Pi-hole vs AdGuard Home: A Comparative Overview
Both Pi-hole and AdGuard Home are powerful network-wide ad and tracker blockers that operate at the DNS level. They allow you to filter content for all devices on your network without installing client-side software on each device.
Core Technology and Blocking Method
Pi-hole: Primarily functions as a DNS sinkhole. It uses curated blocklists of known ad-serving and tracking domains. When a device on your network requests a blocked domain, Pi-hole returns a non-routable IP address (or an IP of its own web server), effectively preventing the content from loading. It relies heavily on community-maintained domain blocklists.
AdGuard Home: Also operates as a DNS sinkhole but offers more advanced filtering capabilities. It supports traditional domain blocklists (hosts file format) and can interpret a subset of Adblock-style syntax for DNS-level filtering. This allows for more flexible rule creation beyond simple domain blocking.
Installation and Platform Support
- Pi-hole: Officially supports Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, and Raspbian (for Raspberry Pi). Docker images are widely available. Installation is typically script-based and well-documented for supported Linux distributions.
- AdGuard Home: Offers broader official platform support, including Linux (various distributions), macOS, Windows, and Raspberry Pi. It provides single binary executables for many platforms, often simplifying installation. Docker images are also officially supported and popular.
User Interface and Management
- Pi-hole: Features a functional web interface that provides detailed statistics, query logs, and management of blocklists, whitelists, and blacklists. While robust, its design is more traditional.
- AdGuard Home: Boasts a modern, clean, and often considered more intuitive web interface. It offers similar functionalities for statistics, query logging, and filter management, with a focus on user experience.
Key Feature Comparison
- Encrypted DNS (DoH/DoT/DoQ):
- Pi-hole: Does not natively support encrypted DNS protocols like DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) or DNS-over-TLS (DoT) out-of-the-box for client-to-Pi-hole communication or as an upstream server itself. It can be configured to use upstream DoH/DoT resolvers by installing additional software like `cloudflared` or `unbound`.
- AdGuard Home: Has built-in support for DoH, DoT, DNS-over-QUIC (DoQ), and DNSCrypt. It can act as a secure DNS server for your clients and can also use these encrypted protocols for its upstream DNS queries.
- DHCP Server:
- Both Pi-hole and AdGuard Home can function as DHCP servers for your network. This is useful if you want to ensure all devices automatically use them for DNS without manual configuration on each device.
- Per-Client Filtering and Customization:
- Pi-hole: Allows for group management, enabling different blocklists and whitelists for different sets of clients on your network.
- AdGuard Home: Offers robust per-client configuration. You can set different filtering rules, block specific services (e.g., social media, adult content) for individual clients or groups, and enforce safe search on search engines.
- Blocklist Management:
- Pi-hole: Primarily uses lists of domains in hosts file format. Users can add multiple blocklist URLs.
- AdGuard Home: Supports hosts file format lists and Adblock-style syntax (though limited to what can be achieved at the DNS level). It often comes with pre-selected reputable blocklists.
- Resource Usage:
- Pi-hole: Known for being extremely lightweight, making it ideal for low-power devices like older Raspberry Pi models.
- AdGuard Home: Also very efficient but may consume slightly more resources than Pi-hole, especially when advanced features like extensive logging or complex client configurations are enabled. It still runs well on most low-power hardware.
Security and Privacy
Both solutions enhance privacy by blocking trackers and giving you control over your DNS queries. AdGuard Home's native support for encrypted DNS protocols (DoH, DoT, DoQ) offers an additional layer of privacy for your DNS traffic from your network to upstream resolvers and from clients to AdGuard Home itself, preventing snooping by ISPs or other entities on the path.
Development and Licensing
- Pi-hole: Open-source (GPLv3), with a very active community and development team. It has a long-standing reputation.
- AdGuard Home: Also open-source (GPLv3). It is developed by AdGuard Software Ltd., a company known for its ad-blocking software. This provides corporate backing and resources for development.
Conclusion
Choosing between Pi-hole and AdGuard Home depends on your specific needs and technical comfort:
- Choose Pi-hole if: You prefer a very lightweight, well-established solution with a massive community, primarily focused on straightforward DNS domain blocking, and are comfortable with command-line configuration for some advanced features like encrypted DNS. It's excellent for users who want a simple, effective ad blocker.
- Choose AdGuard Home if: You desire a more feature-rich experience out-of-the-box, including built-in encrypted DNS (DoH/DoT/DoQ), a more modern UI, easier setup on a wider range of platforms, and more granular per-client controls including parental control features.
Both are excellent choices for network-wide ad blocking, and the best one for you will align with your preferences for ease of use, feature set, and platform compatibility.
