Pi-hole vs. AdGuard Home vs. NextDNS: Ad and Tracking Filters for Your Homelab

As a developer, I’ve built my homelab to support my work. It’s grown into several machines and servers. My main desktop runs an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with current Fedora and my development tools. A Dell OptiPlex 3050 Micro handles services like Paperless and Nextcloud. I also have an older Mac Pro—the one in the distinctive cylindrical case—with 64 GB of RAM that I use for testing and multi-agent systems.

Sitting in front of all that is a 5G router. A proper managed switch is still on my wishlist.

This setup raised a practical question: which solution should filter ads, tracking, and unnecessary telemetry across my network? I considered Pi-hole, AdGuard Home, NextDNS, the router’s built-in filtering, and traditional browser blockers.

I tested all five approaches. This article isn’t about generating the highest score on some synthetic test page. What matters is how reliably each solution works in daily use, which devices it protects, how much maintenance it requires, and how quickly I can troubleshoot a false positive.

The critical distinction: DNS filtering and content filtering

Pi-hole, AdGuard Home, NextDNS, and many router filters make decisions based on domain names. When a device queries a known tracking domain, the filter returns no usable answer. The connection to the tracker never happens.

This works regardless of whether the request comes from a browser, smartphone, smart TV, or IoT device. The only requirement is that the device actually uses the intended DNS resolver.

A DNS filter, however, can’t see the full URL path or page content. It can’t reliably tell ads apart from legitimate content when both come from the same domain. That’s why YouTube ads, sponsored posts on social media, and ads in streaming apps often slip through. AdGuard Home explicitly acknowledges this limitation in its official FAQ.

A browser blocker operates closer to the webpage. It can block individual network requests, hide HTML elements, and apply rules to specific paths or page elements. But its reach ends at the browser window.

These solutions aren’t complete alternatives to each other. For solid protection, a network-wide DNS filter and a browser blocker complement each other well.

Head-to-head comparison

Category	Pi-hole	AdGuard Home	NextDNS	Router DNS	Browser Blocker
Ad and tracking blocking	strong at DNS level	strong at DNS level	strong at DNS level	router-dependent	very strong in browser
Device coverage	entire LAN	entire LAN	home and away	entire LAN	supported browsers only
Installation effort	moderate	straightforward	very simple	simple to moderate	very simple
Data storage	local	local	external service	mostly local	local in browser; filter lists from outside
Maintenance	system and filter lists	system and filter lists	minimal	vendor-dependent	minimal
Diagnostics	excellent	excellent	excellent	often limited	good per browser
Encrypted DNS	upstream only with additional tool	built-in	built-in	model-dependent	browser-dependent
Protection for smart TV and IoT	yes	yes	yes	yes, if the filter applies	no
Cosmetic filtering	no	no	no	no	yes

The table already shows why simply asking “which blocks the most?” misses the point. Reach, control, and filtering depth are separate concerns.

Pi-hole: transparent and battle-tested

Pi-hole is a DNS sinkhole for your own Linux hardware. After installation, you configure it as your DNS server in the router. If your router can’t distribute its own DNS server via DHCP, Pi-hole includes a DHCP server too. The official docs cover both setups in the network configuration section.

What I appreciate most about Pi-hole is its transparency. The query log shows which device requested which domain and which rule blocked it. For troubleshooting, that matters more than a pretty percentage display. When Microsoft 365, a banking site, or an app suddenly breaks, I can spot the suspicious domain quickly and whitelist it precisely.

Pi-hole supports blocklists, exact domains, wildcards, and regular expressions. You can assign devices to groups, so your development machine can have different rules than a TV or smart home device.

The trade-off is operational overhead. Pi-hole needs a system that’s always on, regular updates, backups, and clean network configuration. If your only DNS server goes down, users experience it as an internet outage. Two independent instances improve availability, but you’ll need to keep their configuration in sync.

Privacy also doesn’t happen automatically. Depending on configuration, Pi-hole logs DNS queries. The FTL configuration offers different privacy levels, down to disabling long-term query logs. If you run it for multiple people, you should consciously set your logging policy rather than accept the defaults.

Pi-hole is right for you if

• you want to manage Linux systems yourself,
• you need detailed local logs and flexible device groups,
• you want maximum control over data and filter lists,
• regular updates and backups aren’t a burden for you.

