Technitium DNS Server
Authoritative/recursive DNS server with ad blocking functionality.
Description from awesome-selfhosted (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Still maintained? Yes: 169 commits in the last 90 days, latest release v15.6.2 (Oct 2026).
Also an alternative to Pi-hole Cloud and Cloudflare DNS.
At a glance
Technitium DNS Server quick facts
- Health score
- 96/100 GOOD
- Stars
- 10,260
- Last commit
- 6 days ago (Oct 2026)
- Latest release
- v15.6.2, Oct 2026
- Licence
- GPL-3.0
Top alternatives to Technitium DNS Server
Full rankings: Pi-hole Cloud alternatives, Cloudflare DNS alternatives
In its own words
The project's README opens: "Block ads & malware at DNS level for your entire network!"
Why it ranks here
Health score explained
Technitium DNS Server scores 96/100, #3 of 6 in DNS: 169 commits in the last 90 days earn 35.0 of 35 points, the latest release (v15.6.2, 13 days ago) earns 25.0 of 25, 10,260 stars add 16.0 of 20, an active, unarchived repository keeps 10 and Docker support adds the final 10. That places it in the good band (70 and above). The biggest shortfall is star count, worth 4.0 more points.
Recomputed nightly from the GitHub API. How the score is calculated.
- Commit activity 35.0 / 35
169 commits in 90 days (30+ scores full marks)
- Release recency 25.0 / 25
v15.6.2 released 13 days ago
- Stars biggest shortfall 16.0 / 20
10k stars on GitHub (logarithmic)
- Not archived 10.0 / 10
Repository is active
- Docker support 10.0 / 10
Docker image or Compose file available
Commit activity
- 169
- Last 90 days
- 739
- Last 12 months
- 6 days ago
- Last push
Ranked #3 of 6 tools in DNS by health , between AdGuard Home (#2) and blocky (#4) .
Details
| Licence | GPL-3.0 |
| Platforms | Docker, C# |
| Latest release | v15.6.2 · 13 days ago |
| Stars | 10,260 |
| Open issues | 153 |
| Docker | Yes |
| Repository | TechnitiumSoftware/DnsServer ↗ |
Technitium DNS Server vs its top 5 alternatives
Active tools that share a comparison page or a category with Technitium DNS Server (DNS), scored on the same five terms.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Licence | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pi-hole | 99 | 62k | EUPL-1.2 | 3 days ago |
| AdGuard Home | 98 | 38k | GPL-3.0 | 3 days ago |
| Technitium DNS Server (this tool) | 96 | 10k | GPL-3.0 | 6 days ago |
| blocky | 95 | 7.1k | Apache-2.0 | 2 days ago |
| Numa | 93 | 2k | MIT | yesterday |
| Maza ad blocking | 25 | 1.9k | Apache-2.0 | 3 months ago |
Technitium DNS Server: common questions
What does Technitium DNS Server replace?
Repoly lists Technitium DNS Server as an open-source alternative to Pi-hole Cloud and Cloudflare DNS. Each comparison page ranks every alternative by the same health score, so you can see where Technitium DNS Server stands against the others.
Is Technitium DNS Server still maintained?
Technitium DNS Server had 169 commits in the last 90 days and its last push was 6 days ago; the latest tagged release, v15.6.2, is from 13 days ago. Repoly recomputes this nightly.
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