AdGuard Home vs Pi-hole
AdGuard Home
Network-wide ad and tracker blocking with DNS-over-HTTPS
Pi-hole
Network-level DNS ad and tracker blocker
| Feature | AdGuard Home | Pi-hole |
|---|---|---|
| Category | DNS & Networking | DNS & Networking |
| Sub-category | DNS Blocker | DNS Blocker |
| Maturity | stable | stable |
| Complexity | intermediate | beginner |
| Performance tier | medium | medium |
| License | GPL-3.0 | EUPL |
| License type | copyleft | copyleft |
| Pricing | fully free | fully free |
| GitHub stars | 27.0K | 51.0K |
| Contributors | 0 | 0 |
| Commit frequency | weekly | weekly |
| Plugin ecosystem | none | none |
| Docs quality | good | good |
| Backing org | AdGuard | Pi-hole |
| Funding model | corporate | community |
| Min RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Min CPU cores | 1 | 1 |
| Scaling pattern | single_node | single_node |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| K8s native | No | No |
| Offline capable | No | No |
| Vendor lock-in | none | none |
| Languages | Go | Shell, PHP |
| API type | REST | REST |
| Protocols | HTTP | HTTP |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary |
| SDK languages | — | — |
| Team size fit | small, medium | solo, small, medium, enterprise |
| First release | 2020 | 2020 |
| Latest version | — | — |
When to use AdGuard Home
- ✓ Encrypted DNS ad blocking with DoH/DoT
- ✓ Per-device filtering rules
- ✓ Parental controls for home network
When to use Pi-hole
- ✓ Primary: network-ad-blocking
- ✓ Primary: dns-filtering
- ✓ Primary: privacy-protection
AdGuard Home anti-patterns
- ✕ Less community filters than Pi-hole
- ✕ Single binary — less extensible
- ✕ Some advanced features need config files