Pi-hole vs SmartDNS
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?
Pi-hole
Blackhole for Internet advertisements with a GUI for management and
VS
SmartDNS
Local DNS server that picks the fastest results
| Feature | Pi-hole | SmartDNS |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | EUPL-1.2 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Shell | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 60,247 | ★ 11,183 |
| First released | 2026 | 2018 |
| Replaces | — | Pi-hole, dnsmasq |
Why pick each one
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
Choose SmartDNS if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Mature project with 11.2k GitHub stars
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Pi-hole or SmartDNS better?
Neither is universally better. Pi-hole has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Pi-hole and SmartDNS free and open-source?
Yes. Pi-hole is licensed under EUPL-1.2 and SmartDNS under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pi-hole and SmartDNS with Docker?
Pi-hole: yes. SmartDNS: check the project docs for container support.