Europe’s digital infrastructure market has its own alternatives for one of the most overlooked yet essential layers of the internet: DNS (the Domain Name System). The third edition of the European Software Map brings together seven managed DNS services from seven countries, from Iceland to Bulgaria: 1984 Hosting, DNScale, deSEC, EuroDNS, RcodeZero, Bunny DNS, and ClouDNS. The selection isn’t meant to be exhaustive, and the community has already pointed out other providers that could expand the map.
Europe’s DNS map in 30 seconds
- European Software Map #03 identifies seven managed DNS providers of European origin.
- The selection includes companies and projects from Iceland, Estonia, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, Slovenia, and Bulgaria.
- They include deSEC, EuroDNS, Bunny DNS, ClouDNS, DNScale, RcodeZero, and 1984 Hosting.
- The list shows there are European alternatives for a layer usually concentrated among large international platforms.
- It’s not a ranking or a complete list: other European operators also offer DNS services.
The map was put together by Nikola Stojkovi膰 based on European Tech Map and EuroAlternative. Its timing is particularly relevant at a moment when European companies and governments are reviewing not just where they store their data, but also who operates the different layers needed to publish services online.
DNS usually gets less attention than cloud, data centers, or content delivery networks (CDNs), but its availability is critical. A web server can be running perfectly and still be unreachable to users if domain resolution fails.
That’s why the comment accompanying the map sums up nicely what’s expected of this service: keep DNS boring. When it works properly, practically no one should notice it’s there.
From Iceland to Bulgaria: seven European options
The published selection breaks down as follows:
| Country | Provider |
|---|---|
| 馃嚠馃嚫 Iceland | 1984 Hosting |
| 馃嚜馃嚜 Estonia | DNScale |
| 馃嚛馃嚜 Germany | deSEC |
| 馃嚤馃嚭 Luxembourg | EuroDNS |
| 馃嚘馃嚬 Austria | RcodeZero |
| 馃嚫馃嚠 Slovenia | Bunny DNS |
| 馃嚙馃嚞 Bulgaria | ClouDNS |
The diversity is interesting because behind these names are fairly different propositions. Not all of them compete for exactly the same type of customer or offer the same set of features.
1984 Hosting is an Icelandic provider offering hosting and DNS services. Iceland also occupies a peculiar position within the European framework: it belongs to the European Economic Area (EEA), though it isn’t part of the European Union.
DNScale, listed on the map with Estonia, presents itself as another alternative within the European DNS management market.
deSEC, based in Germany, takes a different approach. It’s a free DNS hosting service that puts special emphasis on open standards and security. Its documentation and presence in automation tools have also made it a familiar option among system administrators working with DNSSEC and certificate automation.
Its integration appears, for example, among the DNS providers supported by tools related to ACME, the protocol used to automate the issuance and renewal of TLS certificates.
EuroDNS, from Luxembourg, is probably one of the most recognizable names on the list thanks to its long track record as a domain registrar and DNS service provider.
Austria is represented by RcodeZero, while Slovenia contributes Bunny DNS, built into bunny.net’s infrastructure.
Finally, ClouDNS, originating in Bulgaria, offers managed and authoritative DNS and has an international presence.
The map has value precisely because it avoids presenting the European market as if it consisted of a single alternative to the big U.S. providers. There are community projects, DNS specialists, registrars, hosting companies, and providers that have built broader platforms around network services.
DNS also enters the digital sovereignty debate
When people talk about European cloud sovereignty, the conversation usually centers on AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
But a public application depends on quite a few more components.
The domain needs authoritative DNS servers. TLS certificates have to be issued and renewed. There may be a CDN in front of the server. A web application firewall (WAF), object storage, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection, and monitoring services may also be involved.
Moving just the virtual machine to a European data center doesn’t automatically move all those dependencies with it, a gap cloudnews.tech has examined before.
The emergence of open-source migration tools also reflects that interest.
A recent example is flareover, a project licensed under AGPL-3.0 that tries to analyze Cloudflare configurations and generate equivalent configurations for a self-managed infrastructure built on components such as Caddy, PowerDNS, CertMate, and MinIO.
The project also considers European DNS providers such as bunny.net, Scaleway, OVHcloud, Gandi, Leaseweb, and Hetzner, alongside self-managed PowerDNS. Its developers explicitly distinguish between European operators and European regions operated by U.S. companies.
Claims about equivalence and coverage come from the project itself and should be evaluated before a production migration. The repository itself acknowledges that certain proprietary capabilities can’t be moved identically and flags them for manual intervention rather than generating a configuration that could silently change behavior.
That caution is especially important with DNS.
Switching authoritative providers isn’t as simple as copying a few A, AAAA, MX, and CNAME records.
Enterprise infrastructure may use DNSSEC, delegations, CAA records, API-based automation, load balancing, health checks, geographic policies, Anycast, and provider-specific mechanisms. Capabilities need to be compared before any migration.
It’s also worth distinguishing between data residency, business ownership, and technological sovereignty. A service operating infrastructure inside Europe doesn’t necessarily mean the owning company is European, just as being a European company doesn’t automatically mean all of its infrastructure sits exclusively within the European Union.
The map is useful as a starting point precisely because it lets you ask that second question: beyond knowing where the servers are, knowing who provides the infrastructure’s DNS layer.
A map that can still grow quite a bit
The publication has already sparked suggestions to expand the selection.
Responses include references to CZ.NIC, the organization responsible for the .cz domain, as well as other European services. German providers not included in this first selection have also been mentioned.
There are other European names worth examining before considering a list like this closed. The market includes DNS services tied to registrars, hosting companies, cloud providers, and specialized operators.
That also calls for setting clear criteria.
A future version of the map could distinguish between free and commercial DNS, authoritative and secondary, Anycast, DNSSEC support, API access, ACME automation, DDoS protection, infrastructure location, and the provider’s country of ownership.
Being European by registered office doesn’t answer every technical need on its own, either.
A small website may only need reliable authoritative DNS with DNSSEC. An international platform may require global Anycast, a full API, infrastructure-as-code integration, advanced policies, and service-level agreements.
That’s why the initial list of seven providers is more useful as a map of alternatives than as a ranking of the best services.
It shows something that often gets hidden behind Cloudflare, Route 53, Azure DNS, or Google Cloud DNS: Europe has its own market for managed and self-managed DNS, even if it’s fragmented across numerous operators and projects.
Frequently asked questions
Which European managed DNS providers appear on the map?
The selection includes 1984 Hosting, DNScale, deSEC, EuroDNS, RcodeZero, Bunny DNS, and ClouDNS, spanning seven European countries.
Are all of these providers based in the European Union?
No. 1984 Hosting is Icelandic, and Iceland isn’t part of the European Union, although it does belong to the European Economic Area. The concept of a “European provider” is therefore broader than that of an “EU provider.”
Is using a European DNS provider enough for sovereign infrastructure?
No. DNS is just one layer. Hosting, CDN, certificates, storage, connectivity, security, jurisdiction, and other external dependencies also need to be evaluated.
Can DNS be migrated from Cloudflare to European providers?
Yes, but the difficulty depends on the features in use. Basic DNS records are relatively straightforward to move, while DNSSEC, automations, and related services require checking the destination provider’s equivalence.
