head to head · open source
AdGuardHome vs nginx
AdGuardHome has 38,073 GitHub stars, 2,589 forks, 1,253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nginx has 32,033 stars, 8,410 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. AdGuardHome leads on adoption by 19% (38,073 vs 32,033 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 | ★ 38K | ★ 32K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 8.4K |
| 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 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
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 nginx
NGINX (pronounced "engine x" or "en jin eks") is the world's most popular Web Server, high performance Load Balancer, Reverse Proxy, API Gateway and Content Cache. NGINX is free and open source software, distributed under the terms of a simplified 2 clause BSD like license. Enterprise distributions, commercial support and training are available from F5, Inc. [!IMPORTANT] The goal of this README is to provide a basic, structured introduction to NGINX for novice users. Please refer to the full NGINX documentation for detailed information on installing, building, configuring, debugging, and more. These…
read the full nginx overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AdGuardHome or nginx more popular?
AdGuardHome has 38,073 GitHub stars and nginx has 32,033. 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 (38,073 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.