I’m trying to keep my iPhone as privacy focused as possible. Yes… I know that android devices can be locked down more than iOS devices but I don’t need it to be the most private device ever. I just want to do what I can and block trackers, ads and encrypt my DNS traffic.
I have Adguard Pro, I have not tried NextDNS. But I don’t want to have a subscription fee if possible.
Are either of these apps good enough to keep my device as private as it can be or is there more I need to do? Which app would you use or recommend for this?
I have used NextDNS for my entire network, with different profiles for different devices, and setup to work away from home, for… 4 years now? At least 3. I pay for the premium plan but the only difference is the number of queries you can have (and thereby filter). One device can definitely stay below the free threshold.
I looked at AG when researching but didn’t like the offering for some reason, don’t recall what exactly. When I went from testing to full use I had to get the paid tier as we use checks 3,848,010 queries in the last rolling 30d. Free limits you to 300k/30d.
I’m unaware of the options for AG, but ND is really nice. And the multiple profile system is 👌. Dial in the settings for devices/users to keep my network, and therefore their devices, as safe as I can, punching holes as needed only for that device/user.
(I’m also the type of person you talk about - I use two layers of DNS filtering (router, then ND), use snort on the router, I run GrapheneOS, all my cloud data is on-prem with hardware I own, my main server uses encryption at rest for almost all data, and off-site backups are encrypted in transit and with seperate keys at rest… :p)
Gotcha, Adguard Pro on iOS doesn’t have a DNS limit but I suspect you are right and going over the free limit on NextDNS would be pretty hard to do one one device, especially a mobile device
Adguards privacy policy seems very good for Adguard Pro on iOS: https://adguard.com/en/privacy/ios.html
But I know that they originated in Russia and that gives some cause for concern. Their current HQ is in Cyprus
https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls
rather mullvad than nextDNS?
You can point Adguard Pro and maybe even NextDNS to Mullvad’s DNS Server. So I wonder if doing that is better than using Mullvad’s DNS profile alone on an iOS device? Not sure, but Adguard Pro has a safari extension and more settings. So I wonder if doing that covers more?
For me, if I’m gonna point it to Mullvad’s DNS servers anyway, then I might as well just use it directly. Having a profile also ensures all your traffic goes through there, instead of just browser traffic (if via extension).
