DNS/Ad Blocking
3 open source tools compared. Sorted by stars — scroll down for our analysis.
| Tool | Stars | Velocity | Language | License | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Pi-hole Network-wide ad blocking DNS | 56.3k | — | Shell | — | 72 |
 AdGuard Home Network-wide ad/tracker blocking DNS | 33.2k | +103/wk | Go | GNU General Public License v3.0 | 74 |
| 6.2k | — | Go | — | 53 |
Our Analysis
Pi-hole blocks ads and trackers at the DNS level for your entire network. Install it on a Raspberry Pi or any Linux box, point your router's DNS to it, and every device — phones, smart TVs, IoT junk — stops loading ads. No browser extensions needed. AdGuard Home is the main open source competitor with a more modern UI and DNS-over-HTTPS built in. NextDNS is the managed commercial alternative if you don't want to self-host. uBlock Origin handles browser-level blocking but can't touch smart TVs or apps. If you run a home network and care about privacy (or just hate YouTube ads on your TV), Pi-hole is a weekend project that pays dividends forever. The community-maintained blocklists are excellent, and the dashboard gives you eye-opening stats on how much your devices phone home. The catch: it can break things. Some apps and sites fail when their tracking domains get blocked, and you'll spend time whitelisting. Also, YouTube ads are served from the same domains as videos now — Pi-hole can't reliably block those anymore without breaking playback.
AdGuard Home is a network-wide DNS ad blocker that you run on your home server or VPS — every device on your network gets ad-free browsing without installing anything on each device. Think Pi-hole but with a modern UI, built-in encrypted DNS (DoH/DoT), and per-client filtering rules out of the box. If you're setting up a homelab or want network-wide ad blocking, start here instead of Pi-hole. The setup is simpler, the dashboard is cleaner, and encrypted DNS works without extra tools. Pi-hole has a larger community and more blocklists but a dated UI and no native DNS encryption. NextDNS is the cloud-hosted alternative if you don't want to self-host. The catch: It's GPL v3, so modifications must stay open source. The blocking is DNS-level only — it won't catch ads served from the same domain as content (YouTube ads, for example). And if your DNS server goes down, your entire network loses internet. Run it on reliable hardware with a fallback DNS configured.