Homograph domain checker

Two tricks with one goal

A homograph uses letters from another alphabet that look the same as the ones you expect. The Cyrillic а looks just like the English a, so аpple.com is not apple.com, even though you cannot see the difference.

A typosquat uses ordinary letters: paypa1.com, rnicrosoft.com, gogole.com. They work because people read the shape of a word, not each letter.

What your browser catches, and what it misses

If a name mixes alphabets, browsers show it in its coded xn-- form. That stops the simple trick of swapping one English letter for a lookalike.

It does not stop a name written entirely in another alphabet. аррӏе.com is all Cyrillic, so no warning appears, and it still reads as "apple". That case, and typosquats, are what this tool is for.

How the check works

Both names are turned into a plain "lookalike" form using Unicode's official list of confusable characters, and then compared. The Cyrillic а becomes a, and so do ɑ, α and ａ. The list also knows that rn looks like m, so rnicrosoft.com is caught as an exact match.

Then we count how many letters differ. Two swapped letters count as one typo, so gogole is one typo away from google.

No "safe" verdict, and no brand list

This tool will never tell you a domain is safe. It only reads the name. It does not know who owns the site, what is on it, or when it was set up. A name with no warnings can still be dangerous.

There is no built-in list of brands. You type in the names you expect, so the check fits what matters to you.