2 categories · RankedControl D
Control D is a cloud DNS resolver from ControlD for DNS filtering and DNS management, delivered as software as a service · controld.com ↗
Read the same way at every company size.
The standing depends on who is buying. Every model is asked the same questions for each company size.
DNSFilter is first at 40%.
DNSFilter is first at 52%. 0 of 14 models made it the first choice when asked directly.
Cisco Umbrella is first at 52%.
Why models recommend it
“NextDNS or Control D: Customizable filtering ... with strong no-log policies, audits”Grok 4.20 · Negative question · first choice
“Industry-leading malware block rate (99.98% per Nexxwave testing, June 2025)”MiniMax M2.5 · Comparative question · first choice
“1. Control D - Highly recommended for limited budgets”MiniMax M2.5 · Budget-constrained question · first choice
“Highly customizable with support for modern protocols (DoH, DoT, DoQ)... may require more initial setup.”Grok 4.20 · Paraphrase question · alternative
What gives them pause
“also receive mixed reviews, with similar concerns about support and occasional reliability issues”Mistral Small · Negative question · warning
“their privacy language has changed over time... premium/custom setups can involve account data”GPT-5.4 mini · Negative question · warning
“though less common for general B2B IT operations”Qwen 3.7 Flash · Direct question · warning
Also on the shortlist
The products named in the same answers as Control D, over the 89 answers that named it, and how often each was the first choice instead.
| Product | Named together | Picked instead | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 74 | 21 | Compare → | |
| 72 | 30 | Compare → | |
| 55 | 11 | Compare → | |
| 38 | 3 | Compare → | |
| 32 | 1 | View → | |
| 20 | 0 | View → | |
| 19 | 0 | View → | |
| 18 | 1 | View → | |
| 13 | 0 | View → | |
| 12 | 8 | View → |
What the models named instead of Control D →
A side-by-side page exists where both products are among a category's top eight.
At a glance
Stated on Control D's own site, not checked by Gane.
- For
- engineering teams, MSPs, and universities worldwide
- Price stated
- Flat fee per endpoint. Start free.
- Starting price
- 30
- Free plan or trial
- Start Free Trial
- Certifications
- ISO 27001, ISO 27701, GDPR, SOC 2 Type II
- Hosting
- 3 Data Storage Regions, New York (US), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Sydney (Australia)
- Customers named
- GitHub, Network Information Technologies, LLC, Pinnacle ICT, Pennsylvania College of Technology, Good Heart Technology, Massey Hall & Roy Thomson Hall, 7 Security Group
How this is measured
Fourteen AI models from 12 labs are asked the same buying questions six ways, for three company sizes. Standings refresh every edition.
Gane sells AI visibility software. No company can pay to change a result.
Read the method →Sources returned with these answers
Fourteen of the fourteen models returned a source list in this edition: five return the pages they cited and nine the search results they consulted. These counts come from 82 of the 89 answers that named Control D and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
228 of the 269 domain citations in answers naming Control D came from a third party's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
By model
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Grok 4.20 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
What it publishes
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-10 to 2026-09 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template or tool | 1,039 | 0 | 2026-02-05 | CDN | |
| Blog | 182 | 9 | 2026-08-28 | CDN | |
| Comparison | 61 | 1 | 2026-07-30 | ||
| Glossary or explainer | 30 | 0 | 2025-11-21 | ||
| Podcast or video | 15 | 6 | 2026-09-17 | ||
| Case study | 5 | 0 | 2026-05-18 | ||
| Report or ebook | 2 | 0 | 2023-09-15 | ||
| Conference or event | 1 | undated |
Most recent
- 2026-09-17Podcast episode 16 micah czigan podcast or video
- 2026-09-07Podcast episode 15 konrads klints podcast or video
- 2026-08-28Control d tailscale partnership blog
- 2026-08-19Podcast episode 14 mohana balakrishnan podcast or video
- 2026-08-05Byod dns security policy blog
- 2026-08-01Podcast episode 13 paul bleicher podcast or video
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page controld.com exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. Of its titles that name a category, most name CDN (12); 0 name its categories the models place it in. An event counts as online when its address or title says so (webinar, on demand, virtual or online summit); a conference, summit, trade show, expo or roadshow that does not say so is counted as a conference or event, which on a vendor's site is mostly in person. Read September 29, 2026.