EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceDNS Privacy & FilteringHeadquarters: GB

dnsmasq: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Dnsmasq is a lightweight package of network services for small networks, suited to resource-constrained routers and firewalls. It acts as a local DNS forwarder and cache that passes queries to upstream servers, caches common record types, can validate DNSSEC replies and can optionally answer authoritatively for a zone. It also includes a DHCP server (DHCPv4 and DHCPv6, plus BOOTP and PXE, with static and dynamic leases), a read-only TFTP server for network boot and IPv6 router advertisements. It runs on Linux, Android, BSD variants and macOS and is self-managed.

Dnsmasq is free software under GPL version 2 or 3. It is mainly written and maintained by Simon Kelley, who according to the project page works on it as his main activity without an employer funding him. No company or parent company stands behind the project, and there is no central service: all data stays on your own equipment. For a European organisation, dnsmasq is therefore a self-hostable building block for local name resolution and DHCP, with no dependence on an external provider.

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Sovereignty score
77 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-250
    Headquartered outside the EU (GB)
  • Data residency SOV-3100
    No hosting in Europe (self-hosted)
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-390
    Self-hostable: encryption keys under your own control
  • Freedom from lock-in SOV-680
    Open source: low switching costs
  • Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-665
    Source code auditable, forkable and self-hostable

SOV codes: the matching objective in the European Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework. Official source

How the score is calculated

Facts and evidence

Last checked October 6, 2026
Headquarters
GB (OTHER)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decision
Yes — found adequate by the European CommissionVerified by hand
Data hosting
Self-hosted, e.g. in self-hosted (your choice)Verified by hand
Open-source
YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Category
DNS Privacy & Filtering
Type
Product
Website
thekelleys.org.uk ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to dnsmasq

The European alternatives to dnsmasq come from our knowledge base of over 6,800 vendors. We only list vendors headquartered in the EU or the EEA; fully European-owned vendors rank before vendors with a foreign owner. For each alternative you see the country, the open-source status and a short description.

Score per alternative: 0 = high exposure, 100 = sovereign

24 European DNS Privacy & Filtering vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

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Why digital sovereignty matters with dnsmasq

dnsmasq is headquartered in GB, outside the EU. Contracts and data therefore also fall under non-European law. The GDPR applies through contractual terms, but in a conflict with local legislation you have less certainty than with a European vendor.

dnsmasq hosts data outside the EU (self-hosted). Personal data therefore leaves the EU, which requires a transfer mechanism under the GDPR and pulls the data residency score down.

dnsmasq is open source. You can audit the source code, self-host the software and keep the encryption keys under your own control. Switching is easier because data and software are not tied to a single party.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs dnsmasq together with your other vendors and gives a total score, a heatmap and the main risk drivers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best European alternative to dnsmasq?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to dnsmasq include AdGuard DNS, AdGuard Home and Blocky. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to dnsmasq?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to dnsmasq include AdGuard Home and Blocky. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is dnsmasq GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

dnsmasq is headquartered in GB (OTHER) and hosts data in self-hosted. The vendor states it is GDPR-compliant, but the data falls under non-EU jurisdiction. For full EU data residency the EU alternatives on this page usually offer more certainty.

Details and sources

Verified by handHeadquarters, owner, hosting locations and licence have been checked by us against public sources. Free of charge and for every vendor, not a paid label. Nothing in this knowledge base is taken over automatically. Last checked on October 6, 2026.

Sources

Public sources used in the latest check of this record.

Compliance evidence

The links below point to the vendor's own public documents. We only record what we found: a missing link means "not found publicly", not "not compliant".

No public compliance evidence has been recorded for this vendor yet. Do you know its DPA or subprocessor list? Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Digital sovereignty in DNS Privacy & Filtering

DNS Privacy & Filtering: Privacy-friendly DNS services, ad blocking and DNS filtering. In this category the choice of vendor determines who has legal access to your data, where that data lives and how easily you can switch later.

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8 European alternatives to dnsmasq — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score