# AdGuard Cloud DNS **URL:** https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/adguard-cloud-dns/17697 **Category:** Tool Suggestions **Created:** 2024-04-04T04:37:43Z **Posts:** 40 ## Post 1 by @joygrit — 2024-04-04T04:37:43Z Hi, is there a reason why you do not recommend AdGuard DNS (Private and paid one)? The service itself is quite similar to what NextDNS and Control D is offering. Any reason why AdGuard is not on the list? --- ## Post 2 by @anon80779245 — 2024-04-04T10:15:46Z > [@joygrit](#): > > AdGuard DNS Because it is paid ? --- ## Post 3 by @joygrit — 2024-04-04T11:26:50Z But the same as the others… Talking about the paid ones section. NextDNS and ControlD also cost money?! --- ## Post 4 by @Bhaelros — 2024-04-04T19:30:58Z Well, I did a trial with them and I have no idea what they are doing. A managed DNS supposed to use their own DNS servers, right? Nope. They are using Cloudflare and Google DNS. With Adguard ![grafik](//forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/2X/d/d56c3cb55084ed2e1c6353e6fe818a3b9be069ef.png) With Control D ![grafik](//forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/2X/f/f11a880fa0961c44c0c038472516226256b4ea6e.png) Their response ![grafik](//forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/2X/e/e21ea2ddf7160fd08b0389a0ac7d9fe1b04fbaea.png) --- ## Post 5 by @joygrit — 2024-04-04T19:49:25Z Thanks for the detailed information. Can you give us the links within the AdGuard Feedback Mail? Would like to read them. Still very confusing. NextDNS is also clean and doesn’t have this issue. --- ## Post 6 by @Bhaelros — 2024-04-04T20:27:52Z Sure > **[Anycast and BGP: How AdGuard DNS serves millions of queries](https://adguard-dns.io/en/blog/anycast-and-bgp-how-adguard-dns-serves-millions-of-queries.html)** > > AdGuard DNS started as a pet project. but over time it has grown into a serious standalone product. Currently, it handles more than 1 M requests per second. The article shows how this became possible. [https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns/what-is-recursive-dns/#:~:text=A%20recursive%20DNS%20lookup%20is,server%20involved%20in%20the%20lookup](https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns/what-is-recursive-dns/#:~:text=A%20recursive%20DNS%20lookup%20is,server%20involved%20in%20the%20lookup). --- ## Post 7 by @joygrit — 2024-05-20T09:01:24Z I’m also thinking about which is the best to choose. On my list: - AdGuard DNS - ControlD - NextDNS Looks like AdGuard DNS is a bit of a favorite. But don’t know if I should trust it at all. Yes, they’re EU now (Cyprus Office). But all the people behind are mostly still in Moscow. Maybe better going with NextDNS (no EU company) or ControlD (Windscribe company from CAN). --- ## Post 8 by @brivacy — 2024-05-20T18:05:19Z In my opinion i have tried all of them but personally i liked all of them. You can go with any of this option. For me i am a nextdns user premium user for about 4years or so. And controld is very new in this market but this is also good i have used adguard but there logs are not that good they say they provide logs for premium users only but you need to serve free users at least for trial. Like controld to experience the service. That was not there in adguard. --- ## Post 9 by @joygrit — 2024-05-20T18:57:33Z > [@brivacy](#): > > That was not there in adguard. Did you try [https://adguard-dns.io](https://adguard-dns.io) ? Even in free mode there are really good logs within their dashboard. For me AdGuard has one of the best web dashboards… But I do have some issues with services not connecting. --- ## Post 10 by @AnotherBloodyUsername — 2024-12-29T11:19:18Z > [@anon80779245](#): > > Because it is paid ? Only the first 300,000 requests are free, then after that like next DNS. It’s normal web browsing without blocking. AdGuard home is suggested, which is a self-hosted version of AdGuard DNS web. So why not web itself? [Buy subscription | AdGuard DNS](https://adguard-dns.io/en/license.html) --- ## Post 11 by @ignoramous — 2025-01-03T08:07:17Z > [@Bhaelros](#): > > A managed DNS supposed to use their own DNS servers, right? Nope Not necessarily. What the screenshot is showing are NS records hosted with Cloudflare & Google. If so, hardly consequential for a _resolver_. What’s the cmd that you ran? > [@joygrit](#): > > NextDNS is also clean and doesn’t have this issue. What issue? The NS records [with AdGuard]? To me, it is a non-issue. --- ## Post 12 by @ph00lt0 — 2025-01-03T08:13:52Z Good point. It is listed under Recommended Providers, just not under cloud hosted. Not really sure why, maybe it was not as customizable at that time? --- ## Post 13 by @Bhaelros — 2025-01-03T08:54:49Z DNS providers are not %100 owning their own infrastructure, that is correct, but that doesn’t mean nearly all of my DNS queries should go to Cloudflare or Google, and use DNS servers from another continent. Only Adguard does this. NextDNS and Control D don’t have this problem. --- ## Post 14 by @ignoramous — 2025-01-03T09:02:00Z > [@Bhaelros](#): > > all of my DNS queries