FreeDNS has quietly served 7 million members and 13.8 million DNS records since 2001
FreeDNS offers free and premium DNS hosting, dynamic DNS, static DNS, backup DNS, IPv6 reverse records, and URL redirection, all managed through simple curl-based updates. The service hosts over 23,000 domains in a shared registry that anyone can attach to, and currently handles about 2,314 DNS queries per second for 7.16 million members. Premium plans start at $5 a month, and Bitcoin is accepted.
Updated demo.freshdns.com from 50.23.197.94 to 2607:f0d0:1102:d5::2
- 8organicbits
I've used FreeDNS on occasion for test domain names, one-off experiments, and similar. I'm very appreciative this exists, but there are some pain points that similar services handle better.
The domains are missing from the public suffix list. This impacts how cookies are handled by the domain names, with concerns the browser will allow software to set the cookie on the shared domain name instead of the subdomain. This can be a security problem. Getting added to the PSL may not happen: https://github.com/publicsuffix/list/pull/79
It can be difficult to get a free HTTPS certificate for your subdomain. Let's Encrypt applies per-domain name rate limits and these domain names see lots of issuance requests. There's a process to lift those limits, but last I checked FreeDNS didn't use it. You can still, of course, pay for a certificate.
There's tons of abuse on free domains so you may find that your domain is blocked on various lists.
Here are some compelling alternatives I use now, which manage these issues better:
- https://messwithdns.net/ - Exceptionally well-made DNS console for learning DNS
- https://open-domains.com/ - Uses Cloudflare, great Discord group
- Even more: https://free.hrsn.dev/#/?id=domains
- hattmall
This is one of the most solid and longest lasting services online. Have been using it for almost two decades I think and nothing's changed.
- Implicated
I literally launched my development and web career on the back of this service as a broke early-20s person. Just seeing that link on HN gave me goosebumps. <3
- tylerius
Their backup DNS service is great, so you can run your own DNS with just one server.
https://nic.eu.org/ is also very cool for getting a domain name if paying for one is a challenge.
- IgorPartola
This looks so much like https://dns.he.net/ that it seems to me it can’t be a coincidence. Is this a case of copying a well known design or is there more to it?