Comparison of DHCP server software
The following comparison of DHCP and DHCPv6 server compares general and technical information for several DHCP server software programs.
01General
| Name | Author | First public release | Latest stable version | Cost | Software license | Written in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dhcpy6d | Henri Wahl | 2012 | 1.6.0
27 July 2024 (2024-07-27) |
free software | GPLv2 | Python |
| dnsmasq | Simon Kelley | 2001 | 2.92 (January 14, 2026 (2026-01-14)) [±] | free software | GPLv2 or GPLv3 | C |
| ISC DHCP | Internet Systems Consortium | 1999 | Extended Support Version: 4.1-ESV-R16-P1 (May 26, 2021 (2021-05-26)) [±] Current-stable: 4.4.3-P1 (EOL December 2022) (October 5, 2022 (2022-10-05)) [±]
|
free software | ISC MPL 2.0 for ver 4.4.x | C |
| FreeRADIUS | FreeRADIUS Development Team | 2012 (First stable release including DHCPv4 support) | FreeRADIUS 3.2.8 (August 20, 2025 (2025-08-20)) [±] | free software | GPLv2 | C |
| Kea DHCP | Internet Systems Consortium | 2014 | Kea 3.0.3 (March 25, 2026 (2026-03-25)) | free software | MPL 2.0 | C++ |
| udhcpd | Matthew Ramsay | 1999 | busybox 1.36.1 (May 19, 2023 (2023-05-19)) [±] | free software | GNU GPLv2 only | C |
02Operating system requirement
In this overview of operating system support for the discussed DHCP server, the following terms indicate the level of support:
- No indicates that it does not exist or was never released.
- Yes indicates that it has been officially released in a fully functional, stable version.
This compilation is not exhaustive, but rather reflects the most common platforms today.
03Feature matrix
| Server | BOOTP | DHCP | DHCPv6 | Other | Load balancing | Failover |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dhcpy6d | No | No | Yes | PXE, Dynamic DNS | Yes | Yes |
| dnsmasq | Yes | Yes | Yes | PXE, TFTP | No | No |
| ISC DHCP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Dynamic DNS | Yes | Yes |
| Kea | Yes | Yes | Yes | Dynamic DNS | Yes | Yes |
| FreeRADIUS | No | Yes | Yes | RADIUS, VMPS | Yes | Yes |
| udhcpd | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Comparison of DHCP server software”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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