should go to Cloudflare or Google, and use DNS servers from another continent You’re right, your DNS queries shouldn’t. My question was: How are you reaching this conclusion from the screenshot you shared (which shows NS records)? What cmd / tool are you using to ascertain your hypothesis? --- ## Post 15 by @Bhaelros — 2025-01-03T10:15:03Z I am using dnscheck.tools site to check the DNS --- ## Post 16 by @ignoramous — 2025-01-05T17:00:39Z > [@Bhaelros](#): > > using dnscheck.tools site Thanks. I looked at the `dnscheck.tools` code. Those aren’t NS records. The results for AdGuard DNS does show Google & Cloudflare IPs but it could be that AdGuard _fronts_ their resolvers over Google-owned / Cloudflare-owned IPs ([ref](https://github.com/brianshea2/addr.tools/blob/aa73bf3a547993de2d2777b10ff0d4728e0dfb68/internal/zones/dnscheck/handler.go#L129))? `dnscheck.tools` cannot necessarily know if AdGuard is “leaking” queries to Cloudflare / Google DNS resolvers. For instance, many here mention NextDNS, which shows _DigitalOcean_, but that doesn’t mean they forward queries to Digital Ocean’s resolvers. If AdGuard’s use of Google / Cloudflare infrastructure worries you, (not to single out but since it is discussed here & recommende by PG) NextDNS should as well. They use (used?), afa I can tell, Cloudflare as a CDN, AWS as a host, and Google for some kind of logs streaming. It _needn’t_ be a “leak” the way you think it might be. Though, only AdGuard can confirm that, for sure. --- ## Post 17 by @Bhaelros — 2025-01-05T21:03:22Z Yes, they can rent server from Google or Cloudflare or any other providers, that is not the issue. Check below pictures for example. with Control D ![image](//forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/2X/a/aff6eae9aac4f5baaf53f704b3b40eb91c7a60f3.png) with NextDNS ![image](//forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/2X/4/4f18248a19e4d1a177959a5ce3af71dcf8234ff4.png) with Adguard ![image](//forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/2X/c/c00a1441868faeadd7c10207fdf9eddd76ce5944.png) It is clear that something is wrong with Adguard. Edit: Extra tests via [dnsleaktest.com](http://dnsleaktest.com) Control D ![image](//forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/2X/9/90a48b9fd66ab7491e1f91401f11c1209616bf90.png) NextDNS ![image](//forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/2X/c/c0323b0864cdfaa0dca2b479fff0dd1e0149cb41.png) Adguard ![image](//forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/2X/f/f8677b3b6e6ee83280a3fd38e175dc9e3b709b46.png) --- ## Post 18 by @joygrit — 2025-01-27T12:55:01Z Maybe @ameshkov can jump in and give us some details. He is the CTO and already posted over here. I’m also interested into clarification. --- ## Post 19 by @ameshkov — 2025-01-27T15:06:12Z Hi, we can use CF or Google as a fallback in the case when the domain’s nameserver times out. We thought about how to improve the fallback algorithm to minimize these queries but haven’t yet got to it: [Try to improve the fallback approach · Issue #654 · AdguardTeam/AdGuardDNS · GitHub](https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardDNS/issues/654) Generally, the issue is rare, but unfortunately it’s visible on dnscheck.tools because their nameservers time out pretty often. --- ## Post 20 by @anon80779245 — 2025-01-28T21:19:49Z This is AdGuard DNS not Adguard Cloud DNS right? --- ## Post 21 by @joygrit — 2025-01-29T17:00:30Z We’re talking about [AdGuard-DNS.io](http://AdGuard-DNS.io) - their Cloud DNS service. --- ## Post 22 by @mongrel306 — 2026-03-08T13:29:15Z Even after reading through the entire thread, I’m still confused. Why isn’t the cloud-based version of Adguard listed? It seems to meet the functional requirements. --- ## Post 23 by @brivacy — 2026-04-26T16:04:00Z adguard dns .io is not the stable dns ![image](https://forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/3X/0/6/0661c6b61da1bf37e00115a29d111035109fc37b.png) i use qwen ai and by default ![image](https://forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/3X/f/f/ffccec6de8d78388ee12c91977221955d1aac47f.png) this domain is blocked and it registered 1lac request in my dns log where as on same browser i used nextdns it only register 3 blocked log --- ## Post 24 by @anonymous595 — 2026-04-27T00:52:13Z That’s… Concerning If something, it redirects to their main domain. ![487ac77a-ae9f-4197-8126-9d1fb3d0986d](https://forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/3X/f/c/fc70f68c6573b35a17f1eec86bd4f50ab724f509.jpeg) --- ## Post 25 by @iluvprivacy — 2026-08-29T12:15:29Z Now that I’ve had the chance to go through this thread, it’s still not clear to me why AdGuard DNS isn’t recommended by PG. So, what’s the issue now? --- ## Post 26 by @ignoramous — 2026-08-29T13:48:00Z > [@iluvprivacy](#): > > not clear to me why AdGuard DNS isn’t recommended by PG PG’s recommendations are subjective not objective. There’s a handful privacy tools that never make it. The PG website, as it is volunteer run, moves at its own pace, so this is all understandable. Instructive