alerts, not a registry race.
Free covers 10 names, checks public RDAP every 5 minutes, and can ping Telegram (plus email/push) when a taken name looks available. You register at any registrar — Vacato does not catch, backorder, or bid.
Canonical on the Vacato blog (live after today’s DocsPush): https://vacato.io/blog/telegram-domain-availability-alerts
What an availability alert actually means
An availability alert fires when scheduled checks see a name look available (or otherwise status-flip) on public registry data. Vacato uses RDAP, not a brittle WHOIS scrape you maintain yourself. The product job is coverage + notice. Registration stays with you.
That is a different lane from drop-catch / backorder: those products race or bid at the registry for contested deletes. Use catchers for 1–3 must-wins. Use a watchlist for the long tail of brandables and dream .coms you would register at normal prices if they opened.
Why Telegram beats email-only WHOIS “monitoring”
Email WHOIS digests and calendar reminders fail the same way: you check when you remember, not when the name opens. On mobile, Telegram (or push) is the channel you already glance at. Pairing a timer with a channel you notice is the whole product.
Vacato Free includes Telegram, email, and browser push. Connect Telegram on day one — an unread inbox alert is just a prettier spreadsheet.
Check speed still matters: Free = every 5 minutes on up to 10 names; Pro = every 1 minute on up to 100.
Soft-landing workflow (10 minutes)
- Open https://vacato.io/get-started — Free 10, no card.
- Connect Telegram before you fill all ten slots.
- Add the 3–10 names you actually care about (taken keepers at normal price).
- Keep a registrar logged in. When Telegram fires, register promptly. Vacato does not place the create.
- For contested pending deletes you cannot lose, add a separate backorder/catch — do not pretend the watchlist wins that race.
Honest limits
Vacato will not beat dedicated catch infrastructure on a hot pending-delete .com. Alerts can lag the poll interval. RDAP can be rate-limited or incomplete on some TLDs. False “available” signals are possible — confirm at your registrar before celebrating.
What it will do: stop you from depending on annual WHOIS rituals for a shortlist you would actually buy at list price.
Dogfood tip: put real taken names on the list, not demo placeholders.
Try Free 10: https://vacato.io — alerts only, not a drop-catcher.
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