Quad9 DNS
The most recommended of 9 DNS resolvers
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.
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.
96 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 58
- criticize it
- 38
- approval share
- 60%
Recommended in 10 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: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 58 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 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
Privacy-focused, not-for-profit operator
“Quad9 is a Swiss-based not-for-profit organization whose operational budget comes entirely from sponsorships and donations.”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Quad9 to exit France” “Quad9 is a good operator, and they actually fought Sony in German court instead of quietly complying.”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “Shutting down our public encrypted DNS” “Quad9 is a good operator, they actually fought Sony in a German court instead of quietly complying”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Quad9 to exit France” - Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Quad9 to exit France”
- Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “Shutting down our public encrypted DNS”
Simple, dependable everyday DNS
“I've been using Quad9 at home for years as my only upstream DNS resolver”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Quad9 Enables DNS over HTTP/3 and DNS over QUIC” “thanks for the great DNS service, I'm using it everywhere”
Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “Shutting down our public encrypted DNS” “Quad9 offers a simple solution for these usecases.”
Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “An open DNS recursive service for free security and high privacy” Unfiltered and ECS variants offered
“9.9.9.12, which is unfiltered and passes ECS.”
Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “An open DNS recursive service for free security and high privacy” “I've got the pod DNS pointed to the unfiltered quad9 endpoint”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Internet Increasingly Becoming Unarchivable” “They have an ECS enabled option that fixes that, at 9.9.9.11”
Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “An open DNS recursive service for free security and high privacy” Malware blocking and DNSSEC validation
“I tried resolving dnssec-failed.org and it does indeed fail with EDE 6 (DNSSEC Bogus)”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Choosing a Public DNS Resolver” “Secured w/ECS: Malware blocking, DNSSEC Validation, ECS enabled”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Cloudflare flags archive.today as "C&C/Botnet"; no longer resolves via 1.1.1.2”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Blocks non-malicious domains by mistake
“where they blocked a non-malware domain for a short while, which is really annoying to deal with”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “DNS Provider Quad9 Sees Piracy Blocking Orders as "Existential Threat"” “their main address (9.9.9.9) has a "malware" blacklist that has misfired several times already”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Choosing a Public DNS Resolver” “Once Quad9 blocked Halo MCC XBOX Live -> Steam achievements, several fileshare services”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Choosing a Public DNS Resolver” Filters piracy domains on rights-holder orders
“Cutting piracy while saying that you cut malware is def lying because pirated resources might not provide anything malicious for the end user.”
Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “Quad9 to exit France” “Quad9 is censoring some domains in Europe (notably in France and Italy) following injunctions issued by rights holders”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “Shutting down our public encrypted DNS” “apparently filtering piracy domains is technically impossible and not the right place for this to happen”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Quad9 to exit France” Slow or intermittent performance
“Quad9 was consistently slower in response times when measured”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “An open DNS recursive service for free security and high privacy” “it failed me a couple of times in the past two months”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Choosing a Public DNS Resolver” “there have been constant issues in the northeast with random SERVFAILs for months now”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “DNS Provider Quad9 Sees Piracy Blocking Orders as "Existential Threat"” Can lie about DNSSEC validation
“Quad9 can lie to clients about whether it validated DNSSEC, or whether DNSSEC was present at all.”
Comment from 7 Sep 2026 in “Shutting down our public encrypted DNS” “if you're resolving off Quad9, they can definitely poison your DNSSEC-signed records”
Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “Shutting down our public encrypted DNS”
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 DNSThis page | 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 DNS | 18 | 9 | 67% | 11 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 107 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I support your position. I have donated to help you continue the work.”
“You can use 9.9.9.10 - it has no filtering.”
“Cutting piracy while saying that you cut malware is def lying because pirated resources might not provide anything malicious for the end user.”
“Quad9 already states that they strongly oppose piracy, so just block the sites.”
“apparently filtering piracy domains is technically impossible and not the right place for this to happen”
“perfectly in line with what you would expect a privacy focused service to do”
“I couldn't agree more with your stance, and I appreciate deeply you fighting to maintain your (correct) principles.”
“Quad9 is a Swiss-based not-for-profit organization whose operational budget comes entirely from sponsorships and donations.”
“Quad9 is a good operator, they actually fought Sony in a German court instead of quietly complying”
“Quad9 is getting picked on because they do not have a large financial backing”
“Quad9 can lie to clients about whether it validated DNSSEC, or whether DNSSEC was present at all.”
“we do appreciate everything that Quad9 and other free/privacy-focused DNS services do and provide.”
“Your ISP can snoop on upstream requests. It is likely less private than Quad9 or similar services where you can mix requests with a large crowd.”
“thanks for the great DNS service, I'm using it everywhere”
“Quad9 offers a simple solution for these usecases.”
“if you're resolving off Quad9, they can definitely poison your DNSSEC-signed records”
“You can use 9.9.9.10, which is unfiltered, or 9.9.9.12, which is unfiltered and passes ECS.”
“9.9.9.12, which is unfiltered and passes ECS.”
“They have an ECS enabled option that fixes that, at 9.9.9.11”
“Quad9 was consistently slower in response times when measured”
“in practice the odds your local resolver is validating DNSSEC is slim (and if you're intentionally configured it to do so, switch to a provider that isn't Quad9)”
“Quad9 is censoring some domains in Europe (notably in France and Italy) following injunctions issued by rights holders”
“Quad9 is a reasonable choice given the stance on privacy”
“Quad9 is a good operator, and they actually fought Sony in German court instead of quietly complying.”
“You can also throw a lying-DNS in the chain, either by using something like Quad9”
“I tried resolving dnssec-failed.org and it does indeed fail with EDE 6 (DNSSEC Bogus)”
“Once Quad9 blocked Halo MCC XBOX Live -> Steam achievements, several fileshare services”
“it failed me a couple of times in the past two months”
“their main address (9.9.9.9) has a "malware" blacklist that has misfired several times already”
“quad9 seems fine. Glad there are a bunch of alternatives though.”
“blocking them even if they are NOT malicious causes zero harm”
“I've been using Quad9 at home for years as my only upstream DNS resolver”
“It seems faster for me and it has multiple choices of protection.”
“Secured w/ECS: Malware blocking, DNSSEC Validation, ECS enabled”
“these controls can be bypassed relatively easily by using your own DNS or a public DNS server like Quad9”
“I've got the pod DNS pointed to the unfiltered quad9 endpoint”
“I always use 9.9.9.11 instead of 9.9.9.9 to hopefully help improve performance.”
“it is safer to use a big popular DNS recursor (google, cloudflare, adguard, quad9, etc)”
“there have been constant issues in the northeast with random SERVFAILs for months now”
“where they blocked a non-malware domain for a short while, which is really annoying to deal with”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.