Disclosure: NxValue Stack publishes this guide and also sells one of the options covered here, a managed private node. We've tried to describe every option fairly, including where ours is not the best fit. Plans and prices change often, so check each vendor's site for current details.

Every "private DNS" option answers the same basic question: who handles your DNS queries, and what can they see? The differences come down to who runs the server, what the filtering can do, what it costs in money or time, and how much you have to trust someone else.

This guide compares the names people ask about most, in three groups: hosted services, self-hosted software, and a managed node that sits between the two.

The short version

• Easiest and cheapest to start: NextDNS or AdGuard DNS, both with free tiers.
• Most hosted customization: Control D.
• Queries stay on hardware you own: self-hosted AdGuard Home or Pi-hole.
• A dedicated server without running it yourself: a managed single-tenant node.

How the options fall into groups

Hosted services (NextDNS, Control D, AdGuard DNS) run on the provider's servers. You paste an address into your device and manage settings in a web dashboard. They are shared platforms: your queries are processed on infrastructure used by many customers, and you rely on the provider's logging and retention policy.

Self-hosted software (AdGuard Home, Pi-hole) runs on a machine you control: a Raspberry Pi, a home server, or a VPS. You own the data and the maintenance.

A managed node is a server dedicated to you but run by someone else. It trades some of the control of self-hosting for far less upkeep.

NextDNS (hosted)

A cloud DNS filtering service with a polished dashboard, logs, per-profile settings, and DoH/DoT support.

Strengths

• Easy setup across phones, laptops and routers, with good analytics.
• Configurable logging, so you can choose retention or turn logs off.
• A free tier makes it easy to try.

Trade-offs

• It is a shared service, so you trust the provider's handling of your queries.
• The free tier is capped at 300,000 queries per month. Past that, filtering stops until the month resets, and a busy household can reach the cap.
• The hosted service is not open source.

Cost: free tier, with a low-cost paid plan for unlimited queries.

Best for: most people who want an easy, inexpensive hosted filter.

Control D (hosted)

A hosted DNS platform from the Windscribe team, with deep customization and traffic redirection features.

Strengths

• Broad protocol support: DoH, DoH3, DoT and DoQ.
• Per-device profiles, geo-based rules, and the ability to redirect or unblock specific services.
• Free public resolvers are available without an account.

Trade-offs

• The advanced controls need a paid plan.
• The core service is closed source, and the redirect features mean trusting the provider with more of your traffic.
• More options also means more to configure.

Cost: free public resolvers, with paid plans for custom rules and analytics.

Best for: power users who want fine-grained control and don't mind a hosted service.

AdGuard DNS (hosted)

AdGuard's cloud DNS service, with a free public resolver and a paid tier that adds custom rules, logs and dashboards.

Strengths

• The quickest start: no software to install.
• Supports DoH, DoT, DoQ and DNSCrypt, and the server code is open source.
• A free plan makes it easy to try.

Trade-offs

• The free plan is limited in queries (300,000 per month), devices and rules.
• A hosted resolver processes your queries.

Cost: free tier, with a low-cost paid plan for higher limits.

Best for: people who want the fastest setup and are fine with a hosted provider.

AdGuard Home (self-hosted)

Free, open-source filtering software from the AdGuard team that you run yourself.

Strengths

• Serves encrypted DNS (DoH, DoT, DoQ) natively, which removes much of the proxy work other self-hosted filters need.
• Per-client settings, parental-control options, and a clean interface.
• Your query logs stay on your own hardware.

Trade-offs

• You need an always-on machine, plus updates and monitoring.
• A valid certificate and open ports are still required if you want encrypted DNS away from home.
• If the machine goes down, your DNS goes down with it.
• A smaller pool of community guides than Pi-hole.

Cost: free software; you pay with hardware or a server and your time.

Best for: self-hosters who want built-in encrypted DNS and per-device rules.

Pi-hole (self-hosted)

Free, open-source DNS filtering software with a large community. Devices ask it for a domain, and it blocks anything on your blocklists.

Strengths

• Detailed allow and deny rules, groups, and plenty of documentation.
• Your query logs stay on your own hardware.
• Pairs well with Unbound for fully recursive resolution (see our guide to Pi-hole with Unbound).

Trade-offs

• It does not serve DoT or DoH itself, so encrypting the path from your phone needs a TLS proxy, a certificate, and open ports.
• You need an always-on machine, plus updates and monitoring.
• Away from home, you need a VPN back to your network or a publicly reachable server.
• If the machine goes down, your DNS goes down with it.

Cost: free software; you pay with hardware or a server and your time.

Best for: people who enjoy running their own infrastructure and want detailed control over rules.

For a closer look at the two self-hosted options, see Pi-hole vs AdGuard Home.

NxValue Stack (managed node)

We run a private node for you with either Pi-hole or AdGuard Home plus an Unbound resolver, with DoH and DoT endpoints included. It is a dedicated server, not a shared resolver.

Strengths

• Your queries and logs live on your own node rather than a shared pipeline, and you can export or delete them.
• Unbound resolves directly from the root servers, so there is no public resolver in the middle.
• No monthly query cap, only a fair-use policy.
• No hardware, certificates or port forwarding to manage.
• If your node is ever unavailable, queries are routed to a fallback upstream resolver (Cloudflare or Quad9) so your internet keeps working. Filtering and logging pause until the node is back, then resume automatically. A self-hosted setup that goes down simply stops resolving.

Trade-offs

• There is no free tier.
• You get the standard Pi-hole or AdGuard Home feature set, without the profile systems, scheduling and routing features of NextDNS or Control D.
• We are a small operator.

Cost: $4/month on the BASE-N plan, billed hourly. You can delete the node at any time.

Best for: people who want a dedicated filtering resolver without maintaining one themselves.

What none of these do

• Hide the IPs you connect to. Encrypted DNS stops your ISP and local network from reading your lookups, but they can still see the addresses you visit.
• Make DNS lookups anonymous. With a forwarding resolver, one provider sees your queries. With a recursive resolver such as Unbound, authoritative servers see only the questions they are responsible for, and those upstream lookups are not encrypted.
• Block every ad. Video ads on YouTube or Twitch come from the same domains as the content, so DNS filtering can't remove them. Pair DNS blocking with a browser content blocker.

Which should you choose?

Price differences here are small. Most hosted options cost a few dollars a month or less, and self-hosting is free software that costs your time, so the choice is mostly about trust, control and effort.

• You want it free and easy: NextDNS or AdGuard DNS.
• You want maximum hosted control: Control D.
• You want everything on your own hardware: AdGuard Home or Pi-hole.
• You want a dedicated resolver without running it yourself: a managed node.

There is no single best answer. Pick based on whose servers you are comfortable with, how much time you want to spend, and what you actually need to block.

Pi-hole is a registered trademark of Pi-hole LLC. AdGuard Home is a trademark of AdGuard Software Limited. NxValue Stack is an independent service provider and is not affiliated with Pi-hole LLC, NextDNS, Control D, or AdGuard. All other names are trademarks of their respective owners.