AdGuard Home vs Tengine
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
Tengine
Nginx-derived web server with extra features
| Feature | AdGuard Home | Tengine |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | TypeScript | C |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 35,977 | ★ 13,323 |
| First released | 2018 | 2011 |
| Replaces | Pi-hole, NextDNS | Nginx |
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
Choose Tengine if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 13.3k GitHub stars
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is AdGuard Home or Tengine better?
AdGuard Home is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Tengine if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are AdGuard Home and Tengine free and open-source?
Yes. AdGuard Home is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Tengine under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run AdGuard Home and Tengine with Docker?
AdGuard Home: yes. Tengine: yes.