NetMuteWhat is DNS-Level Ad Blocking?
Every time you visit a website or an app connects to a server, your device first performs a DNS lookup — it translates a domain name like analytics.example.com into an IP address. This happens before any data is actually transferred. DNS-level ad blocking intercepts this process and checks the requested domain against a blocklist. If the domain is known to serve ads, tracking scripts, or malware, the DNS resolver returns a blank response instead of the real IP address. The connection is simply never made. This approach has several advantages over traditional browser-based ad blockers. First, it works across every device on your network — phones, tablets, smart TVs, gaming consoles, and IoT devices that do not support browser extensions. Second, it blocks tracking and advertising at the network layer, which means it catches requests from apps, not just web browsers. Third, it reduces bandwidth usage since blocked requests never download any content. The most common setup involves running a custom DNS resolver on your local network, either on a Raspberry Pi, a NAS, a virtual machine, or a cloud server. You then configure your router to use this resolver as the primary DNS server, which automatically applies blocking to every device that connects to your network. There are limitations, however. DNS blocking works on domain names, not specific URLs or page elements. If an app serves ads from the same domain as its core content — which is increasingly common, especially with YouTube and other large platforms — a DNS blocker cannot distinguish between the two. It is an all-or-nothing approach per domain. Additionally, DNS blocking cannot inspect encrypted traffic or understand what an application is actually sending to a server. It only controls whether the connection is made at all, not what flows through it once established. These limitations become important when we compare DNS blocking to application-level firewalls later in this guide.
Pi-hole — The Self-Hosted Classic
Pi-hole launched in 2014 and quickly became the go-to DNS ad blocker for the self-hosting community. Named after the Raspberry Pi hardware it was originally designed for, Pi-hole runs a local DNS server that filters queries against community-maintained blocklists. The setup process has been refined significantly over the years — a single curl command installs everything on most Linux distributions, and the web-based admin dashboard provides a clear overview of DNS queries, blocked domains, and client activity. The Pi-hole setup process typically takes about fifteen minutes if you already have a Raspberry Pi or Linux machine available. After installation, you point your router's DNS settings to your Pi-hole instance, and every device on the network is automatically protected. The default blocklists catch most common ad and tracking domains, and you can add additional lists from the community to expand coverage. Pi-hole's strengths lie in its maturity and community. It has been around long enough that nearly every edge case has been documented, every common issue has a forum thread, and the blocklist ecosystem is enormous. The query log and dashboard give you granular visibility into what every device on your network is doing, which can be both enlightening and slightly alarming when you see how often smart home devices phone home. The trade-offs are worth noting. Pi-hole requires you to maintain the hardware it runs on — keeping the OS updated, ensuring the Pi does not lose power or connectivity, and occasionally troubleshooting when a software update changes something. It does not natively support DNS-over-HTTPS or DNS-over-TLS without additional configuration through tools like cloudflared or Unbound. The interface, while functional, feels dated compared to more modern alternatives. And if your Pi-hole goes down, DNS resolution for your entire network stops unless you have configured a fallback. For a technically inclined user who wants full control and does not mind occasional maintenance, Pi-hole remains an excellent choice.
AdGuard Home — Pi-hole's Modern Rival
AdGuard Home emerged as a direct competitor to Pi-hole, built by the team behind the AdGuard browser extension and VPN products. While it serves the same fundamental purpose — acting as a local DNS resolver that blocks unwanted domains — it ships with several features that Pi-hole requires additional configuration or third-party tools to achieve. The most significant difference is built-in support for encrypted DNS protocols. AdGuard Home natively handles DNS-over-HTTPS, DNS-over-TLS, and DNS-over-QUIC out of the box, without needing to install and configure separate software. For privacy-conscious users, this means your DNS queries are encrypted between your devices and your AdGuard Home instance, preventing your ISP or anyone on the network from seeing what domains you are resolving. AdGuard Home also includes built-in parental controls, safe browsing enforcement, and a more modern web interface compared to Pi-hole. The filtering engine supports more complex rules — you can write regex-based filters, use AdGuard-style filtering syntax in addition to standard hosts-file format, and the service handles CNAME cloaking better than Pi-hole does by default. CNAME cloaking is a technique where trackers hide behind first-party DNS records, and it has become increasingly common as advertisers adapt to DNS-level blocking. Installation is straightforward. AdGuard Home is distributed as a single binary for Linux, macOS, Windows, and FreeBSD, and it also has a well-maintained Docker image. Like Pi-hole, you configure it as your network's DNS server and manage it through a web dashboard. The setup wizard guides you through initial configuration including choosing upstream DNS servers and enabling encrypted DNS. The main consideration is that AdGuard Home is developed by a commercial company, which cuts both ways. On one hand, the software is well-maintained, receives regular updates, and has professional support resources. On the other hand, some users in the self-hosting community prefer Pi-hole's fully community-driven development model. Both are free and open source, but the governance structures differ. Performance-wise, the two are comparable for typical home network usage.
