# Technitium DNS Server

> Technitium DNS combines authoritative and recursive DNS, ad blocking, and encrypted protocols in one self-hosted package. Handles 100k+ req/sec.

Published: 2026-03-22
URL: https://daniliants.com/insights/technitium-dns-server/
Tags: dns, self-hosting, ad-blocking, privacy, network-security, docker, dns-over-https, open-source

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## Summary

Technitium DNS Server is a mature, open-source, cross-platform DNS server that combines authoritative + recursive DNS, network-wide ad blocking, and encrypted DNS protocols (DoT, DoH, DoQ) in a single self-hosted package. It runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, Raspberry Pi, and Docker with minimal configuration, and offers a web console for management.

## Key Insight

- Serves as a Pi-hole alternative with significantly more features: full authoritative DNS, DNSSEC signing/validation, zone transfers (AXFR/IXFR), dynamic DNS updates, and catalog zones
- Supports all modern encrypted DNS protocols: DNS-over-TLS, DNS-over-HTTPS (HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, HTTP/3), and DNS-over-QUIC -- making it a complete privacy-first DNS stack
- Performance claim: 100 000+ requests/second on commodity hardware (Intel i7-8700 over Gigabit Ethernet) using async IO
- Built-in DHCP server eliminates the need for a separate DHCP service on small networks
- "DNS Apps" feature allows custom business logic for DNS responses -- enables split-horizon, geolocation-based responses, and regex-based blocking per client IP/subnet
- Built-in clustering allows managing multiple DNS server instances from a single web console
- PROXY protocol v1/v2 support means it works behind HAProxy or similar load balancers without losing client IP info
- Has a full HTTP API, so it can be automated/scripted for infrastructure-as-code setups
- CNAME cloaking detection blocks tracker domains that hide behind CNAME chains -- a technique many ad blockers miss
- Built on .NET 9, GPLv3 licensed, actively maintained (version 14.3 as of bookmark date)