deSEC
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 5 DNS hosts by recommenders
Free DNS hosting with DNSSEC, scoped API tokens for certificate validation, and broad record type support. Critics mention slow propagation, a rough web UI and API, and email-based support.
Free DNS hosting with DNSSEC, scoped API tokens for certificate validation, and broad record type support. Critics mention slow propagation, a rough web UI and API, and email-based support.
26 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 20
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 20 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Free DNSSEC and broad record types
“Try desec.io, I use them and am very happy. Free DNSSEC, which some other DNS hosters want to charge you for”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Dropping Cloudflare for Bunny.net” “i can vouch for desec.io for having the option to have TXT, NS, CNAME, etc dns entries on their free tier”
Comment from 26 May 2026 in “DynIP – Dynamic DNS with RFC 2136, IPv6, DNSSEC, and BYOD” “the only affordable DNS supplier in the EU that complies with state of the art secure DNSSEC”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “deSEC – Free Secure DNS” - Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “deSEC – Free Secure DNS”
Scoped API tokens for DNS validation
“allows you to create (through the api) tightly-scoped tokens that can only update the "_acme-challenge.subdomain.example.com" domain”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Decreasing Certificate Lifetimes to 45 Days” “I switched to deSEC because they allow you to create tokens for DNS-01 validation which are tightly scoped to a single subdomain.”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “deSEC – Free Secure DNS” “If something gets the credentials for desec.io, they can only use them to do stuff with the single txt record.”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “Installing a Let's Encrypt TLS Certificate on a Brother Printer with Certbot” Reliable long-term use without issues
“I've used Desec for several years now, and I'm very happy with them. Zero problems, would recommend.”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Agents can now create Cloudflare accounts, buy domains, and deploy” “I have been using deSEC for a couple of years without any issues.”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “deSEC – Free Secure DNS” “Happy deSec user, use them for all my domains.”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “deSEC – Free Secure DNS” Fast, friendly responses and support
“I like desec.io for there api and also fast response and friendly Team”
Comment from 25 Oct 2026 in “FreeDNS” “They replied somewhat quickly (for humans).”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Agents can now create Cloudflare accounts, buy domains, and deploy”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Support by email, not self-serve
“thought that it was too much work to send an email and wait for replies”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Agents can now create Cloudflare accounts, buy domains, and deploy” “couldn’t this be all self-serve? It’s almost as if they don’t want people to use them.”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “deSEC – Free Secure DNS” “they only allowed a single subdomain for DDNS, with docs saying to contact support”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “deSEC – Free Secure DNS” Slow DNS propagation
“the web UI and API were both quite rough, and propagation tended to be quite slow”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “deSEC – Free Secure DNS” “deSEC is free and okay, but sometimes quite slow to propagate and its UI+API are unwieldy”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Dropping Cloudflare for Bunny.net” Rough web UI and API
“the web UI and API were both quite rough, and propagation tended to be quite slow”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “deSEC – Free Secure DNS” “deSEC is free and okay, but sometimes quite slow to propagate and its UI+API are unwieldy”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Dropping Cloudflare for Bunny.net”
Other DNS hosts people recommend
The four most recommended other DNS hosts, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bunny DNS | 38 | 17 | 69% | 6 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| deSECThis page | 20 | 6 | 77% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Amazon Route 53 | 16 | 10 | 62% | 10 | — | — |
| Amazon Route 53 | 6 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Hurricane Electric DNS | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
27 of the 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I like desec.io for there api and also fast response and friendly Team”
“I went to another (paid) provider because I need very short TTL on some records for testing purposes”
“TTL inheritance is still spotty. As an extreme example, the following input”
“deSEC has unusually broad record type support”
“I switched to deSEC because they allow you to create tokens for DNS-01 validation which are tightly scoped to a single subdomain.”
“We donate to deSEC, so it’s not free for us.”
“I literally just switched away from Hurricane Electric to deSEC”
“I have been using deSEC for a couple of years without any issues.”
“I was actually very excited when I first found them”
“Happy deSec user, use them for all my domains.”
“Homepage looks busted on Orion iOS.”
“the web UI and API were both quite rough, and propagation tended to be quite slow”
“If they were truly a "sovereign EU" kind of project then they'd be on .eu domain, not have security advisors from Virginia”
“couldn’t this be all self-serve? It’s almost as if they don’t want people to use them.”
“they only allowed a single subdomain for DDNS, with docs saying to contact support”
“how can I trust them to survive if they're not collecting revenue?”
“great experience so far, except for hitting the API rate limit when using Tofu”
“the only affordable DNS supplier in the EU that complies with state of the art secure DNSSEC”
“i can vouch for desec.io for having the option to have TXT, NS, CNAME, etc dns entries on their free tier”
“they bring everything to the table that I need”
“I've used Desec for several years now, and I'm very happy with them. Zero problems, would recommend.”
“They replied somewhat quickly (for humans).”
“thought that it was too much work to send an email and wait for replies”
“deSEC is free and okay, but sometimes quite slow to propagate and its UI+API are unwieldy”
“Try desec.io, I use them and am very happy. Free DNSSEC, which some other DNS hosters want to charge you for”
“If something gets the credentials for desec.io, they can only use them to do stuff with the single txt record.”
“allows you to create (through the api) tightly-scoped tokens that can only update the "_acme-challenge.subdomain.example.com" domain”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.