head to head · open source
amnezia-client vs coredns
amnezia-client has 15,351 GitHub stars, 1,183 forks, 1,126 open issues and last shipped yesterday. coredns has 14,361 stars, 2,539 forks, 282 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. amnezia-client leads on adoption by 7% (15,351 vs 14,361 stars). amnezia-client is written in C++ under GPL-3.0; coredns is written in Go under Apache-2.0. amnezia-client has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, coredns 18%. amnezia-client was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| amnezia-client | coredns | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 14K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 2.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick amnezia-client if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick coredns if
- You want the coredns feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and coredns fits your workflow better
About amnezia-client
Amnezia VPN Client is an open source, GPL 3.0 licensed VPN client for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS that connects to a VPN and also deploys a self hosted VPN server onto hardware the user already controls.
read the full amnezia-client overview →
About coredns
CoreDNS is a CNCF graduated DNS server and forwarder written in Go that resolves queries through a chain of plugins, aimed at platform and infrastructure engineers who run DNS for Kubernetes clusters, service discovery, or authoritative zones and need to extend its behaviour without forking the core.
read the full coredns overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is amnezia-client or coredns more popular?
amnezia-client has 15,351 GitHub stars and coredns has 14,361. amnezia-client has the larger community by that measure.
Are amnezia-client and coredns free?
Both are open source. amnezia-client is licensed under GPL-3.0 and coredns under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between amnezia-client and coredns?
amnezia-client is written in C++ and coredns in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, amnezia-client or coredns?
Choose amnezia-client if you want the larger community (15,351 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose coredns if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.