Products · Product
Pi-hole
Raised as a usability problem by 30 people on Hacker News over 12 years (2015–2026), in 24 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Breaks websites so users can't tell the blocker is the causeUnreviewed
20152026- Breaks websites in ways that make users unsure whether the blocker is the cause2024-04-08
- Blocking silently breaks pages and apps without telling the user the cause2024-02-07
- Sites break from over-blocking, forcing repeated switching to non-block mode to fix them2021-05-03
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 32 complaints
- Configured DNS server is ignored in favor of DHCP-provided DNS, requiring manual nmcli commands2026-05-09
- CPU pegged at 100% after update, making the whole network unusable2025-10-12
- Shopping result links fail to open because Pi-hole blocks them as ads2025-05-21
- No good workflow for adding exemptions, so blocked links are hard to get through on computers2025-05-21
- Google ad links fail to route to the intended destination, forcing scrolling past them2025-05-05
- Unclear how to apply different blocking rules to different clients2025-02-18
- Breaks websites in ways that make users unsure whether the blocker is the cause2024-04-08
- Blocked sites show a 'can't be found' error that looks like the internet is down2024-02-08
- When Pi-hole breaks a page, it gives no sign of being the cause2024-02-07
- Must log into each Pi-hole GUI separately to temporarily disable blocking, which is inconvenient on phones2024-02-07
- Blocking silently breaks pages and apps without telling the user the cause2024-02-07
- Whitelisting and per-device access control are annoying to maintain, especially with randomized MAC addresses2023-01-14
- Hard to administer and hard to tweak to personal preferences2022-11-29
- Blocking sponsored placements breaks Amazon and other shopping sites in confusing ways2022-09-29
- Login flows and page interactions break when the blocked tracking script fails to load2022-05-30
- Impossible to add an exception for a website the user wants to support2021-09-04
- Sites break from over-blocking, forcing repeated switching to non-block mode to fix them2021-05-03
- Default settings blocked a call, so an Android TV app wouldn't load2020-05-11
- Non-technical users can't tell when a page is blocked and can't easily unblock it2020-05-04
- Whitelisting breaks checkouts and makes it hard to tell which URL is missing2019-06-30
- Breaks apps for family members, and fixing it means working out what to whitelist2019-05-30
- Can't get .local hostnames resolving again, must use raw IP addresses2019-05-30
- Sites hang for minutes when Pi-hole blocks a required domain, hard to tell from connectivity issues2019-04-14
- Setting it up as desired takes time and considerable technical expertise2018-10-17
- Sites show page not found error after not visited for a while, reload fixes it2018-09-26
- Full block list breaks newsletter links, making content unusable2018-09-26
- Sites break and users must find and manually whitelist them2018-08-07
- Family and coworkers can't bypass blocking unless they know how Pi-hole works2018-08-07
- Finding which domains to unblock for one site is laborious, and family members can't bypass blocks2018-08-07
- Blocking breaks some websites the user's wife wants to visit2018-08-07
- Admin access uses the service user's system password, with no separate credentials for non-technical users2018-01-20
- Whitelisting a blocked domain requires SSH into the Pi and reloading config2015-12-25