Are you tired of the annoying ads that you see when browsing the Web? Are you done with having your privacy constantly invaded through different website trackers to ‘show you personalized ads for better online experience’?

In this extensive review we are going to be covering Pi-hole, the ultimate open-source tool that will block ads at a DNS level, completely nullifying them before they could ever reach your screen! Forget about paid browser extensions and premium software and start using Pi-hole instead!

What Is Pi-hole?

Pi-hole is an open-source DNS-based ad blocker that you can easily utilize to remove both advertisements and online trackers for a given network.

What sets it apart from the traditional ad-preventing browser extensions is the fact that it removes ads and trackers at a network-level, essentially filtering out any domains before they are opened on any device that is currently connected to that network.

This ultimately results in a more secure and privacy-friendly online experience without you having to worry about those pesky advertisements, allowing you to enjoy your online browsing or gaming session.

How does Pi-hole work?

In its core, Pi-hole works as a DNS sinkhole. It does this by first checking your initial request to a given website or resource, comparing it to a blocklist of popular ad-serving and tracking domains.

If the request happens to match a domain from that list, Pi-hole prevents it from resolving, meaning that it stops and ads from showing. If the request doesn’t match anything from the list, then it resolves normally as it should. This results in not only more privacy, but also increases your browsing speed and reduces data usage since you don’t have to load an excessive amount of ads.

Pi-hole’s Privacy-First Approach

Pi-hole’s main principle is to promote privacy by eliminating trackers and minifying the amount of data collected by advertisers, social media platforms and other third parties. In order to achieve this, Pi-hole employs a set of different tactics that ultimately aim to keep your data safe and keep the trackers out.

A lot of websites utilize third-party scripts that are essentially embedded into different web pages that can communicate with each other and track your activity across multiple divergent domains. Pi-hole, however, stops these scripts from executing, meaning that your activity remains private and your data uncollectable.

The same blockage also applies for apps and devices that send telemetry data to external servers.

Pi-hole can also be entirely self-hosted, meaning that you can personally manage your DNS filtering, allowing you to keep the DNS logs within the local network, similarly to a self-hosted VPN.

Transparency & Open-Source Philosophy

As we mentioned earlier, Pi-hole is fully open-source. The project itself is maintained by a small group of dedicated developers. They, alongside a group of passionate contributors, make sure to update blocklists, provide support and improve Pi-hole’s functionalities, making the project fully transparent, which also results in much better security and better overall privacy.

It’s Lightweight & Has Efficient Performance

Pi-hole in nature is very efficient and lightweight. It is designed to run on very low-powered devices like Raspberry Pi, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t run it on a physical server or a powerful virtual machine.

It operates using minimal CPU and memory, which is why it is a fantastic choice for both home networks and larger corporate environments.

User Control & Customization

In addition to all of this, Pi-hole is also highly customizable as it allows users to tailor the ad-blocking with the help of some fine-tuning options.

Not only that but Pi-hole is also capable of allowing users to configure different filtering options for each device that is connected to the network, making it a great option for household use.

Finally, it is also possible to use Pi-hole with additional security tools like a self-hosted VPN or with Unbound in order to boost its privacy protection features.

Pricing

As we already mentioned, Pi-hole is entirely open-source. This also means that it is absolutely free for anyone to use!

In comparison to popular ad-blocking tools and services that have a paid subscription, Pi-hole is fully free to download, use and modify without there being any additional paywalls or feature restrictions.

However, while the software doesn’t cost anything to use, it will require you to invest into creating the environment for it. Fortunately, there are a plethora of options that you can use to start utilizing Pi-hole, with the most popular ones being:

Key Features

Having covered the principles behind Pi-hole and the initial setup costs, let’s now go over the key features that make the ad-blocking solution so powerful.

Network-Wide Ad Blocking

First and foremost, Pi-hole’s ultimate feature is that it blocks ads on all connected devices to a given network. This means that once set up, all connected devices to the network with automatically benefit from it. This also means that Pi-hole works on any platform.

Customizable Blocklists & Whitelists

In addition to the already preloaded blocklists that come with Pi-hole, users can also add more lists to further enhance their filtering. Not only that but there is also an option to whitelist certain domains, meaning that you can add domains that you don’t want to be blocked.

Web-Based Admin Dashboard

Pi-hole comes equipped with a web-based admin dashboard that you can use to monitor queries in real time. With its interactive graphs and logs, you can get more information about the traffic patterns, top blocked domains and your overall network activity and capacity.

Performance & Speed Enhancements

Due to the fact that Pi-hole eliminates ads before loading, every website that you visit will load faster. You will also see a substantial decrease of your data usage, which is great for those with metered bandwidth. It can also run on very low-powered devices, meaning that you won’t have to spend a fortune to get these results.

