1y ago

What's the consensus on AdGuard?

I've been using AdGuard's DNS resolver on my Android phone for a couple of months, and I'm pretty satisfied with it.

The idea is that it filters out ad networks at the DNS level, so there is no need to root the phone (nor to install any app). You just put dns.adguard-dns.com in your "private DNS" settings and that's it.

Recently, though, I've seen a couple of people around here mentioning how Adguard is not trustworthy, or "kinda shady". What's your take on them? Their privacy policy seems OK to me, but I'd be interested to know more about them.

58 comments

If they are "shady" they are in for a very long game. AdGuard has been around for over 20 years and I haven't seen any trustworthy reports they are anything else than what they say they are.
- AdGuard was founded in 2009; are you mixing them and AdMuncher up? (1999)
  https://wikiless.esmailelbob.xyz/wiki/Ad_Muncher?lang=ru
  (wikipedia page only seems to be in russian for some reason; edge, chrome and safari should translate by default, Firefox, I think you have to install "Firefox Translations")
  
  No I know it was 2009, I just really failed with calculation, but the point in the comment still stands. 14 years without credible evidence data is used for anything shady.

I prefer NextDNS for blocking ads and trackers, you get to choose your own blocklists and white/blacklist domains of your choosing if you run into some problems.
- Yup, I second NextDNS. It works perfectly, and the free tier is enough for my mobile, wife's mobile and my desktop. AdGuard is included, as are dozens of other (selectable) lists.
- What is the address to add as private dns service? Thank you.
  
  you set up your own address with the block lists you want through https://my.nextdns.io

Adguard is good, very good. Their rules are default included on uBO, they know their jobs well so getting very good product. As an alternative you can consider NextDNS

I have no idea if adGuard is trustworthy or not, I personally use adAway which is open source and under a GPLv3 license. Perfectly satisfied with it.
- I was using AdAway before switching to Adguard. I loved it, but my problem with it was that it kept disconnecting randomly.
  
  Huh, that's my complaint with the latest AdGuard - now it seems to just... go away... on my phone pretty frequently. The older version didn't ever stop unless I stopped it. I paid for a lifetime on my current phone, but when I get a new one I'll be checking out the free options before paying yearly for AdGuard.

I JUST suggested AdGuard to two non-techie normie friends, so y'all better not make me take it back! ;-) That said, I've been using it on my Pi-4 at home and on my Android phone for more than a year now.

No opinion on AdGuard, but there are several options for ad blocking DoH:
https://ahadns.com/
https://blahdns.com/
https://controld.com/free-dns
https://libredns.gr/
https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls/
https://rethinkdns.com/
- Add ProtonVPN‘s NetShield to the list. Also blocks trackers.
  
  It's only available when using their paid VPN service. I much prefer NextDNS which is free and works on any VPN or outside a VPN tunnel.
  
  protonmail has been seen sharing it's users data with 3rth parties. I assume that extends to all their services if necessary.

As an ad blocker/tracker blocker, AdGuard works really well.
They also have a “browsing security filter” which may be of concern to some people. This filter, similar to smart screen and Google Safe Browsing, will check to make sure websites aren't in a list.
However, if you have it on, they have a section you can opt in (I think it is opt in) to send extra data to help with the security filter.
That telemetry may seem like too much for some people, but I think it's the only thing in AdGuard products that collects data, and even then, it's ~~not~~ for making the filter better and helping its development, not for selling data.
edit two weeks later: Fixed what I meant to say, thankfully people knew what I meant and upvoted.

I had been using them for ages, but they don't really filter out that much, so it's a tad pointless.
Recently I've switched to Rethink DNS where you can select the blocklists you want. And that's... Super effective.
- Doesn't AdGuard allow selecting blocklists?
  
  I think this thread is about their DNS resolver, not about AdGuard Home.
  Other lists are possible there too though
  
  Ah I didn't know that. Is that a service you need to log in or is paid?

I've been using it for a while now, no complaints.

There's zero evidence of any wrongdoing or shadiness other than them having employees living in Russia. The company itself moved to Cyprus, many of their engineers left Russia, none of their servers are physically located in Russia, and they publicly disavowed Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
This doesn't mean Russia couldn't apply massive pressure by threatening family members, etc, of course, but I personally have no concerns at this time and use AdGuard Home (their local adblocking DNS server) in my LAN and their iOS app on my devices. The iOS app in particular uses Apple's content-blocking Safari tech so it should be completely safe so long as you don't pay for a VPN or use a local VPN to block everything outside Safari.
If you're rooted on Android, definitely use AdAway instead, it just replaces the hosts file.
https://adguard.com/en/blog/official-response-to-setapp.html
- Why do you mention paying for a VPN as unsafe?
  
  Specifically, the way iOS content blocking works is guaranteed safe. All it does is write to a file loaded by the Safari browser to block content, the app can't do anything at all itself. No indication any VPN sold by AdGuard (or the local device-wide fake VPN) is particularly unsafe that I've seen.

Quad9 ?
- I don't think they block ads
  
  the "default" blocks malware
  quad9[.]net/service/service-addresses-and-features/

Not sure how relevant it is but it is a Russian company, I believe. Take from that what you will.
- It was founded in Russia in 2009, then moved its headquarters from Moscow to Cyprus almost 10 years ago, in 2014 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdGuard
  They've been a solid presence in the privacy scene for years now, contributing to spread privacy awareness and not incurring in a single major controvesy/scandal so far.
  They're legit imo, and they provide solid services
  Not sure about the basis for the claims of "shadiness"
  
  Cyprus is a tax haven.
- This is my main reason for not using them. I have two Pihole servers running gravity sync, unbound and wireguard on each and VPN my phone back home for self hosted DNS resolution and ad blocking.
  
  +1 for pihole! Stupid easy for linux geeks to setup and maintain, but probably a pretty hard sell for the more general public. A cloud service like NextDNS might be more appropriate for average Joes. I can't speak to AdGuard since I don't use it, but I know that name gets mentioned frequently in privacy circles - favorably, I think...
- Well this part with Russian company it is so lol. I am more comfortable giving my dns requests to russia and not to my goverment

I have been a long term user of AG Home. My only complaint is some streaming services. We have YouTube TV and the audio gets out of sync sometimes....can confirm it was in fact AG but I guess it could be the older Pi I was running it on.

it was good when I used it but I switched to nextdns and have liked it a bit more. adguard is based in Russia (I trust the company but who knows what laws could come about) and nextdns has been way more performant for me.
note: nextdns is based in the US so you're not really winning there but I choose to trust them so far

I guess it depends on who you ask: https://lemmy.world/comment/2287714
I personally would avoid and it seems like a disaster pending to happen.
- Yo just linked to one of your own comments where you didn't explain anything.

58 comments