Google Public DNS
Hacker ApprovedRanked 5 of 9 DNS resolvers by recommenders
Recommended as a fast DNS resolver that never blocks domains and rarely goes down. Critics' main caveat is privacy, as Google can build profiles of activity.
Recommended as a fast DNS resolver that never blocks domains and rarely goes down. Critics' main caveat is privacy, as Google can build profiles of activity.
27 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- criticize it
- 9
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 11 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
Reliable, works when others fail
“Gone back to Google DNS (gasp) for now, yes as a European... no blocking, fast, never goes down.”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Choosing a Public DNS Resolver” “This is the one area where I continue to use Google DNS as it just works.”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Cloudflare flags archive.today as "C&C/Botnet"; no longer resolves via 1.1.1.2” “If you set your DNS to 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 everything works fine.”
Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “Twenty-five years ago it was cryptography, today it's model weights” - Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “My security camera shipped a GitHub admin token in its login page”
- Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “Airfare Is Just the Beginning”
- Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Choosing a Public DNS Resolver”
No domain blocking, bypasses censorship
“I think changing your default DNS servers to Google 8.8.8.8 or Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 might bypass the spanish sunday ban”
Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “Tell HN: docker pull fails in spain due to football cloudflare block” “Gone back to Google DNS (gasp) for now, yes as a European... no blocking, fast, never goes down.”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Choosing a Public DNS Resolver” “no blocking, fast, never goes down.”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Choosing a Public DNS Resolver” Fast, low latency
“Gone back to Google DNS (gasp) for now, yes as a European... no blocking, fast, never goes down.”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Choosing a Public DNS Resolver” “no blocking, fast, never goes down.”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Choosing a Public DNS Resolver” “consistently has the lowest latency”
Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “An open DNS recursive service for free security and high privacy” Easy alternative to ISP DNS
“just configure a DNS server other than the ISP-provided one”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “List of domains censored by German ISPs” “I would rather just use cloudflare or google's DNS.”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Being privacy-conscious comes with some downsides”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Profiles users and logs domain visits
“The fact that Cloudflare and Google have convinced us all to use Cloudflare's and Google's resolvers is the problem.”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “.de TLD offline due to DNSSEC?” “builds profiles and extensive activity records on its users”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “FreeDNS” “one of the largest data mining companies out there”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “List of domains censored by German ISPs” - Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “The privacy nightmare of browser fingerprinting”
Breaks public wifi and streaming
“I've run into issues with using public wifi when I override my MacBook's DNS server to 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “Saving 100 terabytes of memory by optimizing 1.1.1.1's DNS cache” “switched to 8.8.8.8 DNS at home and my Netflix streaming become extrelemly slow”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “Choosing a Public DNS Resolver” “these cansometimes direct users to incorrect CDN servers”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Helldivers 2 devs slash install size from 154GB to 23GB”
Other DNS resolvers people recommend
The four most recommended other DNS resolvers, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quad9 DNS | 58 | 38 | 60% | 10 | — | — |
| Cloudflare DNS | 52 | 55 | 49% | 11 | — | — |
| Unbound DNS resolver | 45 | 4 | 92% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Mullvad DNS | 21 | 5 | 81% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Google Public DNSThis page | 18 | 9 | 67% | 11 | — | Approved |
What people said
23 of the 27 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“builds profiles and extensive activity records on its users”
“due to a bug that they claim to have identified three years ago but haven't fixed”
“consistently has the lowest latency”
“I've run into issues with using public wifi when I override my MacBook's DNS server to 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8”
“If you set your DNS to 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 everything works fine.”
“Google's DNS worked fine, but Cloudflare's didn't.”
“switched to 8.8.8.8 DNS at home and my Netflix streaming become extrelemly slow”
“is the first major step to improve your browsing experience.”
“Gone back to Google DNS (gasp) for now, yes as a European... no blocking, fast, never goes down.”
“no blocking, fast, never goes down.”
“With google dns, opendns, isp’s own dns I get my ISP’s own ip address for the domain”
“I would rather just use cloudflare or google's DNS.”
“The fact that Cloudflare and Google have convinced us all to use Cloudflare's and Google's resolvers is the problem.”
“I think changing your default DNS servers to Google 8.8.8.8 or Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 might bypass the spanish sunday ban”
“I switched to 8.8.8.8 and it works again.”
“This is the one area where I continue to use Google DNS as it just works.”
“Switching to Google DNS should solve it.”
“Pinging 8.8.8.8 is the gold standard of making sure there's internet”
“one of the largest data mining companies out there”
“just configure a DNS server other than the ISP-provided one”
“these cansometimes direct users to incorrect CDN servers”
“hands them a list of every single domain you visit”
“it is safer to use a big popular DNS recursor (google, cloudflare, adguard, quad9, etc)”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.