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I’ve just looked into this - it looks excellent. Can I ask: is this an all-round superior solution to running your own pi-hole? I set up dual redundant pi-hole

I’ve just looked into this - it looks excellent. Can I ask: is this an all-round superior solution to running your own pi-hole? I set up dual redundant pi-holes on raspberry pi 4s on my home network but switching all devices to NextDNS would give me access to filtered DNS even when away from home, plus save me the trouble of running two raspis (including two Ubuntu instances) just for that purpose. Could anyone knowledgeable in such things suggest any downsides to a wholesale switch?

weego 7y ago
I've been a user since it was first mentioned on HN and the major issue at the moment is the performance. I often have to turn it off to get sites to resolve at all, otherwise chrome hangs indefinitely. Having said that it's free (beta) right now so that's a statement of fact and by no means a complaint
- robertcope 7y ago
  You're saying you have this issue with NextDNS? I've been using it since it was mentioned here, as well, and have had zero issues that were not self-created. FWIW.
  - jlkuester7 7y ago
    Same. Been using NextDNS regularly since it was first announced on HN and have not seen any performance issues since the first few days. Highly recommend!
- philliphaydon 7y ago
  I saw someone mention NextDNS on HN about 2 months and decided to try it. The only issue's I've had is: 1. Epic Game Store was blocked - not an issue now as I uninstalled it and bought Borderlands 3 on steam. Now EGS is blocked again. 2. Adverts display in Google now that I don't have an ad-block, but it prevents me clicking them so I'm not fussed. 3. raygun.io is blocked - not sure why as it doesn't track any information of value as it's primarily used for crash reporting, and they are GDPR compliant. Other than that, this has been amazing. I'm definitely going to be a paid customer once its out of beta.
  - angott 7y ago
    You can solve issue #3 by whitelisting that hostname in the NextDNS dashboard.
    - philliphaydon 7y ago
      Yup. Did that. The service is crazy simple to use and so effective. I wish there was an option to start paying now.
jlkuester7 7y ago
I recently spent a bunch of time comparing NextDNS vs PiHole. The reality is their features-sets are pretty close, but I eventually settled on NextDNS and here were some of my takeaways: NextDNS Pros: * Can use NextDNS on any network (thanks to their apps or just regular DNS-over-HTTP/TLS). * (Could get similar functionality on PiHole with a remote hosted PiHole + VPN, but much more complex to setup) * NextDNS allows for multiple different configuration setups per account (so you can fine-tune your blocking/filtering differently for different devices). * (PiHole AFIK only supports a single configuration) * NextDNS IMHO had the superior UI. With more powerful config options. * In reality with some extra manual config/coding you could probably get PiHole to do most of what is in the config for NextDNS, but it would take some work. PiHole Pros: * PiHole is open source. * The NextDNS server code is closed-source, but they do have an open-source CLI client. * PiHole is self-hosted (much better from a privacy perspective). * But you do get all the downsides of being responsible for hosting something as central as a DNS server yourself...
- donclark 7y ago
  Another PiHole pro is that it can work for every device in your house (if you set it up that way).
  - obituary_latte 7y ago
    You can also splurge and for under $10/mo set it up on a DigitalOcean (or similar) cheap hosting provider and have it available everywhere. And you can share with friends and family.
    - xnyan 7y ago
      The cost in your example is far, far more than $10 USD a month. If you can set this up, your time is absolutely worth something and even if this is your area of expertise, you are now personally responsible for a critical piece of your internet browsing infrastructure. There are tons of important details to keeping a critical service up and running almost all the time - even if you are competent in this, that is still time every month making sure it's running, secure and functional. The only reasons in my opinion to DIY a solution would be a) learning, hobby or for fun or b) you have requirements that can't be met another way, like privacy goals.
hnarn 7y ago
The only downside is that you're now using a free cloud service, so there's the obvious privacy concerns, and the possibility their servers will go down. It's really just a matter of the classic "free cloud vs. self hosted" pros/cons as usual.
- ddrt 7y ago
  Are the privacy concerns not abated base on their many privacy declarations through the sites and apps? (Re: NextDNS)
dorian-graph 7y ago
Have you looked into https://lockdownhq.com/ https://lockdownhq.com/? I've used it a bit on my iPhone and seems to block a lot of requests.
3xblah 7y ago
NextDNS is a commercial entity founded by a Netflix employee who is working on a Netflix CDN. Do the NextDNS terms of use address the potential for data sharing between the two entities. Running NextDNS has costs. Given the absence of fees for using NextDNS, it has a commercial interest in collecting information about users. Like other third party DNS providers (middlemen), e.g., Google or Cisco/OpenDNS, NextDNS supports ENDS Client-Subnet. This extension has zero value in terms of ad-blocking and privacy and arguably should be "off" by default unless the user asks for it. PiHole is non-commercial project AFAIK, although they have registered a trademark. Third party DNS caches will always be inferior to DIY in respect of certain issues such as ad-blocking, privacy, security, reliablity, etc. (I am a DIY-er and when third party DNS has an outage, the applications I use are still able to use the internet without any problems because I have zero reliance of third party DNS providers.) When using third party DNS these factors are outside the user's control. Users cannot tell third party DNS providers what to do, nor can they execute quality control, they can only accept what is offered to them. Of course, third party DNS will always be superior in terms of convenience and perhaps "features". I personally do not need all of the "features" offered by third party DNS, but I cannot speak for other users. The user's "choice" between DIY and third party DNS depends on what is important to the user and what the user is capable of doing herself. When the user is not capable of running DNS software herself, then DIY is removed from consideration and the "choice" is simply between one third party provider or another. The user has very little control in that situation. When it comes to DNS, for me nothing beats having control. For me, "control", not convenience, is the best feature. I prefer whitelist to blocklist. Every user is different.
- angristan 7y ago
  > Given the absence of fees for using NextDNS https://nextdns.io/pricing https://nextdns.io/pricing
- poitrus 7y ago
  There is absolutely no affiliation between Netflix and NextDNS.

