head to head · open source
AdGuardHome vs pdns
AdGuardHome has 37,031 GitHub stars, 2,525 forks, 1,253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pdns has 4,473 stars, 1,026 forks, 932 open issues and last shipped yesterday. AdGuardHome leads on adoption by 728% (37,031 vs 4,473 stars). AdGuardHome is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; pdns is written in C++ under GPL-2.0. AdGuardHome has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, pdns 23%. pdns was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (dns), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| AdGuardHome | pdns | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 4.5K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-22 | 2026-09-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 pdns if
- You want the pdns feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and pdns 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 pdns
PowerDNS (pdns) is a single C++ source repository containing three distinct DNS products — the PowerDNS Authoritative Server, the PowerDNS Recursor, and dnsdist, a DNS load balancer — and it is aimed at network and infrastructure operators who run DNS themselves.
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Networking & Connectivity projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Networking & Connectivity field.
Frequently asked questions
Is AdGuardHome or pdns more popular?
AdGuardHome has 37,031 GitHub stars and pdns has 4,473. AdGuardHome has the larger community by that measure.
Are AdGuardHome and pdns free?
Both are open source. AdGuardHome is licensed under GPL-3.0 and pdns under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AdGuardHome and pdns?
AdGuardHome is written in TypeScript and pdns 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 pdns?
Choose AdGuardHome if you want the larger community (37,031 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose pdns if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.