AdGuard Home

TAS Score: S3/3 – D5/5 – A3 / T2 Critical criteria for this category: Pause.

Brief Description

Network-wide software for blocking ads, trackers, and malware. Works as a DNS server with filtering and parental control, entirely self‑hosted.

Architectural Role

Network layer: provides DNS resolution with content filtering, can also act as DHCP server. A core component for maintaining a clean, private network.

Technical Autonomy

✅ Works without internet (after initial setup; caching and local filtering continue)
✅ Stores data locally (configuration, statistics, filter lists)
✅ Does not require external accounts
✅ Allows data export (config export, statistics can be backed up)
✅ Provides offline updates (manual upgrade via packages or Docker)

Philosophical Assessment (whose.world criteria)

Criterion	Status	Comments
Pause	Yes	DNS service can be stopped/started manually; filtering can be disabled per client.
Exit	Yes	No vendor lock‑in; all configuration and logs are local, can be migrated.
Recoverability	Yes	Configuration backups, statistics export.
Visibility	Yes	Open source, full documentation, query logs visible to admin.
External Dependencies	Yes	No required external services; can run completely offline.

Configuration (Minimal)

Example docker-compose.yml snippet:

services:
  adguard-home:
    image: adguard/adguardhome:latest
    container_name: adguard-home
    ports:
      - "53:53/tcp"
      - "53:53/udp"
      - "80:80/tcp"          # Web UI
      - "443:443/tcp"        # HTTPS
      - "784:784/udp"        # DNS-over-QUIC
    volumes:
      - ./adguard-work:/opt/adguardhome/work
      - ./adguard-conf:/opt/adguardhome/conf
    restart: unless-stopped

Minimal Autonomous Server – can be extended with AdGuard Home for network‑wide ad blocking.

Alternatives

Pi‑hole – similar, but AdGuard Home offers native DoT/DoQ and more advanced features.
NextDNS – cloud‑based, not fully autonomous.
Unbound – recursive DNS resolver without filtering.

Trajectory

Direction: stable.

AdGuard Home has been GPL-3.0 since launch. The project is actively maintained, self-hosting is well-documented, and there are no signs of license changes or feature migration to a paid tier. AdGuard Ltd. also develops a commercial DNS service (AdGuard DNS), but AdGuard Home remains fully separate and community-supported.

Signal assessment:

Signal	Status	Evidence
License	➖	GPL-3.0 since launch — no changes.
Feature gating	➖	No features moved to paid tier; commercial products are separate.
Self-hosting	✅	Installation and documentation consistently improving.
Governance	➖	Maintained by AdGuard Ltd.; active community contributions on GitHub.

Signal key: ✅ opening · ➖ neutral · ⚠️ closing