Kea DHCP
Dhcp server in Networking & smart home
Free, open source DHCP server praised for stable operation and failover support. Critics cite configs breaking on upgrades and missing basic features.
Free, open source DHCP server praised for stable operation and failover support. Critics cite configs breaking on upgrades and missing basic features.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 61%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Keeps working without fuss
“it's been working well since. No complaints here”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Kea DHCP: Modern, open source DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 server” “it just carried on working”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Kea DHCP: Modern, open source DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 server” Failover and distributed design
“I quite like its failover options for redundancy purposes.”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Kea DHCP: Modern, open source DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 server” “Kea's distributed nature makes it a breeze.”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Kea DHCP: Modern, open source DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 server”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Config breaks on version upgrades
“Kea has broken with my config twice now over as many years when upgrading versions.”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Kea DHCP: Modern, open source DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 server” “first "LTS" release 3.0.0 was quickly replaced by 3.0.1”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Kea DHCP: Modern, open source DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 server” Missing basic features like MAC reservations
“Kea, at the time at least, did not do MAC address based IP reservations”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Kea DHCP: Modern, open source DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 server” “There were open issues about some basic features with Kea, too”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Kea DHCP: Modern, open source DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 server”
What people said
16 of the 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Kea, at the time at least, did not do MAC address based IP reservations”
“it was just to overwhelming for me for simple home use”
“I will look into kea and whether they can do this.”
“Kea's distributed nature makes it a breeze.”
“unfortunate that you can't start it without the ethernet interface in UP state”
“first "LTS" release 3.0.0 was quickly replaced by 3.0.1”
“There were open issues about some basic features with Kea, too”
“I really struggle to understand why they are not more integrated in otherwise great solutions (such as kea)”
“I quite like its failover options for redundancy purposes.”
“moving to this has been a bit regretful”
“it's been fantastic. Very easy to troubleshoot.”
“Kea has broken with my config twice now over as many years when upgrading versions.”
“I understand Kea has more features so I'm a little curious what I'm missing.”
“I was really impressed. I think the folks who put it together did a good job of addressing the major warts”
“it just carried on working”
“it's been working well since. No complaints here”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.