head to head · open source
AdGuardHome vs awl
AdGuardHome has 38,266 GitHub stars, 2,604 forks, 1,253 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. awl has 761 stars, 53 forks, 35 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. AdGuardHome leads on adoption by 4,928% (38,266 vs 761 stars). AdGuardHome is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; awl is written in Go under MPL-2.0. AdGuardHome has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, awl 7%. awl was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (golang), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| AdGuardHome | awl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 761 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-11-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 53 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick AdGuardHome if
- You weight community size — 38K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick awl if
- You want the awl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and awl fits your workflow better
About AdGuardHome
Privacy protection center for you and your devices Free and open source, powerful network wide ads & trackers blocking DNS server. AdGuard.com Wiki Reddit Twitter Telegram AdGuard Home is a network wide software for blocking ads and tracking. After you set it up, it'll cover ALL your home devices, and you don't need any client side software for that. It operates as a DNS server that re routes tracking domains to a “black hole”, thus preventing your devices from connecting to those servers. It's based on software we use for our public [AdGuard DNS] servers, and both share a lot of code. [AdGuard DNS]: Getting…
read the full AdGuardHome overview →
About awl
Table of contents About Why Anywherelan Features Screenshots How it works Security Reproducible builds Installation The web UI Android Windows ( awl tray ) macOS Linux desktop ( awl tray ) Linux server ( awl ) Connecting devices Using devices as SOCKS5 proxy VPN gateway (full tunnel exit node) Configuration Config file location Example config Monitoring Terminal based client Common examples Upgrading Platform notes & known limitations Contributing License About Anywherelan (awl for brevity) is a peer to peer mesh VPN for connecting your own devices to each other, at the IP level, from wherever they are. A laptop…
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Frequently asked questions
Is AdGuardHome or awl more popular?
AdGuardHome has 38,266 GitHub stars and awl has 761. AdGuardHome has the larger community by that measure.
Are AdGuardHome and awl free?
Both are open source. AdGuardHome is licensed under GPL-3.0 and awl under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AdGuardHome and awl?
AdGuardHome is written in TypeScript and awl in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, AdGuardHome or awl?
Choose AdGuardHome if you want the larger community (38,266 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose awl if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.