Technitium DNS Server is what you get if you combine Pi-hole, Unbound, and a proper authoritative DNS server in one program with a web console. It blocks ads for your whole network, resolves names itself without depending on a public resolver, and can host your local and public zones.

Features

• A recursive resolver, so it can answer queries by talking to root and authoritative servers directly rather than forwarding to Google or Cloudflare
• Authoritative zones for your LAN (nas.home.arpa) or real domains
• Ad and malware blocking from blocklists, like Pi-hole
• Encrypted DNS: DNS over HTTPS, DNS over TLS, and DNS over QUIC, as a client for upstreams or as a server for your devices
• DNSSEC validation and zone signing
• A built-in DHCP server
• Clustering to manage multiple instances together
• Query logs, statistics, a web console, and an HTTP API

Deployment

It runs on .NET and is available as a Linux install script, Windows installer, portable build, and Docker image:

docker run -d --name technitium \
  -p 53:53/udp -p 53:53/tcp -p 127.0.0.1:5380:5380 \
  -v /srv/technitium:/etc/dns \
  technitium/dns-server:latest

Port 5380 is the web console; set an admin password on first login. On Ubuntu, systemd-resolved already listens on port 53, so disable its stub listener first; our systemd-resolved guide shows how.

Run two instances if the whole network depends on it: DNS failure looks like “the internet is down” to everyone. Clustering keeps them in sync.

How it compares

	Technitium	Pi-hole	AdGuard Home	Unbound
Ad blocking	Yes	Yes	Yes	Via config
Recursive resolver	Built in	Add Unbound	Forwarding	Yes
Authoritative zones	Full	Local records	Rewrites	Limited
Encrypted DNS server	DoH, DoT, DoQ	No	DoH, DoT, DoQ	DoT
DHCP	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

If you want everything DNS in one place, Technitium is the most complete single option. Our DNS explainer and Unbound guide cover the concepts.

License

GPL-3.0.

Links

• Repository
• Website