Pi-hole vs AdGuard Home in 2026: Which Self-Hosted DNS Ad Blocker?

Blocking ads and trackers on a single browser is good. Blocking them for all devices in the house at once—smartphones, smart TVs, consoles, IoT devices—without installing any extensions anywhere, is the brilliant idea behind DNS-level blocking. The principle: you install a small DNS server on your network, set it as the resolver, and whenever a device tries to reach an advertising or tracking domain, the server responds “it doesn’t exist.” The ad never loads, and your entire network infrastructure benefits.

In 2026, two software solutions dominate this self-hosting niche: Pi-hole, the pioneer born on Raspberry Pi that has become an institution, and AdGuard Home, the challenger developed by AdGuard, which is more modern and more integrated. Both are free, open source, and fundamentally do the same thing: filter DNS to sanitize your network. But their design choices, interfaces, and handling of encrypted DNS differ enough to warrant a closer look.

We did not test these tools ourselves: the figures on this page are indicative orders of magnitude that we have not verified; refer to the projects’ official documentation. Here is a sharp comparison to help you choose the guardian of your network.

Comparison Table

Criterion	Pi-hole	AdGuard Home
Publisher	Open source community	AdGuard
Language / Tech	FTL (C, based on dnsmasq), web server and API built in since v6	Go (single binary)
Installation	Script, Docker	Single binary, Docker
Outbound Encrypted DNS (DoH/DoT/DoQ)	Via external component (cloudflared/unbound)	Native (built-in)
Inbound Encrypted DNS Server	Not native	Yes (DoH/DoT/DoQ server)
Parental Controls / Per-device Filters	Limited (groups)	Rich (per client, scheduling)
Default Blocklists	StevenBlack list offered at install, others to add (gravity)	Pre-included, activatable
Web Interface	Mature, clear	Modern, all-in-one
RAM Footprint	Low	Low
Ecosystem / Extensions	Very large (third-party apps)	More restricted but coherent
License	EUPL / open source	GPLv3
Maturity	Very old, battle-tested	Recent but solid

Pi-hole: The Proven Pioneer

Pi-hole was born in 2015 with a simple promise: turn a Raspberry Pi into a “black hole” for ads at the network level. A decade later, it has become an absolute reference in self-hosting, with a massive community, abundant documentation, and reliability proven across millions of installations. Its engine, FTL (Faster Than Light, based on dnsmasq), handles DNS and logs every request with detailed statistics.

Its greatest strength is the ecosystem and maturity. Years of feedback, tutorials for absolutely every scenario, third-party mobile apps for management, and deep integration into homelabbers’ habits. The web interface is clear, displaying blocked queries in real time, most requested domains, network clients, and allowing management of filtering lists (the “gravity”), manual whitelists and blacklists, and client groups to apply differentiated policies. Pi-hole also offers an optional DHCP server, which is handy for identifying each device by name.

Its limitations stem from its historical design. Encrypted DNS is not native: for the queries Pi-hole sends outbound to be in DoH (DNS over HTTPS) or DoT (DNS over TLS), you must add a separate component like cloudflared or a recursive resolver like unbound. This isn’t complicated, but it’s one more piece to install and maintain. Furthermore, client filtering is less granular than its competitor: you reason in groups rather than fine rules per device. Pi-hole remains the choice for reliability and community support.

Tip: Pi-hole runs just as well on a Raspberry Pi at home as on a small VPS to cover your mobile devices via a VPN. For remote usage, a micro-server at Hetzner or Infomaniak coupled with a WireGuard tunnel works perfectly.

AdGuard Home: The Modern All-in-One

AdGuard Home is the filtering DNS server developed by AdGuard, the publisher known for its ad blockers. Written in Go and distributed as a single binary with no dependencies, it installs in minutes on any platform. Its philosophy: everything you need for modern DNS filtering, integrated natively, without add-ons.

