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Most buyers should pick NextDNS.
Choose NextDNS for a free plan, broad consumer filtering and personal pricing: Pro is CAD 2.79 monthly or CAD 2.325 per month billed annually. Control D fits teams needing per-endpoint billing, native clients across five listed operating systems, AI-agent destination policies and four modern DNS protocols. Its SMB plan starts at USD 2 per endpoint monthly. NextDNS’s free tier caps usage at 300,000 queries monthly; its review scores higher for ease and value, while Control D carries a learning curve.
01Side by side
| Control D | NextDNS | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | USD 2 per endpoint monthly | CAD 2.79 monthly; CAD 2.325 annual equivalent |
| Free plan | No free plan; 14-day trial | Free plan, capped at 300,000 queries monthly |
| Best for | Teams needing endpoint policies and AI-agent controls | Individuals, families, and budget-minded filtering |
| Core strength | Endpoint policies, app controls, AI-agent destination rules | Threat, ad, tracker, and parental filtering |
| Learning curve | Learning curve noted; ease score 6.5/10 | Ease score 8/10; occasional breakage reported |
| Protocols and data | Five OS clients, four protocols, 30-day logs, yearly analytics | DoH/DoT; configurable logs and analytics |
| Team and seat costs | SMB billing is per endpoint monthly | Business billing covers 50 employees |
| Support | Support details not specified here | Community support; email support for business |
Control D Choose Control D if
- Choose Control D if you need AI-agent destination policies.
- Choose Control D if you want per-endpoint SMB billing.
- Choose Control D if native clients across five listed OSes matter.
NextDNS Choose NextDNS if
- Choose NextDNS if you want a free tier.
- Choose NextDNS if you need ad, tracker, and parental controls.
- Choose NextDNS if personal pricing and ease matter most.
02Pricing compared
Control D’s SMB plan starts at USD 2 per endpoint per month. It can be billed monthly or annually, but the annual price is not published. School/non-profit and MSP prices are also not published; Enterprise pricing is custom. There’s no free plan, though Control D offers a 14-day trial.
NextDNS has a free plan with a 300,000-query monthly cap, unlimited devices and configurations. Pro costs CAD 2.79 monthly or CAD 2.325 per month with annual billing. Business is CAD 27.90 monthly, or CAD 23.25 per month annually, per 50 employees. Education uses the same prices per 250 students. Those are different billing units, so compare based on your actual endpoint or user count—not just the headline price.
03Features and depth
Both services filter DNS traffic for security, but their feature sets target different needs. Control D says it blocks malware, offers policies for AI agents, and can block more than 1,000 apps and services. Its homepage reports a 99.98% malware block rate, verified by Nexxwave in 2025. It supports DNS-over-HTTPS/3, DNS-over-TLS, DNS-over-QUIC and Legacy DNS. Every plan includes 30-day query logs and analytics retention up to one year.
NextDNS combines threat protection with ad and tracker blocking, parental controls, SafeSearch and YouTube Restricted Mode. It also supports custom allowlists, denylists, DNS rewrites and multiple configurations. Its encrypted DNS options are DNS-over-HTTPS and DNS-over-TLS. Users can disable logs or choose a retention period. NextDNS offers broad consumer filtering, while Control D lists AI-agent controls and more DNS protocols; which matters more depends on the policies and devices you need to manage.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Control D lists native clients for Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android, plus self-serve deployment on its SMB plan. That gives teams several deployment options, but its review flags a learning curve and scores ease of use at 6.5 out of 10.
NextDNS’s review scores ease of use at 8 out of 10. Its free plan includes unlimited configurations, so users can try the service without paying, although the 300,000-query monthly cap applies. Personal plans include community support; Business and Education include email support. Control D’s listed plans all include 30-day query log retention, while NextDNS lets users disable logs or select a retention period.
Questions people ask
Who owns Control D DNS?
The published Control D material describes its DNS filtering features and plans but does not identify the company’s owner. We can’t verify ownership from these sources, so check Control D’s official company information before relying on a claim about its ownership.
Is Control D better than AdGuard?
The published information compares Control D with NextDNS, not AdGuard, so it doesn’t support a direct verdict. Control D lists AI-agent policies, native clients for five operating systems and four modern DNS protocols. Whether that is better depends on the features and price you need from AdGuard.
How much does Control D cost?
Control D’s SMB plan starts at USD 2 per endpoint per month. The annual price is not published. School/non-profit and MSP pricing is not published, and Enterprise pricing is custom. Control D has no free plan, but its pricing information lists a 14-day trial.
What are some good alternatives to NextDNS?
Control D is one alternative covered here. Its SMB plan starts at USD 2 per endpoint monthly and it lists AI-agent destination policies, native clients for five operating systems and four modern DNS protocols. NextDNS, by comparison, has a free tier capped at 300,000 queries per month.