DNS0.eu Shuts Down, Citing Lack of Time and Resources
The non-profit DNS service DNS0.eu, designed to provide secure and privacy-focused DNS resolution for European users, has officially shut down. The project’s operators announced that the service has been discontinued due to limited time and resources.
Based in France, DNS0.eu was built as a fault-tolerant European infrastructure, operating through multiple hosting providers across EU member states. This week, the team replaced its website content with a brief closure notice:
“The service dns0.eu is no longer operational. We would have liked to continue supporting it, but this proved impossible in terms of time and resources,” the operators wrote.
They also expressed gratitude to their infrastructure and security partners and advised users to migrate to DNS4EU or NextDNS—both services aligned with DNS0.eu’s commitment to privacy and security.
A Promising Project That Ended Early
Launched in 2023 as a French non-profit, DNS0.eu offered users a free, GDPR-compliant recursive DNS resolver that emphasized privacy and transparency. It pledged no-logs operations, end-to-end encryption, and active protection against phishing and malware command-and-control (C2) domains.
At its peak, DNS0.eu operated on 62 servers in 27 European cities, supporting modern encrypted DNS protocols including DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH), DNS-over-TLS (DoT), DNS-over-QUIC, and DNS-over-HTTP/3.
Privacy and Security Features
Beyond encryption, DNS0.eu provided users with optional filtering layers for parental control, ad blocking, and piracy site prevention. Its threat intelligence capabilities detected malicious domains by analyzing typosquatting patterns, TLD reputation, homograph attacks, and domains generated by DGAs (Domain Generation Algorithms).
The project was widely praised for offering a European alternative to global public DNS resolvers like Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 or Google’s 8.8.8.8, aligning with EU goals of digital sovereignty and data protection.
Recommended Alternatives
The team recommended two successors that share its values:
- NextDNS – A privacy-centric resolver offering granular filtering for applications and websites, with customizable parental controls, analytics, and tracking protection.
- DNS4EU – A European Union-backed resolver co-funded by ENISA (European Union Agency for Cybersecurity). It provides IP resolution services, ad blocking, and filters for fraudulent, malicious, and explicit content. Unlike DNS0.eu, DNS4EU is designed for simplified deployment and large-scale adoption across EU member states.
A Symbolic Loss for European Internet Privacy
DNS0.eu’s shutdown marks the end of one of the few grassroots DNS initiatives focused solely on European users. While privacy-oriented alternatives remain, the closure underscores the challenges of sustaining independent, non-profit DNS infrastructure in a landscape dominated by large commercial providers.
