Mullvad Shuts Down Its Public Encrypted DNS, Sponsors Quad9 Instead
Shutting down our public encrypted DNS
Mullvad is discontinuing its public encrypted DNS (DoH) servers, which it has operated since 2022, and will instead financially support the Quad9 Foundation. The company argues that running a privacy-focused public DNS is a highly specialized task and that Quad9 is the undisputed leader. Users of Mullvad Browser with default settings will be automatically migrated to Quad9, while manual configurations must be updated before November 2, 2026. iOS and macOS profiles will stop working and need replacement.
Running a privacy-focused public DNS service is a highly specialized undertaking, and the Quad9 Foundation is the undisputed leader in the field.
- pbhjpbhj
>We want a public service to be available. Going forward, we will support Quad9 instead of running it ourselves. Running a privacy-focused public DNS service is a highly specialized undertaking, and the Quad9 Foundation is the undisputed leader in the field. Rather than duplicating their efforts to achieve only part of what they do, we're putting those resources toward financially supporting Quad9 instead.
Brilliant.
- mentalgear
I'm always wondering whether those centralized privacy services are not the easiest first target for three-letter-agencies to infiltrate to gain access to the most relevant users to track - and what currently would prevent them from doing so if they haven't already ? Maybe, as with the case of many TOR nodes , they might be running them.
- iamnothere
Quad9 is a reasonable choice given the stance on privacy and the similar jurisdiction (Mullvad would probably face the same takedown orders as Quad9), but really anyone who cares about bypassing national blocking orders should run a local caching recursive resolver. Unbound is a great choice.
Unbound can also be used to block malware and advertising domains using shared public lists, or you can build your own list. Your resolver’s DNS queries could be piped through Mullvad or Tor if you want additional privacy.
- david_shaw
It's not that I don't trust Quad9 or dns.sb or any of the others, it's just that I trust Mullvad more.
Sad to see this going away, but I assume this is so Mullvad can focus on their primary services.
- ianmurrays
Does anyone know of good alternatives that also block ads? Seems Quad9 doesn't.
- drnick1
> Running a privacy-focused public DNS service is a highly specialized undertaking
This seems like an overstatement: I have been running my own recursive DNS with Unbound for years and never thought it was a "highly specialized undertaking." It took perhaps a couple of hours to set up in the pre-AI age. I filter ads and trackers using an aggressive blacklist[0].
- 1vuio0pswjnm7
These was one of the fastest DoH services for pipelined queries over single TCP connection
IME, it was much faster than Quad9 for this purpose
First Mullvad shuts down its Google search proxy
Now its DoH service
What's next
- 0dayz
That's a shame, even if I remember their DNS service being a bit unstable (it would at various points not be able to resolve or flat out it was down).