Sustainable Substitutes for Cloudflare DNS

A dominant DNS resolver centralising control over critical internet functions.

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Reasons to avoid Cloudflare DNS

Cloudflare DNS (1.1.1.1) comes with ethical and privacy concerns. It has monopolistic market share for domain name resolving, centralising control over critical internet infrastructure. Cloudflare has faced criticism for its labor practices. While Cloudflare positions itself as a privacy friendly alternative, its Oblivious DNS of HTTPS has not been adopted and the company has access users domain name requests, raising privacy concerns.

Go with an independent alternative without these concerns.

Ethical and Sustainable Cloudflare DNS Alternatives

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  • Feasibility: How easily can the average user switch to this substitute? Higher feasibility results in a higher ranking.
  • Editor's Rating: How sustainable is the substitute? The more sustainability attributes it fulfils, the higher it is ranked.

Quad9

A DNS service for better privacy and security operated by a Swiss non-profit.

Quad9 is completely free to use, with no paid tiers or query limits.
Users can use Quad9 without any registration or account creation.
Quad9 has a strict no-logging policy and is bound by Swiss privacy laws, ensuring user data is not stored or misused.
Quad9 has multiple open-source repositories, including its Android app, threat data and several tools.
The services do not show ads to its users.
Quad9 is operated by the Quad9 Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organisation. Before moving to Zurich Quad9 was located in the USA.
Website

DNSForge

An independent public DNS resolver with ad, tracking and malware filters.

DNSForge operates with a strict no-logging policy, ensuring user privacy and security.
The service is completely free to use, funded by donations.
Users can use DNSForge without any registration or account creation.
DNSForge actively blocks ads, tracking, and malware by default.
DNSForge does not show ads on its services.
Website

DNS.SB

A zero-logging DNS resolver operated and hosted by xTom.

DNSForge is a public DNS resolver hosted in Germany.
DNS.SB is completely free to use
Users can use DNS.SB without any registration or account creation.
DNS.SB emphasizes a strict no-logging policy, ensuring user privacy by not storing or tracking DNS queries
DNS.SB does not block ads, but it is a free service and does not rely on advertising for revenue.
Website

The 3 main issues with Cloudflare DNS

Big Tech - Big Tech companies do not nourish people and planet. This is especially true in times of political tension.

Cloudflare is a major player in internet infrastructure, and its DNS service is part of the broader trend of Big Tech centralising control over critical internet functions. While Cloudflare markets itself as privacy-focused, its dominance in DNS and CDN services contributes to the concentration of power in the hands of a few large corporations. Source: TechCrunch: Cloudflare outage takes down Discord, Shopify, Politico and others (2020)

Privacy Concerns - User data is likely to be stored and used against users' best interest.

While Cloudflare markets its DNS service as privacy-friendly and has introduced protocols like Oblivious DNS over HTTPS (ODoH) to separate user identity from queries (which has not been adopted yet), it still has access to DNS query data. This means Cloudflare can see the domains users access, raising concerns about trust and potential misuse, even if it claims not to log IP addresses or sell data. Sources: The Register: Cloudflare touts privacy-friendly 1.1.1.1 public DNS service. Hmm, let's take a closer look at that (2018)ZDNet: Oblivious DoH: Cloudflare supports new privacy, security-focused DNS standard (2020)

Exploitative Labour Practices - Poor working conditions and low wages for workers involved in production or services.

Cloudflare has faced criticism for its labour practices, including mass layoffs (e.g., firing 1,100 staff in 2026) and poor handling of employee dismissals, with reports of HR being unable to explain reasons for terminations.Source:The Register: Cloudflare defends firing of staffer for reasons HR could not explain (2024)The Register: Cloudflare to fire 1,100 staff whose jobs just aren’t AI enough (2026)

Suggestions and Feedback

If you have suggestions for more alternatives or general feedback, please contact me via email or create an issue over on Codeberg. Suggest Substitute on Codeberg Write an Email