OpenNIC
Shares rank 8 of 9 DNS resolvers by recommenders
People recommend OpenNIC as a free alternative DNS root for domains that ICANN's system does not offer, such as .geek and .name-style alternatives. The most common caveat is that its TLDs remain exposed to ICANN registering the same names.
People recommend OpenNIC as a free alternative DNS root for domains that ICANN's system does not offer, such as .geek and .name-style alternatives. The most common caveat is that its TLDs remain exposed to ICANN registering the same names.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 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 alternative to ICANN domains
“projects like OpenNIC that take on DNS alone if you prefer”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Anna's Archive Loses $322M Spotify Piracy Case Without a Fight” “why can't all 22k .name owners move on to OpenNIC?”
Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “.name Termination” Already established, independent alternative
“Already exists: Opennic.org”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Age verification for social media, the beginning of the end for a free internet?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
ICANN can register same TLD
“ICANN can take away your OpenNIC TLD by registering the same one”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “There Are No Instances in ATProto” Toxic internal community dynamics
“the ingroup dynamics are quite toxic”
Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “Franken.domains: Stitched-Together Domains, Because Every .com Is Taken”
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 |
| OpenNICThis page | 5 | 2 | 71% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The ability to register fraser.geek so a very small number of OpenNIC users can access that new URL doesn't really solve the OP's problem”
“why can't all 22k .name owners move on to OpenNIC?”
“the ingroup dynamics are quite toxic”
“ICANN can take away your OpenNIC TLD by registering the same one”
“Already exists: Opennic.org”
“projects like OpenNIC that take on DNS alone if you prefer”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.