The main difference between AdGuard DNS and Control D is that AdGuard DNS focuses solely on personal users looking to enhance their security and privacy at home, while Control D offers advanced DNS filtering products both for personal and business users.
This article goes deeper in the comparison between AdGuard DNS and Control D, showing how the two help organizations secure their networks, protect employees, and maintain control over internet access.
We’ll examine both against the following criteria:
- Plans
- Pricing
- General Features
- Clients, Applications, and Integrations
- Analytics & Reporting
- Support
Plans
AdGuard DNS offers a basic free plan and three paid plans: Personal, Team, and Enterprise. While there is no clear differentiation between features offered, there are crucial differences in usage limits.
For example, the Personal plan is limited to 10 million monthly requests, 5 servers (policies), 20 devices, and 1,000 rules, and the Team plan starts with a limit of 100M monthly requests, 200 devices, 50 servers, 5,000 rules, and 2 dedicated IPv4 addresses – for unlimited requests, devices, and servers, you must upgrade to the Enterprise plan.
Control D takes the opposite approach. There are no plans or limits to requests, devices, Profiles (policies), and rules. Only a distinction is made between organization types since this will impact your per-month costs.
This approach has three notable benefits for users:
- You automatically receive Control D’s feature set and functionality upon signing up
- You qualify for all future feature releases and upgrades at no additional cost
- You never have to worry about usage or configuration limits
Pricing
AdGuard paid plans are priced at the following:
- Personal – $2.49/month
- Team – starts at $14.99/month; can go up to $149.90/month depending on usage
- Enterprise – available upon request
While Control D offers a generous free DNS service, organizations will want to sign up for the paid service for functionality and customization. As opposed to the traditional tiered-pricing model, pricing is dependent on organization type:
- Enterprise – $2/Endpoint/month
- MSPs – $1/Endpoint/month
- School/Non-Profit – eligible for a further discounted rate
On the surface, it may look like AdGuard is a more cost-effective platform compared to Control D, but is this also the case when factoring in their respective features and capabilities? Let’s take a look.
General Features
Advanced Machine Learning-Based Malware Filter
Control D utilizes machine learning technology to classify and block pages that are highly likely to serve malware in real time, ensuring your network is always protected from threats before they appear in malware or IP blocklists.
An independent test found that Control D’s malware filter has a 99.97% block rate, making it the most effective malware filter in the industry. Although AdGuard was not included in this test, Control D outperformed industry giants such as Google, Quad9, and Cloudflare.
AdGuard does not have a comparable feature.
Blockable Services
Control D's Services allow you to block, bypass, or redirect over 1,000 individual apps, platforms, tools, and groups of websites. This level of granularity ensures you can fine-tune your filtering policies without relying solely on broad content categories.
For example, if you want to block Facebook and Instagram while allowing access to other social media platforms, simply toggle these Services on or off in the dashboard – no custom blocklists are required.
AdGuardDNS, on the other hand, offers a limited selection of fewer than 100 blockable Services. While this does allow you to filter some well-known platforms, the lack of a comprehensive list significantly reduces flexibility when enforcing custom network policies.
Geo-Custom Rules
Piggybacking off the previous point, Control D has a unique feature called Geo-Custom Rules. This allows you to control DNS queries based on geographic and network data. With this functionality, you can block, redirect, or bypass queries based on their origin or destination.
For example, you might want to block DNS queries that resolve to IPs in high-risk countries like Russia or Iran to minimize exposure to potential cyber threats. Alternatively, you can bypass restrictions for trusted regions or even redirect traffic associated with specific ASNs to a designated proxy location.
AdGuard DNS does not offer this level of geo-based DNS control; it provides general filtering capabilities, but it cannot enforce policies based on countries, ASNs, or IP origins.
👉 Read our documentation for more information on Geo-Custom Rules
Traffic Redirection
Control D offers Traffic Redirection, a powerful feature that allows you to reroute DNS queries through proxy servers in 100+ exit locations across 60+ countries, all without requiring a VPN. This enables you to control where your traffic appears to originate, thus masking your IP address, all without using a VPN.
With Traffic Redirection, you can choose to:
- Route all DNS traffic through a specific country for consistency
- Redirect only certain Services (e.g., streaming platforms or software vendors) to specific locations
AdGuard DNS does not offer this functionality, meaning users looking for precise traffic routing and location control would need additional solutions beyond AdGuard.
