Comparison of DHCP server software

The following comparison of DHCP and DHCPv6 server compares general and technical information for a number of DHCP server software programs.

General

Name	Author	First public release	latest stable version	Cost	Software license	Written in
dhcpy6d[dh 1]	Henri Wahl (Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden)	2012	6 January 2016	free software	GPLv2	Python
dibbler[di 1]	Tomasz Mrugalski and Marek Senderski	2004	1 August 2015	free software	GPL	C, C++, Shell[di 2]
dnsmasq	Simon Kelley	2001	2.75 (July 30, 2015) [±][1]	free software	GPLv2 or GPLv3	C
ISC DHCP	Internet Systems Consortium	1999	Extended Support Version: 4.1-ESV-R9 (February 3, 2014) [±][2] Current-stable: 4.2.6 (February 3, 2014) [±][3] Current:4.3.0 (February 3, 2014) [±][4] [5]	free software	ISC License	C
FreeRADIUS[freeradius 1]	FreeRADIUS Development Team	2012 (First stable release including DHCPv4 support)	FreeRADIUS 3.0.11 (January 25, 2016) [±][6][7]	free software	GPLv2	C
Jagornet DHCP[jag 1]	Jagornet Technologies (A. Gregory Rabil)	2011	2.0.0 (October 29, 2014)	free software	GPLv3	Java
Kea DHCP[kea 1]	Internet Systems Consortium (Tomek Mrugalski)	2014	—[kea 2]	free software	ISC License	C++
udhcpd	Matthew Ramsay	1999	busybox 1.24.2 (March 24, 2016) [±][8]	free software	GNU GPLv2 only	C
WIDE-DHCPv6[wi 1]	KAME project	?	20080615 (15 June 2008)	free software	BSD License	C, shell

Operating 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.
• Partial indicates that while it works, the server lacks important functionality compared to versions for other OSs; it is still being developed however.
• Beta indicates that while a version is fully functional and has been released, it is still in development (e.g. for stability).
• Yes indicates that it has been officially released in a fully functional, stable version.
• Included indicates that the server comes pre-packaged with or has been integrated into the operating system.

This compilation is not exhaustive, but rather reflects the most common platforms today.

Server	BSD	Solaris	Linux	Mac OS X	Windows
dhcpy6d	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	No
dibbler	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes
dnsmasq	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
ISC DHCP	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
FreeRADIUS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Jagornet DHCP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kea DHCP	Yes	Beta	Yes	Beta	No
udhcpd	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
WIDE-DHCPv6	Yes	?	Yes	?	No

Feature Matrix

Server	BOOTP	DHCP	DHCPv6	other	interface
dhcpy6d	No	No	Yes	?	?
dibbler	No	No	Yes	?	?
dnsmasq	Yes	Yes	Yes	PXE, TFTP	?
ISC DHCP	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?
FreeRADIUS	?	Yes	No	?	?
Jagornet DHCP	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?
Kea DHCP	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?
udhcpd	Yes	Yes	No	?	?
WIDE-DHCPv6	No	No	Yes	?	?

RFC Matrix

Server	RFC 951	RFC 1534	RFC 1542	RFC 2131	RFC 2132	RFC 3046	RFC 3315	RFC 3319	RFC 3633	RFC 3646	RFC 3736	RFC 3942	RFC 4242	RFC 4361	RFC 4436	RFC 5007	RFC 6221
dhcpy6d	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
dibbler	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Dnsmasq	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ISC DHCP	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
FreeRADIUS	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Jagornet DHCP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	?	Yes	Partial	?	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?
Kea DHCP	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
udhcpd	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
WIDE DHCPv6	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

See also

• Comparison of DNS server software

References

General

1. Kelley, Simon (30 July 2015). "Announce: dnsmasq-2.75". Dnsmasq-discuss (Mailing list).
2. "DHCP 4.1-ESV-R9 Release Notes". 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
3. "DHCP 4.2.6 Release Notes". 2013-02-03. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
4. "DHCP 4.3.0 Release Notes". isc.org. 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
5. "Downloads | Internet Systems Consortium". isc.org. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
6. "Pess Releases". freeradius.org. 2016-01-25. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
7. "Downloads". freeradius.org. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
8. Vlasenko, Denys (2016-03-24). "[git commit] Announce 1.24.2". lists.busybox.net Mailing Lists. busybox-cvs. Retrieved 2016-04-11.

FreeRADIUS

1. "DHCP". www.freeradius.org. Retrieved 16 August 2015.

Jagornet DHCP

1. "Jagornet DHCP". www.jagornet.com. Retrieved 29 October 2014.

Kea DHCP

1. "Kea Development". kea.isc.org. 2014-08-29. Retrieved 2014-08-31.
2. Mrugalski, Tomek (2014), "Kea – Modern DHCP Engine" (PDF), RIPE68 meeting, Warsaw, Poland Missing or empty |title= (help)

dhcpy6d

1. "dhcpy6d :: Home". ifw-dresden.de. Retrieved 2014-06-01.

dibbler

1. "DHCPv6: Dibbler - a portable DHCPv6". klub.com.pl. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
2. "tomaszmrugalski/dibbler · GitHub". GitHub. Retrieved 2014-06-13.

WIDE DHCPD

1. "WIDE-DHCPv6". sourceforge.net. Retrieved 2014-06-01.