Custom DNS & Integration with Other Tools

Pi-hole also works with any DNS provider. Not only that but it can also act as a DHCP server, meaning that you won’t need a separate router-based DHCP setup. Furthermore, as already mentioned, it can easily be integrated with VPN software like WireGuard to further extend its ad blocking capabilities.

Open-Source & Community-Driven

Finally, it’s entirely maintained by an active community and it stays true to its principles. While some other services allow acceptable ads in order to still make profit, Pi-hole puts people in control of their own privacy, allowing users to block absolutely everything.

Security

While Pi-hole’s specialty is to block ads and trackers, it also automatically comes with a plethora of different security benefits due to the fact that it gives users granular control over their DNS traffic.

Blocks Malicious Domains & Phishing Sites

To start, Pi-hole offers protection against malware and ransomware because of the fact that its default and community blocklists are always kept up to date, allowing you to prevent access to malicious websites and information trackers.

Additionally, it also prevented communication with command and control servers, preventing already infected devices from contacting external entities and hackers.

Both of these features combined also reduce the risk of phishing attacks, blocking any domains with deceptive or suspicious URLs.

Enhances Privacy by Blocking Trackers

As we already mentioned, Pi-hole blocks DNS trackers at the DNS level, meaning that websites and applications that collect user data are rendered incapable of doing so, which protects user privacy. Also, unlike some DNS services that do collect user data, Pi-hole makes sure to keep all logs locally, which is why it is a great self-hosted solution.

Reduces Attack Surface by Blocking Ads with Malicious Payloads

There are numerous websites across the Web that are designed to spread malware, also known as malvertising attacks. Pi-hole’s blocking ensures that such ads are immediately removed, lowering the risk of you stumbling upon one of them.

This also applies to any websites that utilize JavaScript to execute harmful scripts or perform redirects to external pages.

Defends Against MITM Attacks

Given that Pi-hole can be configured to use DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) or DNS-over-TLS (DoT), it can encrypt DNS queries, meaning that it essentially prevents hackers from eavesdropping on your browsing activity.

Reduces Exposure to Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) Attacks: Since Pi-hole can be configured to use DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) or DNS-over-TLS (DoT), it encrypts DNS queries, preventing attackers from eavesdropping on browsing activity.

Performance

Pi-hole is designed to be a simple but powerful and effective solution when it comes to blocking ads and trackers on a given network, but how does it impact performance?

Faster Web Browsing

To begin with, as we already touched upon before, Pi-hole improves overall page speed rendering. This is because ads are blocked at the DNS level, allowing any pages to load immediately without having to wait for the ads.

Additionally, utilizing Pi-hole also results in less HTTP requests, further speeding up your browsing experience.

Next, it also acts as a local DNS caching server, allowing you to resolve commonly visited websites in an instant.

Because of all of the aforementioned benefits, Pi-hole is a fantastic solution that reduces your overall network load and bandwidth usage, making it ideal for people that don’t have fast connections, ultimately allowing them to save their precious data with some testing showing that households using Pi-hole can see a 10-30% drop in total bandwidth consumption.

Minimal System Resource Usage

In terms of resource usage, Pi-hole is designed to run on low-powered hardware without affecting your network, with typical consumption on a Raspberry Pi 4 being:

• CPU usage: 1-5%
• RAM usage: 50-100MB
• Storage: Minimal, unless you have extensive logging enabled

Limitations

While Pi-hole is indisputably effective, it doesn’t come without its drawbacks. Here are some of the most important ones you should know:

It doesn’t block YouTube and Twitch in-video ads completely. This is because these ads are served from the same domains as the regular video content, making it difficult to differentiate between actual video content and video ads.

It’s not effective for Encrypted DNS traffic. Some devices and browsers utilize DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) or DNS-over-TLS (DoT), which automatically resolve queries with external DNS providers.

It can’t block ads inside of some applications. Some apps, predominantly games, also load ads directly from their own servers, making the blocking process impossible.

It requires some knowledge to set up. If you don’t have prior experience with or knowledge of Pi-hole, it is important to mention that you will need to install and configure it using a command line, which can be difficult for some users.

Pi-hole can also cause issues with given websites and services. Some websites depend on third-party services to work correctly, which when blocked might result in the websites appearing broken.

Pi-hole is limited to only network-level filtering. This means that any ads that are hardcoded into a particular webpage will not be blocked.

It doesn’t have a native mobile app and doesn’t come with remote management. This means that you will need to use the web dashboard from your mobile device if you wish to use it.

UI/UX

Speaking of the management, Pi-hole comes equipped with a very well-structured Web dashboard that contains all of the information that you will need. In general it puts efficiency before aesthetics, which is why it might seem slightly difficult for beginners to understand which component depicts what information. But while it does have a slight learning curve, the user experience and user interface are both very functional and well-designed.

