Running a DNS ad blocker is one of the highest-value changes you can make to a home network. It blocks ads on devices that don't support browser extensions: smart TVs, phones running stubborn apps, IoT devices, game consoles. One machine, configured as your network's DNS resolver, stops ad and tracker requests before they ever leave your home.
Pi-hole and AdGuard Home are the two tools people actually deploy for this. Both are free, both are self-hosted, both do network-wide DNS blocking. The question is which one to pick for a new setup in 2026 — and whether existing Pi-hole users have any reason to switch.
What DNS Blocking Actually Does
Every time a device loads a webpage, it makes DNS queries to resolve domain names to IP addresses. When you visit a news site, your browser also queries ad network domains: doubleclick.net, googlesyndication.com, and hundreds of tracker-owned hostnames, all requiring DNS lookups before the ad assets load.
A DNS sinkhole intercepts those queries. When your phone asks "where is tracker-domain.com?", Pi-hole or AdGuard Home checks it against a blocklist. If it's a known ad or tracker domain, the response is empty — the ad never loads because the network never finds the server. No browser extension required, no configuration on individual devices.
This covers every device on your network automatically. The smart TV with no ad blocker. The tablet running an app that ignores browser settings. The IoT sensor phoning home to a data broker. DNS blocking stops all of them with a single point of configuration.
The limit is your home network boundary. Devices using mobile data bypass your DNS entirely. Extending DNS blocking to phones outside your home requires routing through a VPN that terminates at your home network (more setup, but it works). Neither tool solves that automatically.
Pi-hole
Pi-hole launched in 2014 and has around 50,000 GitHub stars. It's been the dominant self-hosted DNS blocker for over a decade, and that longevity shows in the ecosystem around it.
What you get: A DNS sinkhole with a web dashboard, query logging, the Gravity database (which processes millions of blocked domain patterns from community blocklists), a built-in DHCP server, and an API. The dashboard shows total queries, percentage blocked, top blocked domains, and per-client query breakdowns. You can whitelist domains, add custom blocklists, create local DNS records, and configure client groups with different blocking policies.
The install: Pi-hole requires a supported Linux system: Raspberry Pi, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, or Docker. The one-line installer handles most of the setup. Once running, you point your router's DNS settings to the Pi-hole IP and every device routes through it.
Where Pi-hole earns its reputation: The community. Twelve years of forum posts, subreddit threads, YouTube tutorials, and pre-configured blocklists. When something breaks, the answer usually exists in r/pihole or the community forums. The Firebog "Ticked" list provides a curated set of blocklists requiring no ongoing maintenance; add them once and they update automatically. For someone setting up their first network-wide blocker, this resource depth is genuinely valuable.
The gaps: Encrypted DNS is not included out of the box. Standard Pi-hole forwards upstream queries unencrypted to whatever resolver you configure — 8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1, or your ISP's servers. Your ISP can still see every domain you query upstream of Pi-hole. Adding DNS-over-HTTPS requires installing Cloudflared separately as a local DoH proxy, then pointing Pi-hole at it. It works, and the setup is documented, but it's an additional step.
The interface is functional but dated. The dashboard design has evolved over the years but feels like a 2016 web app. The information is all there, but the layout is less polished than modern alternatives.
AdGuard Home
AdGuard Home launched in 2018 as an open-source initiative from AdGuard, a commercial ad blocking company. It has around 26,000 GitHub stars, fewer than Pi-hole but growing consistently.
What you get: DNS-based ad and tracker blocking with encrypted DNS protocols built directly into the interface. DNS-over-HTTPS and DNS-over-TLS are configurable through the web UI without installing additional software. The blocklist approach is the same as Pi-hole: you point it at community-maintained lists, with the default lists curated by the AdGuard team.
The install: A single binary for Raspberry Pi (ARM), x86_64 Linux, macOS, Windows, and Docker. No package dependencies. Download, run, follow the web setup wizard. For operators who prefer minimal dependencies, especially on machines running multiple services. This simplicity is meaningful.