AdGuard Home: many features in one package

AdGuard Home takes the same basic approach as Pi-hole. It acts as a local DNS server and blocks known ad, tracking, and malware domains. I found installation and initial setup straightforward. The web interface gets you quickly to clients, filters, query logs, and statistics.

The biggest functional difference is encrypted DNS. AdGuard Home can talk to encrypted upstream resolvers directly via DNS over HTTPS, DNS over TLS, and DNSCrypt. It can also function as an encrypted DNS server for its own clients. With Pi-hole, you typically need an additional local proxy for this. This isn’t just marketing speak—AdGuard documents it in their own comparison.

AdGuard Home also includes features like enforced safe search and preset content filtering profiles. That makes it appealing if you want to avoid assembling multiple services.

The same caveat applies here: DNS is still DNS. A polished dashboard doesn’t turn a domain filter into a full content blocker. YouTube ads or sponsored Instagram posts won’t disappear reliably.

AdGuard Home is right for you if

• You prefer an all-in-one, compact solution,
• You want to use DoH or DoT without an additional proxy,
• You want to combine local control with an accessible interface,
• You need to manage protection rules for different device types.

NextDNS: minimal overhead, excellent mobility

NextDNS moves your DNS filtering away from your homelab to an external provider. You create a configuration, enable the protection lists you want, and bind your devices or router using the available DNS protocols.

The practical advantage is clear: NextDNS works on the go as long as your smartphone or laptop is properly configured. You don’t need your own server, port forwarding, or a VPN tunnel back to your home network. Blocklists, statistics, blocks, and allowlists are all managed centrally.

The trade-off is your dependence on a cloud service. DNS queries leave your network. According to NextDNS’s privacy policy, you can disable logging and configure retention periods and storage regions when logging is enabled. That’s better than uncontrollable logging, but it’s a different trust model than running a local resolver.

For mobile devices, NextDNS is the most convenient option in direct comparison. Pi-hole and AdGuard Home can also be used on the go, typically through your own VPN like WireGuard or Tailscale. However, this introduces additional components and potential points of failure.

NextDNS is also tied to plan limits and provider availability. Pricing and free quotas can change, so I’m deliberately not quoting specific numbers here. Check the current pricing page before setting it up.

NextDNS is right for you if

• You want to protect devices at home and on the road with the same profile,
• You don’t want to run your own DNS service,
• You prefer minimal maintenance overhead,
• You’re comfortable with your DNS queries being processed externally.

Router-based solutions: convenient, but not comparable

“Router DNS” isn’t a single product. The term can cover simple domain blocklists, parental controls, a manufacturer’s service, or a built-in resolver with encrypted upstream. Features vary significantly by manufacturer, model, and firmware.

The advantage is obvious: your router is already there and distributes configuration across your home network. For a small setup, that might be enough.

But when troubleshooting, many router solutions hit their limits quickly. Detailed query logs are often missing, along with flexible regular expressions, per-client rules, APIs, and useful export functions. List updates and the duration of manufacturer support are also beyond your control.

Another issue is DNS enforcement. Some devices use hard-coded resolvers or encrypted DNS, bypassing your router’s settings. This affects not just router filters, but Pi-hole and AdGuard Home too. If you want to enforce DNS centrally, you need appropriate firewall rules. DoH can’t be blanket-blocked on a single port because it uses HTTPS.

A router solution is right for you if

• You only need basic protection,
• Your router offers understandable logs and current filters,
• You don’t want to run an additional service,
• You’ve checked the specific features of your model.

Browser blockers: still essential in the browser

A good browser blocker isn’t obsolete—it’s your second filter layer. It can apply cosmetic rules, remove empty ad spaces, and block requests based on complete URLs. A DNS resolver can’t do that technically.

For Firefox, uBlock Origin is my obvious choice. With Chromium-based browsers, the extension platform is more heavily restricted by Manifest V3. You need to check what version and feature set is actually available in each browser. A blanket statement for all Chromium browsers wouldn’t be reliable.

Browser blockers, however, don’t protect native apps, TVs, game consoles, printers, or voice assistants. They also don’t provide a central view of DNS activity across all your devices.

A browser blocker is right for you if

• You want to filter ads and page elements in your browser as thoroughly as possible,
• You want to investigate individual rules directly on a webpage,
• You’re using it alongside a DNS filter.

My test setup

A fair comparison requires the same clients, the same upstream resolvers, the same test times, and filters as similar as possible. Otherwise, you’re measuring different blocklists or network paths, not the software itself.

I split the test into twelve areas. Percentages from test pages are only single measurements. They’re not general proof of protection effectiveness.

