head to head · open source
nginx vs dnsleaktest
nginx has 31,802 GitHub stars, 8,309 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. dnsleaktest has 587 stars, 70 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 23 days ago. nginx leads on adoption by 5,318% (31,802 vs 587 stars). nginx is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; dnsleaktest is written in Batchfile under MIT. nginx has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, dnsleaktest 12%. nginx was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (security), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | dnsleaktest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 587 |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C | Batchfile |
| Last push | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 70 |
| 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 dnsleaktest if
- You want the dnsleaktest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Batchfile
- You evaluated both and dnsleaktest 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 dnsleaktest
dnsleaktest is an open source command line tool for anyone who wants to check whether their DNS queries are leaking outside their VPN, available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.
read the full dnsleaktest overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nginx or dnsleaktest more popular?
nginx has 31,802 GitHub stars and dnsleaktest has 587. nginx has the larger community by that measure.
Are nginx and dnsleaktest free?
Both are open source. nginx is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and dnsleaktest under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nginx and dnsleaktest?
nginx is written in C and dnsleaktest in Batchfile. 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 dnsleaktest?
Choose nginx if you want the larger community (31,802 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose dnsleaktest if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.