Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Pi-hole VS Athena - Firewall & Adblocker

Compare Pi-hole VS Athena - Firewall & Adblocker and see what are their differences

Pi-hole logo Pi-hole

Pi-hole is a multi-platform, network-wide ad blocker.

Athena - Firewall & Adblocker logo Athena - Firewall & Adblocker

Athena is a Material You (Material 3) firewall and ad blocker that works seamlessly on both rooted and non-rooted devices.
  • Pi-hole Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-12
  • Athena - Firewall & Adblocker Landing page
    Landing page //
    2025-07-30

Pi-hole features and specs

  • Ad Blocking
    Pi-hole effectively blocks unwanted advertisements across all devices on the network, enhancing the user experience by reducing clutter and improving page load times.
  • Privacy Protection
    Pi-hole helps protect user privacy by preventing ads and trackers from collecting data on browsing habits.
  • Low-Cost Solution
    Pi-hole can be run on inexpensive hardware like a Raspberry Pi, making it a cost-effective solution for network-wide ad blocking.
  • Customizable
    Users can create custom blocklists and whitelists, allowing for a tailored ad-blocking experience.
  • Network-Wide Coverage
    Since Pi-hole acts as a DNS sinkhole, it applies its filtering to all devices connected to the network without needing individual configurations.
  • Resource Efficient
    Pi-hole is lightweight and consumes minimal system resources, allowing it to run efficiently on small, low-power devices.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source project, Pi-hole benefits from community contributions, transparency, and regular updates.

Possible disadvantages of Pi-hole

  • Requires Technical Knowledge
    Setting up and maintaining Pi-hole may require a certain level of technical expertise, which could be a barrier for non-technical users.
  • Possible Overblocking
    Pi-hole may block legitimate content inadvertently, which can necessitate manual adjustments to the blocklists or whitelists.
  • Dependency on Device
    If the device running Pi-hole fails or experiences issues, DNS resolution could be disrupted for all connected devices.
  • Compatibility Issues
    Some web services and applications may not function correctly if they rely on content that Pi-hole blocks.
  • Limited Blocking Methods
    Pi-hole primarily blocks content through DNS filtering. More sophisticated ads that bypass DNS-based blocking mechanisms may not be effectively blocked.
  • Manual Updates Needed
    Users may need to manually update blocklists and Pi-hole software to ensure optimal performance and security.

Athena - Firewall & Adblocker features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Pi-hole videos

Block EVERY Online Ad with THIS - Pi-Hole on Raspberry Pi

More videos:

  • Review - I tried Pi-Hole for the first time... (DNS level Ad Blocker)
  • Review - Pi-hole -- Worth it? Gotchas?

Athena - Firewall & Adblocker videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Pi-hole and Athena - Firewall & Adblocker)
Security & Privacy
99 99%
1% 1
Ad Blockers
98 98%
2% 2
Monitoring Tools
95 95%
5% 5
Threat Detection And Prevention

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Pi-hole and Athena - Firewall & Adblocker

Pi-hole Reviews

22 NextDNS Alternatives
Pi-hole App contains an informative web interface that shows stats on all the domains being queried on the network that you are using. Pi-hole - Network-wide Ad Blocking is a signifying ad-blocking platform that helps its global users to block all the harmful and unhealthy advertisements on your online networks. You can run Pi-hole in a container or deploy it right to...

Athena - Firewall & Adblocker Reviews

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Pi-hole seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 1201 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Pi-hole mentions (1201)

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Athena - Firewall & Adblocker mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Athena - Firewall & Adblocker yet. Tracking of Athena - Firewall & Adblocker recommendations started around Jul 2025.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Pi-hole and Athena - Firewall & Adblocker, you can also consider the following products

NextDNS - Block ads, trackers and malicious websites on all your devices.

personalDNSfilter - a DNS proxy over local VPN for filtering ads and other unwished hosts based on a host list.

Blokada - The best ad blocker for Android. Free and open source.

RethinkDNS - 2B+ Android users deserve access to a safer and open Internet.

AdGuard - Surf the Web Ad-Free and Safely. Shield up!

SponsorBlock - SponsorBlock is an open-source crowdsourced browser extension to skip sponsor segments in YouTube videos.