head to head · open source
nginx vs smartdns
nginx has 31,681 GitHub stars, 8,302 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. smartdns has 11,312 stars, 1,247 forks, 320 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. nginx leads on adoption by 180% (31,681 vs 11,312 stars). nginx is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; smartdns is written in C under GPL-3.0. nginx has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, smartdns 11%. 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.
← all 15422 open source comparisons
Side by side
| nginx | smartdns | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 11K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-08-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 smartdns if
- You want the smartdns 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 smartdns 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 smartdns
SmartDNS is a local DNS server, written in C and licensed under GPL 3.0, that accepts DNS queries from local clients, asks multiple upstream DNS servers, and returns the IP address with the fastest measured access speed — built for self hosters, router owners, and network operators who want faster name resolution and stronger privacy.
read the full smartdns overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Networking & Connectivity projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Networking & Connectivity field.
Frequently asked questions
Is nginx or smartdns more popular?
nginx has 31,681 GitHub stars and smartdns has 11,312. nginx has the larger community by that measure.
Are nginx and smartdns free?
Both are open source. nginx is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and smartdns under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nginx and smartdns?
nginx is written in C and smartdns 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 smartdns?
Choose nginx if you want the larger community (31,681 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose smartdns if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.