Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to KittenDNS – Easy to setup, rule engine, LetsEncrypt compatible
My goal was to create a DNS server as simple as the LDAP server I've been contributing to (glauth) and here it is: https://github.com/fusion/kittendns A few things to know about it: - It is easy to configure using a Toml file - I am using it to bail my coredns/etcd instances when under attack - (yes, it also works as a service location server) - It comes with a simple, plain English, rule engine that doesn't do much at this point - It can be used with LetsEncrypt. I use it to retrieve certificates for my home servers. - RFC: all the nice ones :) Anyway, feedback is…
KittenDNS is a DNS server designed for simplicity and ease of configuration through TOML files. It includes a plain English rule engine for managing DNS requests, works as a service location server, and integrates with… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. KittenDNS – Easy to setup, rule engine, LetsEncrypt compatible launched in 2022; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
- 1

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 →
- 2

I built a DNS resolver that lets me use https://frontend.numa instead of localhost:5173 — auto-generated TLS certs, WebSocket passthrough, path routing. No mkcert, no nginx, no /etc/hosts.
Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 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

Recursive and authoritative DNS server in go, including DNSSEC and DNS-over-TLS - tenta-browser/tenta-dns
2017 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 5RD
2017 · recdnsfp.github.io · its alternatives →
- 6

A high-performance DNS stub resolver for bulk lookups and reconnaissance (subdomain enumeration) - blechschmidt/massdns
2016 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 7

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 →
- 8RT
Every privacy-focused DNS service requires an account: NextDNS, Cloudflare for Families, Apple's iCloud Private Relay (paid, iOS-only). The protocol that doesn’t require one - ODoH - had basically one well-known public relay operator (Frank Denis on Fastly Compute, default in dnscrypt-proxy). I built a second one and the client to talk to it.
May 2026 · numa.rs · its alternatives →
- 9

A tiny command line DNS client with support for UDP, TCP, DoT, DoH, DoQ and ODoH. - natesales/q
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 10NS
Hey everyone, I was always tired of setting up PowerDNS, Bind and PiHole and I am trying to do more projects in Rust, so here is Nomina. It has: * Split Horizon DNS (return a different IP/record if remote IP is in a certain network etc) * DynDNS Support * Blocklist Integration * DHCP4+6 Server * AXFR/IXFR support * Rewriting of records It can replace most of the common Home Lab setups incl. PiHole AdBlocking etc. https://github.com/DatanoiseTV/Nomina
Jun 2026 · its alternatives →
- 11

Scalable PaaS (automated Docker+nginx) - aka Heroku on Steroids - caprover/README.md at master · caprover/caprover
2017 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 12AA
We launched an API for custom hostnames today. A simple HTTP post with a hostname gets a temp hostname with CNAME/a record instructions, as soon as DNS is setup we issue SSL and start accepting traffic for that hostname. It's the quickest way we know of to provision custom hostnames: https://fly.io/mix/custom-hostnames/ When we started building Fly, we figured it was too late to "make SSL easy and the customers will come". Lets Encrypt changed the world, and we knew many companies rolling their own SSL support with nginx, Traefik, etc, etc. It seemed like a…
2017 · its alternatives →
- 13

An experimental high-performance DNS query bruteforce tool built with AF_XDP for extremely fast and accurate bulk DNS lookups. - c3l3si4n/pugdns
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 14OT
After the major outages from AWS and Cloudflare, I began wondering how to make my own services more resilient. Using nameservers from different providers is doable but a bit tricky to manage. OctoDNS helps automate keeping the zones synced so AWS, Cloudflare, etc. are all serving the same information. In an age of centralized infrastructure, we can exploit the capabilities from the origins of the decentralized internet.
Nov 2025 · octodns.readthedocs.io · its alternatives →
- 15

2023 · eighty-twenty.org · its alternatives →
- 16GB
2014 · dns-api.com · its alternatives →
- 17

Most site blockers work by blacklisting distractions. That never worked for me, the internet is too big, and there’s always something new to waste time on. I wanted the opposite: allowlist‑only browsing. Block everything by default, and explicitly allow only what I need. So I built Sinkzone: a local DNS forwarder with two modes: Monitor mode: lets all traffic through, but logs every domain so you can decide what to allow. Focus mode: only allowlisted domains resolve; everything else is blocked (NXDOMAIN). It’s open source, written in Go, and runs locally on macOS, Linux, and Windows. Works a…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 18
NsLookup▲72A simple and powerful tool for querying DNS records
2020 · nslookup.io · its alternatives →
- 19DB
We’ve just launched NUM [1] in the UK, it’s an alternative to the semantic web [2] but based in DNS. We’ve published 23 million data points about 4.8m UK businesses. We had some really interesting HN feedback when we previously posted about one of our example apps [3] so keen to hear what the community has to say this time round. 1. https://www.num.uk 2. https://num.uk/blog/we-crawled-5m-uk-websites-and-published-23m-data-points-to-dns 3. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27598164
2021 · its alternatives →
- 20

DNS over HTTPS proxy written in golang. Contribute to satran/dohproxy development by creating an account on GitHub.
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 21

2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 22

HTTPS domains for localhost. 🏠. Contribute to lufzle/localdots development by creating an account on GitHub.
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 23DB
2020 · num.uk · its alternatives →
- 24SA
2021 · sirendns.com · its alternatives →
Also compare
- nextdns.io – A Combination of Cloudflare DNS and Pi-Hole alternatives
- I built a DNS resolver from scratch in Rust – no DNS libraries alternatives
- DN$ – an innovative, ad-supported DNS resolver alternatives
- Golang DNS server, including DNSSEC and DNS-over-TLS alternatives
- Recursive DNS Server Fingerprint alternatives
- MassDNS – A high-performance DNS stub resolver in C alternatives
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 →