When comparing Adguard AdBlocker vs Pi-hole, the Slant community recommends Adguard AdBlocker for most people. In the question“What are the best ad blockers?” Adguard AdBlocker is ranked 3rd while Pi-hole is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Adguard AdBlocker is:
Get the paid version which you can try completly free for two weeks.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy to use
Get the paid version which you can try completly free for two weeks.
Pro Easy to use but also provides top notch protection
Not complex. However, the protection makes it seem like it is.
Pro Offers an operating system-level solution in addition to per-browser extensions
While most ad blockers can only help you while viewing web pages and only in one specific browser inside which they're installed, AdGuard offers a Windows application which runs in the background of your system and blocks ads on all browsers and native applications from only a single process.
Pro Stealth mode
offers options to prevent user tracking like
- removing url tracking parameters
- disable browsing api (webrtc, push, location)
- remove/modify identifying browser request headers
Pro Option to allow useful ads
Pro Split VPN Tunneling compatible
You can run AdGuard for your adblocking, and another VPN service at the same time.
Pro You can select a DNS like 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 and others
Pro Does not need a Pi
You can install this on any posix device that can run bash scripts eg your linux or unix server it also can run on windows with the subsystem for linux or with a docker container.
Pro Blocks ads for all network devices and browsers
No need to install blockers at the browser or OS level. Pi-hole works at the DNS (network) level so you only have to maintain and manage one authority.
Pro Frequent updates are easily applied
It takes one mouse-click to keep pi-hole updated and current with new blocked-site lists.
Pro Low-cost deployment
Installs on a $35 Raspberry PI SBC. Open-source software (donations accepted).
Pro Can whitelist blocked sites on the fly
If a blocked site comes up and pihole is set to display the block page, you can add it to the whitelist there and then.
Pro Can be used with a vpn from anywhere in the world
Pro Easy installer
It includes an easy shell installer.
Pro Regex blocking
Supports now regex blocking.
Cons
Con Unable to use a VPN when using this software concurrently
This is because of how the filtering and blocking process on almost all non-root block options amongst apps work.
The app makes use of the VPN protocol locally to block ads and thus you won't be able to use a VPN at the same time.
Con Slow
Like any browser extension, it slows down your browser.
Con Commercial
It not really nice to route all your sensible data through their servers.
Con Just a browser addon
It is just a browser addon so it will only work with the supported browsers and you have to install it for all browsers separately.
Con Blocks some websites
Occasionally blocks access to some unrelated websites which heavily uses Javascript.
Con Requires some advanced devOps skills
The tutorial and installation is pretty straight-forward but requires some technical chops to install. You should be comfortable with the Linux command line.
Con Can inadvertantly block sites that are required for other web-based services
For example, using pi-hole for websites that rely on 3rd-party sites can be broken by pi-hole if the 3P site references black-listed sites.
Con Unreliable because of Pi architecture
If you use it with a Pi, however, Pi-hole can run on any POSix device that can run curses like: Any Unix/Linux server, Windows servers with the Linux subsystem, routers, even toasters if they run on Linux.
Con Setup horror
Con Pages
It blocks the ads but doesn't delete the location of an ad.