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Pi-hole vs dnsmasq: catalog facts
Pi-hole	dnsmasq
Free Free and open source under the European Union Public Licence 1.2, funded by donations and…	Free Free and open source under the GPL.
Linux, Self-hosted, Web	Linux, Self-hosted
Blocks advertising in mobile apps and on smart televisions, not just browsers Covers every device on the network with nothing installed on them	DNS, DHCP and network boot from one tiny daemon Local hostname resolution for DHCP clients happens automatically
Runs on Linux; it is not a program you install on a laptop Over-blocking breaks sites, and someone has to fix it when it does	Not a recursive resolver; it forwards to one Configuration syntax is terse
Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: EUPL-1.2	License: GPL-2.0
No account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.