Pi-hole icon
Pi-hole icon

Pi-hole

Blocks ads for all connected devices at the DNS layer without client setup. Provides web control, in-app ad and tracker blocking, DHCP and API support, regex filtering, privacy modes, audit logs, and long-term query analytics for network management.

The Web interface shows how many ads were blocked, a query log, and more.

Cost / License

  • Free
  • Open Source

Application type

Platforms

  • Linux
  • Self-Hosted
  • CentOS
  • Fedora
  • Ubuntu
  • Debian
  • Raspberry Pi OS
  • Raspberry Pi
201likes
Save

Features

Properties

  1.  Privacy focused
  2.  Lightweight

Features

  1.  Network-wide blocking
  2.  Adblocking via DNS
  3.  DNS Server
  4.  Self-hosted
  5.  Ad-free
  6.  Dark Mode
  7.  DNS Proxy
  8.  Block Trackers
  9.  Dockerized
  10.  No registration required
  11.  Firewall
  12.  Custom DNS

Pi-hole News & Activities

Highlights All activities

Recent News

Recent activities

  • M T liked Pi-hole
  • ZPRMNT liked Pi-hole
  • Vittorio D'angiolino liked Pi-hole
  • Lewis John Villamor liked Pi-hole
  • Usnyn liked Pi-hole
  • madzor liked Pi-hole
  • sheysson miller liked Pi-hole
  • Mohamed Mostafa liked Pi-hole
  • Harbor Adblock icon
    Tim Brazer added Pi-hole as alternative to Harbor Adblock
  • Daigu liked Pi-hole

Comments and Reviews

   
Comment summary: Pi-hole is praised for effectively blocking ads, tracking, and malware across networks, enhancing internet experiences. Users commend its ease of setup, low resource usage, and ability to handle many ads daily. Pi-hole serves well as a Raspberry Pi project and provides additional functionalities like DNS. However, some users face issues with overblocking, leading them to switch to alternatives like eBlocker. Overall, Pi-hole is a versatile tool, especially beneficial when complemented with traditional ad blockers.
Top Positive Comment
2

Great open-source software. You can use it not only for ads, but also for DNS, including setting it up with DNSCrypt anonymized relays.

So basically you don't even need a browser ad-blocker, or to set up a separate DNS service.

And you also don't need to set it up on a separate server or docker if you don't want. You can set it up directly on Windows (basically) with WSL: https://github.com/DesktopECHO/Pi-Hole-for-WSL1

idkwhatname
1

No doubt the best ad blocking dns ever made

Will Smith
0

good open source add to block ads on your network. works well on a raspberry pi. easy to install

solandre-wyze-ap-shelta
0

One of the best projects I have ever followed. It works great at home and office.

Status
1

This is the first piece of software I installed on my DietPi system. it is amazing on my Nvidia Shield Android TV. I have blocked ads for A&E, Tubi TV, Pandora, Haystack news, Redbox

Review from a new or low-activity account — shown here, but not counted in the app rating.
Guest
0

Unsupported OS detected: Linuxmint 20.3

saucysalamander
0

Best way to block ads/telemetry from any app that isn't a web browser, and for web browsers is an excellent complement to uBlock Origin.

Replying to @saucysalamander

Why don't you think it's not good for web browsers? It does sometimes leave an empty grey box that says "advertisement," but that's a tradeoff for less browser fingerprinting.

7 of 18 comments

Featured in Lists

Into the Cyberverse

The ultimate list of apps/services for better Security, Privacy & Anonymity; Defense against Surveillance. What sets this list apart is its commitment to authenticity: No Sponsorship: Choices are made without commercial bias. No Affiliate Links: Purely user-benefit-focused. No Brand Deals: Independent and unbiased evaluations. Strict criteria ensure the tools prioritize user welfare and software quality: Opensource Preference: Prioritizing transparent and community-driven software. Cross-Platform Availability: Emphasizing tools usable across multiple systems. Active Development and Security Updates: Selecting only actively maintained tools with regular security enhancements. Proven Track Record: Requiring a history of reliability and positive feedback.
By Sooraj Sathyanarayanan199 appsUpdated

Selfhosting

Selfhosting is where you're hosting your own websites, apps, software, tools, and much more on your own server instead of having to rely on 3rd-party cloud providers such as Hetzner. Taking this approach to hosting gives you more control over your data and how your server or servers are managed. When you are running multiple things on one or two servers, within your home, it's called a "Homelab" and you're "Homelabbing" at that point. Running your own server and homelab within your home is great for privacy-conscious individuals such as myself, tech enthusiasts, small businesses, and those seeking more control of their digital life. The following lists provided here are applications and software I've gotten comfortable with and enjoyed using over the past 3 and a half years since I started homelabbing, it's based on my experience and what fits my criteria. Some well known softwares won't be listed here, as my experience may of not been at best with them. My criteria is that software is built in the open, respects user privacy and security, should not require a license to operate, and don't contain profanity and other minor things. I'm also willing to test new software to selfhost, feel free to comment or message me to try out other alternatives. There are other places to check out as well for those interesting selfhosting, such as Awesome Selfhosted, selfh.st, and other places you can find on the internet. https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted https://github.com/awesome-foss/awesome-sysadmin https://github.com/veggiemonk/awesome-docker If you ever need help with selfhosting, you can check out the following communities: Homelab Community on Fluxer, I personally run /r/selfhosted (Reddit) /c/selfhosted (Lemmy / Fediverse) There's also a wiki you can look into as well. If you believe an alternative software should be added to this list, please contact me or direct message via my AlternativeTo account. I'm also available on Signal. This lists gets updated every month at least, check back regularly.
By Korbs81 appsUpdated

My privacy & user friendly setup [2026]

What I use to protect my privacy that I would actually recommand to everyone to try as it does not requiere a lot of effort to use that instead of the GAFAM and Big Brother stuff ! Updated for 2026
By Darlene Sonalder56 appsUpdated

Official Links

What is Pi-hole?

Network-wide ad blocking via your own Linux hardware

The Pi-hole® is a DNS sinkhole that protects your devices from unwanted content without installing any client-side software.

  1. Easy-to-install: our dialogs walk you through the simple installation process in less than ten minutes
  2. Resolute: content is blocked in non-browser locations, such as ad-laden mobile apps and smart TVs
  3. Responsive: seamlessly speeds up the feel of everyday browsing by caching DNS queries
  4. Lightweight: runs smoothly with minimal hardware and software requirements
  5. Robust: a command-line interface that is quality assured for interoperability
  6. Insightful: a beautiful responsive Web Interface dashboard to view and control your Pi-hole
  7. Versatile: can optionally function as a DHCP server, ensuring all your devices are protected automatically
  8. Scalable: capable of handling hundreds of millions of queries when installed on server-grade hardware
  9. Modern: blocks ads over both IPv4 and IPv6
  10. Free: open source software that helps ensure you are the sole person in control of your privacy

Pi-hole information

AlternativeTo Categories

Network & Admin, Security & Privacy, Web Browsers, Development

GitHub repository

  •  61,134 Stars
  •  3,320 Forks
  •  45 Open Issues
  •   Updated  
View on GitHub

Our users have written 18 comments and reviews about Pi-hole, and it has gotten 201 likes

Pi-hole was added to AlternativeTo by RemovedUser on and this page was last updated .