DacatDHCP vs ISC Stork

DacatDHCP combines an IPv4 DHCP service with a web interface for configuring address pools, viewing leases, and monitoring status. The lightweight single-file application bundles the service and management interface. Settings include network-interface selection, address ranges, gateway, DNS, and lease duration. The interface shows assigned addresses and client information, while version 1.0.0 adds fixed MAC-to-IP mappings with matching logs. The main release supports Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2016 or later on Windows amd64. Management works in Edge, Chrome, and other modern Chromium-based browsers; Internet Explorer 11 is not supported. The interface listens on 127.0.0.1, and write endpoints use CSRF and origin checks. Administrator privileges are required. DacatDHCP is permanently free and open source under Apache License 2.0. It is intended for labs, test environments, temporary LANs, small networks, troubleshooting, and isolated networks. Address pools must share the selected interface’s subnet. Leases remain in memory after startup and are not restored after restart; active IP-conflict detection is not provided.

ISC Stork is a free, open-source web interface for monitoring, troubleshooting, and maintaining Kea DHCP server configuration. It reports host and daemon health, including memory, CPU utilization, software versions, and uptime, and monitors DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 pool use and high-availability status. With the required Kea hooks installed, administrators can manage reservations, subnets, and pools through its interface. Stork can display BIND configuration and DNS zone information, but DNS support is in early stages and it does not change BIND settings. Traffic activity can be exported to Prometheus for Grafana charts, and LDAP can be used for administrator authentication and authorization. A deployment uses a Stork server and agents installed on application servers; the server requires PostgreSQL. The server and agents communicate through TLS-encrypted gRPC channels. Stork expects the running Kea configuration to be authoritative, and the Kea Configuration Backend hook is incompatible with Stork management. It runs on most Linux and Unix platforms and macOS under the MPL 2.0 license. ISC offers free community help and paid professional support.