Pi-hole
DNS
Blackhole for Internet advertisements with a GUI for management and monitoring.
Actively maintained
Real momentum
EUPL-1.2
Authoritative/recursive DNS server with ad blocking functionality.
Technitium DNS Server is an open-source dns project, with 9.5k GitHub stars and a health score of 79/100. It committed 618 times in the last twelve months across 10 of those months, and its status is actively maintained. Licence: GPL-3.0. It has real momentum, so treat it as a live competitor rather than a stale repository.
| Status | Actively maintained — Committed within the last 45 days. |
|---|---|
| Last commit | 2026-07-11 |
| Days since last commit | 37 |
| Commits, last 3 months | 124 |
| Commits, last 12 months | 618 |
| Months with activity | 10 of 12 |
| Last release | 2026-07-11 |
| Archived | No |
| Licence | GPL-3.0 |
| Category | DNS |
Health score combines commit recency, twelve-month commit volume, months with activity, release recency and archive state. Metadata refreshed August 2026.
Copyleft (GPL, AGPL, MPL): derivative work must stay open. AGPL also covers software offered over a network, which blocks most closed SaaS wrappers.
This matters most when you plan to sell a hosted version. A permissive licence means anyone — including a competitor with more capital — can do the same, so your defensibility has to come from distribution, support or data, not from the code.
Technitium DNS Server is shipping code consistently, so a buyer comparing your product will find a maintained free option. Price and position against the total cost of self-hosting it, not against the paid incumbent's list price.
Winnable, but differentiation is not optional. Pick one underserved segment and be visibly better for it rather than competing feature-for-feature with a free tool.
Actively maintained. Technitium DNS Server recorded 618 commits over the last twelve months, with activity in 10 of those months and 124 commits in the last quarter. Last commit: 2026-07-11. Last release: 2026-07-11. Committed within the last 45 days.
Technitium DNS Server is published under GPL-3.0. Copyleft (GPL, AGPL, MPL): derivative work must stay open. AGPL also covers software offered over a network, which blocks most closed SaaS wrappers.
6 open-source implementations, 5 of them actively maintained, led by Pi-hole at 60k stars. Saturation score 42/100 — Contested. Several maintained alternatives exist, but no one owns the category.
DNS
Blackhole for Internet advertisements with a GUI for management and monitoring.
DNS
User-friendly ads & trackers blocking DNS server.
DNS
Fast and lightweight DNS proxy as ad-blocker for local network with many features (alternative to Pi-hole).
DNS
Local ad blocker. Like Pi-hole but local and using your operating system.
DNS
Ad-blocking DNS resolver with DNSSEC-validating recursive resolution, DoH/DoT/Oblivious DoH, ephemeral overrides, and local service domains, in a single Rust binary (alternative to Pi-hole, AdGuard Ho
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