Its major asset in 2026 is native encrypted DNS, in both directions. AdGuard Home speaks DoH, DoT, and DoQ (DNS over QUIC) outbound without any external component: you choose your encrypted upstream resolvers in the interface, that’s it. Better yet, it can also act as an encrypted DNS server: your mobile devices can query it via DoH or DoT from outside, making it a personal encrypted private resolver without third-party configuration. This is a decisive advantage for anyone who wants to protect their DNS traffic everywhere, not just at home.

AdGuard Home also shines in client control. You can define different rules, lists, and schedules per device or group: block YouTube on the kids’ tablet from 9 PM, apply strict filtering on one computer and permissive on another, all from a modern and consistent interface. Popular blocklists are pre-referenced and activated with one click, and parental controls are built-in.

Its limitations? A more restricted ecosystem than Pi-hole: fewer third-party apps, fewer tutorials covering exotic cases, and a younger (but very active) community. Some purists also note that the project is driven by a commercial company, whereas Pi-hole is more community-driven—without this posing a practical problem, as the software remains free and open source. AdGuard Home is the choice for modernity and integration.

Tip: AdGuard Home’s inbound encrypted DNS makes the most sense on a VPS accessible from the Internet. A small server at OVHcloud or Scaleway is enough to host your personal DoH resolver and use it from your phone on 4G just like at home.

Use Cases: Which One for You?

You want the most battle-tested solution with the largest community. Pi-hole. Its maturity, documentation, and ecosystem of third-party apps make it the choice for peace of mind. In case of issues, a search almost always finds an answer.

Encrypted DNS is a priority and you don’t want to add components. AdGuard Home. Native DoH/DoT/DoQ inbound and outbound is its decisive argument. No cloudflared or unbound to maintain alongside.

You need parental controls and fine-grained rules per device. AdGuard Home. Client filtering, scheduling, and built-in parental controls surpass what Pi-hole offers natively.

You appreciate modularity and want a recursive resolver (unbound) behind it. Pi-hole. Its separation between filtering and resolution works very well with unbound downstream to avoid relying on any public resolver. This is a classic and well-documented configuration in its community.

Encrypted DNS: The Real Decider in 2026

DNS encryption has become a central issue for privacy. By default, DNS queries travel in cleartext: your ISP, and any intermediary, can see which domains you visit. Encrypted DNS (DoH, DoT, DoQ) solves this problem by encrypting these queries.

This is where AdGuard Home takes a clear lead. It encrypts natively the queries it sends to its upstream resolvers, and can itself serve encrypted DNS to your clients. You thus get a private resolver, encrypted end-to-end, under your control. Pi-hole achieves the same result outbound, but by relying on a third-party component (cloudflared for DoH, or unbound for direct recursive resolution), which adds a piece to install and monitor. Inbound (serving encrypted DNS to your devices), Pi-hole has no native equivalent and requires a reverse proxy or advanced setup.

If DNS privacy and mobile usage are at the heart of your project, AdGuard Home gets you there more directly. If you prefer home-based recursive resolution via unbound—which doesn’t send your queries to any public resolver—Pi-hole + unbound remains a reference combination, but it requires a bit more setup.

Performance and Reliability

For the role they play, both are more than fast enough: filtered DNS resolution adds imperceptible latency, and local caching often speeds up repeated resolutions compared to a distant public DNS. On a home network, you won’t perceive any speed difference between the two.

Regarding resources, AdGuard Home, as a single Go binary, and Pi-hole, whose FTL engine has embedded the web server and API since v6, both have a modest memory footprint (refer to the projects’ official documentation), and both run effortlessly on a modest Raspberry Pi or a micro-VPS. The real reliability issue isn’t raw performance but redundancy: your DNS server becomes a critical point of the network. If it goes down, no one resolves domain names anymore, so no Internet. The best practice, identical for both, is to declare a secondary DNS (a second instance, or a public backup DNS) so the network survives a reboot or main server failure.