that the “We need you!” section (towards the footer) has been relegated from the main page, even: [https://archive.vn/G6tFi](https://archive.vn/G6tFi) --- ## Post 27 by @iluvprivacy — 2026-08-29T21:41:54Z Do you have any privacy and security concerns about AdGuard DNS? By default, it has the most HaGeZi filters compared to the other online DNS services. With modDNS still under development, NextDNS semi-dead, it seems like Control D may be the other viable option on the market. --- ## Post 28 by @Footnote5444 — 2026-08-30T16:38:37Z I have used AdGuard DNS (cloud) for a year now and have had no issues or concerns with it. There are some things that I wish they would copy from NextDNS - such as allowing users to choose to where logs are stored. Latency has been fine for me, but I believe they have a smaller server network than NextDNS or Control D depending on where you live. NextDNS is still…fine. They aren’t adding much in terms of new features, but I also think it is still a decent option. Control D has a nice free trial option you can give a whirl for 30 days. I wouldn’t pay for the “proxy” option in their higher paid tier personally. The “issues” I had with Control D were: 1. Their dashboard was less user intuitive than NextDNS or AdGuard for me personally. 2. They “only” support Hagezi’s Ultimate, Pro, etc. and TIF lists natively. Granted, most folks will be just fine with just those 2 enabled, but I chose AdGuard since they supported all the Hagezi lists short of his Social Network blocking list. You can add Hagezi’s other lists to Control D using their folder function, but AFAIK those lists don’t automatically refresh and they take some user tinkering to get set up. I do give credit to Control D for offering a number of free DNS servers - including ones for Hagezi Pro, Ultimate, etc. and TIF. Depending on what your needs are, those free server options might suffice for some. --- ## Post 29 by @slrsnbrg — 2026-08-31T02:16:56Z Unlike NextDNS and ControlD, Adguard DNS supports the richer Adblock Plus rule syntax --- ## Post 30 by @iluvprivacy — 2026-08-31T11:21:14Z How do you identify connected devices so that they get their own statistics? What if I want to use a router? Control D has a CLI/daemon for that. --- ## Post 31 by @iluvprivacy — 2026-08-31T11:21:31Z What’s the advantage? --- ## Post 32 by @slrsnbrg — 2026-08-31T12:28:02Z The domain-style formats used by NextDNS and Control D require a lot more to be enumerated in advance, so they tend to make blocking more static and more limited to one’s knowledge at a point in time. ABP syntax lets you cover a lot with relatively few rules, which can make blocking more robust to attempts to work around it. It is also useful when it comes to narrowly scoping whitelist exceptions to address false positives. --- ## Post 33 by @iluvprivacy — 2026-09-01T01:44:23Z Where does AdGuard store the log? --- ## Post 34 by @Footnote5444 — 2026-09-03T12:19:32Z Frankfurt, Germany I believe. --- ## Post 35 by @arise1984 — 2026-09-03T16:56:28Z I got their personal premium dns tier as gift from their vpn. Stacksocial sell their vpn for $35 something for 5 years and can go down to $25-30 using discount codes. The vpn itself aren’t that fast, uses 2 weird protocol and not vanilla wireguard but its dualstack ipv4 and ipv6. Less cloudflare captcha because its not that popular. The dns are fine, for 10 devices and 10millions query. Got many hagezi list too. --- ## Post 36 by @iluvprivacy — 2026-09-03T19:02:35Z I thought paid DNS doesn’t have any limits? --- ## Post 37 by @arise1984 — 2026-09-03T19:25:30Z It does have limit. Correction on my previous comment, its 20 devices not 10, 10 million query per month and 5 servers. Each server can have different list so can distribute between the 20 total devices. --- ## Post 38 by @iluvprivacy — 2026-09-04T22:11:41Z Oh wow. That’s quite disappointing because NextDNS and Control D don’t have official limits. Is 10 million a lot in a large household with lots of devices? Does a router count as one device with many devices connected to it? I have a primary and backup WAN at home. What do you mean by a server? AFAIK, I can’t select a server with NextDNS or Control D. --- ## Post 39 by @arise1984 — 2026-09-05T01:17:33Z 10 million should be enough for a moderate household. Plus can increase ttl for blocked domains too to decrease repeated query. Its what they called on their panel, server. But its not really a server in a traditional sense. Its more like a group of configuration, specifically a group of blocklist. --- ## Post 40 by @Footnote5444 — 2026-09-05T03:59:31Z I have a moderate sized house and have never even come close hitting 1 million queries in a month on AdGuard. AdGuard has explained their reason for a limit before. Basically they offer “personal” and “business”’plans and if they didn’t put a limit on the personal plans, businesses would opt for the cheaper personal plan. I don’t like the limit, especially since Control D and NextDNS don’t have such limits, but do understand AdGuards reason for having it.