head to head · open source
nginx vs DnsServer
nginx has 32,033 GitHub stars, 8,410 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. DnsServer has 10,288 stars, 816 forks, 187 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. nginx leads on adoption by 211% (32,033 vs 10,288 stars). nginx is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; DnsServer is written in C# under GPL-3.0. nginx has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, DnsServer 8%. 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 | DnsServer | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 10K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | C# |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.4K | ⑂ 816 |
| 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 DnsServer if
- You want the DnsServer feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and DnsServer fits your workflow better
About nginx
NGINX (pronounced "engine x" or "en jin eks") is the world's most popular Web Server, high performance Load Balancer, Reverse Proxy, API Gateway and Content Cache. NGINX is free and open source software, distributed under the terms of a simplified 2 clause BSD like license. Enterprise distributions, commercial support and training are available from F5, Inc. [!IMPORTANT] The goal of this README is to provide a basic, structured introduction to NGINX for novice users. Please refer to the full NGINX documentation for detailed information on installing, building, configuring, debugging, and more. These…
read the full nginx overview →
About DnsServer
Technitium DNS Server Self host a DNS server for privacy & security Block ads & malware at DNS level for your entire network! Technitium DNS Server is an open source authoritative as well as recursive DNS server that can be used for self hosting a DNS server for privacy & security. It works out of the box with no or minimal configuration and provides a user friendly web console accessible using any modern web browser. Nobody really bothers about domain name resolution since it works automatically behind the scenes and is complex to understand. Most computer software use the operating system's DNS resolver that…
read the full DnsServer overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nginx or DnsServer more popular?
nginx has 32,033 GitHub stars and DnsServer has 10,288. nginx has the larger community by that measure.
Are nginx and DnsServer free?
Both are open source. nginx is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and DnsServer under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nginx and DnsServer?
nginx is written in C and DnsServer in C#. 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 DnsServer?
Choose nginx if you want the larger community (32,033 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose DnsServer if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.