Installation and Administration

Both install very easily, in minutes. AdGuard Home boils down to downloading a binary and following a web assistant, or launching a Docker container: it’s arguably the quickest onboarding today, with everything integrated from the start (lists, encrypted DNS, interface). Pi-hole offers a historical installation script and official Docker images; installation is just as simple, but enabling outbound encrypted DNS requires the extra step of installing and configuring the third-party component.

In daily use, both interfaces are clear and pleasant. Pi-hole displays very detailed statistics and a long history of documented best practices. AdGuard Home centralizes everything—filtering, clients, encrypted DNS, parental controls—in a more modern and homogeneous interface. In both cases, remember to protect access to the administration interface (strong password, restricted access to local network or via VPN), as anyone with access can redirect all your DNS traffic.

Verdict

Two excellent tools that solve the same problem with different sensitivities.

• Pi-hole remains the safe bet: maturity, huge community, exhaustive documentation, ecosystem of third-party apps. It’s the choice for tranquility and modularity, particularly brilliant when coupled with unbound for fully home-based recursive resolution.
• AdGuard Home is the modern choice: native encrypted DNS inbound and outbound, client and parental controls built-in, single binary with no dependencies, all-in-one interface. Ideal if DNS privacy and mobile usage matter to you.

Our advice: if you’re a beginner or looking for maximum community resources, Pi-hole is unbeatable. If you want encrypted DNS without tinkering and fine control per device, AdGuard Home gets you there more directly. Both will sanitize your network; choose based on encrypted DNS and client control, not on blocking itself, where they are equal.

FAQ

Do Pi-hole and AdGuard Home block the same ads?

Generally yes, because both rely on the same public filtering lists (the famous blocklists like those from OISD or StevenBlack). The block rate depends much more on the lists you activate than on the software itself. With equivalent lists, both block virtually the same thing.

Can you block ads in apps and smart TVs?

Partially. DNS blocking stops anything that passes through a request to a known advertising domain, which covers a large part of web ads and many apps. However, ads served from the same domain as the content (like some video platforms) cannot be blocked at the DNS level without breaking the service. Neither performs miracles in these cases.

Do you need a Raspberry Pi to run these tools?

No, it’s just a popular and inexpensive platform. Both run on any Linux: Raspberry Pi, NAS, recycled old PC, Docker container, or VPS. To cover your mobile devices, a VPS associated with a VPN is even preferable to a local machine.

What happens if my DNS server goes down?

No device configured on it will resolve domain names: the Internet seems down even though the connection works. That’s why you should always declare a secondary DNS (a second instance or a public backup DNS) in the network configuration, to ensure continuity in case of failure or reboot of the main server.

Is AdGuard Home really free and open source?

Yes. AdGuard Home is distributed under the GPLv3 license and is free, not to be confused with the paid apps and subscriptions from the AdGuard publisher. The self-hosted DNS server is entirely free and will remain so; the company’s business model relies on its consumer products.

Can you migrate from Pi-hole to AdGuard Home (or vice versa)?

Yes, without much difficulty. The main things to transfer are your blocklists, manual whitelists and blacklists, and client configuration. Since both use the same formats for public blocklists, you just need to re-import the same list URLs and recreate your custom rules. Your devices will simply continue to point to the same resolver IP address.

Related Topics

• pfSense vs OPNsense vs OpenWrt: which firewall / router
• Self-host WireGuard on a VPS for a private VPN
• WireGuard vs OpenVPN vs Tailscale: which self-hosted VPN
• Monitor your homelab with Uptime Kuma and Grafana

Choosing a DNS blocker means offering your entire network a cleaner Internet that respects your privacy. Whatever your choice, plan for a secondary DNS and protect access to administration. To follow new versions of Pi-hole and AdGuard Home, the best filtering lists, and DNS privacy best practices, subscribe to our Telegram monitoring bot.