AdGuard Home vs Pound
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
AdGuard Home
Network-wide DNS ad and tracker blocker
VS
Pound
Lightweight reverse proxy and HTTPS load balancer
| Feature | AdGuard Home | Pound |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | C |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 35,977 | ★ 70 |
| First released | 2018 | 2002 |
| Replaces | Pi-hole, NextDNS | NGINX, HAProxy |
Why pick each one
Choose AdGuard Home if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 36k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is AdGuard Home or Pound better?
Neither is universally better. AdGuard Home has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are AdGuard Home and Pound free and open-source?
Yes. AdGuard Home is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Pound under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run AdGuard Home and Pound with Docker?
AdGuard Home: yes. Pound: check the project docs for container support.