AdGuard Home

AdGuard Home blocks ads, trackers, and malware across every device on your network by running as your DNS server, no per-device installs needed. Every DNS request goes through it, and it blocks the ones that resolve to ad servers or trackers. It's a bouncer for your network's internet traffic.

Everything is free under GPL-3.0. No paid tier for AdGuard Home itself. (AdGuard the company sells a separate VPN/ad-blocking app; that's a different product.) The Home DNS server is fully featured: custom blocklists, per-client settings, encrypted DNS (DoH/DoT/DoQ), DHCP server, query logging, and a clean web dashboard.

Self-hosting is the only option. Run it on a Raspberry Pi ($35-60), a spare computer, a Docker container, or a VPS. Initial setup takes 15-30 minutes: install the binary, point your router's DNS to it, pick your blocklists. Ongoing maintenance is minimal; update the binary occasionally, review your logs if you're curious. Solo: install it at home. The quality-of-life improvement is immediate: YouTube ads on smart TVs, tracking on every device, gone. Small teams: run it on your office network. Growing teams: it's a home/small-office tool, not enterprise DNS.

The catch: DNS-level blocking can't stop everything. Ads served from the same domain as content (like some YouTube ads) slip through. And occasionally a legitimate service breaks because its domain is on a blocklist, and you'll be the family IT person debugging why a website doesn't load.