1 category · RankedNextDNS
Standing by category
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant | Since September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DNS filtering | Network and edge | 2% | 6 of 94 | 15% | 27 | accepted challenger |
Movement
By model
How each model treated NextDNS across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Grok 4.1 Fast | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
By framing
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“NextDNS is usually the best value if you mainly want DNS filtering and easy policy control” GPT-5.4 mini · DNS filtering · budget prompt · first choice
“NextDNS is often considered the most flexible option for tech-savvy users.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · DNS filtering · comparative prompt · first choice
“NextDNS – best for privacy-focused users needing advanced DNS controls” Muse Glimmer 30B · DNS filtering · comparative prompt · first choice
“NextDNS for control... Most flexible; anycast network (fast)” Grok 4.1 Fast · DNS filtering · comparative prompt · first choice
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“NextDNS/AdGuard: Highly customizable (ads/trackers/parental), but free tiers have query limits” Grok 4.1 Fast · DNS filtering · negative prompt · soft negative
“NextDNS's free plan should not be relied upon for critical filtering applications” Claude Haiku 4.5 · DNS filtering · negative prompt · soft negative
“Browser Secure DNS Can Bypass NextDNS and Pi-hole: How to Check and Fix It” Mistral Small · DNS filtering · negative prompt · soft negative
“Limitations: Less enterprise support; newer in the B2B space” Kimi K2 · DNS filtering · paraphrase prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as NextDNS, over the 68 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and NextDNS was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
What carried it into the answer
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 62 of the 68 answers that named NextDNS and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
248 of the 265 domain citations in answers naming NextDNS came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
nextdns.io is not in Google's top ten for any of the category's searches. In the answers, NextDNS takes 2% of first choices and DNSFilter takes 59%.ShowHide
Search and answers
In search
Google, US estimates- Searches for its name, Google
- 27,100 a month (“nextdns”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 408 a month
- Organic visits to its site
- about 14,686 a month
- Searches its site ranks for
- 1,482 · 122 in the top three
- Sites linking to it
- 4,399
- Paid Google search
- No ads found in the estimate; that does not mean it runs none
In answers
This edition- First choices
- 1 across its categories
- Named in
- 68 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 62 of the answers that named it
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read October 5, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Names read as NextDNS
Follow NextDNS
An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.
Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.
The company
NextDNS is its own company.ShowHide
The company
In its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- The new firewall for the modern Internet
- Customers named
- Firefox
- Not stated on the pages read
- Who it is for, price, starting price, free plan or trial, integrations, certifications, hosting
What NextDNS's own pages state, read October 5, 2026: nextdns.io. A claimed page can correct any of them.
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when NextDNS's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as NextDNS, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives
A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for NextDNS by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where NextDNS is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
- the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
- its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
- who was chosen in the answers that did not name NextDNS, and every reason the record gives;
- a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
- one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.