Technitium DNS Server is an open source self-hosted solution with features that go beyond what both AdGuard Home and Pi-hole offer. Please check it out and consider adding it as a recommended option.
Hi everybody. Any thoughts on recommending this for self-hosted DNS server?
What Technitium offers that is unique compared to Pi-Hole or AdGuard Home?
2 Likes
Hi there, and thanks for your question. For this, I defer to the project maintainer to who made a reddit post which highlights some of the unique features (also copy/pasted below): https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/hmrc87/comment/isa7x99/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
You will find almost all features of pihole and blocky plus at lot more in Technitium DNS server. Everything is built-in, you don’t have to install or configure anything for any feature. All config is available in the web GUI and with HTTP API for automation.
Technitium DNS is a full fledged DNS server so you get built in support for recursive resolution so no need to install unbound separately. There is built-in support for DoH/DoT encrypted DNS protocols which you can directly configure from GUI so no need for cloudflared. There is DHCP server built-in with a lot of options plus you can run DHCP server on more than one networks/VLAN by creating multiple DHCP scopes.
Since Technitium DNS is also authoritative DNS server, you can create zones for local network. There is support for Conditional Forwarder zones which you can use to forward a domain to specific DNS server. The forwarder zone also allows you to add any record which will allow you to “override” a live domain’s records.
There are too many feature to list. You should definitely give it a try to explore all the options.
Really, though, I am not sure why it needs to offer any unique features compared to Pi-Hole or Adguard Home (despite that it actually does) to be recommended on PG. I am sure each piece of software has its pros and cons, which is why there is a benefit to recommending multiple options on a website like PG. I believe Technitium DNS Server meets all the criteria and therefore deserves a place on PG alongside (and not in replacement of) Pi-Hole and Adguard Home.
Thanks again for your post and hope you and others continue to look into this as an option 
1 Like
There’s a few of these projects, another one you mentioned blocky. Personally I’m not a fan of adding a project with one maintainer. While I’m sure there is nothing wrong with I also don’t see a reason to add it.
In my personal setup I just use Unbound and then hand out that via DHCP. That is all fully supported with OPNSense, and doesn’t rely on me having to worry about whether or not a particular client supports DoH etc.
Queries from there either go to BIND (which handles my local zones), and remote queries are just forwarded to the VPN provider’s DNS servers and I let them do the filtering. Again all officially supported by OPNSense and doesn’t require me to have containers on my server to handle critical network infrastructure or SBC computers (RPi) on my network to do things.
DNS filtering isn’t a particularly strong way of blocking anything (malware can just use hardcoded IP addresses) it is just a form of badness enumeration anyway.
If you’re the sort of person who actually leaves the house (roaming) you won’t be able to take any of these things with you, so you’ll be using your VPN provider’s servers anyway.
I actually liked technitium dns server. Only downside is its logview is ineligible compared to adguardhome if use it as adblocking dns server, and its built upon the bloated Microsoft .net.
Pro of it compared to adguardhome is it also can act as authoritative dns server so can selfhost icann root zone by xafr from the icann root servers. Plus can selfhost own domain zone too.
2 Likes