MaraDNS
The facts below are what the maker publishes about MaraDNS, checked and dated. Our editors have not written about it yet.
Plans and prices
From MaraDNS's own pricing page, checked 8 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| MaraDNS | Free | Free to download, use, and modify under a BSD license |
The facts
Each one read from MaraDNS's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Additional tools
- The software includes the askmara DNS querying tool, plus assorted documentation, password-generation, Unicode-conversion, build, and test tools.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Components
- MaraDNS 3.5 includes a UDP-only authoritative DNS server and Deadwood, a recursive DNS server that supports UDP and TCP.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Configuration
- The maker describes MaraDNS as easy to configure for people comfortable editing text configuration files.checked 8 Oct 2026
- IPv6
- MaraDNS 3.5 has full, though not fully tested, IPv6 support.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Known issue
- The security page says Deadwood DNS-over-TCP is disabled by default and describes denial-of-service issues affecting configurations where it is enabled.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Maintenance
- The overview says MaraDNS is in deep freeze, with updates limited to serious security fixes.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- MaraDNS is an open-source DNS server that provides DNS, the internet’s directory service for translating names into IP addresses.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Release and downloads
- The download page lists UNIX and Windows source code and a Windows binary zipfile; it also says Deadwood is included with MaraDNS.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Security design
- The maker says MaraDNS uses a string library designed to resist buffer overflows and requires the server to run as an unprivileged user.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Security limitation
- Neither MaraDNS nor Deadwood supports DNSSEC.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Support
- The project’s support forum is hosted on GitHub and requires a GitHub account.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Zone transfers
- The separate zoneserver supports DNS-over-TCP and DNS zone transfers.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Zone update limitation
- MaraDNS needs to be restarted to update its database of DNS records after zone data changes.checked 8 Oct 2026
Where it runs
- Platform support
- MaraDNS is a native UNIX program with a partial Windows port, while Deadwood has a full Windows port and is described as cross-platform.checked 8 Oct 2026
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