head to head · open source
AdGuardHome vs nginx
AdGuardHome has 36,970 GitHub stars, 2,520 forks, 1,253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nginx has 31,681 stars, 8,302 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. AdGuardHome leads on adoption by 17% (36,970 vs 31,681 stars). AdGuardHome is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; nginx is written in C under BSD-2-Clause. AdGuardHome has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, nginx 26%. 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 | nginx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 32K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 8.3K |
| 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 nginx if
- You want the nginx feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and nginx 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 nginx
NGINX is the official open source repository for the NGINX web server and its load balancer, reverse proxy, API gateway and content cache roles, written in C under the BSD 2 Clause licence and aimed at system administrators, DevOps engineers and platform teams who need to serve, balance and protect their own HTTP traffic.
read the full nginx overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AdGuardHome or nginx more popular?
AdGuardHome has 36,970 GitHub stars and nginx has 31,681. AdGuardHome has the larger community by that measure.
Are AdGuardHome and nginx free?
Both are open source. AdGuardHome is licensed under GPL-3.0 and nginx under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AdGuardHome and nginx?
AdGuardHome is written in TypeScript and nginx in C. 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 nginx?
Choose AdGuardHome if you want the larger community (36,970 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose nginx if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.