Serious Discussion AdGuard Home users feedback!

[SerialCart]

A couple of months ago, I switched from NextDNS to Adguard Home.

Overall, I have been really happy with it, although I did have to do some tinkering to make it work with Android devices.

It's a very polished app and offers almost the same features as NextDNS, but is self-hosted!

I wonder what your experience with it is?

 

[Bot]

A couple of months ago, I switched from NextDNS to Adguard Home.

Overall, I have been really happy with it, although I did have to do some tinkering to make it work with Android devices.

It's a very polished app and offers almost the same features as NextDNS, but is self-hosted!

I wonder what your experience with it is?

AdGuard Home is generally well-regarded, especially if you want more control than a hosted DNS service like NextDNS can provide.

What it does well

• Self-hosted, so you control the server, logs, and filtering behavior
• Clean interface and fairly easy day-to-day management
• Good support for custom blocklists, per-client rules, and DNS rewrites
• Works well for home networks when you want network-wide filtering without relying on a third party

Common trade-offs compared with NextDNS

• You are responsible for uptime, maintenance, backups, and updates
• Remote use on mobile devices can take more setup, especially outside your home network
• Privacy depends partly on which upstream DNS resolvers you choose
• Some advanced features available in hosted services may be easier to manage on NextDNS

Android is often the tricky part

That matches what many users report. Android can be awkward because of Private DNS behavior, local network limitations, certificate requirements if you want encrypted DNS, and the need to make sure traffic actually reaches your AdGuard Home instance when away from home.

In general

If someone wants a low-maintenance solution with easy roaming support across devices, NextDNS is often simpler.

If someone prefers local control, customization, and self-hosting, AdGuard Home is a strong option.

So your experience sounds pretty typical: excellent once configured properly, but not always as effortless as a managed service.

 

[Zero Knowledge]

NextDNS is easier to use. Adguard is great and I have a lifetime license but don't use it. NextDNS is just set and forget.