We’re making Bunny DNS free

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

What Bunny DNS Is

  • Authoritative DNS hosting service; not a public recursive resolver like 1.1.1.1.
  • Globally distributed anycast nameservers aim to reduce resolution latency.
  • Supports “smart” records: geo/latency routing, health checks, scripting with JavaScript.
  • Positioning is similar to Cloudflare’s DNS but EU-based and integrated with Bunny’s CDN, storage, and compute.

“Free” DNS vs $1 Monthly Minimum

  • DNS queries and zones (up to 500 domains) are now billed at $0, with no query limits.
  • However all accounts have a $1/month minimum spend across the platform.
  • Some see this as effectively not free, especially if DNS is the only service used.
  • Others argue it’s still a meaningful change: DNS itself no longer has per-query or per-zone pricing, and $1 is negligible for active users.

Comparisons to Other Providers

  • Several compare Bunny to Cloudflare:
    • CF DNS is free with no minimum, but CF has more lock-in and aggressive upsell at scale.
    • Bunny seen as simpler, EU-based, and good for people avoiding “big tech,” though it lacks CF’s breadth of PaaS features and a free CDN tier.
  • Paid DNS comparisons: AWS Route 53 and other clouds charge per million queries and for advanced routing. Bunny dropping query fees is welcomed.
  • Many note registrars offer free DNS, but often without anycast, DNSSEC, or geo-routing.

User Experience, Tooling & Features

  • General sentiment: Bunny services (CDN, DNS, containers, static hosting) are fast and cheap; interface is praised as clean.
  • DNS zone import is error-prone; some records (incl. HTTPS) or zone-file elements (SOA/NS) may be dropped or not exported, so users keep external zone backups.
  • AXFR-based migration is uncommon because many incumbents don’t allow transfers out.
  • Terraform provider exists; users deploy sites and APIs via CI to Bunny’s CDN/compute.
  • Missing features people want: scoped/RBAC API keys (important for security/compliance), per-zone access control, clearer/broader billing limits across all products, more robust API docs, and a Cloudflare-Pages-like one-command static deploy.

Billing, Risk & Trust Concerns

  • Prepaid model and bandwidth limits are praised for reducing runaway-bill risk, though some report small negative balances and confusing billing UX.
  • Some users dislike marketing emphasizing “free DNS” while the $1 minimum and trial/credit banners remain prominent, seeing this as trust-eroding.

EU / Privacy Angle

  • Many appreciate an EU-based alternative to US giants, but some question privacy-policy clarity and data-processing claims.