Functional but Basic Interface

You can easily access your Pi-hole’s interface through any browser. It will be located at the following URL: http://pi.hole/admin/. You can also access it via the local IP address.

In terms of the interface, it is very minimalistic in design, putting emphasis on practicality, giving you all the data you need, but lacking in any modern visuals. The graphics are easy to read and understand and you do have quick access to logs, queries and settings in addition to having simple toggle buttons for managing Pi-hole.

It does also come with a built-in dark mode which makes it easier to work with for those that might have accessibility problems.

However, the navigation does feel slightly outdated when comparing it to commercial software. Additionally, there are some settings that you can tweak from the Web dashboard and that require manual configuration via the command line.

Dashboard Overview

In terms of the dashboard, it does display information in real-time, showing blocked and allowed domains. It also comes equipped with a special section to highlight the most queried and the most blocked domains.

You can also easily search for specific domains or clients with the help of the logs while also being able to quickly toggle whitelisted and blacklisted domains.

There is also a section that shows you statistics like the total number of ads blocked and the ttal traffic that was stopped.

Device-Specific Filtering

Pi-hole automatically blocks ads for all devices on a given network by default. If you want to make it so that ads are blocked per device, you will need to manually set this up with the help of the Custom Filtering Rules and Group Management which can be found in the admin panel, which is not that intuitive for beginners as the dashboard can seem confusing.

API

Pi-hole also comes equipped with a RESTful API, which allows you to interact with the system remotely. You can also utilize it to build your own custom dashboard in order to keep track of your statistics.

In general you can use the API to retrieve real-time statistics, to add or remove domains and to monitor your DNS queries. You can also set it up so that you can remotely turn Pi-hole on and off when you like.

The only major downside of the API is that it doesn’t have built-in permission controls, meaning that the API key grants full access to the entire system, which is why you should be careful if you are going to be sharing it with other people. There also isn’t an option to restrict the API to given actions like blocklisting so again, be very cautious when using the API with other people or developers from your team.

Compatibility

When it comes to compatibility and flexibility, Pi-hole is very well-suited to run on practically anything. Due to its lightweight nature you can set it up on many different environments from a Raspberry Pi to a virtual machine, a cloud instance and even a Docker container. Here is a detailed list of its compatible operating systems and routers.

Operating Systems

In general, Pi-hole will run best on the following operating systems and distributions:

• Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian)
• Ubuntu
• Debian
• Fedora

Additionally, it can also run on these operating systems as well with some additional configuration:

• Arch Linux - will require manual setup due to the frequent rolling-release updates
• CentOS & AlmaLinux - some dependencies will need manual resolution
• OpenWRT - can be integrated with an external device running Pi-hole

There are also operating systems that Pi-hole won’t run on with the most notable ones being:

• Windows - you will need WSL or a virtual machine.
• macOS - won’t run natively, but can be set up using Docker
• Android & iOS - there is currently no official support

Recommended Hardware

In terms of hardware, here’s a list of some of the most optimal configurations that you should go for:

• Raspberry Pi (All models from Pi 2 and up)
• Mini-PCs (Intel NUC, Lenovo ThinkCentre) because they are more powerful and energy-efficient than a Raspberry Pi
• Dedicated Linux Server - a fantastic choice for those that already have a home server
• Older Laptops or PCs - you can easily repurpose old hardware and make it into a Pi-hole server
• NAS Devices (like Synology or QNAP) - it is possible to run in Docker but will need some extra configuration

The optimal requirements for your setup should be:

• CPU: 1 GHz (ARM or x86)
• RAM: 512 MB minimum (1 GB+ recommended)
• Storage: 4 GB (SD card, USB drive, or SSD)
• Network: Wired Ethernet connection recommended for stability

Supported Routers

In general Pi-hole can be integrated with any router that allows custom DNS settings. However, there are some ISP-provided routers that might block these settings, meaning that you won’t be able to run Pi-hole on them. There might also be a conflict with some ISPs that override the custom DNS settings, which will render the solution useless.

Community and Support

Pi-hole relies on a community-based support model, which is characteristic of open-source projects. There are no commercial support options; assistance is provided by volunteers and fellow Pi-hole users. The project's popularity is reflected in its metrics: over 50,600 stars and 2,800 forks on GitHub indicate a substantial user base.

The primary "support channels" are the official Pi-hole Discourse forum and the subreddit. We found these channels particularly helpful: with approximately 500 support requests submitted last week, mainly due to a recent Pi-hole major update, there is a broad spectrum of issues covered, from basic installation to advanced IPv6 configurations. In any case, before seeking support, users are strongly advised to consult the official Pi-hole FAQ and the search functions of Discourse and Reddit. Many common issues, mainly those related to browser behavior, are documented there.

