Thanks for pointing to Gibson’s DNS Benchmark — it’s definitely a classic and set the stage for this kind of testing. This project takes a different angle: it’s CLI‑first, scriptable, and designed for both quick “top” checks and deeper “benchmark” runs, plus a monitoring mode for ongoing resolver health. Glad you’re giving it a try, feedback is welcome.

Works on Linux with Wine too =)

If you want to run Python tools without installing them, you can use uvx: uvx --from dns-benchmark-tool dns-benchmark top

This pulls the package from PyPI and runs the top command right away.

DNS is utilized for many things besides looking up web sites (and consequently ads on web sites). DNS was used for many things etcd was invented to solve, and still is by many. Adblocking is kidstuff; the bearded, motorcycle riding, gun-shooting, jumping out of airplanes and hanging off of rocks jackals use a "DNS firewall" (just posted this the other day): https://www.dnsrpz.info/ and Dnstap for application-level DNS logging.

That’s a good point — adblocking DNS can definitely save time by cutting requests before they even reach the browser. The focus here was on resolver speed and monitoring, but pairing it with an adblocking DNS is a smart way to get both performance and less clutter while browsing.

Fast DNS and adblocking DNS (or other methods, for that matter) are not mutually exclusive topics, even assuming your primary use case for DNS resolution on a given machine is web browsing.

I doubt that your conclusion is correct (because local DNS resolvers that consult blocklists are often surprisingly slow) but I think your theory of the matter is accurate. The raw speed of the DNS server is almost irrelevant because there are other much larger systemic performance issues at stake. For example Cloudflare does not forward EDNS to the origin, so the records it returns are suboptimal for services that use DNS-based service affinity. It doesn't make a difference to me if Cloudflare is a few microseconds faster — and by the way I sincerely doubt that this python program is observing meaningful microsecond-scale differences — because overall it makes applications slower.

Yes, it’s in the same space as Gibson’s GRC DNS Benchmark — that tool has been around for years and set the standard for GUI‑based testing. This project takes a different angle: it’s CLI‑first, scriptable, and adds modes for quick checks, deeper benchmarks, and ongoing monitoring. So it’s more aimed at automation and sysadmin workflows than interactive GUI use.

Yes, dnsdiag is a solid toolbox — it’s great for digging into DNS issues at the packet level. This project is aimed more at benchmarking and monitoring resolvers over time, so they complement each other well: dnsdiag for diagnostics and troubleshooting, dns‑benchmark‑tool for comparative speed and health checks.

Thanks! Glad you find it neat. The goal was to make DNS benchmarking simple to run from the CLI, with quick checks, deeper benchmarks, and monitoring all in one place. Feedback is always welcome.

Yes, the ISC Looking Glass is a great resource — it’s handy for quick DNS lookups and seeing how queries resolve from their vantage point. This project is aimed more at benchmarking and monitoring resolvers over time, so they complement each other: Looking Glass for snapshots, dns‑benchmark‑tool for comparative speed and ongoing health checks.

Thanks for the thoughtful read — and yes, the tool is focused on caching / recursing resolver performance, not authoritative. The asyncio + dnspython stack makes it easy to script and monitor those behaviors over time. Running your own resolver is definitely the gold standard if performance and control really matter, but benchmarking public ones helps surface the trade‑offs users face in practice. The 300ms example was more about illustrating how ads and systemic factors can dwarf raw resolver speed, not a claim about per‑request DNS overhead. Appreciate the detailed perspective and glad the doc came across clearly.