Powerdns
App in the BluixApps catalog
What it is
PowerDNS is an authoritative DNS server with first-class API for programmatic zone management. Used as the canonical DNS server for hosting providers, ISPs, and platforms that need to manage thousands of zones via API. Pair with PowerDNS-Admin (the included web UI) for a complete DNS management stack.
For teams running their own DNS infrastructure — typically registrars, hosting providers, multi-tenant SaaS — PowerDNS is the API-first choice.
What it's for
- Authoritative DNS — primary nameserver for owned domains
- Multi-tenant DNS — give customers their own DNS zones
- API-driven DNS — programmatic zone management for automation
- Geographic DNS — geo-aware responses (Enterprise)
- DNSSEC signing — automated DNSSEC for hosted zones
Who it's for
- Hosting providers offering DNS services to customers
- ISPs / telecoms running authoritative DNS infrastructure
- Domain registrars managing zone files at scale
- Platform engineering building automated DNS workflows
- Self-hosters running their own nameservers (vs cloud DNS)
Why teams pick PowerDNS over alternatives
- GPL-2.0 — fully open
- API-first — REST API for everything; CLI as a thin wrapper
- Multi-backend — Postgres, MySQL, LDAP, BIND zone files, custom
- DNSSEC native — automated key management, signing on write
- High performance — millions of queries per second on modest hardware
- PowerDNS-Admin UI — web interface for non-API users
Integrations
- Backends — Postgres, MySQL, LDAP, SQLite, BIND zone files, LMDB, custom
- API — REST endpoints for zone + record management
- DNS protocols — UDP / TCP / DNS-over-TLS / DNS-over-HTTPS
- Provisioning — Terraform PowerDNS provider, Ansible modules
- Monitoring — Prometheus exporter, Carbon metrics
- Auth backends — LDAP, OAuth via PowerDNS-Admin
- DNSSEC — automated key rollover, NSEC3 / NSEC
Notable users & community
- 4k+ GitHub stars
- Used by major hosting providers (OVH, Linode historically, Hetzner)
- Backed by PowerDNS.COM (NL) — commercial enterprise support
- Long-running OSS project (>20 years)
- Standard DNS server in registrar / hosting industries
Tips & operations
- Use Postgres backend for production — scales to millions of zones
- API tokens per tenant — never share API keys; tenant isolation matters
- DNSSEC discipline — automated key rollover or manual rolling; both work but require care
- Bind PowerDNS to 0.0.0.0 — by default listens on localhost; production needs external bind
- PowerDNS-Admin separately — UI is its own service; don't bundle authentication
- Monitor query rate — DDoS mitigation via rate limiting + UPF (Unique Pseudo Function)
What we ship in BluixApps
- Docker compose: PowerDNS Authoritative + PowerDNS-Admin + Postgres
- Pinned
powerdns/pdns-auth-49:latest(release-tagged) — series 4.9 - HTTPS via Let's Encrypt for admin UI
- Postgres backend for zone storage
- API token auto-generated; surfaced in install report
- DNSSEC enabled by default for new zones
- Backup hook covers Postgres (zones + DNSSEC keys)
Get this app — pick a BluixApps plan
Same catalog. Scaling tenant isolation, white-label and support tier.
| Tier | Tenants | Catalog | Support | White-label | Monthly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stacks | 1 | 19 curated stacks | Standard | — | $19/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Starter | 10 | Full catalog | Standard | +$15–25/mo | $49/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Pro | 25 | Full catalog | Priority bugfix | +$15–25/mo | $149/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Growth | 100 | Full catalog | Priority bugfix | +$15–25/mo | $349/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Scale | 500 | Full catalog | 7-day window | +$15–25/mo | $799/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Enterprise | Unlimited | Full catalog | Priority 7-day | Bundled | $1,499/mo | DetailDeploy |
