# Alternatives to AdGuard Home Polished self-hosted DNS blocking. AdGuard Home ranks #1 of 6 in Network ad blockers, with an Alt Score of 100. It is licensed under GPL-3.0, free from Free and available on Linux, Windows and macOS. 9 of 9 checklist rows are verified against a public source. Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/adguard-home/ Category: Network ad blockers ## Overview - **Who it's for**: Households and self-hosters who want ad and tracker blocking applied to every device on their network at once, including phones, smart TVs, and IoT devices that can't run their own ad blockers. Best suited for users comfortable installing and configuring a small server on a router, Raspberry Pi, NAS, or home server. - **What you get**: Network-wide blocking of ads, trackers, and malicious domains without installing anything on individual devices. A web dashboard for managing block lists, viewing query logs, and setting per-device or per-client rules. Optional parental controls, including content filtering and enforced Safe Search. Encrypted DNS support (DNS-over-HTTPS, DNS-over-TLS, DNSCrypt, DNSCrypt v2) for more private upstream resolution. - **How it works**: AdGuard Home runs as a local DNS server that all devices on the network send their DNS queries through, typically by pointing the router or individual devices at it. It checks each query against configurable block lists and filtering rules, then either blocks the request or forwards it to an upstream DNS resolver, so filtering happens once at the network level rather than per device. ## Profile - **License**: GPL-3.0 (verified 2026-07-08) - **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-08) - **Starts at**: Free (verified 2026-07-08) - **Platforms**: Linux, Windows, macOS - **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-08) ## Ranked alternatives | # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms | |---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------| | 1 | [Blocky](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/blocky.md) | 90 | Apache-2.0 | Linux, Windows, macOS | | 2 | [ControlD](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/controld.md) | 85 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS | | 3 | [NextDNS](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/nextdns.md) | 85 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS | | 4 | [Pi-hole](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/pi-hole.md) | 85 | EUPL-1.2 | Linux | | 5 | [Technitium](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/technitium.md) | 85 | GPL-3.0 | Windows, Linux, macOS | Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/ ## Feature comparison Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified). | Network ad blockers checklist | AdGuard Home | Blocky | ControlD | NextDNS | Pi-hole | Technitium | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Pricing model | Free | Free | Freemium | Freemium | Donationware | Donationware | | Starts at | Free | Free | ? | €1.99/month | Free | Free | | License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary | EUPL-1.2 | GPL-3.0 | | Platforms | Linux, Windows, macOS | Linux, Windows, macOS | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Web | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Web | Linux | Windows, Linux, macOS | | DNS-level blocking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Self-hostable | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | | Blocklist management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Per-device policies | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | | DoH / DoT support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | | Query logging & dashboard | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Whitelisting UX | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Parental controls | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | | Open source | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial | Yes | Yes | ## Sources Sources for AdGuard Home. Each alternative is sourced on its own page. - **License**: GPL-3.0 — (verified 2026-07-08) - Quote: “GNU General Public License v3.0” - **Pricing model**: Free — (verified 2026-07-08) - Quote: “Free and open source, powerful network-wide ads & trackers blocking DNS server.” - **Starts at**: Free — (verified 2026-07-08) - Quote: “Free and open source, powerful network-wide ads & trackers blocking DNS server.” - **Platforms**: Linux, Windows, macOS — (verified 2026-07-08) - Quote: “Darwin/macOS (AMD64, 64-bit ARM) … Linux (AMD64, x86, 64-bit ARM …) … Windows (AMD64, x86, 64-bit ARM)” - **Status**: active — (verified 2026-07-08) - Quote: “v0.107.77 published 2026-06-02” - **DNS-level blocking**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-08) - Quote: “Blocking ads and trackers ✅” - **Self-hostable**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-08) - Quote: “After you set it up, it'll cover ALL your home devices, and you don't need any client-side software” - **Blocklist management**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-08) - Quote: “Customizing blocklists ✅” - **Per-device policies**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-08) - Quote: “Per-client (device) configuration ✅” - **DoH / DoT support**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-08) - Quote: “Running as a DNS-over-HTTPS or DNS-over-TLS server ✅” - **Query logging & dashboard**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-08) - Quote: “querylog.enabled … querylog.file_enabled enables writing logs to files” - **Whitelisting UX**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-08) - Quote: “You don't have any exception rule lists that may allow the requests enabled on the Filters → DNS allowlists page.” - **Parental controls**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-08) - Quote: “Parental control (blocking adult domains) ✅” - **Open source**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-08) - Quote: “Free and open source, powerful network-wide ads & trackers blocking DNS server.” --- Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/