AdGuard Home and Pi-hole are both popular network-wide ad and tracker blockers that function as DNS sinkholes. While they share a common primary goal, they differ in features, underlying technology, and user experience.
Core Functionality
Both applications intercept DNS queries on your network. If a query matches a domain on a blocklist, they prevent the connection, effectively blocking ads, trackers, and malicious domains before they load. Both offer dashboards to view statistics and query logs.
Key Differences
- User Interface (UI): AdGuard Home generally features a more modern and comprehensive web interface. Pi-hole's interface is functional and widely considered straightforward but may appear less polished to some users.
- Encrypted DNS Support: AdGuard Home has built-in, out-of-the-box support for DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH), DNS-over-TLS (DoT), and DNS-over-QUIC (DoQ) for both upstream and downstream communication. Pi-hole typically requires additional software (e.g., `unbound`, `cloudflared`) to implement encrypted DNS protocols.
- Per-Client Customization: AdGuard Home offers more granular control for setting up different filtering rules, blocklists, and upstream DNS servers for individual clients on the network directly through its UI. Pi-hole manages per-client filtering primarily through group assignments.
- Blocklist Formats & Management: Both support hosts file formats for blocklists. AdGuard Home also natively supports Adblock-style syntax, offering greater flexibility with some filter lists. Managing lists and updates can feel more integrated in AdGuard Home.
- Built-in Features Beyond Blocking: AdGuard Home includes additional built-in features such as parental controls (enforcing safe search on search engines, blocking adult websites) and DNS rewriting. While Pi-hole can achieve some similar functionalities, it might require more manual configuration or scripts.
- Underlying Technology: AdGuard Home is a single, self-contained executable written in Go. Pi-hole consists of several components, including shell scripts, PHP for the web interface, and FTLDNS (a modified `dnsmasq`) written in C. This difference can impact resource usage, portability, and installation complexity, though both are efficient on low-power devices.
- DHCP Server: Both can function as DHCP servers for your network, which can simplify setup and ensure all clients use the filtering DNS server.
Similarities
- Network-Wide Blocking: Both provide DNS-based blocking for all devices on your network without requiring client-side software.
- Dashboard & Statistics: Both offer a web interface to monitor DNS queries, view blocked domains, and see network activity statistics.
- Customization: Both allow users to add custom blocklists, whitelists (allowlists), and blacklists (denylists).
- Lightweight: Both are designed to run efficiently on low-power hardware, such as a Raspberry Pi.
- Open Source: Both projects are open source, fostering community involvement and transparency.
Conclusion
Choosing between AdGuard Home and Pi-hole depends on individual needs and technical comfort. AdGuard Home is often preferred by users seeking a more modern UI, built-in encrypted DNS support, extensive per-client customization, and additional features like parental controls with less manual setup. Pi-hole is valued for its long-standing reputation, simplicity, extensive community support, and robust core ad-blocking functionality. It can be an excellent choice for users who prefer a more streamlined, focused ad-blocking solution and are comfortable with configuring additional components for features like encrypted DNS if needed.
