Looks like I may need some technical help—I did check the support pages. I installed NextDNS on my iPad and then when to VPN & Device Management in settings. I then selected NextDNS. When I went into NextDNS settings, I noticed that I needed a Configuration ID to block ads, etc. I cannot figure out how to get that ID. Does it require a paid version of NextDNS?
On the NextDNS dashboard (website) it’ll show your ID on one of the pages. It’s that you want to enter.
Basically your account identifier if I’m not mistaken, so it can identify you.
Under the “Setup” menu I do believe.
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Actually, it’s a US based company.
Good spot. I’ve read stuff about the founders before so wrongly assumed they were based in France.
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Word of caution - NextDNS is great until you run into an issue and need support. It’s basically non-existent. Also doesn’t seem to have much active development or improvements.
I switched to ControlD and have been happy. Same concept, but responsive support and active improvements. I’ve found their router/firewall/server packages to be better maintained as well.
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I’ve always been happy with NextDNS but it’s good to see the competition. Especially if it’s extra power features. Given the price and the ease of installation, it’s a pretty low bar for testing these things out.
That said, I would want to see a comparison of features aside from the company’s own website. I’ve yet to see a comparison where a company agreed the competition was better than them.
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I believe I have it! I opened several articles from different sources in Apple News, and no ads.
However, I still show this in the NextDNS app (the above is from the Settings app).
Am I missing something?
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I’m a NextDNS customer and very happy with it.
One thing to note is that sometimes wifi networks block encrypted DNS and this can cause issues with it sometimes. Android usually notifies me of this, but iOS doesn’t and I just can’t visit sites. In this instance, I find that I either have to turn of NextDNS, or add the wifi network to the disabled list in NextDNS so it manages it for me.
That’s where the benefit of running an Adblocker and NextDNS come in handy.
Wait, Little Snitch has DNS support? Must have missed that
There you go! This is all you need to block ads 
. The program is running correctly, it’s simply showing that the app on your iPad is not tied to a NextDNS account. And it doesn’t need to be.
If you want, you can make an account at my.nextdns.io; it’s free. Once you do that, on the “Setup” tab, in the “Endpoints” section, there will be a 6-character Id. You can type that 6-character id into the prompt on your iPad app. That will allow you to do some new things:
- See all your iPad network traffic in the my.nextdns.io interface.
- Set custom blocklists, or custom policies, if the defaults are insufficient.
- Tie your iPad to a paid account, if you upgrade.
But all of this is unnecessary for the project of blocking ads in Apple News. You are good to go!
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Thank you, thank you!
Thanks everyone for the help. I’m up and running. Much appreciated.
Glad it’s working for you. I think you might just be locked in now – can’t go back. 
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Pi-hole is also and option. I self host it at home and on a vps. When away from home, my devices connect to it over a wireguard VPN , and only DNS traffic goes over the VPN .
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I got NextDNS on my iOS devices but on my Mac, it keeps saying failed to install. Any suggestions on this?
They are complimentary. Little Snitch acts as an outgoing firewall, and NextDNS encrypts your DNS queries and filters incoming. AND you can literally turn on NextDNS in Little Snitch now! As of Little Snitch 6, you can go into app settings and turn on DNS Encryption, then choose Custom and point to your NextDNS profile. Been working well for me so far. (As an aside, over a period of a month, about 12% of my internet traffic gets filtered out).
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Little Snitch
Just enabled it, selected Cloudflare, which I assume is the 1.1.1.1 DNS one
Working fine so far 
Will venture into Ad blocking DNS services later
That’s exactly what I was going to write. And it’s not just on the web, also in apps that have ads (mostly on mobile devices).
The experience is similar to accidentally using Google instead of Kagi. And you can’t imagine what happens when I accidentally use Google with NextDNS turned off. Apocalypse!
Totally. To the extent that I’m getting slightly annoyed by all those ”ads” for adblockers. 
(not ads, of course, but adblocking services offering their services as part of browsers or what not.
This is indeed one (of two) bigger limitations. In Duolingo, the constant ads for superduolingo wont go away because they are served by duolingo.
The other limitation is that some (I would say: lower quality) websites are using services like Segment in a way that breaks the site when access to the domain is blocked. It’s been happening less often recently, though.
It certainly is and I’ve had it running in a docker container on my homevserver for years. The difference is in how much time I have to invest in maintenance (pi-hole: a couple of hours per year, NextDNS: perhaps a few minutes)
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You do maintain on your pi-hole? I set mine up automatically update via a cron job.
It (actually they, I have several) just work.