head to head · open source
AdGuardHome vs OpenVPN
AdGuardHome has 38,105 GitHub stars, 2,593 forks, 1,253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenVPN has 14,762 stars, 3,424 forks, 226 open issues and last shipped yesterday. AdGuardHome leads on adoption by 158% (38,105 vs 14,762 stars). AdGuardHome is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; OpenVPN is written in C under a custom or non-standard licence. AdGuardHome has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, OpenVPN 23%. OpenVPN 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 | OpenVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 15K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 3.4K |
| 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 OpenVPN if
- You want the OpenVPN feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and OpenVPN 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 OpenVPN
OpenVPN A Secure tunneling daemon Copyright (C) 2002 2026 OpenVPN Inc. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation. To get the latest release of OpenVPN, go to: To Build and Install, tar zxf openvpn .tar.gz cd openvpn ./configure make make install or see the file INSTALL for more info. For information on how to build OpenVPN on/for Windows with MinGW or MSVC see README.cmake.md. For detailed information on OpenVPN, including examples, see the man page For a sample VPN…
read the full OpenVPN overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AdGuardHome or OpenVPN more popular?
AdGuardHome has 38,105 GitHub stars and OpenVPN has 14,762. AdGuardHome has the larger community by that measure.
Are AdGuardHome and OpenVPN free?
Both are open source. AdGuardHome is licensed under GPL-3.0, and OpenVPN has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between AdGuardHome and OpenVPN?
AdGuardHome is written in TypeScript and OpenVPN 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 OpenVPN?
Choose AdGuardHome if you want the larger community (38,105 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose OpenVPN if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.