Pi-hole vs AdGuard Home: Which Ad Blocker?
Quick Verdict
AdGuard Home is the better choice for most people. It has a cleaner UI, built-in encrypted DNS (DoH/DoT/DoQ), DHCP server, per-client settings, and parental controls — all out of the box. Pi-hole has a larger community and more third-party integrations, but requires add-ons to match AdGuard Home’s built-in features. If you want the simplest path to network-wide ad blocking with modern DNS security, pick AdGuard Home.
Overview
Both Pi-hole and AdGuard Home are network-wide DNS-based ad blockers. You point your router’s DNS to either one, and every device on your network gets ad blocking without installing anything per-device. They block ads on smart TVs, phones, IoT devices, and anything else that makes DNS queries.
Pi-hole launched in 2015 and is the most well-known self-hosted ad blocker. It’s written in PHP/Shell and runs on top of dnsmasq or unbound. It has a massive community, extensive documentation, and a huge ecosystem of third-party tools.
AdGuard Home launched in 2018 as an open-source project from AdGuard (a commercial ad-blocking company). It’s written in Go, ships as a single binary, and includes features that Pi-hole requires separate tools to achieve.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Pi-hole | AdGuard Home |
|---|---|---|
| DNS-based ad blocking | Yes | Yes |
| Web dashboard | Yes (AdminLTE) | Yes (modern, cleaner) |
| Blocklist management | Yes | Yes |
| Custom DNS rules | Yes (regex, wildcard) | Yes (regex, wildcard, DNS rewrite) |
| Encrypted DNS (DoH/DoT) | Requires add-on (cloudflared/unbound) | Built-in (DoH, DoT, DoQ, DNSCrypt) |
| DHCP server | Yes (built-in) | Yes (built-in) |
| Per-client settings | Limited (groups) | Yes (per-client rules and filters) |
| Parental controls | No (third-party lists only) | Yes (built-in safe search, safe browsing) |
| Query log | Yes | Yes (with more filtering options) |
| API | Yes (REST) | Yes (REST, OpenAPI) |
| Upstream DNS protocols | Plain DNS, DoH (via add-on) | Plain DNS, DoH, DoT, DoQ, DNSCrypt |
| DNS rewrites | Limited (local DNS records) | Yes (full DNS rewrite rules) |
| Docker image | pihole/pihole | adguard/adguardhome |
| Language | PHP/Shell/Python (dnsmasq backend) | Go (single binary) |
| License | EUPL (open source) | GPL v3 (open source) |
| GitHub stars | 51k+ | 27k+ |
| First release | 2015 | 2018 |
Installation Complexity
Both are straightforward Docker deployments. Pi-hole requires slightly more initial configuration — you need to set a web password, configure the FTLCONF_dns_upstreamDNS variable, and handle the port 53 conflict with systemd-resolved on Ubuntu.
AdGuard Home has a setup wizard on first launch that walks you through upstream DNS, listen addresses, and admin credentials. It’s marginally simpler for first-time setup.
Both require the same port 53 fix on Ubuntu/Debian systems where systemd-resolved occupies port 53 by default.
Winner: AdGuard Home, slightly. The setup wizard reduces first-time friction.
Performance and Resource Usage
| Metric | Pi-hole | AdGuard Home |
|---|---|---|
| RAM (idle) | ~100 MB | ~80 MB |
| RAM (under load) | ~200 MB | ~150 MB |
| CPU architecture | x86_64, ARM, ARM64 | x86_64, ARM, ARM64 |
| Container size | ~200 MB | ~50 MB |
| Query response time | <1ms typical | <1ms typical |
AdGuard Home is lighter. It’s a single Go binary versus Pi-hole’s stack of PHP, lighttpd/nginx, dnsmasq/unbound, SQLite, and shell scripts. In practice, both handle home network DNS loads without breaking a sweat — even a Raspberry Pi Zero can run either one.
Winner: AdGuard Home. Smaller footprint, fewer moving parts.
Encrypted DNS
This is AdGuard Home’s biggest advantage. Modern DNS security means encrypting your DNS queries so your ISP (and anyone else on the network path) can’t see which domains you’re resolving.
AdGuard Home supports DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH), DNS-over-TLS (DoT), DNS-over-QUIC (DoQ), and DNSCrypt as both an upstream client and a server. You can point your devices directly at AdGuard Home using encrypted protocols.
Pi-hole supports plain DNS only by default. To add encrypted DNS, you need to install and configure cloudflared (for DoH) or unbound (for DNS resolution without forwarding) as a separate service. Pi-hole can consume encrypted upstream DNS through these add-ons, but it cannot serve encrypted DNS to clients without additional reverse proxy configuration.
Winner: AdGuard Home, definitively. Encrypted DNS is built-in, not bolted on.
Community and Support
Pi-hole has the larger community by a significant margin. It’s been around since 2015, has 51k+ GitHub stars, a very active subreddit (r/pihole), extensive community-maintained blocklists, and a wealth of third-party tools (PADD, pihole-updatelists, orbital-sync for multi-instance sync).
AdGuard Home has a growing community (27k+ stars), active GitHub issues, and good official documentation. But the ecosystem of third-party tools is smaller.
If you get stuck, you’re more likely to find a Pi-hole answer on Stack Overflow, Reddit, or a blog post. AdGuard Home’s official docs are good, but community resources are thinner.
Winner: Pi-hole. Bigger community, more third-party resources.
Use Cases
Choose Pi-hole If…
- You want the largest community and most third-party integrations
- You already use unbound for recursive DNS resolution
- You need group management for different client groups (Pi-hole’s group system is mature)
- You want the most battle-tested option with the longest track record
- You plan to run multiple instances synced with orbital-sync or Gravity Sync
Choose AdGuard Home If…
- You want encrypted DNS (DoH/DoT/DoQ) without add-ons
- You want per-client filtering rules (different rules for kids vs adults)
- You want built-in parental controls and safe search enforcement
- You prefer a cleaner, more modern web interface
- You want the lightest possible resource footprint
- You want DNS rewrite rules (pointing custom domains to internal IPs)
Final Verdict
AdGuard Home wins for most new setups. It does everything Pi-hole does, plus encrypted DNS, per-client settings, and parental controls — all built in. The lighter resource usage and cleaner UI are bonuses. For a fresh self-hosting setup in 2026, AdGuard Home is the more capable tool.
Pi-hole is still excellent and remains the right choice if you value a massive community ecosystem, already have a working Pi-hole setup, or specifically need tools like unbound integration or Gravity Sync for multi-instance deployments.
Neither is a wrong choice. Both block ads effectively. But if you’re starting from scratch, AdGuard Home gives you more out of the box.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I run both Pi-hole and AdGuard Home?
Not on the same server — they both need port 53. You could run them on different machines and use one as a backup DNS, but there’s no practical reason to run both. Pick one.
Which blocks more ads?
They use the same type of blocklists and both support custom lists. Ad blocking effectiveness depends on which lists you subscribe to, not which software you use. Both support the most popular lists (Steven Black, EasyList, OISD).
Can I migrate from Pi-hole to AdGuard Home?
There’s no official migration tool, but your blocklist URLs can be copied over manually. Custom DNS entries and local DNS records need to be recreated. The switch takes about 30 minutes.
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