AdGuard Home
Network wide ad and tracker blocking at the DNS level
AdGuard Home is a DNS server that blocks ads, trackers and malicious domains for every device on your network, including phones and TVs where you cannot install a blocker. It is GPL-3.0 and ships as a single binary or container.
Best for when
- you want ads and trackers blocked on every device in the house
- you want to see what your devices contact
- you want encrypted DNS without configuring each device
Watch out for
- if it goes down, the whole network loses name resolution
- block lists sometimes break sites, so you will maintain an allow list
- it cannot block ads served from the same domain as the content, such as many video ads
Block once, for every device
Every device asks a DNS server where a domain lives. Point them at AdGuard Home and it refuses to answer for domains on your block lists, so the ad or tracker never loads. A smart TV benefits as much as a laptop.
It also supports encrypted DNS (DNS over HTTPS and TLS) both upstream and for your clients, per client rules, and a query log that shows exactly what your devices talk to, which is often an eye opener.
Mind the single point of failure
It needs very little: a few tens of megabytes of RAM and almost no CPU. The risk is availability. When it goes down, name resolution stops for the whole network, and it looks like the internet is broken. Have a fallback or a second instance.
Never expose port 53 to the internet, as open resolvers are abused for attacks. Over Tailscale you can use it as the DNS for your devices anywhere. Expect the occasional broken site from an over eager list, and keep an allow list handy.
