DNSight vs AdGuard DNS

AdGuard has been doing ad blocking longer than most, and its lists are good. If ad blocking is the job, it does the job. The question is whether you also need to read the day back.

What AdGuard DNS does well

Mature, well-maintained filter lists, a free tier, low paid pricing, and a familiar name with a long track record in ad blocking specifically. Its browser and system-level products are well regarded, and its DNS service inherits that list quality.

The difference

AdGuard is a filtering product with a query log attached. DNSight is an intelligence product with filtering attached. That framing sounds like marketing, so here is the concrete version.

Both will block doubleclick.net. Only one will look at a cluster of lookups — an App Store fetch, a first-ever domain, an SMS verification endpoint — and tell you a signup happened, naming the app and stating how confident it is.

Side by side

Which should you use?

If you want ads gone for as little as possible, AdGuard DNS is a sound, cheap choice and we would not pretend otherwise. Choose DNSight when the log needs to be readable by someone who is not going to learn what a CDN hostname means.

Common questions

Does DNSight use AdGuard's lists?

AdGuard's filter is one of fourteen third-party lists available alongside the twenty native categories, so you can use it if you prefer it.

Which blocks more ads?

They are close, and both are list-driven. Blocking coverage is not the axis where these products meaningfully differ.