Short · checked 29 September 2026
Dofo's founder explained exactly why he switched it off.
A free Istanbul search engine for 330 million domain names, retired in February 2023 by a founder who published his reasons, and whose domain now forwards to his security company.
Dofo.com's browse card, captured in July 2019, promised to let anyone search "more than 330 million registered domain names in seconds," with more than 15 filters, a page for every registered domain, and 40 million names on sale through more than 15 marketplace partners. All of it was free.
On 11 January 2023, a user on NamePros, the domain investors' forum, reported a banner on Dofo.com saying it would be retired in February. The next day Dofo's founder replied in the thread, and he was unusually specific about why: five-figure monthly server costs, bots abusing the service, affiliate revenue too low to cover it, and marketplace data he could not keep accurate. He mentioned acquisition talks that had not worked out.
By March, TheDomains reported, Dofo.com was forwarding to DeepInfo.com, a paid service whose chief executive appeared to be Dofo's creator. The domain still redirects there. Deepinfo now describes itself as a threat exposure management platform indexing more than 400 million domains: the same raw material Dofo searched for free, sold for security work instead.
Dofo's LinkedIn page is titled "DOFO (Acquired by Deepinfo)." The founder's own account describes a shutdown, and we found no acquisition announcement.