Did you know you can block ads on multiple levels? You have your browser extensions that only block ads from the web when you’re using your web browser. And there are system-wide ad blockers that protect your device from ads, blocking them before they even reach your phones or computers. However, you can get broader coverage if you use a network-wide ad blocker. Network-wide solutions intercept and filter out unwanted ads, trackers, and malicious content at a DNS level. This method blocks ads and enhances privacy, yes. But the main benefit here is device coverage. Network-wide ad blockers work on smartphones, computers, Smart TVs, and IoT gadgets.
AdGuard Home and Pi-hole are two such solutions that aim to protect your entire network from ads. While they both have the same functions, they work differently. And we’re here to discuss those differences.
What are AdGuard Home and Pi-hole?
What is AdGuard Home?
AdGuard Home is a network-wide ad-blocker from the makers of the popular AdGuard ad-blocking tool. It launched in 2018 and became popular fast due to its simplicity, easy installation, and built-in privacy features like DNS encryption and parental control. It’s fairly straightforward with minimal setup required.
What is Pi-hole?
Pi-hole started in 2015 as a community-driven, open-source project to provide a network-wide ad-blocker that could run on lightweight devices like Raspberry Pi. While initially it was popular among the tech-savvy users, Pi-hole grew in popularity due to its customizability, active community, and extensive documentation.
Quick Overview: AdGuard Home vs Pi-hole
| Feature | AdGuard Home | Pi-hole |
| Ease of Installation | Very Easy | Moderate |
| User Interface | Modern and User-friendly | Functional and Detailed |
| DNS Encryption | Built-in (DoH, DoT, DNSCrypt) | Via third-party integration |
| Customizability | Moderate | High |
| Parental Controls | Built-in | Through custom blocklists |
| Community & Support | Good official support | Excellent community support |
| Hardware Compatibility | Wide compatibility | Optimized for Raspberry Pi |
| Performance Impact | Minimal | Minimal |
How Do AdGuard Home and Pi-hole Work?
AdGuard Home and Pi-hole do the same job in different ways. Think of them as your home network’s gatekeepers. They filter every web request your devices make. It’s like having a bouncer with a guest list and a naughty list. It kicks out all the domain names from the naughty lists, also known as a blocklist.
When you open an app or browse a website, your device requests a lot of things. Not just the content you want but also ads, trackers, and sometimes even malware. Typically, your DNS provider just sends all that along with your content. AdGuard Home and Pi-hole interrupt that process. They act as your DNS provider and examine each domain your device tries to access. If it’s an advertiser, a tracker, or a suspicious site, they respond by sending them… nowhere. Well, they are redirected somewhere. It’s called a DNS sinkhole. But a DNS sinkhole is the web equivalent of the void. So nowhere. Both AdGuard Home and Pi-hole block those unwanted requests, so your device never connects to those servers.
Ad-Blocking and Privacy Features
Both AdGuard and Pi-hole are mainly ad blockers. So their main features are related to ad blocking. However, there are other essential privacy features that are available with these tools, too.
How effective are AdGuard Home and Pi-hole in Ad-Blocking?
AdGuard Home is pretty effective at blocking ads. It’s built-in and frequently updated ad-blocking filters make sure that there is continuous protection from ads across your network. It supports popular blocklists by default, making life easier for users.
Pi-hole, on the other hand, offers flexibility through customisable, community-driven blocklists. This allows users to tailor and extend protection to their specific browsing patterns and needs.
Both tools have a set of default blocklists. You can add more if needed. And how well they block ads depends on which blocklists you use.
Can AdGuard Home and Pi-hole Block YouTube Ads?
The answer is a maybe. Like we’ve said before, both AdGuard and Pi-hole’s ad blocking depend on the blocklists you’re using. Now, YouTube serves ads through the same domain as the content. And oftentimes, YouTube’s ad domains change. So it’s very difficult to consistently block ads on YouTube, and both AdGuard Home and Pi-hole struggle with it. Read how to block YouTube ads to learn more.
Do AdGuard Home and Pi-hole support DNS Encryption?
Yes, AdGuard Home natively supports DNS encryption protocols like DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH), DNS-over-TLS (DoT), and DNSCrypt. This gives you comprehensive protection for your browsing activities.
