Compare / Pi-hole vs AdGuard Home
Pi-hole vs AdGuard Home
Pick Pi-hole if you want the well-known DNS sinkhole (gravity lists, a small box). Pick AdGuard Home if you want a single GPL-3.0 DNS server with encryption (DoH/DoT) in one binary.
Facts checked 18 Oct 2026. License, language, and GitHub activity come from the catalog or the project's own repo. "Not in the catalog row" means the public catalog dump does not store that number.
Pi-hole in the catalog AdGuard Home in the catalogStart on Railway
How they compare
| Pi-hole | AdGuard Home | |
|---|---|---|
| License | EUPL-1.2 (pi-hole/pi-hole LICENSE) source | GPL-3.0 (AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome) source |
| Language | Shell (catalog) source | Go (GitHub language field; TypeScript also in the tree) source |
| GitHub activity | 61,327 stars in the catalog source | 37,522 stars in the catalog source |
| Self-host | DNS sinkhole on a Pi or a small VM. DHCP → this box. | One DNS server binary. Encryption protocols are documented on the repo. |
| Best for | The classic homelab DNS hole. | Encrypted DNS plus blocking in one process. |
Self-hosting and resource needs
Both are DNS on your LAN, not a c17 Railway one-click. Pi-hole is typically a Raspberry Pi or a small VM (pi-hole.net). AdGuard Home is a Go binary you run as a DNS server (AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome). Point DHCP at the box. This is not a content filter for every app, and it is not a VPN.
FAQ
- Is this a VPN?
- No. These are DNS blockers on your network. A mesh VPN is /compare/headscale-vs-netbird.
- Will every ad disappear?
- No. DNS blocking misses ads served from the same hostname as content. Do not invent a block rate.
- Which license is OSI?
- EUPL-1.2 (Pi-hole) and GPL-3.0 (AdGuard Home) are both OSI-listed families. Read each LICENSE.
- Does c17 have a Pi-hole stack?
- No dedicated stack. The Railway CTA on this page starts a project. Run DNS on a LAN box, not as your only public site.
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