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TL;DR — Pick AdGuard Home for the easiest all-in-one (single binary, encrypted DNS and per-client controls built in); pick Pi-hole for the largest blocklist community and the Unbound privacy ecosystem. It’s a genuinely close call, and either runs happily on a Raspberry Pi or in a container.
A network-wide DNS ad blocker is one of the highest-value things you can add to a homelab: one small service, and every device in the house — phones, TVs, IoT junk that has no ad-blocker of its own — stops resolving ad and tracker domains. The two names that own this space are Pi-hole and AdGuard Home, both free and open source. They do the same core job; they differ in what comes built in.
I run Pi-hole in an LXC on my own lab, so that’s my daily driver — but here’s the honest two-way.
The short answer
- Pick AdGuard Home if you want the easiest all-in-one: a single binary, encrypted DNS (DoH/DoT/DoQ) with no add-ons, and built-in per-client parental controls. The best default for newcomers and families.
- Pick Pi-hole if you want the largest blocklist community, deep Docker integration, and the Unbound ecosystem for maximum DNS privacy — and you like its modernised v6 interface.
- Either is a great choice — this is a genuinely close call, and both run happily in a container or on a Raspberry Pi.
At a glance
| Pi-hole (v6) | AdGuard Home | |
|---|---|---|
| License | Free & open source | Free & open source (by AdGuard) |
| Setup & footprint | FTL binary + web UI + REST API (v6); Pi/Docker | Single Go binary; browser setup wizard |
| Encrypted DNS (DoH/DoT/DoQ) | Not native — add cloudflared (DoH) or Unbound | Built-in, both directions (upstream + server) |
| Per-client filtering | Via Groups (more manual) | First-class clients (IP/CIDR/MAC/ClientID) + per-client lists |
| Parental controls / SafeSearch | Not built-in | Built-in: forced SafeSearch, adult filter, per-service schedules |
| Blocklists | Largest community; allowlists (antigravity) in v6 | Curated built-in lists + custom |
| DHCP server | Optional (built-in) | Optional (built-in) |
| Local DNS / rewrites | Yes — local DNS records | Yes — DNS rewrites |
| Recursive resolver | Unbound ecosystem (popular, well-documented) | Possible, but DoH/DoT upstreams are the norm |
| Best for | Max control + privacy (Unbound); biggest community | Easiest all-in-one; encrypted DNS + family controls |
The biggest difference: encrypted DNS out of the box
This is where they genuinely diverge. AdGuard Home speaks DoH, DoT, and DoQ natively — it can use an encrypted upstream and present itself as an encrypted DNS server to your own devices, with nothing extra to install. If “my DNS queries shouldn’t travel in plaintext” is on your list, AdGuard Home gets you there in the setup wizard.
Pi-hole talks plain DNS to its upstream by design, so encryption is an add-on:
- Pi-hole → cloudflared gives you DNS-over-HTTPS to a public resolver.
- Pi-hole → Unbound turns it into your own recursive resolver — no third-party upstream at all, which is the most private option available on either platform and a big reason the Pi-hole + Unbound combo is so popular.
So: AdGuard Home is easier for encrypted DNS; Pi-hole + Unbound is arguably more private if you’re willing to run the extra piece.
Per-client & parental controls
AdGuard Home treats every client as a first-class object — identify a device by IP, CIDR, MAC, or ClientID, then give it its own upstreams, its own blocklists, forced SafeSearch on Google/YouTube/Bing/DuckDuckGo, an adult-content filter, and per-service blocking (e.g., block TikTok on the kids’ devices between 9pm and 7am). For a family network, that’s a genuinely different level of control.
Pi-hole does per-device filtering through Groups: assign clients to a group, give the group different blocklists. It works and it’s flexible, but it’s more manual and there’s no one-click parental-controls equivalent.
Your DNS blocker becomes a single point of failure for the whole network — if it’s down, nothing resolves. Run a second instance (a tiny second container or Pi) as a secondary resolver, and hand both addresses out over DHCP. Both Pi-hole and AdGuard Home support this; it’s the difference between “the internet is broken” and “huh, one blocker rebooted.”
Pi-hole v6 closed the UI gap
Pi-hole’s old knock was a dated stack. v6 fixed most of it: the lighttpd + PHP web stack was replaced by a single FTL binary that serves the web UI and a proper REST API itself, with native HTTPS (custom or auto-generated certs), settings split into Basic and Expert modes, and allowlist subscriptions (“antigravity”) alongside blocklists. If you dismissed Pi-hole on looks a couple of years ago, v6 is worth another look.
Community & ecosystem
Pi-hole has the largest blocklist community and the deepest ecosystem — more third-party lists, guides, Docker integrations, and the well-trodden Unbound path. AdGuard Home counters with single-binary simplicity and more batteries included. Both are actively maintained in 2026.
Who should pick what
- Newcomer, or you want encrypted DNS and family controls with zero add-ons: AdGuard Home.
- You want maximum DNS privacy (your own recursive resolver) and the biggest blocklist/community ecosystem: Pi-hole + Unbound.
- You just want ads gone network-wide and don’t want to overthink it: either — flip a coin, both are excellent.
- Run two of whichever you pick, so DNS survives a reboot.
Once it’s up, point your router’s DHCP at it (or hand it out per-device) and pair it with local DNS records so service.homelab.lan resolves across the network.
Related posts:
- Pi-hole on Proxmox LXC — the hands-on Pi-hole build
- Common Homelab Network Issues — when DNS is the thing that’s actually broken
- VLANs for Beginners: Segmenting IoT — pair DNS filtering with network segmentation
- Tailscale Subnet Router — reach (and use) your DNS blocker from anywhere
- Traefik vs Nginx Proxy Manager vs Caddy — the other half of clean internal networking
Sources: Pi-hole · AdGuard Home · Pi-hole v6 release · 2026 comparison
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