Blocky

Lightweight open-source DNS proxy and ad blocker for your local network, written in Go.

Open sourceSelf-hostableAd and tracker blockers

Verified facts: 3 of 3
Alternatives ranked: 3
Approved reviews: 0
Visits sent from here: 0

About Blocky

Blocky is a fast DNS proxy and ad blocker for local networks, written in Go and configured through YAML files instead of a web dashboard. It blocks ads and malware using external blocklists with allowlisting, lets you define different lists and upstream resolvers per client group, caches answers and prefetches popular queries to speed up the network, and supports modern DNS protocols including DNS over HTTPS and DNS over TLS. It exports Prometheus metrics with prepared Grafana dashboards and can log queries to a database, and it exposes a REST API and CLI. Being stateless with a low memory footprint, it suits Docker and Kubernetes setups, where configuration lives in version control. It is free and open source. There is no built-in graphical interface, so it is aimed at people comfortable editing configuration files rather than those who want Pi-hole's point-and-click setup.

Best for: Home-lab users running containers who want blocking configured as code.

What works

Light, fast and stateless; ideal for containers
Per-client-group blocklists and resolvers
Prometheus metrics and Grafana dashboards

Why people leave

No built-in web interface
Configuration requires editing YAML
Smaller community than Pi-hole

Top Blocky alternatives

See all 3

1
AdGuard Home
Similar single-binary blocker with a full web dashboard.
66.5
2
Pi-hole
Point-and-click DNS blocking with the largest community.
62.6
3
Technitium DNS Server
A complete DNS server with blocking and a web console.
59.6

Why people left Blocky

In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.

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Blocky: common questions

Is Blocky free?

Yes. Blocky is free, open-source software that you can host yourself.

Is Blocky open source?

Yes. The source code is on GitHub at 0xERR0R/blocky. You can also run it on your own server.

What platforms does Blocky run on?

Blocky is available for Self-hosted and Linux.

What are the best alternatives to Blocky?

The highest-ranked Blocky alternatives right now are AdGuard Home, Pi-hole and Technitium DNS Server. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.

See all 3 Blocky alternatives

Blocky facts

3 of 3 verified

What it is: DNS proxy and ad blocker in Go; Checked Oct 25, 20260xerr0r.github.io(opens source in a new tab); “Blocky is a DNS proxy and ad-blocker for the local network written in Go”
Per-client lists: Yes; Checked Oct 25, 20260xerr0r.github.io(opens source in a new tab); “Definition of allow/denylists per client”
Monitoring: Prometheus and Grafana; Checked Oct 25, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab); “Integration - various integration Prometheus metrics Prepared Grafana dashboards”