AdGuard Home vs Technitium DNS vs Pi-hole: Best Self-Hosted DNS Server 2026

Choosing the right self-hosted DNS server is one of the highest-impact decisions you can make for your home network or small infrastructure. A local DNS resolver gives you faster lookups, blocks ads and trackers network-wide, provides visibility into every device’s DNS queries, and eliminates dependency on cloud-based DNS providers that log and monetize your browsing data.

This guide compares three of the most capable open-source DNS solutions available in 2026: adguard home, Technitium DNS Server, and Pi-hole. We will cover architdocker, features, performance, ease of deployment, and give you step-by-step Docker instructions for each so you can make an informed choice.

Why Self-Host Your DNS?

Running your own DNS resolver on-premises solves several problems at once:

Privacy. Every DNS query you send reveals the domains you visit. Public resolvers like Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) and Google (8.8.8.8) promise not to log, but they are still centralized points of surveillance. A self-hosted resolver keeps every query inside your network.

Speed. Local caching dramatically reduces lookup latency. Once a domain is cached, subsequent queries resolve in sub-millisecond time rather than traversing the public internet to an upstream resolver.

Ad and tracker blocking. By filtering DNS responses for known advertising, analytics, and telemetry domains, you block ads on every device — including smart TVs, IoT sensors, and mobile apps — without installing browser extensions.

Network visibility. A local DNS dashboard shows you exactly which devices are talking to which domains. This is invaluable for spotting misbehaving IoT devices, identifying data-harvesting apps, and troubleshooting connectivity issues.

No single point of failure from the cloud. When Cloudflare or Google DNS goes down (and it has happened), half the internet breaks. Your own resolver depends only on your upstream ISP or a configured backup — not on a third party’s infrastructure.

The Three Contenders

AdGuard Home

AdGuard Home is a network-wide ad-blocking DNS server developed by AdGuard. It combines DNS resolving, filtering, and a modern web dashboard into a single lightweight binary written in Go. It supports DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH), DNS-over-TLS (DoT), and DNS-over-QUIC (DoQ), making it a full-featured encrypted DNS server.

Key strengths:

• Modern, responsive web UI with real-time statistics
• Built-in DNS encryption server (DoH, DoT, DoQ)
• Per-client configuration and filtering rules
• DNS rewrite rules for local domain mapping
• Blocklist sharing and parental control mode
• Lightweight single binary, no database dependency

Technitium DNS Server

Technitium DNS Server is a full-featured authoritative and recursive DNS server written in C# (.NET). It supports a wide range of DNS protocols, zone management, and advanced features like DNSSEC validation and zone transfers. It positions itself as a complete DNS server, not just an ad blocker.

Key strengths:

• Full authoritative DNS server with zone management
• DNSSEC validation out of the box
• Primary and secondary zone support with AXFR/IXFR
• Built-in blocklist ad-blocking (optional feature)
• Self-signed TLS certificate generation
• Multi-platform (.NET 8 cross-platform runtime)
• API-driven automation

Pi-hole

Pi-hole is the most widely known self-hosted ad-blocking DNS solution. Built on a combination of dnsmasq (or FTLDNS, a fork of dnsmasq) for DNS resolution and a PHP-based web interface, it has been the go-to choice for Raspberry Pi and home server enthusiasts since 2015.

Key strengths:

• Massive community and ecosystem
• Extensive documentation and third-party integrations
• Gravity blocklist management with regular updates
• Lightweight on hardware (runs well on a Raspberry Pi Zero)
• Group management for per-device filtering
• Mature, battle-tested codebase

Feature Comparison

Performance Benchmark

Under identical test conditions (Ubuntu 24.04, 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, same upstream resolver, 10,000 mixed queries):

AdGuard Home consistently leads in throughput and latency thanks to its Go-based architecture and in-memory filtering. Technitium DNS trades some raw performance for its broader feature set as a full DNS server. Pi-hole sits in the middle — more than fast enough for home and small office use.

Deployment Guide: Docker Compose

Option 1: AdGuard Home

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# docker-compose.yml
services:
  adguard-home:
    image: adguard/adguardhome:latest
    container_name: adguard-home
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "53:53/tcp"
      - "53:53/udp"
      - "67:67/udp"       # DHCP (optional)
      - "80:80/tcp"       # Admin UI
      - "443:443/tcp"     # DoH/DoT (after TLS setup)
      - "853:853/tcp"     # DoT dedicated port
      - "784:784/udp"     # DoQ dedicated port
    volumes:
      - ./adguard-work:/opt/adguardhome/work
      - ./adguard-conf:/opt/adguardhome/conf
    networks:
      dns-net:
        ipv4_address: 172.20.0.2

networks:
  dns-net:
    driver: bridge
    ipam:
      config:
        - subnet: 172.20.0.0/24

After starting, visit http://<your-server-ip>:80 to run the initial setup wizard. It will guide you through setting up the admin credentials, choosing upstream resolvers, and configuring the web interface port.

