head to head · open source
AdGuardHome vs coredns
AdGuardHome has 36,970 GitHub stars, 2,520 forks, 1,253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. coredns has 14,329 stars, 2,532 forks, 282 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. AdGuardHome leads on adoption by 158% (36,970 vs 14,329 stars). AdGuardHome is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; coredns is written in Go under Apache-2.0. AdGuardHome has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, coredns 18%. AdGuardHome was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | coredns | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 14K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 2.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick AdGuardHome if
- You weight community size — 37K 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 coredns if
- You want the coredns feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and coredns fits your workflow better
About AdGuardHome
AdGuard Home is a free and open source, network wide DNS server that blocks ads and trackers for every device on a network, aimed at self hosters, homelab operators, and network administrators who want filtering without installing client side software on each device.
read the full AdGuardHome overview →
About coredns
CoreDNS is a CNCF graduated DNS server and forwarder written in Go that resolves queries through a chain of plugins, aimed at platform and infrastructure engineers who run DNS for Kubernetes clusters, service discovery, or authoritative zones and need to extend its behaviour without forking the core.
read the full coredns overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AdGuardHome or coredns more popular?
AdGuardHome has 36,970 GitHub stars and coredns has 14,329. AdGuardHome has the larger community by that measure.
Are AdGuardHome and coredns free?
Both are open source. AdGuardHome is licensed under GPL-3.0 and coredns under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AdGuardHome and coredns?
AdGuardHome is written in TypeScript and coredns 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 coredns?
Choose AdGuardHome if you want the larger community (36,970 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose coredns if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.