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Knot DNS vs NSD: catalog facts
Knot DNS	NSD
Free Free to download and use under the GPL 3 or later license.	Free Free and open source under the BSD license; paid support is available.
macOS, Linux, Command line	Linux, Self-hosted
Automatic DNSSEC signing IXFR, dynamic updates and response rate limiting	Very high query throughput Used by DNS root servers and TLD registries
Authoritative only, with no recursive resolver No Windows support	Authoritative only, with no recursive resolver Aimed at operators comfortable with DNS server configuration
Downloadable app	Downloadable app, Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-3.0-or-later	License: BSD
No account needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.