Global Server Network
AdGuard operates 70+ servers across 15+ countries, while Control D boasts a global network of 100+ servers in 60+ countries.
Having more servers in more locations means faster DNS resolution times, and a wider server distribution means improved reliability, ensuring consistent performance no matter where you are in the world.
The result for you and your business? Smoother operations, faster browsing speeds, and a more responsive network overall.
Powerful Custom Rules
AdGuard allows you to create custom block and allow lists with “User Rules.” However, its functionality is limited compared to Control D, which expands on this capability thanks to its extensive Custom Rules feature.
Control D’s Custom Rules allow you to create custom block and allow lists but also enable you to create PTR records, group rules into Folders, assign default actions to Folders (i.e., make Allow/Deny Folders and add domains), export Folders to share rules, copy rules between Profiles, and a whole lot more.
👉 Learn more about Custom Rules and its use cases
Clients, Applications, and Integrations
Single Sign-On (SSO)
Control D integrates with Okta for seamless Single Sign-On (SSO) capabilities, allowing you to easily enforce secure access policies and reduce the need for multiple passwords, improving both security and user convenience.
AdGuard DNS does not support SSO integration with Okta or any other platform.
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) Tool Integration
Control D integrates with all major RMM tools, allowing you to deploy, configure, and monitor DNS settings across multiple endpoints from a single dashboard. This means you can easily apply and configure filtering rules, manage your network, and troubleshoot issues.
AdGuard DNS is not compatible with RMM tools.
👉 View our complete list of integrations and trusted partners
Analytics and Reporting
Query Log & Report Retention
AdGuard stores raw DNS query log data for up to 90 days, whereas Control D keeps query log data for up to 7 days.
However, Control D can generate reports of up to 30 days with hourly time series granularity or up to 1 year with daily time series granularity. AdGuard can only create reports for the previous 90 days.
Custom Data Storage Region
Control D provides flexibility in data storage with three default regions: North America, Europe, and Australia. Control D also offers the option to configure a custom data storage region for an additional fee if your business has specific compliance or data residency requirements.
AdGuard DNS does not offer this capability.
SIEM Log Streaming
Control D allows you to stream DNS query logs directly to your preferred SIEM tool in real time. This provides a centralized view of your network activity, making it easier to detect anomalies, respond to threats, and correlate DNS activity with other network events.
AdGuard DNS does not support SIEM log streaming.
Support
Community Support
Control D has an active user community on Discord and Reddit. Whether you're looking for setup advice and best practices or simply want to interact with other users, these platforms offer direct access to an engaged community.
Beyond that, Control D also ensures user feedback plays a direct role in shaping the platform. This is thanks to the Suggest a Feature tool, which allows you to propose new ideas or vote on existing ones. The most requested features are prioritized first, so if you want to speed up the development process for a necessary feature, this is the place to do it.
AdGuard DNS does not offer community-driven support or a direct user feedback portal.
Chat Support
Control D offers chat support powered by Barry, an advanced AI chatbot. Whether you need help with configuration, troubleshooting, or feature explanations, Barry pulls from Control D’s comprehensive documentation and team expertise to answer 99% of queries instantly.
You can quickly escalate your query to a human support team member if your question requires human assistance.
AdGuard does not provide chat support functionality.
👉 Learn more about Barry’s capabilities
Priority Support
AdGuard offers priority support for those on the Enterprise plan. However, it’s unclear what the response time guarantee is for this service.
While Control D does not offer priority support, they will respond to your support query within 24 hours. Often, it’s within just a few, and queries are frequently responded to by the engineers themselves, ensuring your issue is resolved thoroughly and promptly.
Final Thoughts
AdGuard DNS is a viable option for personal users due to its affordable price, ad and tracker-blocking capabilities, and flexible content blocking.
However, business networks with hundreds or thousands of devices and users require a much more advanced solution, one that can provide cutting-edge functionality and features, comprehensive analytics, numerous integrations, and quality support.
As we’ve explored in this article, Control D outshines AdGuard in all these departments, offering best-in-class threat intelligence and protection, a superior feature set, unmatched customization, and the flexibility to scale with your organization’s needs to ensure you’re always protected – no matter how big your business or complex your use case is.