weego 7y ago

I've been a user since it was first mentioned on HN and the major issue at the moment is the performance. I often have to turn it off to get sites to resolve at all, otherwise chrome hangs indefinitely. Having said that it's free (beta) right now so that's a statement of fact and by no means a complaint

robertcope 7y ago
You're saying you have this issue with NextDNS? I've been using it since it was mentioned here, as well, and have had zero issues that were not self-created. FWIW.
- jlkuester7 7y ago
  Same. Been using NextDNS regularly since it was first announced on HN and have not seen any performance issues since the first few days. Highly recommend!
philliphaydon 7y ago
I saw someone mention NextDNS on HN about 2 months and decided to try it. The only issue's I've had is: 1. Epic Game Store was blocked - not an issue now as I uninstalled it and bought Borderlands 3 on steam. Now EGS is blocked again. 2. Adverts display in Google now that I don't have an ad-block, but it prevents me clicking them so I'm not fussed. 3. raygun.io is blocked - not sure why as it doesn't track any information of value as it's primarily used for crash reporting, and they are GDPR compliant. Other than that, this has been amazing. I'm definitely going to be a paid customer once its out of beta.
- angott 7y ago
  You can solve issue #3 by whitelisting that hostname in the NextDNS dashboard.
  - philliphaydon 7y ago
    Yup. Did that. The service is crazy simple to use and so effective. I wish there was an option to start paying now.

jlkuester7 7y ago

I recently spent a bunch of time comparing NextDNS vs PiHole. The reality is their features-sets are pretty close, but I eventually settled on NextDNS and here were some of my takeaways: NextDNS Pros: * Can use NextDNS on any network (thanks to their apps or just regular DNS-over-HTTP/TLS). * (Could get similar functionality on PiHole with a remote hosted PiHole + VPN, but much more complex to setup) * NextDNS allows for multiple different configuration setups per account (so you can fine-tune your blocking/filtering differently for different devices). * (PiHole AFIK only supports a single configuration) * NextDNS IMHO had the superior UI. With more powerful config options. * In reality with some extra manual config/coding you could probably get PiHole to do most of what is in the config for NextDNS, but it would take some work. PiHole Pros: * PiHole is open source. * The NextDNS server code is closed-source, but they do have an open-source CLI client. * PiHole is self-hosted (much better from a privacy perspective). * But you do get all the downsides of being responsible for hosting something as central as a DNS server yourself...

donclark 7y ago
Another PiHole pro is that it can work for every device in your house (if you set it up that way).
- obituary_latte 7y ago
  You can also splurge and for under $10/mo set it up on a DigitalOcean (or similar) cheap hosting provider and have it available everywhere. And you can share with friends and family.
  - xnyan 7y ago
    The cost in your example is far, far more than $10 USD a month. If you can set this up, your time is absolutely worth something and even if this is your area of expertise, you are now personally responsible for a critical piece of your internet browsing infrastructure. There are tons of important details to keeping a critical service up and running almost all the time - even if you are competent in this, that is still time every month making sure it's running, secure and functional. The only reasons in my opinion to DIY a solution would be a) learning, hobby or for fun or b) you have requirements that can't be met another way, like privacy goals.

hnarn 7y ago

The only downside is that you're now using a free cloud service, so there's the obvious privacy concerns, and the possibility their servers will go down. It's really just a matter of the classic "free cloud vs. self hosted" pros/cons as usual.

ddrt 7y ago
Are the privacy concerns not abated base on their many privacy declarations through the sites and apps? (Re: NextDNS)

dorian-graph 7y ago

Have you looked into https://lockdownhq.com/ https://lockdownhq.com/? I've used it a bit on my iPhone and seems to block a lot of requests.

3xblah 7y ago

NextDNS is a commercial entity founded by a Netflix employee who is working on a Netflix CDN. Do the NextDNS terms of use address the potential for data sharing between the two entities. Running NextDNS has costs. Given the absence of fees for using NextDNS, it has a commercial interest in collecting information about users. Like other third party DNS providers (middlemen), e.g., Google or Cisco/OpenDNS, NextDNS supports ENDS Client-Subnet. This extension has zero value in terms of ad-blocking and privacy and arguably should be "off" by default unless the user asks for it. PiHole is non-commercial project AFAIK, although they have registered a trademark. Third party DNS caches will always be inferior to DIY in respect of certain issues such as ad-blocking, privacy, security, reliablity, etc. (I am a DIY-er and when third party DNS has an outage, the applications I use are still able to use the internet without any problems because I have zero reliance of third party DNS providers.) When using third party DNS these factors are outside the user's control. Users cannot tell third party DNS providers what to do, nor can they execute quality control, they can only accept what is offered to them. Of course, third party DNS will always be superior in terms of convenience and perhaps "features". I personally do not need all of the "features" offered by third party DNS, but I cannot speak for other users. The user's "choice" between DIY and third party DNS depends on what is important to the user and what the user is capable of doing herself. When the user is not capable of running DNS software herself, then DIY is removed from consideration and the "choice" is simply between one third party provider or another. The user has very little control in that situation. When it comes to DNS, for me nothing beats having control. For me, "control", not convenience, is the best feature. I prefer whitelist to blocklist. Every user is different.

angristan 7y ago
> Given the absence of fees for using NextDNS https://nextdns.io/pricing https://nextdns.io/pricing
poitrus 7y ago
There is absolutely no affiliation between Netflix and NextDNS.