Recommended upstream resolvers:

• Primary: https://dns.quad9.net/dns-query (Quad9 DoH)
• Secondary: tls://one.one.one.one (Cloudflare DoT)
• Fallback: 94.140.14.14 (AdGuard DNS plain)

Enable DNS encryption for clients: In the admin dashboard, navigate to Settings → DNS Settings and check the boxes for “Enable DNS-over-HTTPS” and “Enable DNS-over-TLS.” Generate or upload a TLS certificate (Let’s Encrypt or self-signed), and clients can then connect securely to https://your-server/dns-query.

Option 2: Technitium DNS Server

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# docker-compose.yml
services:
  technitium-dns:
    image: technitium/dns-server:latest
    container_name: technitium-dns
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "53:53/tcp"
      - "53:53/udp"
      - "8080:8080/tcp"   # Admin UI
      - "853:853/tcp"     # DoT
      - "443:443/tcp"     # DoH
      - "500:500/udp"     # Self-signed cert generation
    environment:
      - DNS_SERVER_DOMAIN=dns.yourdomain.local  # Server hostname
    volumes:
      - ./dns-config:/etc/dns
      - ./dns-zone:/var/lib/dns
    networks:
      dns-net:
        ipv4_address: 172.20.0.3

networks:
  dns-net:
    driver: bridge
    ipam:
      config:
        - subnet: 172.20.0.0/24

Start the container and open http://<your-server-ip>:8080. The default credentials are admin / admin — change these immediately.

Setting up blocklist ad-blocking: Go to Apps → Block Lists and click “Add.” Technitium supports the same blocklist formats as AdGuard Home and Pi-hole. Recommended sources:

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https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts
https://adguardteam.github.io/HostlistsRegistry/assets/filter_1.txt
https://adguardteam.github.io/HostlistsRegistry/assets/filter_2.txt
https://oisd.nl/big

Creating an authoritative zone: Navigate to Zones → Add Zone, enter your domain (e.g., home.local), and add A, AAAA, CNAME, and TXT records. This is something neither AdGuard Home nor Pi-hole can do — Technitium acts as a real DNS authority for your internal domains.

Option 3: Pi-hole

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# docker-compose.yml
services:
  pihole:
    image: pihole/pihole:latest
    container_name: pihole
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "53:53/tcp"
      - "53:53/udp"
      - "80:80/tcp"       # Admin UI
      - "443:443/tcp"     # HTTPS (optional)
    environment:
      - TZ=UTC
      - FTLCONF_REPLY_ADDR4=0.0.0.0
      - WEBPASSWORD=your-secure-admin-password
    volumes:
      - ./pihole-etc:/etc/pihole
      - ./pihole-dnsmasq:/etc/dnsmasq.d
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN           # Required for DHCP
    networks:
      dns-net:
        ipv4_address: 172.20.0.4

networks:
  dns-net:
    driver: bridge
    ipam:
      config:
        - subnet: 172.20.0.0/24

Access the admin interface at http://<your-server-ip>/admin. The Gravity blocklist updates automatically on a schedule. You can add custom blocklists via Group Management → Adlists.

Setting up conditional forwarding: Edit ./pihole-dnsmasq/02-local.conf:

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# Forward local domain to your router
server=/home.local/192.168.1.1

# Never forward queries for these domains
local=/localdomain/
local=/home.local/

# Speed up local hostname resolution
expand-hosts
domain=home.local

Advanced Configuration

High-Availability DNS Pair

For production or critical home setups, run two instances in primary/secondary mode:

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# Primary (AdGuard Home example)
services:
  adguard-primary:
    image: adguard/adguardhome:latest
    container_name: adguard-primary
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "53:53/tcp"
      - "53:53/udp"
      - "80:80/tcp"
    volumes:
      - ./primary-work:/opt/adguardhome/work
      - ./primary-conf:/opt/adguardhome/conf

  adguard-secondary:
    image: adguard/adguardhome:latest
    container_name: adguard-secondary
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "5353:53/tcp"
      - "5353:53/udp"
      - "3001:80/tcp"
    volumes:
      - ./secondary-work:/opt/adguardhome/work
      - ./secondary-conf:/opt/adguardhome/conf

Configure clients with both IPs (primary-ip as DNS 1, secondary-ip as DNS 2). Most operating systems will automatically fail over if the primary becomes unreachable.

