What is AdGuard Home used for?

AdGuard Home is a self-hosted DNS server that blocks ads and trackers for every device on your network without client software. It is a good fit for blocking ads on every device at home and running a private encrypted DNS resolver.

Is AdGuard Home open source?

Yes. AdGuard Home is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome and is written mainly in TypeScript.

Is AdGuard Home free?

Yes. AdGuard Home is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host AdGuard Home?

Yes. AdGuard Home can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is AdGuard Home an alternative to?

AdGuard Home is an open-source alternative to Cisco Umbrella, NextDNS and Control D. Other open-source alternatives to Cisco Umbrella include Pi-hole, Technitium DNS Server and Blocky.

Is AdGuard Home actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to AdGuard Home was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v0.107.79, published on 18 August 2026. The project has 37k stars on GitHub.

AdGuard Home: open-source alternative to Cisco Umbrella

About AdGuard Home

AdGuard Home is network-wide software for blocking ads and tracking. Once it is set up, it covers all devices on your home network without any client-side software. It works as a DNS server that redirects tracking and advertising domains to a black hole, so devices never connect to those servers. It is free and open source under the GPL-3.0 license.

The server is written mainly in Go with a TypeScript web interface, and it shares a lot of code with the public AdGuard DNS service. Encrypted DNS protocols are supported, including DNS-over-HTTPS, DNS-over-TLS, DNS-over-QUIC and DNSCrypt. Installation is done with an automated script for Linux, Unix, macOS, FreeBSD and OpenBSD, or manually following the wiki, and there is an HTTP API. The project documents how it differs from Pi-hole and from browser-based ad blockers.

Key features

Network-wide ad and tracker blocking via DNS
No software needed on client devices
DNS-over-HTTPS, TLS, QUIC and DNSCrypt support
Web interface and HTTP API
Automated install script for Unix-like systems
Wiki guides and build-from-source instructions

Good fit for

→Blocking ads on every device at home
→Running a private encrypted DNS resolver
→Alternative to Pi-hole for home networks

Built with: TypeScript; Go
Tags: dns; adblock; privacy; self-hosted; network; dns-over-https; tracker-blocking; golang

AdGuard Home: questions and answers

What is AdGuard Home used for?: AdGuard Home is a self-hosted DNS server that blocks ads and trackers for every device on your network without client software. It is a good fit for blocking ads on every device at home and running a private encrypted DNS resolver.
Is AdGuard Home open source?: Yes. AdGuard Home is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome and is written mainly in TypeScript.
Is AdGuard Home free?: Yes. AdGuard Home is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host AdGuard Home?: Yes. AdGuard Home can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is AdGuard Home an alternative to?: AdGuard Home is an open-source alternative to Cisco Umbrella, NextDNS and Control D. Other open-source alternatives to Cisco Umbrella include Pi-hole, Technitium DNS Server and Blocky.
Is AdGuard Home actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to AdGuard Home was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v0.107.79, published on 18 August 2026. The project has 37k stars on GitHub.