What domain extraction is and how root domains differ from hostnames
Domain extraction parses a uniform resource identifier (URI) or text fragment and isolates its domain name component per RFC 3986. A complete URL includes scheme, userinfo, host, port, path, query string, and fragment identifier. Extracting the domain discards every peripheral element to leave the network host.
A critical distinction exists between a hostname and a root domain (also known as an apex domain or registrable domain):
- Hostname: The entire host label assigned to a machine or service, such as
shop.eu.example.comorwww.bbc.co.uk. - Root domain: The highest-level domain name registered with a registrar beneath a public
suffix, such as
example.comorbbc.co.uk.
Splitting naively on dots fails when dealing with multi-part public suffixes: bbc.co.uk has two
dots, but co.uk is a registry suffix, meaning the true root domain is bbc.co.uk, not
co.uk. This extractor recognizes multi-level country-code extensions so root domains remain
accurate.
How to extract domains from URLs or text
- Paste the URLs or text. Paste your list of URLs, server log lines, backlink exports or raw document text into the input box above. Links can begin with http, https, ftp, or appear as bare domain names.
- Select your extraction target. Choose Root domain to extract registrable apex domains (e.g., example.com), Full hostname to keep subdomains (e.g., api.example.com), Subdomain only, or TLD extension.
- Configure filtering rules. Keep Strip www enabled to unify www and non-www variants. Check Remove duplicates to get unique domains, and enable Count occurrences if you need domain frequency metrics.
- Copy or download. Click Copy list to place results on your clipboard, Save as .txt for a clean line-separated list, or Save as CSV for spreadsheet analysis.
What comes out
- Root domains: Clean apex domains (e.g.,
example.com) stripped of subdomains, paths, and parameters. - Full hostnames: Complete host labels including subdomains (e.g.,
analytics.google.com), optionally stripped of genericwwwprefixes. - Subdomains: Just the subdomain portion (e.g.,
blogfromblog.acme.org). - Top-level domains (TLDs): The extension component (e.g.,
com,org,co.uk). - Occurrence counts: Exact counts of how many times each domain appeared in the input text, useful for backlink profiling and log analysis.
Supported URL structures and protocols
The extractor processes all standard web addresses and text patterns:
- Standard web schemes:
https://andhttp://. - File transfer schemes:
ftp://andsftp://. - Protocol-relative links:
//cdn.example.net/app.js. - Bare domains without a scheme:
sub.example.com/pricingoracme.co.in. - URLs with custom port numbers:
https://localhost:8080/dashboardorstaging.server.com:3000(port numbers are cleanly stripped from hostnames). - URLs with complex query parameters, URL encodings, tracking tags (UTM), and anchors.
IP addresses (such as 192.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.1) are identified and excluded to
prevent server IP addresses from polluting domain lists.
Why domain extraction runs in your browser
Domain lists frequently expose sensitive information: internal corporate staging environments, private analytics dashboards, client backlink profiles, unannounced partner domains, and user browsing trails from exported browser histories. Sending those lists to an external web service creates unnecessary compliance and confidentiality risks.
EasyExtract executes all parsing, regex matching, and list sorting directly in your browser's JavaScript engine. No text is transmitted over the network, no tracking cookies inspect your input, and no copies persist when your tab closes.
What is not processed
To preserve speed, offline execution, and complete privacy, three network-dependent features are omitted:
- No DNS lookups: The tool extracts syntactically valid domain names from text; it does not query name servers to verify whether an extracted domain currently resolves to an IP.
- No WHOIS lookups: Registration dates, registrar information, and registrant identities require external WHOIS queries and are not fetched.
- No HTTP status verification: The tool does not perform HTTP requests to verify whether an extracted domain returns 200 OK, 301 redirect, or 404.
Who extracts domains from URLs
- SEO specialists & link builders: Extract unique referring domains from backlink exports in Ahrefs, Semrush, or Google Search Console to evaluate link diversity.
- Cybersecurity & SOC analysts: Pull domains out of firewall logs, proxy logs, email headers, and threat intelligence feeds to identify suspicious external endpoints.
- Web developers: Audit content security policy (CSP) directives by extracting all external domains referenced across an HTML codebase.
- Data analysts: Clean web crawl outputs and normalize URL columns before database import.
Domain extraction compared with full URL extraction
The URL extractor extracts complete URLs including paths, query parameters, and fragment identifiers. Use it when you need specific landing page addresses or want to inspect tracking parameters.
Use this Domain Extractor when page paths are irrelevant and your objective is high-level site aggregation: calculating unique referring domains, building domain allowlists/blocklists, or identifying which third-party services an application communicates with.
If your source data is a spreadsheet with a URL column, you can first isolate that column using the CSV column extractor, then paste it here for instant domain deduplication. To extract IPv4 or IPv6 network addresses instead of domain names, use the IP address extractor.
Domain name format standards and parsing edge cases
Domain names adhere to RFC 1034 and RFC 1035: labels contain alphanumeric ASCII characters and hyphens, cannot begin or end with a hyphen, and each label may be up to 63 octets with a maximum total length of 253 characters. Modern web addresses also include Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs per RFC 5890) and diverse generic top-level domains (gTLDs).
Four edge cases: (a) multi-part public suffixes such as .co.uk, .com.au,
and .co.jp are distinct registry boundaries — without a public suffix check, a tool
mistakes co.uk for the apex domain and treats example.co.uk as a subdomain;
(b) URLs with custom port designations (e.g., domain.com:8443) are split so that the port
is stripped from the host before domain classification; (c) URLs containing encoded characters or
trailing punctuation marks (commas, closing brackets, quotes) from prose contexts are sanitized so
the domain boundary is clean; (d) raw IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are filtered out to prevent server
IPs from polluting pure domain name lists.
Frequently asked questions
How do I extract domains from a list of URLs?
Paste your list of URLs into the box above, choose Root domain or Full hostname, and click Extract Domains. You can immediately copy the clean list or download it as CSV or TXT.
What is the difference between a root domain and a hostname?
A hostname includes all subdomains (e.g., blog.example.com), while a root domain (apex domain) is the base registered domain without subdomains (e.g., example.com).
Does it handle multi-part extensions like .co.uk or .com.au?
Yes. The extractor recognizes common two-level country-code public suffixes so that news.bbc.co.uk correctly resolves to bbc.co.uk rather than co.uk.
Can I remove www prefixes from extracted domains?
Yes. Checking the Strip www option automatically strips leading www, www2, and other numbered www prefixes from hostnames and root domains.
How do I count how many times each domain appears?
Check the Count occurrences option. The output will display each unique domain alongside its frequency count, and CSV export includes dedicated Domain and Count columns.
Is there a limit on how many URLs I can paste?
There is no server-imposed limit. Because extraction runs locally in your browser's JavaScript engine, lists containing tens of thousands of URLs parse in seconds.
Are my URLs or logs sent to a server?
No. All parsing happens inside your browser. No data leaves your machine and nothing is stored or logged.
Can I export the extracted domains to Excel or Google Sheets?
Yes. Click Save as CSV to download a clean spreadsheet file that opens directly in Excel, Google Sheets, or LibreOffice Calc.