AdGuard Home is a network-wide software for blocking ads & tracking. After you set it up, it'll cover ALL your home devices, and you don't need any client-side software for that.
It operates as a DNS server that re-routes tracking domains to a "black hole," thus preventing your devices from connecting to those servers. It's based on software we use for our public [AdGuard DNS](https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html) servers -- both share a lot of common code.
Please read the **[Getting Started](https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome/wiki/Getting-Started)** article on our Wiki to learn how to install AdGuard Home, and how to configure your devices to use it.
If you're running **Linux**, there's a secure and easy way to install AdGuard Home - you can get it from the [Snap Store](https://snapcraft.io/adguard-home).
If you want to integrate with AdGuard Home, you can use our [REST API](https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome/tree/master/openapi).
Alternatively, you can use this [python client](https://pypi.org/project/adguardhome/), which is used to build the [AdGuard Home Hass.io Add-on](https://community.home-assistant.io/t/community-hass-io-add-on-adguard-home).
### How is this different from public AdGuard DNS servers?
Running your own AdGuard Home server allows you to do much more than using a public DNS server. It's a completely different level. See for yourself:
* Choose what exactly will the server block or not block.
* Monitor your network activity.
* Add your own custom filtering rules.
* **Most importantly, this is your own server, and you are the only one who's in control.**
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### How does AdGuard Home compare to Pi-Hole
At this point, AdGuard Home has a lot in common with Pi-Hole. Both block ads and trackers using "DNS sinkholing" method, and both allow customizing what's blocked.
> We're not going to stop here. DNS sinkholing is not a bad starting point, but this is just the beginning.
AdGuard Home provides a lot of features out-of-the-box with no need to install and configure additional software. We want it to be simple to the point when even casual users can set it up with minimal effort.
> Disclaimer: some of the listed features can be added to Pi-Hole by installing additional software or by manually using SSH terminal and reconfiguring one of the utilities Pi-Hole consists of. However, in our opinion, this cannot be legitimately counted as a Pi-Hole's feature.
"DNS sinkholing" is capable of blocking a big percentage of ads, but it lacks flexibility and power of traditional ad blockers. You can get a good impression about the difference between these methods by reading [this article](https://adguard.com/en/blog/adguard-vs-adaway-dns66/). It compares AdGuard for Android (a traditional ad blocker) to hosts-level ad blockers (which are almost identical to DNS-based blockers in their capabilities).
However, this level of protection is enough for some users. Additionally, using a DNS-based blocker can help to block ads, tracking and analytics requests on other types of devices, such as SmartTVs, smart speakers or other kinds of IoT devices (on which you can't install tradtional ad blockers).
**Known limitations**
Here are some examples of what cannot be blocked by a DNS-level blocker:
* YouTube, Twitch ads
* Facebook, Twitter, Instagram sponsored posts
Essentially, any advertising that shares a domain with content cannot be blocked by a DNS-level blocker.
Is there a chance to handle this in the future? DNS will never be enough to do this. Our only option is to use a content blocking proxy like what we do in the standalone AdGuard applications. We're [going to bring](https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome/issues/1228) this feature support to AdGuard Home in the future. Unfortunately, even in this case, there still will be cases when this won't be enough or would require quite complicated configuration.
1. You can either install a beta or edge version of AdGuard Home which we update periodically. If you're already using stable version of AdGuard Home, just replace the executable with a new one.
If you run into any problem or have a suggestion, head to [this page](https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome/issues) and click on the `New issue` button.
If you want to help with AdGuard Home translations, please learn more about translating AdGuard products here: https://kb.adguard.com/en/general/adguard-translations
1. [Look for issues](https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22help+wanted%22+) marked as "help wanted".
2. Actualize the list of *Blocked services*. It it can be found in [dnsfilter/blocked_services.go](https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome/blob/master/dnsfilter/blocked_services.go).
3. Actualize the list of known *trackers*. It it can be found in [client/src/helpers/trackers/adguard.json](https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome/blob/master/client/src/helpers/trackers/adguard.json).
4. Actualize the list of vetted *blocklists*. It it can be found in [client/src/helpers/filters/filters.json](https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome/blob/master/client/src/helpers/filters/filters.json).
You might have seen that [CoreDNS](https://coredns.io) was mentioned here before — we've stopped using it in AdGuardHome. While we still use it on our servers for [AdGuard DNS](https://adguard.com/adguard-dns/overview.html) service, it seemed like an overkill for Home as it impeded with Home features that we plan to implement.
For a full list of all node.js packages in use, please take a look at [client/package.json](https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome/blob/master/client/package.json) file.
