# Pi-hole

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Pi-hole and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Network-wide DNS ad blocker that people recommend for running mostly set and forget, with local DNS records if used as the resolver.

## Why people recommend it

- Mostly set and forget (1 comments): "Pihole and the like is an easier sell, since it can be mostly set and forget" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46966857))
- Local DNS record support (1 comments): "PiHole includes the ability to set local DNS records if you use it as your DNS resolver." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47311565))
- Auto-updates OS and container (1 comments): "a Pihole container that silently and successfully auto-updated both the OS and the service container" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49504326))
- Named among privacy tools (1 comments): "OpenSnitch, Little Snitch and PiHole can help you with all of these things." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48609636))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [NextDNS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nextdns.md): 81 recommend
- [AdGuard DNS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/adguard-dns.md): 26 recommend
- [RethinkDNS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rethinkdns.md): 16 recommend
- [Control D](https://hackerapproved.com/p/controld.md): 16 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Pi-hole", https://hackerapproved.com/p/pihole/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).