Pi-hole is a volunteer-run network ad blocker that you install yourself, and people look elsewhere when they want a vendor they can name, a different kind of DNS job, or a setup that runs on the machines they already have. Some want another blocker with a company behind it, others want a plain resolver or a server for their own zones.
Sebastiaan SmitsFounderShort answer: The first three alternatives to Pi-hole in our DNS server software ranking are Blocky, Technitium DNS Server and AdGuard Home. Smaller vendors fill the top three places where the category offers them, and the household names start at place 4. Choose Blocky if you run containers and want a small filtering proxy driven by a config file. All 11 alternatives below are ranked products from Best DNS Server Software in 2026, and each says where it differs from Pi-hole.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
Pi-hole's homepage offers Sponsor Us and Donate links and shows no prices or plans. Our category record describes the team as remote volunteers with no stated owner and lists no paid support. A business that needs a contract, a service level or a named contact has nothing to buy here and has to look at other projects.
The page describes self-hosted use only: a Docker container or a supported Linux distribution, on a Raspberry Pi, an old PC, a VM or a NAS. We saw no hosted option. Updates, backups through Teleporter and uptime of the one box that every device asks for names are your job, and when it stops, the network loses name resolution.
The pages we read name no country, and the about and privacy pages returned HTTP 404 when we asked for them. The repository licence is EUPL v1.2, which is clear, but a procurement team that wants to see an operator, an address and a legal entity will not find them on the project pages.
| Alternative | Headquarters | Free option | Pricing model | Switch if | Our rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blocky | Not stated by the vendor | No free tier | See profile | you run containers and want a small filtering proxy driven by a config file | #9 |
| Technitium DNS Server | Not stated by the vendor | No free tier | See profile | you want one console for both your own zones and recursive lookups | #2 |
| AdGuard Home | Not stated by the vendor | No free tier | See profile | you want the same blocker idea from a named company, plus parental controls | #10 |
| Unbound | Netherlands | No free tier | See profile | you want a validating resolver from an identifiable Dutch foundation | #4 |
| Acrylic DNS Proxy | Not stated by the vendor | Yes | See profile | your resolver has to live on a Windows PC and you only need caching | #13 |
| CoreDNS | Not stated by the vendor | No free tier | See profile | your DNS lives inside Kubernetes or you like compiling in only the plugins you need | #5 |
| Knot DNS | Not stated by the vendor | No free tier | Published | you publish zones and want a dedicated authoritative server | #1 |
| NSD | Netherlands | No free tier | See profile | you serve your own domains and prefer a nonprofit Dutch maintainer | #3 |
| BIND | United States | No free tier | See profile | you want a long-established server with paid support available from a nonprofit | #7 |
| PowerDNS | Not stated by the vendor | No free tier | See profile | you need supported authoritative and recursive servers at business scale | #6 |
| Simple DNS Plus | Not stated by the vendor | No free tier | See profile | your estate is Windows and you want a licensed server with an evaluation first | #12 |
Not stated by the vendor · See profile
Blocky ships as a single binary and a Docker image, is configured in YAML and keeps no state of its own. It handles UDP, TCP, DoH, DoT, DoQ and DoH3, applies rules per client group and exports Prometheus metrics. Its Apache-2.0 repository is the only vendor page we could read, and it filters rather than hosting public zones.
Switch from Pi-hole if you run containers and want a small filtering proxy driven by a config file.
Not stated by the vendor · See profile
Technitium puts an authoritative and a recursive server into one self-hosted package, managed from a browser console. Forwarders can speak DNS-over-TLS, DNS-over-HTTPS or DNS-over-QUIC, and the page claims little or no configuration is needed. The pages we read gave no licence, price, country or address.
Switch from Pi-hole if you want one console for both your own zones and recursive lookups.
Technitium DNS Server comes 2 of 13 when DNS server software products are ranked here →
Not stated by the vendor · See profile
AdGuard Home blocks ads, trackers, phishing and malware domains on your own hardware, with a DHCP server, parental control and enforced safe search. Upstreams can use DoH, DoT or DNSCrypt, and it can act as a DoH or DoT server. Code is GPL v3.0 and the copyright line names Adguard Software Ltd.
Switch from Pi-hole if you want the same blocker idea from a named company, plus parental controls.
AdGuard Home, #10 of 13 in our DNS server software ranking →
Netherlands · See profile
Unbound is a validating, recursive, caching resolver from Stichting NLnet Labs, a nonprofit in Amsterdam, with BSD-3-Clause source. Professional support is offered, though the page we read lists no plan names or amounts. It resolves for clients and does not filter adverts by itself, so it is a base layer rather than a Pi-hole substitute.
Switch from Pi-hole if you want a validating resolver from an identifiable Dutch foundation.
See the full Unbound entry, ranked 4 of 13 among DNS server software products →
Not stated by the vendor · See profile
Acrylic is a free DNS proxy for Windows that caches answers from the servers you already use. Its GPL version 2 source is written in Delphi, and release 2.2.1 of 12 February 2025 comes as an installer, a portable package or source. Downloads sit on SourceForge. It speeds up one machine's lookups and is not a network service.
Switch from Pi-hole if your resolver has to live on a Windows PC and you only need caching.