How to Install on a Cloud VPS

In order to install Pi-hole, we logged into a fresh installation of Ubuntu 24 on our Cloud VPS as root and ran the following commands:

1. Update the system packages and dependencies

“apt update && apt upgrade -y”

2. Run the Pi-hole install script
   curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

3. Press “Enter” to continue with the automatic installer

4. You will be prompted that a Static IP Address is needed

In our case, all of our services come with a static IPv4 address by default so we can safely continue without additional configuration. Press “Tab” to highlight Continue and then “Enter”

5. You will be then prompted to select an upstream DNS provider. Our recommendation is “Quad9 (filtered, DNSSEC)” as Quad9 is a well-known privacy-respecting DNS provider, it is filtered which means that it actively blocks access to websites that are known to be malicious and DNSSEC ensures that the DNS responses you receive are authentic and haven't been tampered with.

6. The next prompt is regarding which blocklists to use. We suggest sticking to the default one and just continuing 

7. Enable query logging when prompted with “Show Everything” option as privacy option.

8. The installation will then conclude and the connection URL for the web panel alongside credentials will be printed.

You can then log into the web panel using a browser and the provided password.

Finally, you will need to point your devices and/or your router's DNS settings to use Pi-hole's static IP. For example, in the router settings you need to set the DNS server to "your-server-ip", the same goes for individual devices.

Pi-hole requires minimal upkeep such as updates (pihole -up to update Pi-hole and blocklists) and backups (pihole -a -t to export configurations for safekeeping.). For non-cloud users, double-check your IP setup to ensure it is static in order to avoid downtime.

Common Problems

While Pi-hole is generally stable, certain issues arise frequently, particularly after major version upgrades such as the recent release of v6 this month.

Web interface access problems are extremely common. Users report a range of different issues: "403 Forbidden" errors, "login.php not found" messages, or the interface simply refusing to load. These often point to conflicts with existing web server setups. If you're running Nginx or Apache as a reverse proxy, you will likely need to adjust your configuration after a Pi-hole upgrade, notably the "proxy_pass" directives. Changes to Pi-hole's internal URL structure are frequent culprits. Incorrect file permissions on Pi-hole's web files are also another common cause.

Another set of issues regarding the performance, especially on Raspberry Pi Zero or other low-power devices, is frequently reported. A slow or unresponsive web interface, and even DNS resolution slowdowns, can occur. The v6 update, in particular, can be more resource-intensive.

The "pihole -d" command is your best friend for troubleshooting. It generates a detailed debug log that's invaluable when seeking help from the community. Remember to always include this log if you're posting on the forums.

Competitors

When it comes to competition, the market is full of network-wide ad blockers, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. Here is how Pi-hole compares to some of the most popular alternatives:

Use Cases

Finally, we want to share some useful use cases when Pi-hole could come in handy.

Ad Blocking At Home

Setting up Pi-hole on your router at home will result in all of your connected devices being ad-free including your TVs, tablets, gaming consoles and mobile devices. This will also speed up your network and reduce bandwidth consumption.

Privacy Protection & Anti-Tracking

For anyone concerned with their privacy when being online, Pi-hole offers the ultimate solution as it blocks ads and trackers when you visit any website. This effectively removes the ability of advertisers to track your browsing habits and also prevents ISPs from seeing your DNS requests.

Small Business & Office Networks

If you have a case of distracted employees, you can easily set up Pi-hole and blocklist websites like social media and YouTube. In addition to avoiding exposing your network, business and employees to potentially malicious domains and information leaks, you can also better keep track of your employees.

Gaming & Streaming Optimization

If you are a gamer or like to casually sit back and watch some streams, setting up Pi-hole will help you reduce the amount of ad content that you are subjected to before playing any videos. It will also block in-game ads for some games, which will then improve your gaming experience and lower your latency.

Network Monitoring & Parental Controls

You can also use Pi-hole in order to restrict your children from accessing websites that they should not be viewing. This will also help with reducing screen time and help determine a time frame for studying and playing.

Mobile & Remote Use (With VPN)

The problem with Pi-hole is that it only works for a particular network. If you are somewhere outside and want to still enjoy an ad-free browsing experience, you can consider combining your Pi-hole with a VPN like WireGuard, which will allow you to connect to your home network remotely, essentially letting you browse from that network as if you were at home.

Overall, Pi-hole is a very powerful tool that not only blocks ads and trackers, but also ensures that your privacy is unbothered at all times. With its ability to block requests at the DNS level, it is a fantastic solution for homes, businesses and anyone looking to protect their privacy.