AdGuard Home vs Varnish Cache
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
Varnish Cache
High-performance HTTP accelerator and caching proxy
| Feature | AdGuard Home | Varnish Cache |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 35,977 | ★ 4,050 |
| First released | 2018 | 2006 |
| Replaces | Pi-hole, NextDNS | Cloudflare, Squid |
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 Varnish Cache if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is AdGuard Home or Varnish Cache better?
AdGuard Home is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Varnish Cache if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are AdGuard Home and Varnish Cache free and open-source?
Yes. AdGuard Home is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Varnish Cache under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run AdGuard Home and Varnish Cache with Docker?
AdGuard Home: yes. Varnish Cache: yes.