Who should pick it
Pi-hole
Pick Pi-hole if you want the blocker with published minimums: its official prerequisites page states 512 MB RAM and 2 GB of free disk. It also has the larger GitHub audience in our dataset.
Comparison · DNS-level ad and tracker blocking
Pi-hole vs AdGuard Home
Pi-hole: Network-wide ad blocking via a DNS sinkhole.
AdGuard Home: Network-wide ads and trackers blocking DNS server.
Requirements
Side-by-side VPS specs
Every value is taken from each app’s RunOnVPS dataset entry. Badges show whether a figure is an official project figure or a RunOnVPS estimate — never compare the two as if they were equal.
| Resource | Pi-hole | AdGuard Home |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum RAM | 512MB Official | 512MB Estimated |
| Minimum CPU | 1 Estimated | 1 Estimated |
| Minimum disk | 2GB Official | 5GB Estimated |
| Recommended RAM | 1GB Estimated | 1GB Estimated |
| Recommended CPU | 1 Estimated | 1 Estimated |
| Recommended disk | Not stated Not stated | Not stated Not stated |
| Suggested VPS tier (our sizing) | 1 GB RAM tier | 1 GB RAM tier |
| GPU | Not required | Not required |
| Docker support | Yes | Yes |
| Licence | EUPL-1.2 | GPL-3.0 |
| GitHub stars | 61417 | 37640 |
| Commercial alternative | NextDNS | NextDNS |
| Category | Monitoring / Analytics / Infra | Monitoring / Analytics / Infra |
Disk figures describe the application footprint recorded in the dataset. Personal media, documents, backups and other user data can require substantially more storage. Full source notes: Pi-hole requirements · AdGuard Home requirements.
Who should pick it
AdGuard Home
Pick AdGuard Home if you prefer a GPL-3.0-licensed blocker and accept that every hardware figure on its page is a RunOnVPS estimate — its official README publishes no RAM, CPU or disk numbers.
Verdict
The short version
- On the dataset both land on the same sizing: a 512 MB minimum RAM row (official for Pi-hole, estimated for AdGuard Home) and an estimated 1 GB recommended, so both map to the 1 GB RAM tier in our sizing.
- The disclosure differs more than the footprint: Pi-hole publishes its RAM and disk minimums, while AdGuard Home publishes no hardware figures at all — every AdGuard Home number on this page is labelled an estimate.
- Licences differ: Pi-hole is EUPL-1.2, AdGuard Home is GPL-3.0. Neither needs a GPU.
- Both are catalogued as self-hosted alternatives to NextDNS. Pi-hole has more GitHub stars in our dataset (~61k vs ~38k, checked 2026-10-24).
Neither verdict nor table scores the apps against each other — the right pick depends on the job, the licence you can accept, and how much of the spec is published rather than estimated. If you plan to run either alongside other apps, add it to a multi-app VPS estimate →