head to head · open source
AdGuardHome vs DNS-collector
AdGuardHome has 37,282 GitHub stars, 2,532 forks, 1,253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. DNS-collector has 570 stars, 89 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. AdGuardHome leads on adoption by 6,441% (37,282 vs 570 stars). AdGuardHome is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; DNS-collector is written in Go under MIT. AdGuardHome has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, DNS-collector 16%. AdGuardHome was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (dns, 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 | DNS-collector | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 570 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 89 |
| 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 DNS-collector if
- You want the DNS-collector feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and DNS-collector 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 DNS-collector
DNS collector is a lightweight, open source DNS telemetry pipeline in Go that captures queries and responses from DNS servers and forwards normalized, enriched events to monitoring, analytics, and security systems.
read the full DNS-collector overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AdGuardHome or DNS-collector more popular?
AdGuardHome has 37,282 GitHub stars and DNS-collector has 570. AdGuardHome has the larger community by that measure.
Are AdGuardHome and DNS-collector free?
Both are open source. AdGuardHome is licensed under GPL-3.0 and DNS-collector under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AdGuardHome and DNS-collector?
AdGuardHome is written in TypeScript and DNS-collector 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 DNS-collector?
Choose AdGuardHome if you want the larger community (37,282 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose DNS-collector if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.