Pi-hole doesn’t have native DNS encryption support, but it can easily integrate with external tools like Unbound or Cloudflare. This ensures proper encryption and privacy through additional configuration steps.
How Well Do AdGuard Home and Pi-hole Perform against Malware?
Both AdGuard Home and Pi-hole significantly enhance network security by blocking malware and trackers. They rely on extensive blocklists to prevent unwanted and malicious content.
Installation and Setup
Both AdGuard and Pi-hole require an involved setup process, which involves spending some time in the Terminal or Command Prompt. If using the terminal for any setup process makes you nervous, don’t worry. Their detailed manuals include guided steps. Here, we’re only going through the basics.
Installing AdGuard Home
AdGuard Home installation is easier, as after the initial steps, most of the setup is done on its beautiful user interface.
- Download the latest release of AdGuard Home from its GitHub repository.
- Once downloaded, you’ll have to run a simple command or executable file, which will launch a setup wizard.
- The wizard will guide you step-by-step through the initial configuration.
You can set up your network preferences and activate DNS-level ad blocking from the initial setup. However, there’s much more you can do. You can refer to the official AdGuard Home installation documentation for a comprehensive guide.
Installing Pi-hole
Pi-hole needs a bit more hands-on involvement. You might feel right at home if you’re comfortable with command-line interfaces and Linux environments. Most people set it up on their Raspberry Pi. However, you could install it pretty much on any computer, VM, Docker container, or standard Linux server. The installation requires a long process that includes running a command-line script that automates most of it. The full guide is available in the official Pi-hole documentation.
Once installed, Pi-hole gives you a web-based interface where you can configure settings, manage blocklists, and monitor your network traffic.
Usability and Other Features
Is AdGuard Home easy to use?
AdGuard Home is very easy to use, has a nice web interface to manage settings, and monitor your network. It’s perfect for beginners and those who like a simple and visual experience.
Is Pi-hole user-friendly for beginners?
Pi-hole’s interface is clear but more technical than AdGuard Home. It has a lot of insights and control, perfect for advanced users or those who like to have a deeper understanding and manual control over their network.
Access AdGuard Home and Pi-hole Remotely
Both solutions support remote access, and you can manage and monitor your network from anywhere. AdGuard Home makes remote access easy. Pi-hole requires additional setup, often involving VPN or secure tunneling.
Useful Analytics
Both AdGuard Home and Pi-hole have analytics dashboards. They show network statistics, blocked requests, device-specific insights, and full logs, so you can quickly see what’s happening on your network and what might be the problem.
Parental Controls
AdGuard Home has built-in parental control features, allowing easy blocking of inappropriate content directly through its interface. Pi-hole lacks native parental control features, but you can achieve similar functionality with custom blocklists.
Managing and Updating Blocklists
Both tools allow you to manage and update blocklists easily. AdGuard Home offers automatic updates and a straightforward user interface. Pi-hole provides greater flexibility, allowing manual and automated updates and extensive customization through the community.
Can AdGuard Home and Pi-hole Work Together?
Technically, yes. You can configure Pi-hole as the primary DNS server and forward queries to AdGuard Home or vice versa. However, this setup is usually more complex and recommended only for advanced users.
Do these ad blockers slow down your internet connection?
Generally, no. AdGuard Home and Pi-hole typically improve browsing speed by blocking unwanted content. DNS filtering is lightweight, efficient, and speeds up page loads by reducing the amount of unnecessary data.
UI and Customisability
How is the User Interface and Experience on AdGuard Home and Pi-hole?
AdGuard Home has a clean, simple, and modern web interface. The dashboard shows real-time network stats: number of queries, blocked requests, and client activity. Menus are clearly labeled, making it easy to find settings such as DNS encryption options, blocklist management, client-specific rules, and advanced logging options. AdGuard Home is easy to use, even for beginners.
Pi-hole, on the other hand, has a detailed and complex interface for users who want to see everything about their network. The dashboard shows real-time analytics: query logs, top allowed and blocked domains, client data, and network performance charts. Pi-hole has granular controls and advanced analytics: query logging, long-term data analysis, and client-specific reporting. It’s for technically inclined users.
What Customisability Options Are Available With AdGuard Home and Pi-hole?
