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Timmothy
Timmothy

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I Built a Free Tool That Checks Your Startup Name Across 7 Platforms

#productivity #tooling #showdev #startup

I built a free tool that checks if your startup name is available everywhere — domains (.com, .io, .dev, .ai), GitHub, npm, and PyPI — in one click.

Try it here: NameCheck

Why I Built This

Every time I start a new project, I go through the same painful routine:

  1. Think of a cool name
  2. Check if the .com is available (it's not)
  3. Check .io (taken too)
  4. Check GitHub (someone squatted it in 2015)
  5. Check npm (of course)
  6. Cry
  7. Go back to step 1

I got tired of opening 7 tabs, so I built a tool that checks everything at once.

How It Works

The tool runs entirely in your browser — no backend, no API keys, no tracking.

It checks availability by querying public APIs:

  • Domains: Uses Google's DNS API to check if A records exist
  • GitHub: Checks the users API (404 = available)
  • npm: Checks the npm registry (404 = available)
  • PyPI: Checks the PyPI API (404 = available)

You get a "Name Score" showing what percentage of platforms have the name available.

The Tech Stack

It's literally one HTML file with inline CSS and JavaScript. No React. No build system. No dependencies. Just fetch()\ and some DOM manipulation.

Total size: ~8KB. Loads in milliseconds.

Things I Learned Building This

  1. Google's DNS API is free and fast. dns.google/resolve?name=example.com&type=A\ — no auth needed.

  2. Most API availability checks are just 404 detection. If api.github.com/users/myname\ returns 404, the username is available.

  3. CORS is your enemy. Some APIs (Twitter, Instagram) don't allow browser requests. I had to skip social media checks.

  4. Keep it simple. My first version had 15 checks, loading indicators, and animations. The current version has 7 checks and loads instantly. Less is more.

What's Next

I'm thinking about adding:

  • Social media handle checks (would need a small backend)
  • Domain price estimates
  • Trademark database search
  • "Save and compare" feature for shortlisting names

If you have ideas, drop them in the comments!

Built with vanilla HTML/CSS/JS. Source is viewable in the browser. Feel free to steal the approach.

I also built a README Generator and Budget Calculator — all free, all single-file tools.

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