NextDNS is a similar solution: https://nextdns.io/

Love NextDNS and it is my current choice, but it appears that the big difference between the two is that NextDNS does not provide a way to self-host the DNS server.

While true, you can run nextDNS CLI locally and have the same performance as if you’re hosting your pihole/adguard home locally. I run it directly off my Ubiquti switch and redirect all DNS request to it.

I didn’t understand this. What does the local cli do that has similar performance? Does it create a local dns server that relays to upstream?

https://github.com/nextdns/nextdns

looks like it proxies standard DNS traffic to NextDNS via DOH, and does some other fancy stuff including caching, zeroconf discovery, and conditional forwarding.

Dang, this looks like a nice option for my home setup - I may give it a try!!