Both AdGuard Home and Pi-hole let you tailor your blocklists to your needs. Users can easily add and manage multiple blocklists. Including the big hitters like AdGuard’s default list, EasyList, and those DNS-based ones. Custom filtering rules and whitelisting make it easy to handle exceptions as you see fit. And with AdGuard Home, you can easily configure DNS encryption and parental controls directly from its dashboard.
Pi-hole gives you the power to do things your way. Users can set up and manage a wide range of blocklists, including some really specialised community-maintained ones. The regex-based blocking is incredibly powerful, so that you can get really granular with your blocking rules. Advanced DNS configuration is also possible, and you can integrate with external tools like Unbound or Cloudflare to get a serious boost in DNS encryption. That flexibility is what draws advanced users to Pi-hole and gives them complete control over their network filtering.
How Do AdGuard Home and Pi-hole Differ from Regular Ad Blockers?
Browser Extensions
Browser extensions like uBlock Origin and Adblock Plus are limited to filtering out ads within your web browser. They inspect page elements and remove ads as you browse. That works just fine within your browser, but it doesn’t extend to other apps or devices on your network. Check the best ad blockers for Chrome in 2025 to learn more about extension-based ad blockers.
System-wide Ad Blockers
System-wide blockers like AdGuard Desktop block ads across all the apps on a single device. They integrate directly into your device’s operating system. That means you have to install them individually on each device you want to protect.
Network-wide ad blockers
AdGuard Home and Pi-hole work at the DNS level. That means they can protect all the devices on your network at once. They intercept DNS requests and block entire domains that serve ads, trackers, or malicious content. That’s especially useful for devices like smart TVs and IoT devices that often don’t have built-in ad-blocking capabilities. By blocking at the DNS level, network-wide ad blockers can be much more efficient and effective across a range of devices.
Hardware Compatibility
Hardware compatibility is where AdGuard Home really shines. You can run it smoothly on Windows, Linux, and macOS. That’s because it’s been designed to work with Docker containers, making it perfect for virtualized environments or NAS devices. And if you’re using a router with OpenWRT, Asus Merlin, or DD-WRT firmware, AdGuard Home integrates beautifully with those too. That means you get excellent performance right at your network’s gateway.
Pi-hole, on the other hand, is built for environments where hardware is a bit more… basic. That’s where devices like the Raspberry Pi come in. It’s optimised for environments like this, where resource usage needs to be as efficient as possible. But it also performs well on Linux-based servers, virtual machines, Docker containers, and older PCs. And just like AdGuard Home, it integrates well with OpenWRT and DD-WRT firmware on routers.
Support
When it comes to support, AdGuard Home has its back. It’s an open-source project backed by the reputable AdGuard company. That means you get consistent official support, detailed documentation, regular feature updates, and prompt responses to user feedback. The company’s there to provide professional assistance when you need it. Plus, AdGuard Home has an active community contributing to its GitHub, forums, and online discussions. That community support really enhances usability and functionality.
Pi-hole, by contrast, is community-driven. And what a community it is. Passionate, dedicated users drive its development. You can find them on GitHub, forums, Reddit, and in user-generated documentation. They’re the ones who create new blocklists, plugins, scripts, and customisation guides. That means Pi-hole is constantly improving and innovating. And because of that community, you get quick solutions and thorough assistance. That’s why Pi-hole is a favourite among tech enthusiasts and DIY users.
Final Verdict
Both AdGuard Home and Pi-hole are great free network-wide ad-blockers, each with its own strengths for different users. AdGuard Home is for those who want a simple and user-friendly experience, while Pi-hole is for those who want more control and customisation. Although the setup is a bit of a pain, the benefits of privacy and ad reduction are worth it for either option.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use AdGuard Home or Pi-hole on mobile devices?
Yes, both can be used with mobile devices by setting up DNS manually or through network-wide setup on your router.
Do AdGuard Home and Pi-hole affect streaming service performance?
Usually no. But some streaming services might require exceptions or whitelisting specific domains to work properly.
Are AdGuard Home and Pi-hole effective against phishing sites?
Both can block known phishing domains in their blocklists, so you’re more secure against phishing attacks.
Can AdGuard Home or Pi-hole replace antivirus software?
No, they complement antivirus software by blocking malicious domains, but can’t replace full-featured antivirus software.
Can I schedule automatic blocklist updates on AdGuard Home and Pi-Hole?
Yes, both AdGuard Home and Pi-hole allow scheduling blocklist updates, so you don’t have to do it manually