We strongly condemn the use of ad blockers as they harm the digital ecosystem and the creators who rely on advertising revenue.
Ads are getting heavier and intrusive, and most of them are disguised as third-party trackers. Apart from slowing down the browser, ads also compromise user privacy. Not to mention, recent reports suggest that ad blockers keep users safe from cybercriminal attacks such as “malvertising” which are malware disguised as ads. So if you want a safe and fast web browsing experience, here are the best ad blockers for web browsers.
1. uBlock Origin
uBlock Origin is ranked among the best ad blockers for web browsers. It’s free and open-source and supports many web browsers including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, and even Safari. It’s actively maintained by its lead developer, Raymond Hill. Among all the ad blockers, uBlock Origin is found to be the most memory-efficient and consumes much less CPU resources.
uBlock Origin blocks ads based on multiple filter lists including EasyList, EasyPrivacy, Peter Lowe’s Blocklist, Online Malicious URL Blocklist, and its own, uBO filter lists. As a result, not just ads, but uBlock Origin blocks trackers, coin miners, popups, annoying anti-blockers, and malware sites as well.
Bear in mind that Google is starting to enforce the new Manifest V3 extension platform for Chrome. It means that in the future, you will no longer be able to use uBlock Origin, which is based on Manifest V2. However, the good news is that the developer has developed a new extension called uBlock Origin Lite based on the Manifest V3 extension platform. So, you can easily move to the new extension to keep blocking ads on Chrome and other browsers.
2. AdBlock
AdBlock is another popular ad blocker for browsers. While it blocks ads on nearly all websites, AdBlock goes one step further and blocks ads on YouTube too. Google is indeed cracking down on several YouTube ad blockers, but AdBlock continues to find some workarounds to make it work.
Apart from that, AdBlock removes pop-up ads, annoying banners, video ads, third-party trackers, malicious ads, crypto miners, and more. It also allows users to customize the filter list and whitelist websites to support a website through ads. In terms of performance too, AdBlock is not a memory hog and uses minimum resources.
3. Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus is a hugely popular cross-platform extension that blocks ads on web browsers. It’s available on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Edge. Along with ad-blocking on websites, it also blocks YouTube ads and pop-ups. The extension removes ad banners, video ads, and malware posing as ads. As a result, it frees up crucial resources and improves the performance of the browser.
Keep in mind that Adblock Plus is criticized for allowing certain types of ads that are part of the Acceptable Ads initiative. It’s turned on by default, but you can choose to opt out. Besides that, you can choose to whitelist websites that you want to support through ads.
4. Ghostery
Ghostery is one of the oldest ad blockers for web browsers, and it’s available on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Edge. It’s also open-source and completely free to use. It not only blocks ads but also stops third-party trackers from collecting your data and improves your privacy on the web.
Ads are getting much heavier nowadays, so Ghostery blocks all of them to improve the performance. It’s particularly helpful in blocking intrusive cookie pop-ups, which are frankly annoying and automatically dissents to online tracking. You can also choose to find the tracker information for each website and allow certain ones if you need them.
5. AdGuard
You must have AdGuard as a DNS resolver, but it also offers extensions to block ads on web browsers. It blocks all kinds of intrusive ads and removes annoying web elements from the web page. From banners to pop-ups, video ads, and malicious ads, AdGuard blocks them all.
It also offers inherent browsing security and stops you from visiting phishing and malicious sites. Not only that, AdGuard blocks web analytics tools and online trackers to protect your privacy. And it has also built a new MV3 Beta extension to comply with Google’s Manifest V3 policy for extensions.
6. Privacy Badger
If you are conscious about your online privacy, you must check out Privacy Badger. It’s an extension developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and aims to protect user privacy on the web. It’s not an ad blocker per se, but blocks all kinds of visible and invisible trackers on the web. However, by doing so, all kinds of ads are also blocked since most ads or scripts are disguised as third-party trackers.
Privacy Badger does send a signal denying consent to tracking through Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. However, when websites still track you, the extension blocks them right away. So if you want more of a privacy tool rather than an ad blocker, Privacy Badger is for you.
7. Blockify
Blockify is a Spotify ad blocker, specifically written to remove audio ads in between songs. You can get rid of constant interruptions on Spotify using this extension. That said, keep in mind that it only works on Spotify web player (open.spotify.com). Apart from that, the extension has been designed primarily for Chrome, but it will also work on other Chromium-based browsers like Edge and Opera.
8. Adblock for YouTube
While Google is ramping up to block ad blockers on YouTube, there are a few extensions that still work. One such extension is Adblock for YouTube. It blocks banner ads, ad-clips, and even pre-roll ads on YouTube which usually play in the beginning. It also blocks YouTube ads on external sites, which is great. That said, some users report that the extension no longer works, but go ahead and try it out.
So that wraps up our list of the best ad blockers for web browsers. I suggest not installing ad blockers from shady developers, as they can be used to collect your browsing data instead of blocking ads. Anyway, that is all from us. If you have any questions, let us know in the comments below.
Abubakar Mohammed
