What is the best privacy DNS resolver in 2026?

For no-account privacy DNS, Mullvad DNS is the default — free public resolver from the same operator as the Mullvad VPN, multiple endpoints with different filtering, DoH/DoT/DoQ supported. Quad9 is the Swiss non-profit alternative with built-in threat-domain blocking. For account-based custom filtering, NextDNS (France/US operator) and ControlD (Canada operator) are the most-featured. AdGuard DNS is the ad-blocking-focused free option. Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 is widely used but the operator profile matters — it's a U.S. company with broader ad/CDN context to consider.