What is PowerDNS-Admin used for?

PowerDNS-Admin is a web interface for managing PowerDNS zones and records, with role-based access, multiple login methods and an API. It is a good fit for teams delegating DNS zone editing and managing PowerDNS without direct database access.

Is PowerDNS-Admin open source?

Yes. PowerDNS-Admin is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at PowerDNS-Admin/PowerDNS-Admin and is written mainly in Python.

Is PowerDNS-Admin free?

Yes. PowerDNS-Admin is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host PowerDNS-Admin?

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

What is PowerDNS-Admin an alternative to?

PowerDNS-Admin 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 CoreDNS.

Is PowerDNS-Admin actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to PowerDNS-Admin was on 28 September 2026, and the latest release is v2026.08.1, published on 30 August 2026. The project has 2.8k stars on GitHub.

PowerDNS-Admin: open-source alternative to Amazon Route 53

About PowerDNS-Admin

PowerDNS-Admin is a web interface for the PowerDNS Authoritative Server. It lets administrators manage forward and reverse DNS zones without using the command line, and it adds features aimed at teams, including user management with role-based access control and zone-specific permissions. It is written in Python and released under the MIT license.

Beyond zone editing it offers zone templating, activity logging, monitoring of PowerDNS service configuration and statistics, DynDNS 2 protocol support, easy IPv6 PTR record editing, full IDN and Punycode support and an API for zones and records. Authentication can use local users, SAML, LDAP with OpenLDAP or Active Directory, or OAuth through Google, GitHub, Microsoft Entra ID or OpenID. Two-factor authentication with TOTP is available.

The project is built and tested against the current stable PowerDNS Authoritative Server plus recent minor releases, and support for versions older than 5.0 has been dropped. The quickest way to run it is Docker, either from Docker Hub or with Docker Compose, and a direct installation guide is available. The Docker image is still named pda-legacy even though it is actively maintained.

Key features

Forward and reverse zone management
Zone templates for repeatable setups
Role-based and per-zone access control
SAML, LDAP and OAuth authentication
TOTP two-factor authentication
DynDNS 2 protocol support
API for zone and record management

Good fit for

→Teams delegating DNS zone editing
→Managing PowerDNS without direct database access

Built with: Python
Tags: powerdns; dns; dns-management; web-interface; python; docker; self-hosted; ldap

PowerDNS-Admin: questions and answers

What is PowerDNS-Admin used for?: PowerDNS-Admin is a web interface for managing PowerDNS zones and records, with role-based access, multiple login methods and an API. It is a good fit for teams delegating DNS zone editing and managing PowerDNS without direct database access.
Is PowerDNS-Admin open source?: Yes. PowerDNS-Admin is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at PowerDNS-Admin/PowerDNS-Admin and is written mainly in Python.
Is PowerDNS-Admin free?: Yes. PowerDNS-Admin is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host PowerDNS-Admin?: Yes. PowerDNS-Admin can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is PowerDNS-Admin an alternative to?: PowerDNS-Admin 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 CoreDNS.
Is PowerDNS-Admin actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to PowerDNS-Admin was on 28 September 2026, and the latest release is v2026.08.1, published on 30 August 2026. The project has 2.8k stars on GitHub.