Koru Shield vs Quad9
Quad9 is the nonprofit purist: free forever, Swiss privacy, and threat blocking that just works. Here is how it stacks up against Koru Shield, row by row.
Protection that survives our own outage. Koru Shield's edge servers are stateless, run from signed configuration bundles, and fall back to last-known-good config automatically. We have run failure drills simulating control-plane and edge outages, and DNS kept resolving through them. A filter that disappears during an incident is not protection, so we lead with this.
| Quad9 | Koru Shield | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, always. Nonprofit, no account needed, no tiers. | Free plan plus paid tiers from $5/mo for household features. |
| Threat blocking | Excellent. IBM X-Force plus nearly 20 threat intelligence feeds block malware, phishing, and exploit infrastructure by default. | Malware, phishing, and scam blocking live now, with human support when something gets through. |
| Ad blocking | None. Quad9 blocks threats only. | Ad and tracker blocking included. |
| Customization | None beyond choosing preset resolvers. Fixed blocklists, no allowlists or custom rules. | Categories, custom allow and block rules, and per-person profiles. |
| Family controls | None. Malware blocking only, no content categories. | Family filter, per-device profiles, SafeSearch, and schedules for homework and bedtime. |
| Dashboard and analytics | None. No account means no query logs or analytics. | Real-time logs, per-device profiles, and analytics included. |
| Privacy | Nonprofit foundation in Switzerland; states it never logs end-user IP addresses. | Never sells data; US-first residency (Northern Virginia, Oregon). |
| Encrypted DNS | DoH, DoT, and DNSCrypt supported. | DoH on the unified us.korushield.com endpoint. |
| Support | Community and documentation; no dedicated support. | Human support on every plan, including free. |
| Setup | Change DNS to 9.9.9.9; iOS and macOS profiles available in setup guides. | Guided per-device setup and one-tap iOS profiles. |
| Network | Global anycast network with 200+ locations. | Two US regions live (Northern Virginia, Oregon). |
| Outage resilience | Global anycast network; resilience details not published. | Drill-verified. Stateless edges with signed config bundles and last-known-good fallback kept resolving through simulated control-plane and edge outages. |
| Maturity | Established nonprofit with years of operational history. | Live now. Newer, smaller, and shaped by early members. |
Pricing and features from public pages, October 2026.
Where Koru Shield wins
- Protection that survives our own outage, verified by failure drills
- Ad blocking, content categories, and custom rules
- Per-person profiles with homework and bedtime schedules
- Real-time analytics and query logs
- Human support on every plan
Where Quad9 wins
- Completely free, no account, no tiers
- Nonprofit with Swiss privacy jurisdiction
- Strong threat intelligence from many feeds
- Set it and forget it simplicity
- Global network with years of history
The bottom line
Quad9 is one of the finest things in DNS: free threat blocking from a nonprofit you can trust. If that is all you need, keep it. Koru Shield is for people who want Quad9's protection plus control: ads gone, different rules for each family member, schedules that enforce themselves, and visibility into what is being blocked. If that sounds like you, try it free and run both side by side.
Try the difference free.
Run our five-second protection check, then put Koru Shield on one device and see what it catches.