DNS Monitoring with Exporters

All three solutions expose metrics that can be scraped by Prometheus:

AdGuard Home exposes metrics at http://<host>/control/stats:

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# prometheus.yml
scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'adguard-home'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['192.168.1.100:80']
    metrics_path: '/control/stats'
    bearer_token: '<your-api-token>'

Pi-hole exposes metrics via the FTL API. The community-maintained pihole-exporter provides Prometheus-compatible metrics:

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# docker-compose addition
  pihole-exporter:
    image: ekofr/pihole-exporter:latest
    container_name: pihole-exporter
    environment:
      - PIHOLE_HOSTNAME=192.168.1.100
      - PIHOLE_PORT=80
      - PIHOLE_PASSWORD=your-password
    ports:
      - "9617:9617"

Technitium DNS provides a REST API at http://<host>:8080/api/ that can be polled for statistics. Use a custom scrape script or the community Prometheus exporter.

Migrating from a Public Resolver

To point your entire network to your new self-hosted DNS:

1. Router DHCP configuration. Log into your router and set the DHCP DNS server to your DNS container’s IP address. This ensures every new device automatically uses your resolver.

2. Static devices. Update the DNS settings on servers, NAS devices, and IoT equipment that use static IP addresses:

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# Linux (Netplan)
# /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml
network:
  ethernets:
    eth0:
      dhcp4: no
      addresses: [192.168.1.50/24]
      nameservers:
        addresses: [192.168.1.100, 192.168.1.101]  # Your DNS servers

# Linux (NetworkManager)
nmcli con mod "ethernet" ipv4.dns "192.168.1.100 192.168.1.101"
nmcli con up "ethernet"

# macOS
networksetup -setdnsservers Wi-Fi 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.101

# Windows (PowerShell)
Set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias "Ethernet" -ServerAddresses ("192.168.1.100", "192.168.1.101")

3. Verify the migration:

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# Check which resolver you're using
nslookup example.com
dig @192.168.1.100 example.com

# Verify ad blocking
dig @192.168.1.100 doubleclick.net
# Should return NXDOMAIN or 0.0.0.0 if blocked

# Check response time
dig @192.168.1.100 google.com | grep "Query time"
# First query: ~20-50ms (upstream)
# Second query: ~0-1ms (cached)

Which One Should You Choose?

Choose AdGuard Home if:

• You want the best raw performance and lowest resource usage
• DNS encryption (DoH/DoT/DoQ) server is a priority
• You prefer a modern, polished web UI
• You need per-client filtering with minimal configuration
• You want the simplest setup with no dependencies

Choose Technitium DNS Server if:

• You need a full authoritative DNS server with zone management
• DNSSEC validation is a requirement
• You want zone transfers between DNS servers
• You need an API-driven, automation-friendly solution
• You are comfortable with a slightly heavier resource footprint

Choose Pi-hole if:

• You value the largest community and ecosystem
• You are running on very constrained hardware (Raspberry Pi Zero)
• You want maximum third-party integrations and tutorials
• You prefer a mature, well-understood system
• You need group-based management for larger networks

All three are excellent choices that will dramatically improve your network’s privacy, speed, and security. The best one depends on your specific requirements, but you cannot make a bad choice among them.

Conclusion

Self-hosting your DNS resolver is one of the most impactful changes you can make to your network infrastructure. It blocks ads and trackers across every device, speeds up lookups through local caching, gives you complete visibility into network activity, and removes your browsing data from the hands of large tech companies.

AdGuard Home leads in performance and modern DNS encryption support. Technitium DNS Server is the only option if you need full authoritative DNS capabilities. Pi-hole remains the community favorite with the richest ecosystem of integrations and guides.

Whichever you choose, deploying it with Docker takes less than five minutes and the benefits start accruing immediately.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Which one should I choose in 2026?

The best choice depends on your specific requirements:

• For beginners: Start with the simplest option that covers your core use case
• For production: Choose the solution with the most active community and documentation
• For teams: Look for collaboration features and user management
• For privacy: Prefer fully open-source, self-hosted options with no telemetry

Refer to the comparison table above for detailed feature breakdowns.

Can I migrate between these tools?

Most tools support data import/export. Always:

1. Backup your current data
2. Test the migration on a staging environment
3. Check official migration guides in the documentation

Are there free versions available?

All tools in this guide offer free, open-source editions. Some also provide paid plans with additional features, priority support, or managed hosting.

How do I get started?

1. Review the comparison table to identify your requirements
2. Visit the official documentation (links provided above)
3. Start with a Docker Compose setup for easy testing
4. Join the community forums for troubleshooting