systemd-resolved
Shares rank 6 of 9 DNS resolvers by recommenders
Recommended for being integrated with systemd, well documented and useful; critics say it invents DNS records and breaks standard behavior.
Recommended for being integrated with systemd, well documented and useful; critics say it invents DNS records and breaks standard behavior.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 11
- approval share
- 48%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not 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
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 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
Works well with systemd-networkd
“I'm glad systemd-networkd (advertising) and systemd-resolved (finding) just integrate these concerns for me”
Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Systemd is a suite of basic building blocks” “I'm quite happy with systemd-resolved and systemd-networkd”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “A Caddy Cert Expired Because Systemd-Resolved Was Selectively Broken” “they generally work together pretty cohesively”
Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Snitch – A friendlier ss/netstat” Handles DNS tasks automatically
“I'm glad systemd-networkd (advertising) and systemd-resolved (finding) just integrate these concerns for me”
Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Systemd is a suite of basic building blocks” “does DNS-over-TLS stub resolution for me”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “A Caddy Cert Expired Because Systemd-Resolved Was Selectively Broken” Reliable in daily use
“In my experience, that works every time.”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “A Caddy Cert Expired Because Systemd-Resolved Was Selectively Broken” “systemd-resolved working as intended”
Comment from 20 Jan 2026 in “What came first: the CNAME or the A record?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Alters DNS answers, breaks protocol
“Systemd-resolved invents DNS records (not really something you would like to see, makes debugging DNS issues a nightmare)”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “APT Rust requirement raises questions” “Did you know that it will convert the answer to a relative query that has generated an NXDOMAIN into a REFUSED?”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “You Don't Love Systemd Timers Enough” “it is a clearly defined protocol, which systemd-resolved breaks”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “APT Rust requirement raises questions” Poor DNSSEC key and signature handling
“systemd-resolved on older, but still supported Ubuntu versions 24.04 LTS and 22.04 LTS does not know about the new KSK”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: What Happened in DNSSEC Yesterday?” “Turned out that systemd did reject their signed subdomains.”
Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “Shutting down our public encrypted DNS” Seen as poor networking design
“Redefining recursive DNS resolution as general 'name resolution' is indeed exactly the kind of horror I expect from the systemd project.”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “APT Rust requirement raises questions” “systemd has no f*cking clue what they're doing on networking”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “A Caddy Cert Expired Because Systemd-Resolved Was Selectively Broken” “That's introductory course to systemd's shenanigans.”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “You Don't Love Systemd Timers Enough” - Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Preparing for KDE Plasma's Last X11-Supported Release”
Complex, often removed from installs
“driven me to a policy of ripping out systemd-resolved entirely on any new installation”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Lennart Poettering, Christian Brauner founded a new company” “they very quickly run off into the weeds with their crazy features and configuration”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “RCE via ND6 Router Advertisements in FreeBSD”
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 |
| systemd-resolvedThis page | 10 | 11 | 48% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
22 of the 26 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Before I had quit a few false-positives and false negatives.”
“systemd-resolved on older, but still supported Ubuntu versions 24.04 LTS and 22.04 LTS does not know about the new KSK”
“I'm glad systemd-networkd (advertising) and systemd-resolved (finding) just integrate these concerns for me”
“Turned out that systemd did reject their signed subdomains.”
“I even willingly run systemd-resolved”
“Systemd-resolvd is a bad DNS resolver”
“Did you know that it will convert the answer to a relative query that has generated an NXDOMAIN into a REFUSED?”
“That's introductory course to systemd's shenanigans.”
“In my experience, that works every time.”
“does DNS-over-TLS stub resolution for me”
“systemd-resolved was initially missing basic security best practices”
“I'm quite happy with systemd-resolved and systemd-networkd”
“systemd has no f*cking clue what they're doing on networking”
“driven me to a policy of ripping out systemd-resolved entirely on any new installation”
“systemd-resolved working as intended”
“they generally work together pretty cohesively”
“resolved's configuration is integrated in the systemd ecosystem, has an approachable and well documented configuration, and is pretty useful in general.”
“they very quickly run off into the weeds with their crazy features and configuration”
“it is a clearly defined protocol, which systemd-resolved breaks”
“It's not a part of the core. If you don't like the choices it took, you can use another resolver”
“Redefining recursive DNS resolution as general 'name resolution' is indeed exactly the kind of horror I expect from the systemd project.”
“Systemd-resolved invents DNS records (not really something you would like to see, makes debugging DNS issues a nightmare)”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.