December 28, 2025
DNS wars, anyone?
NextDNS is my new favourite DNS service · Stan's blog
NextDNS crowned, commenters yell “old news” and pitch rivals
TLDR: Stan says NextDNS is the best for fast, private, ad-blocking browsing on the go. Comments erupt: fans call it the speed king, skeptics question the post’s age, and rivals like ControlD jump in—highlighting how your DNS choice can shape privacy, speed, and everyday internet sanity.
Stan just crowned NextDNS his go-to “internet address book,” after a world tour of DNS—those behind-the-scenes services that turn website names into actual connections. He ditched Pi-hole because it only works reliably at home, and he’s always on the move. Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 is lightning fast but doesn’t block ads or trackers. AdGuard DNS kept things clean but sometimes sent his traffic on a scenic detour (hello, New York!), and it lacked easy allow/deny lists and stats. NextDNS ticks his boxes: fast, global, customizable, ad/track blocking, with charts. It also supports DoT and DoH—encrypted DNS via TLS and HTTPS—plus privacy-first vibes from French founders with serious cred.
Then the comments lit up. One reader deadpanned, “this post is from 2020,” and immediately got a spicy “how the hell did you come to that conclusion?” retort—timeline slap-fight, engage. Speed fans piled in: ksec swears NextDNS is the fastest and “very consistent,” even dreaming it becomes a full domain service like Amazon Route 53. But the plot twist? “You haven’t discovered ControlD,” quipped another, igniting a rivalry: Team NextDNS vs Team ControlD. Memes flew about DNS Hunger Games and “is your resolver swole?” Bottom line: people love NextDNS’s speed and control, but the crowd wants receipts and alternatives.
Key Points
- •The author requires a DNS service with low latency, reliability, global availability, DoT/DoH support, ad/tracker blocking, customization, and usage statistics.
- •Pi-hole is unsuitable for mobile devices leaving the home network; a WireGuard+Pi-hole cloud setup works but requires an always-on VPN.
- •Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 is fast and reliable but lacks DNS-level tracker blocking, failing a key requirement.
- •AdGuard DNS was reliable and used via DoT/DoH with local caching, but suffered from routing-related latency and lacked whitelisting/blacklisting and statistics.
- •NextDNS meets all stated requirements; founded in May 2019 in Delaware by Romain Cointepas and Olivier Poitrey, who emphasize net neutrality and privacy.