AltCatalog
Catalog Network ad blockers AdGuard Home

Alternatives to AdGuard Home

Polished self-hosted DNS blocking

Alt Score

Alt Score · 100

How this alternative ranks. How it works →

Verified coverage 90%100
Visibility 10%100

Verified coverage = sourced yes and partial answers in the category checklist. Visibility = relative app-page views on AltCatalog over 30 days, neutral below 500 category views. Payment, votes, and vendor opinions are never score inputs.

Not a real alternative? Flag it
#1 of 6 in Network ad blockers

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.

Most compared with BlockyControlDNextDNS
Official site Suggest an edit Data history Work on AdGuard Home? Claim this page
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.

Why people leave AdGuard Home

Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.

Sign in to add a reason — new reasons go through moderation before appearing.

Ranked alternatives

Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.

Sponsored Paid slot. Never affects the ranked order below. Promote here →
01
B

Fast Go DNS proxy for homelabs.

Apache-2.0 LinuxWindowsmacOS
Alt Score

Alt Score · 90

How this alternative ranks. How it works →

Verified coverage 90%89
Visibility 10%100

Verified coverage = sourced yes and partial answers in the category checklist. Visibility = relative app-page views on AltCatalog over 30 days, neutral below 500 category views. Payment, votes, and vendor opinions are never score inputs.

Not a real alternative? Flag it
02

Configurable DNS with redirection tricks.

Proprietary WindowsmacOSLinuxiOS +2
Alt Score

Alt Score · 85

How this alternative ranks. How it works →

Verified coverage 90%83
Visibility 10%100

Verified coverage = sourced yes and partial answers in the category checklist. Visibility = relative app-page views on AltCatalog over 30 days, neutral below 500 category views. Payment, votes, and vendor opinions are never score inputs.

Not a real alternative? Flag it
03

Cloud Pi-hole with per-device profiles.

Proprietary WindowsmacOSLinuxiOS +2
Alt Score

Alt Score · 85

How this alternative ranks. How it works →

Verified coverage 90%83
Visibility 10%100

Verified coverage = sourced yes and partial answers in the category checklist. Visibility = relative app-page views on AltCatalog over 30 days, neutral below 500 category views. Payment, votes, and vendor opinions are never score inputs.

Not a real alternative? Flag it
04

The network-wide DNS sinkhole standard.

EUPL-1.2 Linux
Alt Score

Alt Score · 85

How this alternative ranks. How it works →

Verified coverage 90%83
Visibility 10%100

Verified coverage = sourced yes and partial answers in the category checklist. Visibility = relative app-page views on AltCatalog over 30 days, neutral below 500 category views. Payment, votes, and vendor opinions are never score inputs.

Not a real alternative? Flag it
05

Full authoritative + blocking DNS server.

GPL-3.0 WindowsLinuxmacOS
Alt Score

Alt Score · 85

How this alternative ranks. How it works →

Verified coverage 90%83
Visibility 10%100

Verified coverage = sourced yes and partial answers in the category checklist. Visibility = relative app-page views on AltCatalog over 30 days, neutral below 500 category views. Payment, votes, and vendor opinions are never score inputs.

Not a real alternative? Flag it

Feature comparison

Rows come from the Network ad blockers checklist (13 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.

Comparing AdGuard Home Blocky × ControlD × NextDNS × Pi-hole × Technitium ×
Network ad blockers checklist AdGuard HomeBlockyControlDNextDNSPi-holeTechnitium
Pricing model
Starts at
License
Platforms
DNS-level blocking
Self-hostable
Blocklist management
Per-device policies
DoH / DoT support
Query logging & dashboard
Whitelisting UX
Parental controls
Open source
verified pending unknown (?) Click any cell to view its source or propose a value
Sources & verification 14

Every fact and feature listed for AdGuard Home is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

FAQ

Yes. Blocky, ControlD and NextDNS have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.

Blocky, Pi-hole and Technitium — every license claim links its source.