The differentiators: Encrypted DNS out of the box is the headline. Per-client configuration lets you set different filtering rules for different devices: stricter blocking for kids' devices, looser for your work laptop. Parental controls and safe browsing categories are built in. The interface is noticeably more modern: better mobile layout, cleaner navigation, and a setup wizard that explains what each option does.
Where AdGuard Home falls short: Smaller community. When something goes wrong, fewer existing forum posts mean more time debugging independently. The official documentation is thorough and well-organized, but Pi-hole's decade of community troubleshooting is hard to match. AdGuard also has a commercial product line (browser extensions, VPN apps, paid products), which occasionally creates confusion about which version is free and whether features require a subscription. Everything in AdGuard Home is free; the confusion comes from the company's other products sharing the "AdGuard" name.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Pi-hole | AdGuard Home |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free |
| Encrypted DNS (DoH/DoT) | Requires Cloudflared add-on | Built in |
| Install | Script (Linux/Docker) | Single binary or Docker |
| Interface | Functional, dated | Modern, clean |
| GitHub stars | ~50,000 | ~26,000 |
| Community size | Very large (12 years) | Smaller (7 years) |
| DHCP server | Yes | Yes |
| Per-client rules | Yes | Yes, more granular |
| Parental controls | Basic | Built-in categories |
| Regex filter rules | Limited | Yes |
The Encrypted DNS Argument
Standard DNS queries travel unencrypted over UDP port 53. Your ISP sees every domain you query. Many ISPs monetize this query data. DNS-over-HTTPS wraps those queries inside encrypted HTTPS traffic, so your ISP sees that you're making requests to Cloudflare's or Google's servers, not which specific domains you're looking up.
With a default Pi-hole setup, you've blocked ad tracking on your network but haven't addressed ISP-level DNS surveillance. Every domain Pi-hole forwards upstream still travels unencrypted. Adding Cloudflared fixes this, and the setup is well-documented — about 20 minutes of additional work. For a new deployment, getting encrypted DNS without that extra step is an argument for AdGuard Home.
This matters for the same reason self-hosted password management matters: it reduces third-party visibility into your activity. We covered the same principle in our Vaultwarden vs 1Password comparison: self-hosted tools require more setup but remove a data exposure point entirely.
Setup Expectations
Both tools run on the same hardware. A Raspberry Pi 3 or 4 handles either comfortably for a typical home network. A Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W works for DNS queries alone. Docker containers work for both, which is the preferred approach for anyone already running a home server.
Pi-hole setup: roughly 20 minutes for initial install plus another 20-30 minutes configuring blocklists and pointing your router at it. The community documentation covers every major configuration question.
AdGuard Home setup: roughly 15-20 minutes including encrypted DNS configuration. The setup wizard is well-designed and explains upstream resolver options clearly. Single binary means fewer moving parts during updates.
Both require the same router change: set your DHCP server to hand out the blocker's IP as the DNS server for your network. Some routers make this trivial; others hide the setting. Neither tool can help if your router locks down DNS configuration.
The Recommendation
New setup: install AdGuard Home. The single binary, built-in encrypted DNS, cleaner interface, and per-client parental controls make it the better starting point for 2026. You're not giving up meaningful functionality compared to Pi-hole, and you get encrypted upstream DNS without extra configuration.
Existing Pi-hole: stay unless encrypted DNS without the Cloudflared add-on is a specific priority, or you want AdGuard Home's more granular per-client settings. Pi-hole works. The community is enormous. Migration introduces risk with no certain payoff.
Either way, running network-wide DNS blocking is worth doing. It reduces tracking across devices you cannot install extensions on, cuts some network traffic by blocking ad assets before they load, and gives you visibility into what your IoT devices are actually querying. The broader self-hosted stack guide covers where these tools fit alongside other home server services.
One final note: blocked ads don't pay for content you want to support. If a site provides value and depends on advertising revenue, consider whitelisting it in Pi-hole or AdGuard Home.