Alternatives to mosdns

A plugin-based DNS forwarder with rule-based routing, domain blocking and encrypted DNS support. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as mosdns.

  • RouteDNS

    A DNS stub resolver, proxy and router with blocklists and DoT, DoH, DoQ and DTLS support.

    FreeProprietaryLinuxSelf-hostedCommand line

    RouteDNS offers similar query routing and blocklists and adds DTLS upstreams, but it is not open source and still needs file-based configuration and DNS knowledge.

  • SmartDNS

    A local DNS server that queries several upstream resolvers and returns the fastest-responding IP address.

    FreeProprietaryLinuxSelf-hosted

    SmartDNS returns the fastest upstream answer and supports DoH3, with an English readme alongside the Chinese one, but ad blocking relies on domain-to-IP rules instead of routing plugins.

  • ctrld

    A configurable, multi-protocol DNS forwarding proxy from Control D with policy-based upstream routing.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxSelf-hostedCommand line

    ctrld offers policy-based upstream routing and split-horizon rules on Windows, macOS and Linux, though most of its documentation centres on Control D's own service.

  • Blocky

    Lightweight DNS proxy with blocklists, written for container deployments.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxSelf-hostedCommand line

    Blocky is an Apache-2.0 DNS proxy with per-client and per-group blocking and encrypted upstreams, configured in YAML with English documentation but no admin interface.

  • CoreDNS

    A DNS server written in Go that builds its behavior from a chain of plugins.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxSelf-hostedCommand line

    CoreDNS builds behaviour from a plugin chain with a short Corefile, but ad or content blocking needs manual plugin setup and it targets Kubernetes and homelab use.

  • dnscrypt-proxy

    Encrypts your DNS lookups so your internet provider cannot read or tamper with them, and blocks domains while it is there.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxCommand line

    dnscrypt-proxy adds DNSCrypt, Anonymized DNS and Oblivious DoH with filtering and time-based rules, configured in TOML, and runs on Windows and macOS as well as Linux.

  • AdGuard Home

    Network-wide ad and tracker blocking in a single binary, with encrypted DNS built in rather than bolted on.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxWebSelf-hosted

    AdGuard Home gives a web interface, per-client rules and parental controls in one binary, and acts as an encrypted DNS server, though routing by domain is less flexible.

Also worth comparing

These listings name mosdns as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.

  • dnsmasq

    Lightweight DNS forwarder, DHCP server and TFTP server in one.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxSelf-hosted

    mosdns is a GPL-3.0 forwarder with rule-based routing to different upstreams, domain blocking and encrypted DNS, documented in Chinese and without DHCP.

  • dnsproxy

    A simple DNS proxy server supporting DNS-over-TLS, DNS-over-HTTPS, DNSCrypt and DNS-over-QUIC.

    FreeOpen sourceSelf-hostedCommand line

    mosdns adds rule-based routing to different upstreams and domain blocking with DoT, DoH and DoQ, but its documentation is in Chinese.

  • Technitium DNS Server

    A self-hosted DNS server that blocks ads network-wide, hosts your own zones, and encrypts upstream queries.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxSelf-hosted

    mosdns is a GPL-3.0 forwarder with rule-based routing, domain blocking and encrypted DNS, but configuration is by hand and documentation is in Chinese.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.