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Work · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to How DNS Works

Super cute web comics about 'How DNS Works' for beginners!

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 1 we have checked on their own sites, 1 of them free or with a free tier. How DNS Works launched in 2015; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1

    We want to tail you how HTTPS works. In a comic. 😽

    2018 · howhttps.works · its alternatives →

  2. 2WD
  3. 3

    Tired of companies snooping through your DNS traffic? Don't you wish you could get advertisements with your DNS records? Today we're introducing the innovative, privacy-focused, ad-supported DNS resolver - DN$! Traditional DNS resolvers provided by your internet service provider, cloudflare, or google could be tracking your internet activity and selling it to third-party data vendors. We at DN$ want to fix that and cut out these nefarious actors (until we've amassed a critical number of users to exploit). In order to support such a radically new business model, our service needs to serve…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    A cool-as-shit dynamic traceroute powered by custom software, married with an informative article about how the BGP routing protocol works and guides the shape of the Internet.

    2023 · how-did-i-get-here.net · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Hey HN, I saw a thread a while ago (linked in README) discussing how Wikipedia does a good job keeping track of the domains of websites like Sci-Hub or The Pirate Bay. Someone mentioned checking Wikipedia to find links to these sites, so I thought this would be a fun thing to automate! To try it out, install an extension or modify your hosts file, then type in the name of a website with the TLD `.idk`. For example: scihub.idk -> sci-hub.tw Cheers!

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    NextDNS protects you from all kinds of security threats, blocks ads and trackers on websites and in apps and provides a safe and supervised Internet for kids — on all devices and on all networks.

    2019 · nextdns.io · its alternatives →

  7. 7AI

    A guide on how browsers work.

    Jan 2026 · howbrowserswork.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    do weird DNS experiments

    2021 · messwithdns.net · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    Your one source for DNS related tools!

    2017 · viewdns.info · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Hey everyone. It's Sherub here, author of the Build your own DNS Server challenge on CodeCrafters. Currently it’s available in Rust, Go, and Python and is free while in beta. https://codecrafters.io/dns-server I've kept the challenge accessible but still challenging for an intermediate developer. This challenge, like others from CodeCrafters, is self-paced. You can use any tools you prefer (terminal, editor, etc.) to build the project. At the end of the challenge, you will have created a DNS forwarding server. The server can create and read DNS packets and respond to DNS…

    2023 · app.codecrafters.io · its alternatives →

  11. 11
    DNS Spy▲11

    Monitor, validate and verify your DNS configurations.

    2017 · dnsspy.io · its alternatives →

  12. 12UD

    dig +short TXT youpay.govorenefekt.com @1.1.1.1 | fold -s You can base64 encode an image, split to TXT records and send over Internet. Useful in certain circumstances. Like when one of the communicating parties is under severe censorship.

    2023 · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    Your daily toolkit for everything related to domains.

    2024 · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    A directory of DNS options to help gamers

    2024 · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    A tiny command line DNS client with support for UDP, TCP, DoT, DoH, DoQ and ODoH. - natesales/q

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Free AI DNS record diagnostics tool

    2023 · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    A simple and powerful tool for querying DNS records

    2020 · nslookup.io · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    Hi HN! I'm Jarek, and I've built this tool that allows publishing .local domains on the local network using mDNS. It also has a reverse proxy that handles HTTPS termination and port forwarding. I'm working on adding more features, like an index page with all available domains or allowing proxy redirects, so you could redirect from HTTP to HTTPS. Let me know if you have any questions or feedback!

    2023 · localcan.com · its alternatives →

  19. 194D

    Hi HN, I've been working on building a pipeline to create a DNS records database lately. The goal is to enable research as well as competitive landscape analysis on the internet. The dataset for now spans around 4 billion records and covers all the common DNS record types: A AAAA ANAME CAA CNAME HINFO HTTPS MX NAPTR NS PTR SOA SRV SSHFP SVCB TLSA TXT Each line in the CSV file represents a single DNS record in the following format: www.example.com,A,93.184.215.14 Let me know if you have any questions or feedback!

    2024 · merklemap.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20DL
  21. 21

    Discover obscure subdomains w/ this DNS recon tool 4 hackerz

    2016 · dnsdumpster.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    developer friendly dns service, api first

    2017 · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    DNS record lookups just as you like 'em

    2017 · dnsrecords.io · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    DNS research tools - domain name, IP address, and WHOIS data

    2017 · domaintools.com · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →