Pi-hole vs AdGuard Home: Which DNS Blocker Should You Use?

Two Tools, Same Goal

Both Pi-hole and AdGuard Home do the same fundamental thing: they act as a DNS sinkhole, blocking ads and trackers for every device on your network before they ever load. No per-device apps, no browser extensions — just point your router's DNS at the server and the whole house is protected.

I actually run both on my homelab. Here's what I've learned.

The Quick Verdict

If you want the short version:

• Choose Pi-hole if you love customization, community blocklists, and a proven track record.
• Choose AdGuard Home if you want a modern UI, built-in encrypted DNS, and the simplest possible setup.

Now the details.

Setup & Installation

Both are trivial to deploy with Docker. Here's Pi-hole:

services:
  pihole:
    image: pihole/pihole:latest
    ports:
      - "53:53/tcp"
      - "53:53/udp"
      - "80:80/tcp"
    environment:
      TZ: 'Europe/Athens'
      WEBPASSWORD: 'changeme'
    volumes:
      - './etc-pihole:/etc/pihole'
    restart: unless-stopped

And AdGuard Home:

services:
  adguardhome:
    image: adguard/adguardhome:latest
    ports:
      - "53:53/tcp"
      - "53:53/udp"
      - "3000:3000/tcp"
    volumes:
      - './work:/opt/adguardhome/work'
      - './conf:/opt/adguardhome/conf'
    restart: unless-stopped

Winner: Tie. Both take five minutes.

User Interface

This is where AdGuard pulls ahead for newcomers. Its dashboard is clean, modern, and everything is where you'd expect it. Pi-hole's interface is functional and information-dense, but it shows its age a little.

Winner: AdGuard Home.

Encrypted DNS (DoH / DoT)

AdGuard Home has DNS-over-HTTPS and DNS-over-TLS built in. With Pi-hole you need to add cloudflared or stubby as a separate piece. If encrypted upstream DNS matters to you, AdGuard saves a step.

Winner: AdGuard Home.

Blocklists & Customization

Pi-hole's ecosystem is enormous. Years of community blocklists, regex filtering, group management, and tools like Gravity Sync. If you love to tinker and fine-tune, Pi-hole gives you more levers to pull.

Winner: Pi-hole.

Stability & Track Record

Pi-hole has been around longer and is rock-solid. That's not to say AdGuard is unstable — it's very reliable — but Pi-hole has earned its reputation over many years on everything from Raspberry Pis to enterprise setups.

Winner: Pi-hole (slightly).

The Comparison Table

Which Do I Actually Use?

Here's my honest setup: I run both, with AdGuard Home as primary and Pi-hole as secondary DNS. This gives me redundancy — if I'm doing maintenance on one, the network stays protected by the other.

But if you forced me to pick one for someone just starting out? AdGuard Home. The built-in encrypted DNS and friendlier UI make it the better first experience. Pi-hole is the power user's choice once you want to go deeper.

The Bottom Line

You genuinely can't go wrong with either. Both block ads network-wide, both are free, both are lightweight enough to run on anything. Pick AdGuard for simplicity, Pi-hole for control — or run both like I do and stop worrying about it.