Alternatives to RouteDNS
A DNS stub resolver, proxy and router with blocklists and DoT, DoH, DoQ and DTLS support. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
RouteDNS
A DNS stub resolver, proxy and router with blocklists and DoT, DoH, DoQ and DTLS support.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as RouteDNS.
mosdns
A plugin-based DNS forwarder with rule-based routing, domain blocking and encrypted DNS support.
mosdns is GPL-3.0 open source with rule-based routing, domain blocking and DoT, DoH and DoQ, though it lacks DTLS and its documentation is in Chinese.
ctrld
A configurable, multi-protocol DNS forwarding proxy from Control D with policy-based upstream routing.
ctrld offers policy-based upstream routing and split-horizon rules as open source on Windows, macOS and Linux, though its documentation centres on Control D's service.
dnscrypt-proxy
Encrypts your DNS lookups so your internet provider cannot read or tamper with them, and blocks domains while it is there.
dnscrypt-proxy is ISC-licensed and adds DNSCrypt, Anonymized DNS, Oblivious DoH and Tor support with filtering, running on Windows and macOS as well as Linux.
CoreDNS
A DNS server written in Go that builds its behavior from a chain of plugins.
CoreDNS is Apache-2.0 and builds behaviour from a plugin chain with a short Corefile, but blocking needs manual plugin setup and it targets Kubernetes deployments.
Blocky
Lightweight DNS proxy with blocklists, written for container deployments.
Blocky is an Apache-2.0 proxy with per-client and per-group blocking and encrypted upstreams, built for containers and configured in YAML, with less routing flexibility.
dnsproxy
A simple DNS proxy server supporting DNS-over-TLS, DNS-over-HTTPS, DNSCrypt and DNS-over-QUIC.
dnsproxy forwards to DoH, DoT, DoQ and DNSCrypt upstreams from the AdGuard team with Docker setup included, but it does not provide blocklist management.
SmartDNS
A local DNS server that queries several upstream resolvers and returns the fastest-responding IP address.
SmartDNS queries several upstreams and returns the fastest answer, supporting DoH3 and domain-to-IP ad blocking rules, with its main readme in Chinese.
AdGuard Home
Network-wide ad and tracker blocking in a single binary, with encrypted DNS built in rather than bolted on.
AdGuard Home trades file configuration for a web interface, adding per-client rules and parental controls and serving DoH, DoT and DoQ itself.
Also worth comparing
These listings name RouteDNS as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
AdGuard DNS CLI
A lightweight cross-platform DNS client that forwards a machine's DNS requests to AdGuard DNS.
RouteDNS is a file-configured stub resolver with DoT, DoH, DoQ and DTLS upstreams, flexible routing and built-in blocklists, running on Linux.
dnsdist
A DNS load balancer that routes queries to backend servers and blocks abusive traffic with rules.
RouteDNS routes queries between resolvers with blocklists and encrypted transports, but lacks dnsdist's runtime console and metrics exports and is aimed at single deployments.
Stubby
Local DNS stub resolver that encrypts queries with DNS-over-TLS.
RouteDNS adds DoH, DoQ and DTLS upstreams, routing between resolvers and built-in blocklists, though setting it up well takes DNS knowledge.
Technitium DNS Server
A self-hosted DNS server that blocks ads network-wide, hosts your own zones, and encrypts upstream queries.
RouteDNS is a file-configured stub resolver and router with blocklists and DoT, DoH and DoQ, with no graphical interface.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