Acrylic DNS Proxy review, listed at 13 of 13 DNS server software products →
Not stated by the vendor · See profile
CoreDNS is written in Go, graduated from the CNCF, and builds its behaviour from chained plugins such as zone files, rewriting, Kubernetes service discovery and Prometheus metrics. Apache 2 licence, copyright held by the CoreDNS Authors and The Linux Foundation. The page names no vendor support, and the plugin model suits engineers.
Switch from Pi-hole if your DNS lives inside Kubernetes or you like compiling in only the plugins you need.
Not stated by the vendor · Published
Knot DNS is an authoritative-only server released under GPL 3 or later, aimed at Linux, the BSDs, macOS and other POSIX systems. The footer credits CZ.NIC, though we saw no imprint. It answers for zones you own and cannot resolve for your clients, so ad blocking is outside its remit entirely.
Switch from Pi-hole if you publish zones and want a dedicated authoritative server.
Full verdict on Knot DNS, which sits at number 1 of 13 for DNS server software →
Netherlands · See profile
NSD is NLnet Labs' fast authoritative nameserver, run by Stichting NLnet Labs at Science Park 400 in Amsterdam. The vendor page names no licence for it and shows no prices, only a Professional Support page. Pair it with Unbound if you also need a resolver, and check licence terms in the source.
Switch from Pi-hole if you serve your own domains and prefer a nonprofit Dutch maintainer.
Open the NSD profile, 3rd of 13 in the DNS server software guide →
United States · See profile
BIND 9 comes from Internet Systems Consortium, a US nonprofit active since 1994 that also operates the F-Root server. The software costs nothing, support subscriptions are sold on contact and the page shows no plan names. Community help means documentation, a knowledgebase and mailing lists. It covers more than a home network needs.
Switch from Pi-hole if you want a long-established server with paid support available from a nonprofit.
BIND review, listed at 7 of 13 DNS server software products →
Not stated by the vendor · See profile
PowerDNS sells Authoritative Server, Recursor and DNSdist, plus commercial extensions such as ZoneControl. Authoritative Server source is under GPL-2.0. The only price we saw was an annual Authoritative Essentials bundle starting at 8,330 with a dollar sign, covering up to 8, 16 or 24 cores. No free trial is named.
Switch from Pi-hole if you need supported authoritative and recursive servers at business scale.
#6 out of 13 DNS server software products: read the PowerDNS review →
Not stated by the vendor · See profile
Simple DNS Plus is a commercial DNS server for Windows desktop and server editions, with the copyright line naming JH Software. A 14-day evaluation can be downloaded and licences are bought per server. The buy page returned a 404, so edition names and prices are unconfirmed. It is a Windows product only.
Switch from Pi-hole if your estate is Windows and you want a licensed server with an evaluation first.
Simple DNS Plus holds rank 12 among 13 entries in our DNS server software guide →
AdGuard Home: It blocks ads, trackers and malware domains on your own hardware, adds parental control and a DHCP server, and the copyright line names Adguard Software Ltd.
Blocky: A single binary or Docker image configured in YAML, with per-client-group rules and Prometheus metrics.
Unbound: Stichting NLnet Labs in Amsterdam publishes it under BSD-3-Clause and offers professional support, though no filtering is described.
BIND: ISC, a US nonprofit since 1994, gives BIND 9 away at no cost and sells support subscriptions on contact.
Acrylic DNS Proxy: It is a free, GPL version 2 caching proxy that sits in front of the DNS servers you already use.
Pi-hole remains a sensible choice when you have a spare Raspberry Pi or Docker host and want every phone, television and IoT gadget filtered without installing anything on them. The query log, group rules per device, regex lists, a built-in DHCP server and a REST API are all on the homepage, and Teleporter makes backups simple. If volunteer support is acceptable, there is little reason to leave.
Use Teleporter to save your configuration, then copy your allow lists, deny lists and regex entries by hand into the new tool, since formats differ. Test a week of normal browsing against the new blocker, because rules that were tuned over months rarely transfer one for one.
If Pi-hole's built-in DHCP server gives your devices their DNS address, switching means either enabling DHCP elsewhere or pointing the router at the new resolver. Lower the lease time a day ahead, and keep the old box running until every device has renewed.
The pages we read show no prices and no plans. The software is published under EUPL v1.2, and the site asks for sponsorship and donations without stating amounts, so what you pay is hardware and your own time.
The homepage covers only self-hosted installs in Docker or on supported Linux, on a Pi, an old PC, a VM or a NAS. It mentions no cloud service, so any remote use means you set up the host and its access yourself.
AdGuard Home and Blocky both block ads and trackers at the DNS level on your own hardware. AdGuard Home adds a DHCP server and parental control, while Blocky is a single binary configured in YAML.
Not by itself. Unbound is a validating, recursive resolver from NLnet Labs and does not describe any ad filtering, so people usually run it beside or underneath a filter rather than instead of one.
Knot DNS, NSD, BIND and PowerDNS Authoritative Server serve zones you own. Technitium combines authoritative and recursive roles in one package. Blocky, AdGuard Home and Pi-hole filter lookups and are not described as zone servers.
BIND and Unbound both mention professional support through their operators, and PowerDNS sells a bundle with commercial support. None of the pages we read for these gave a full price list, so ask each project directly.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Written, edited and fact-checked by Sebastiaan Smits. Last reviewed 7 November 2026. How we review.
