Pi-hole
Ranked 7 of 7 network ad blockers by recommenders
Network-wide DNS ad blocker that people recommend for running mostly set and forget, with local DNS records if used as the resolver.
Network-wide DNS ad blocker that people recommend for running mostly set and forget, with local DNS records if used as the resolver.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Mostly set and forget
“Pihole and the like is an easier sell, since it can be mostly set and forget”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “The Switch to Linux and the Beginning of My Self-Hosting Journey” Local DNS record support
“PiHole includes the ability to set local DNS records if you use it as your DNS resolver.”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “My Homelab Setup” Auto-updates OS and container
“a Pihole container that silently and successfully auto-updated both the OS and the service container”
Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Omarchy: Any User Process Can Escalate to Root” Named among privacy tools
“OpenSnitch, Little Snitch and PiHole can help you with all of these things.”
Comment from 20 Jun 2026 in “AURpocalypse now: a look at the recent AUR attacks”
Other network ad blockers people recommend
The four most recommended other network ad blockers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pi-hole | 136 | 26 | 84% | 12 | 5 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| NextDNS | 81 | 14 | 85% | 12 | 3 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| AdGuard Home | 48 | 3 | 94% | 13 | — | Approved |
| AdGuard DNS | 26 | 3 | 90% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Pi-holeThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
4 of the 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“a Pihole container that silently and successfully auto-updated both the OS and the service container”
“OpenSnitch, Little Snitch and PiHole can help you with all of these things.”
“PiHole includes the ability to set local DNS records if you use it as your DNS resolver.”
“Pihole and the like is an easier sell, since it can be mostly set and forget”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.