1. Blocking quality

I check classic banners, tracking scripts, social widgets, affiliate trackers, and telemetry. I also use these test pages:

• d3ward Adblock Test
• EFF Cover Your Tracks
• BrowserLeaks
• AdBlock Tester

You need to understand what each page measures. Cover Your Tracks examines browser fingerprinting, among other things. A DNS filter alone can’t eliminate a browser’s fingerprint. A high adblock test score also says little about whether your banking app, smart TV, and Microsoft 365 continue to work without issues.

I record:

• Percentage of blocked test requests,
• Detected trackers,
• Visible ads,
• Empty or hidden ad spaces,
• Reproducible malfunctions.

2. DNS performance

Single measurements work fine with dig and drill. Load tests can be run with dnsperf. I wouldn’t use namebench as the primary tool for a current reproducible test anymore, since the original project hasn’t been regularly maintained for a long time.

# First query, possible cache miss
dig @192.168.1.2 example.org A +stats

# Immediate repeat, typical cache hit
dig @192.168.1.2 example.org A +stats

# Check DNSSEC response
dig @192.168.1.2 cloudflare.com A +dnssec +multi

# Check IPv6 resolution
dig @192.168.1.2 example.org AAAA +stats

For meaningful results, I run each measurement multiple times and record the median and 95th percentile. A single millisecond value is meaningless if WiFi, mobile signal, or a cold cache is affecting the result.

What I measure:

• Response time on cache miss,
• Response time on cache hit,
• Error rate,
• DNSSEC validation,
• IPv4 and IPv6,
• Upstream failure behavior,
• DoH, DoT, and DoQ if applicable.

3. Website compatibility

I open roughly 50 pages from different categories: YouTube, Reddit, Amazon, Microsoft, Spiegel, Netflix, Twitch, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and several news sites.

I check layout, images, video, login, comments, search functions, and checkout processes. I evaluate cookie banners separately. Removing a banner isn’t automatically the same as rejecting consent.

4. Smart TV and streaming

This test highlights the advantage of network-wide filtering. I check Samsung TV, LG TV, Android TV, Fire TV, and Apple TV with YouTube, Twitch, Pluto TV, Rakuten TV, and Spotify, provided I have access to those devices.

I don’t expect complete ad-free playback. Many streaming services deliver ads and content through shared infrastructure. What matters is which telemetry gets blocked and whether playback, sign-in, and device activation continue to work.

5. App tracking

On Android and iOS, I test typical apps like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Spotify, weather apps, and games. I record:

• domains contacted,
• blocked DNS requests,
• ads still visible,
• functional failures after blocking,
• differences between startup, login, and normal use.

The count of blocked requests should never be reported as the count of prevented tracking events. An app can repeatedly request the same blocked domain, artificially inflating the counter.

6. IoT devices

Alexa, Google Home, Philips Hue, printers, smart plugs, and cameras often generate network traffic even when nobody’s actively using them. I capture DNS requests over at least 24 hours and review suspicious telemetry domains.

Then I don’t block indiscriminately. Cameras, voice assistants, and cloud-connected plugs may depend on manufacturer services for time synchronization, authentication, push notifications, or remote access.

7. Resource consumption

With Pi-hole and AdGuard Home, I measure RAM, CPU load, database size, response times, and processed DNS queries. On Linux, commands like these provide reproducible snapshots:

systemctl status pihole-FTL
systemctl status AdGuardHome

systemd-cgtop
ps -eo pid,comm,%cpu,%mem,rss --sort=-rss

Containers must be tested with the same limits, the same host, and comparable logging. Extensive logs and long retention periods affect memory consumption and database size.

8. Administration

Day-to-day, I evaluate the dashboard, query logs, search, statistics, groups, client rules, schedules, parental controls, allowlists, blocklists, configuration export, and API access.

For me, quick root-cause analysis matters more than chart count. A solution is well-administrated when I can get from a broken feature to the offending rule in minutes.

9. Privacy

I check:

• Where are query logs stored?
• Can logs be disabled or anonymized?
• How long are data retained?
• Is a cloud account required?
• Is upstream DNS encrypted?
• Is DNSSEC validated?
• Can EDNS Client Subnet be disabled?
• Who can reach the admin interface?

Encrypted DNS and local data retention are two separate concerns. DoH protects transport to the resolver. The resolver itself still sees the requests.

