# Quad9 DNS Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/quad9/ 42 people recommended Quad9 DNS in Hacker News comments, 12 had mixed feelings and 33 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 12 months, in 15 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Free privacy-focused DNS resolver that blocks malware domains and is run by a not-for-profit; critics note it blocks piracy sites and sometimes blocks non-malicious domains. Summary written by Claude from 55 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 52 of those comments still count. ## Why people recommend it - Privacy-focused, not-for-profit operator (4 comments in the sample): "Quad9 is a Swiss-based not-for-profit organization whose operational budget comes entirely from sponsorships and donations." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50200283)) "Quad9 is a good operator, and they actually fought Sony in German court instead of quietly complying." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49569027)) "Quad9 is a good operator, they actually fought Sony in a German court instead of quietly complying" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50196828)) - Simple, dependable everyday DNS (3 comments in the sample): "I've been using Quad9 at home for years as my only upstream DNS resolver" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47626339)) "thanks for the great DNS service, I'm using it everywhere" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49574026)) "Quad9 offers a simple solution for these usecases." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49572707)) - Unfiltered and ECS variants offered (3 comments in the sample): "You can use 9.9.9.10, which is unfiltered, or 9.9.9.12, which is unfiltered and passes ECS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49572055)) "I've got the pod DNS pointed to the unfiltered quad9 endpoint" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47017320)) "They have an ECS enabled option that fixes that, at 9.9.9.11" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49571971)) - Malware blocking and DNSSEC validation (2 comments in the sample): "I tried resolving dnssec-failed.org and it does indeed fail with EDE 6 (DNSSEC Bogus" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48707433)) "Secured w/ECS: Malware blocking, DNSSEC Validation, ECS enabled" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47479326)) ## What people warn about - Filters piracy domains on rights-holder orders (3 comments in the sample): "Cutting piracy while saying that you cut malware is def lying because pirated resources might not provide anything malicious for the end user." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50208038)) "Quad9 is censoring some domains in Europe (notably in France and Italy) following injunctions issued by rights holders" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49569724)) "apparently filtering piracy domains is technically impossible and not the right place for this to happen" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50201268)) - Slow or intermittent performance (3 comments in the sample): "Quad9 was consistently slower in response times when measured" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49570581)) "it failed me a couple of times in the past two months" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48706492)) "there have been constant issues in the northeast with random SERVFAILs for months now" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45877458)) - Blocks non-malicious domains by mistake (2 comments in the sample): "where they blocked a non-malware domain for a short while, which is really annoying to deal with" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45876539)) "their main address (9.9.9.9) has a "malware" blacklist that has misfired several times already" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48703595)) - Can lie about DNSSEC validation (2 comments in the sample): "Quad9 can lie to clients about whether it validated DNSSEC, or whether DNSSEC was present at all." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49600456)) "if you're resolving off Quad9, they can definitely poison your DNSSEC-signed records" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49572097)) ## Other DNS resolvers people recommend - [Cloudflare DNS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cloudflare-dns/): 39 recommend, 8 mixed, 51 criticize - [Unbound DNS resolver](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unbound/): 36 recommend, 6 mixed, 3 criticize - [Google Public DNS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-public-dns/): 17 recommend, 0 mixed, 9 criticize - [Mullvad DNS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mullvad-dns/): 16 recommend, 5 mixed, 5 criticize ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://quad9.net/) ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Quad9 DNS", https://hackerapproved.com/p/quad9/ (42 recommend, 12 mixed, 33 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.