head to head · open source
AdGuardHome vs coredns
AdGuardHome has 38,073 GitHub stars, 2,589 forks, 1,253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. coredns has 14,403 stars, 2,553 forks, 282 open issues and last shipped yesterday. AdGuardHome leads on adoption by 164% (38,073 vs 14,403 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 | ★ 38K | ★ 14K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| 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 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
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 coredns
CoreDNS is a DNS server/forwarder, written in Go, that chains plugins. Each plugin performs a (DNS) function. CoreDNS is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation graduated project. CoreDNS is a fast and flexible DNS server. The key word here is flexible : with CoreDNS you are able to do what you want with your DNS data by utilizing plugins. If some functionality is not provided out of the box you can add it by writing a plugin. CoreDNS can listen for DNS requests coming in over: UDP/TCP (go'old DNS). TLS DoT (RFC 7858). DNS over HTTP/2 DoH (RFC 8484). DNS over HTTP/3 DoH3 DNS over QUIC DoQ (RFC 9250). gRPC (not a…
read the full coredns overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AdGuardHome or coredns more popular?
AdGuardHome has 38,073 GitHub stars and coredns has 14,403. 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 (38,073 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.