10. False positive rate

More blocks aren’t automatically better. I test banking, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Teams, Zoom, Steam, Epic Games, and Discord. Every necessary allowlist entry gets documented with domain, reason, affected feature, and filter list.

An allowlist should be as narrow as possible. Allowing an entire vendor domain when only a single host is needed unnecessarily weakens the filter.

11. Mobility

Scenario	Pi-hole	AdGuard Home	NextDNS	Browser blocker
At home	5/5	5/5	4/5	2/5
Away without additional infrastructure	1/5	1/5	5/5	5/5
Away with VPN to home network	5/5	5/5	5/5	5/5 in browser
Smartphone including apps	3/5	4/5	5/5	2/5
Smart home	5/5	5/5	5/5	0/5

These scores reflect suitability for each scenario, not measured block rate. For Pi-hole and AdGuard Home, mobile ratings improve only with an additional VPN. A browser blocker scores 5/5 when away for browser content, not for native apps.

12. Advanced features

For a deeper technical comparison, I examine:

• DNS over HTTPS,
• DNS over TLS,
• DNS over QUIC,
• DNSSEC validation,
• EDNS Client Subnet,
• caching efficiency,
• wildcard and regex rules,
• CNAME-based bypass attempts,
• EDNS0 behavior,
• failover,
• startup time after restart,
• backup and restore,
• API capabilities,
• automatic list updates.

Not every feature is meaningfully measurable on every solution. A browser blocker isn’t a DNS resolver. NextDNS runs on remote servers, so I can’t compare its RAM usage to Pi-hole’s.

Weighted scoring matrix

For a transparent overall rating, I use a one-to-five scale and the following weights:

Category	Weight
Blocking quality	25%
Speed	15%
Compatibility	15%
Privacy	15%
Usability	10%
Maintenance overhead	10%
Device coverage	5%
Extra features	5%

The calculation is straightforward:

Overall score = Sum of individual score × weight

Example for a spreadsheet:

=SUMPRODUCT(B2:B9;C2:C9)/SUM(C2:C9)

I still wouldn’t publish a single global ranking. Weighting depends on use case. If you’re often on the go, mobility deserves higher weight. If you run sensitive local devices, privacy and local logging matter more. For a family network, schedules and separate profiles might outrank API access.

My assessment as administrator and developer

Pi-hole offers me the closest match to a classic Linux service. Configuration is transparent, the community is large, and the system fits well into an existing homelab. In return, I must keep the service available myself and add encrypted upstream DNS if needed.

AdGuard Home is the more complete standalone application for me. Encrypted DNS, client management, and protection features are tightly integrated. If I had to set up a local DNS filter from scratch today without existing Pi-hole infrastructure, AdGuard Home would be my first candidate for a direct test.

NextDNS wins on mobility and low maintenance overhead. For a laptop and smartphone regularly used outside the home network, that’s compelling. In exchange, I lose local control and must trust the provider with my DNS processing.

Router filters work if the specific router provides good protocols, current lists, and client rules. A blanket recommendation isn’t possible because products vary too much.

A browser blocker stays installed on my development machines. It removes page elements and blocks more precisely than any standalone DNS filter. Alone it’s insufficient because apps, televisions, and IoT devices remain unprotected.

My practical recommendation

For my homelab, a two-tier approach makes the most sense:

1. Pi-hole or AdGuard Home as a local DNS filter for the entire network.
2. A good browser blocker on desktop and laptop for URL-based and cosmetic filtering.
3. A VPN to the home network or NextDNS for devices frequently used away from home, if needed.

Between Pi-hole and AdGuard Home, the raw block rate doesn’t decide it. With identical lists, both operate at the same technical level. What matters is usability, encrypted DNS, group management, backup, and which interface shows you the cause of an outage faster.

If you want minimal administration and accept cloud DNS, NextDNS serves you better. If you want data stored locally and control your homelab yourself, Pi-hole or AdGuard Home is the choice. If you only install a browser extension, you protect the browser well but not the network.

This pragmatic separation of concerns matters more to me than a test seal with as high a percentage as possible.

References and further reading

• Pi-hole, official documentation
• Pi-hole, network configuration after installation
• Pi-hole, FTL configuration and privacy levels
• AdGuard Home, official project
• AdGuard Home, feature comparison
• AdGuard Home, known limitations of DNS blocking
• NextDNS, privacy
• NextDNS, pricing and usage limits
• EFF, Cover Your Tracks

FAQ: Pi-hole vs. AdGuard Home vs. NextDNS