diff --git a/locales/en.json b/locales/en.json
index 60f58f639..05194c7f0 100644
--- a/locales/en.json
+++ b/locales/en.json
@@ -396,6 +396,7 @@
     "downloading": "Downloading...",
     "dpkg_is_broken": "You cannot do this right now because dpkg/APT (the system package managers) seems to be in a broken state... You can try to solve this issue by connecting through SSH and running `sudo apt install --fix-broken` and/or `sudo dpkg --configure -a` and/or `sudo dpkg --audit`.",
     "dpkg_lock_not_available": "This command can't be run right now because another program seems to be using the lock of dpkg (the system package manager)",
+    "dyndns_availability_too_many_requests": "YunoHost's free domain service received too many requests from you, wait 1 minute or so before trying again.",
     "dyndns_could_not_check_available": "Could not check if {domain} is available on {provider}.",
     "dyndns_domain_not_provided": "DynDNS provider {provider} cannot provide domain {domain}.",
     "dyndns_ip_update_failed": "Could not update IP address to DynDNS",
diff --git a/src/dyndns.py b/src/dyndns.py
index a3afd655f..c9bf8afe6 100644
--- a/src/dyndns.py
+++ b/src/dyndns.py
@@ -63,19 +63,28 @@ def _dyndns_available(domain):
     Returns:
         True if the domain is available, False otherwise.
     """
+    import requests  # lazy loading this module for performance reasons
+
     logger.debug(f"Checking if domain {domain} is available on {DYNDNS_PROVIDER} ...")
 
     try:
-        r = download_json(
-            f"https://{DYNDNS_PROVIDER}/test/{domain}", expected_status_code=None
-        )
+        r = requests.get(f"https://{DYNDNS_PROVIDER}/test/{domain}", timeout=30)
     except MoulinetteError as e:
         logger.error(str(e))
         raise YunohostError(
             "dyndns_could_not_check_available", domain=domain, provider=DYNDNS_PROVIDER
         )
 
-    return r == f"Domain {domain} is available"
+    if r.status_code == 200:
+        return r == f"Domain {domain} is available"
+    elif r.status_code == 409:
+        return False
+    elif r.status_code == 429:
+        raise YunohostValidationError("dyndns_availability_too_many_requests")
+    else:
+        raise YunohostError(
+            "dyndns_could_not_check_available", domain=domain, provider=DYNDNS_PROVIDER
+        )
 
 
 @is_unit_operation(exclude=["recovery_password"])