head to head · open source
nginx vs dns.toys
nginx has 31,735 GitHub stars, 8,308 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. dns.toys has 2,828 stars, 186 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. nginx leads on adoption by 1,022% (31,735 vs 2,828 stars). nginx is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; dns.toys is written in Go under MIT. nginx has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, dns.toys 7%. nginx 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
| nginx | dns.toys | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-25 | 2026-02-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 186 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nginx if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dns.toys if
- You want the dns.toys feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and dns.toys fits your workflow better
About nginx
NGINX is the official open source repository for the NGINX web server and its load balancer, reverse proxy, API gateway and content cache roles, written in C under the BSD 2 Clause licence and aimed at system administrators, DevOps engineers and platform teams who need to serve, balance and protect their own HTTP traffic.
read the full nginx overview →
About dns.toys
dns.toys is an MIT licensed DNS server, written in Go, that takes creative liberties with the DNS protocol to deliver everyday utilities — weather, world time, unit and currency conversion, IP lookup and more — to anyone with a terminal and a dig command.
read the full dns.toys overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nginx or dns.toys more popular?
nginx has 31,735 GitHub stars and dns.toys has 2,828. nginx has the larger community by that measure.
Are nginx and dns.toys free?
Both are open source. nginx is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and dns.toys under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nginx and dns.toys?
nginx is written in C and dns.toys 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, nginx or dns.toys?
Choose nginx if you want the larger community (31,735 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose dns.toys if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.