What is CoreDNS used for?

CoreDNS is a flexible DNS server and forwarder written in Go whose functionality comes from chained plugins. It is a good fit for cluster DNS and service discovery, and custom DNS forwarding and caching.

Is CoreDNS open source?

Yes. CoreDNS is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at coredns/coredns and is written mainly in Go.

Yes. CoreDNS is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host CoreDNS?

Yes. CoreDNS can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is CoreDNS an alternative to?

CoreDNS is an open-source alternative to Amazon Route 53, NS1 and DNSimple. Other open-source alternatives to Amazon Route 53 include Technitium DNS Server, PowerDNS and PowerDNS-Admin.

Is CoreDNS actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to CoreDNS was on 30 September 2026, and the latest release is v1.14.7, published on 19 August 2026. The project has 14k stars on GitHub.

CoreDNS: open-source alternative to Amazon Route 53, NS1

About CoreDNS

CoreDNS is a DNS server and forwarder, written in Go, that chains plugins together, with each plugin performing a DNS function. It is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation graduated project and is released under the Apache 2.0 license. If a function is not available out of the box, it can be added by writing a plugin.

It can listen for DNS requests over UDP and TCP, TLS (DoT), DNS over HTTP/2 (DoH), DNS over HTTP/3, DNS over QUIC (DoQ) and gRPC. Its plugins cover serving zone data from files with DNSSEC and DNS support, acting as a primary or secondary server, signing zone data on the fly, load balancing responses, caching, and forwarding queries to other nameservers.

Backends include etcd and Kubernetes, which is why topics mention service discovery, and there are plugins for Prometheus metrics, query and error logging, Route 53 integration, query rewriting, DNS64 IPv6 translation, profiling and more. Each plugin is documented individually. It is run by operators on their own infrastructure.

Key features

Plugin chain architecture
DNS over TLS, HTTPS, HTTP/3 and QUIC
Zone file serving with DNSSEC signing
Caching and query forwarding
Kubernetes and etcd backends
Prometheus metrics and logging

Good fit for

→Cluster DNS and service discovery
→Custom DNS forwarding and caching

Built with: Go
Tags: dns; dns-server; plugins; kubernetes; service-discovery; cncf; golang; dnssec

CoreDNS: questions and answers

What is CoreDNS used for?: CoreDNS is a flexible DNS server and forwarder written in Go whose functionality comes from chained plugins. It is a good fit for cluster DNS and service discovery, and custom DNS forwarding and caching.
Is CoreDNS open source?: Yes. CoreDNS is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at coredns/coredns and is written mainly in Go.
Is CoreDNS free?: Yes. CoreDNS is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host CoreDNS?: Yes. CoreDNS can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is CoreDNS an alternative to?: CoreDNS is an open-source alternative to Amazon Route 53, NS1 and DNSimple. Other open-source alternatives to Amazon Route 53 include Technitium DNS Server, PowerDNS and PowerDNS-Admin.
Is CoreDNS actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to CoreDNS was on 30 September 2026, and the latest release is v1.14.7, published on 19 August 2026. The project has 14k stars on GitHub.