NextDNS — Cloud-Based, Zero Setup
NextDNS takes a fundamentally different approach from Pi-hole and AdGuard Home. Instead of running software on your local network, NextDNS operates as a cloud DNS service. You create an account, configure your blocklists and settings through a web dashboard, and then point your devices to NextDNS resolvers — either by changing DNS settings on individual devices, configuring your router, or installing their lightweight client app. There is no hardware to maintain, no software to update, and no risk of your local DNS server going offline. The configuration options are comprehensive. NextDNS supports the same types of blocklists as Pi-hole and AdGuard Home, plus it offers curated lists for specific use cases — blocking TikTok trackers, disabling telemetry for specific platforms, or enforcing safe search across search engines. The analytics dashboard shows query logs with geographic information about where DNS queries resolve to, which can reveal surprising things about where your data travels. NextDNS natively supports DNS-over-HTTPS and DNS-over-TLS, and since the resolvers are globally distributed, latency is typically low regardless of your location. The setup profile system makes it easy to apply different configurations to different devices — stricter filtering on a child's tablet, lighter filtering on your work laptop, full blocking on your personal devices. The free tier allows 300,000 queries per month, which is enough for a single user but can be exceeded by a household with multiple devices. A paid subscription plan removes the query limit. The trade-off with NextDNS is trust. You are routing all your DNS queries through a third-party service, which means NextDNS can see every domain every device on your network resolves. They have a clear privacy policy and the option to disable all logging, but this requires a level of trust that self-hosting does not. For users who want the benefits of DNS blocking without any technical overhead, NextDNS is the most accessible option available. For those who prefer to keep everything local, Pi-hole or AdGuard Home is the better fit.
DNS Blockers vs App Firewalls — Do You Need Both?
DNS-level blocking and application-level firewalls solve overlapping but fundamentally different problems. Understanding where each one excels — and where it falls short — helps you build a privacy setup that does not leave gaps. A DNS blocker like Pi-hole, AdGuard Home, or NextDNS protects your entire network. Every device that uses your DNS resolver benefits from the same blocklists, including devices that cannot run their own security software — smart TVs, IoT sensors, game consoles, and guest devices. This network-wide coverage is its greatest strength. However, DNS blocking operates on domain names only. It cannot tell you which specific application on your Mac is making a connection. It cannot distinguish between your browser and a background process contacting the same domain. And it cannot block connections where the app uses a hardcoded IP address instead of a domain name, bypassing DNS entirely. An application-level firewall like NetMute works differently. It runs on your Mac and monitors outgoing connections per application. When Zoom tries to connect to a tracking server, or a newly installed app attempts to phone home to an analytics endpoint, NetMute shows you exactly which app is responsible and lets you block that specific connection. This granularity is something DNS blocking fundamentally cannot provide. You see the full picture — which app, which server, how often — and you make the decision. The ideal setup uses both. A DNS blocker handles the broad strokes across your entire network, catching known ad and tracking domains before they even resolve. An app firewall like NetMute handles the fine-grained control on your Mac, catching app-specific telemetry, connections that bypass DNS, and giving you visibility into exactly what your software is doing behind the scenes. NetMute is available as a one-time purchase at netmute.com — no subscription, no account required. Paired with any of the DNS blockers discussed in this guide, it gives you a layered privacy setup that covers both network-wide blocking and per-application control.
