GoAway
Lightweight DNS sinkhole with a web admin dashboard
GoAway is a lightweight DNS sinkhole designed to block unwanted domains at the network level. It combines a Go-based DNS server with a modern web administration dashboard for managing blocklists, viewing statistics and configuring DNS features.
Key Features
- DNS-level domain blocking with customizable blacklists and whitelist precedence
- Built-in web admin dashboard for configuration, monitoring and live statistics
- Cross-platform binaries and first-class Docker/Docker Compose images for easy deployment
- Support for encrypted DNS (DNS-over-TLS and DNS-over-HTTPS) if TLS is configured
- Real-time query statistics, timelines and client/top-talkers visualisations
- Configurable upstream DNS fallback and caching behaviour (cache TTL, UDP/TCP settings)
- CLI and config-file options plus make targets for development (hot-reload development mode)
Use Cases
- Network-wide ad, tracker and malicious domain blocking for home or small office networks
- Privacy-focused DNS gateway with centralized controls and per-network statistics
- Lightweight replacement or companion to Pi-hole/AdGuard for users who prefer a Go-based stack
Limitations and Considerations
- Encrypted DNS (DoT/DoH) requires valid TLS certificates; TLS is disabled by default
- The project has historically used 0.x versioning and may introduce breaking changes between releases
- macOS and Windows builds are marked as beta; primary testing and support target Linux
- First-run admin password is generated and shown in logs only once; operators should securely store it
GoAway provides a compact, observable DNS sinkhole with an approachable web UI and multiple deployment options. It is well suited to self-hosted environments where low resource footprint and simple management of network-level blocking are priorities.
Categories:
Tags:
Tech Stack:
Go
Docker
GNU Make
React
Node.js
Tailwind CSSSimilar Services
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