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] Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden 2012 17 March 2015 free software GPLv2 Python
dibbler[di 1] Tomasz Mrugalski and Marek Senderski 2004 30 July 2013 free software GPL C, C++, Shell[di 2]
dnsmasq Simon Kelley 2001 2.72 (September 24, 2014) [±][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
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 1.23.2 (March 23, 2015) [±][6] 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:

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

    See also

    References

    General

    1. Kelley, Simon (24 September 2014). "Announce: dnsmasq-2.72". Dnsmasq-discuss (Mailing list). Retrieved 19 November 2014.
    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. "BusyBox News". 2015-03-23. Retrieved 2015-04-22.

    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.