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< knighthk-irc > dropped a link

Shutting down our public encrypted DNS servers and sponsoring Quad9 instead

https://mullvad.net/en/blog/shutting-down-our-public-encrypted-dns-servers-and-sponsoring-quad9-instead

Mullvad is retiring its public encrypted DNS servers, operational since 2022, to financially sponsor the Quad9 Foundation instead. The company argues that running a privacy-focused public DNS service is highly specialized and that Quad9 is the "undisputed leader" in the field, making Mullvad’s independent effort redundant. While these servers remain useful for protecting DNS queries outside of the Mullvad VPN or when using the Mullvad Browser, the firm contends its resources are better spent supporting an existing expert rather than duplicating partial efforts.

Users must migrate to Quad9 before November 2nd, 2026. Mullvad Browser users with default settings will be automatically switched, but those with customized configurations must manually revert to defaults or update their settings. Additionally, existing iOS and macOS configuration profiles for Mullvad’s

what others said

Hacker News 361 points · 160 comments

HN viewed the shutdown as a disappointment that reduces redundancy, arguing that diverse, lesser-known services are essential for bypassing national blocking where Quad9 might be censored. The strongest technical objection was that Mullvad’s DoH was significantly faster for pipelined queries than Quad9, which suffered from 200–300ms latency and frequent query failures. Critics also noted the irony of a privacy-focused company consolidating with a single provider, pointing out that running a local recursive resolver like Unbound is trivially easy and avoids the "highly specialized" excuse. The thread further soured on trust due to allegations that Mullvad’s founder donated to a far-right party and the service had historically been unstable.

elsewhere