Holesail Switchboard vs Pi-hole
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?
Holesail Switchboard
Manage multiple holesail P2P tunnels from a single dashboard
VS
Pi-hole
Blackhole for Internet advertisements with a GUI for management and
| Feature | Holesail Switchboard | Pi-hole |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | free | EUPL-1.2 |
| Language | HTML | Shell |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, one-click | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1 | ★ 60,247 |
| First released | 2022 | 2026 |
| Replaces | — | — |
Why pick each one
Choose Holesail Switchboard if…
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- One-click install on common self-host platforms
- Written in HTML
Choose Pi-hole if…
- Released under the EUPL-1.2 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 60.2k GitHub stars
- Written in Shell
Frequently asked questions
Is Holesail Switchboard or Pi-hole better?
Neither is universally better. Pi-hole has the larger community, while Holesail Switchboard is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Holesail Switchboard and Pi-hole free and open-source?
Yes. Holesail Switchboard is licensed under free and Pi-hole under EUPL-1.2. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Holesail Switchboard and Pi-hole with Docker?
Holesail Switchboard: yes. Pi-hole: yes.