The most annoying thing when you are browsing on a certain website is, they bombard you with tons of ads. Those annoying adverts in web browsers distract from your browsing, which in turn will slow down the loading function of the site. Ultimately, it leaves you with no choice but to use an ad blocker.
Ad blockers allow users to block annoying ads, save bandwidth by cutting down the amount of content, a page loads and in extreme scenarios, they can also help with your privacy by blocking malicious ads that seek to track your browsing habits.
Here, we have listed some of the best performing ad-blocking extensions to take control of your browsing experience. Do check them out.
1. AdBlock (Chrome, Opera, Safari)
AdBlock is the most popular ad blocker (with over 200 million downloads every year), available for users of Chrome, Opera, and Safari. AdBlock uses a series of filter lists to automatically block ad content coming from known ad servers and providers. Users can stick with the default blocklists, subscribe to additional ones, or even create their own, as well as whitelist their favorite websites. AdBlock has acceptable ad options for YouTube and Google search but they are off by default.
There was a Firefox version released briefly but that was pulled from the Firefox add on pages for unknown reasons.
2. AdBlock Plus (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari)
AdBlock Plus (ABP) is another most well-known ad blocking extension for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari browsers. It has been the most controversial ad blockers till now because it started off the trend of introducing “Acceptable Ads Whitelist”.
ABP features a quick setup, loading preset filter lists that allow users to quickly block most ads, as well as the option to filter malware and social media buttons. Savvy users can choose additional blocklists as well as set custom filters or whitelist their favorite sites to keep their ad revenue in the black. AdBlock Plus allows what it calls “non-intrusive advertising” through filters, which may irk some users, though this can be disabled in settings.
The AdBlock Plus extension also has versions for Maxthon, Internet Explorer and even Android.
3. AdLock (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari)
Having useless advertisements pop up between important browsing sessions is nothing short of a nuisance. If you’re looking for a promising software that can help you get rid of these constant ad pop-ups, AdLock might just what you’re looking for.
What AdLock Does?
- It blocks banners and pop-ups, video ads, and Cryptocurrency mining ads.
- It protects your system from potentially harmful links, keeps your private data hidden, and helps trace spyware and bugs.
- It saves traffic, battery power, mobile data, and also fine-tunes the internet usage rules.
- It is multifunctional. It filters HTTPS websites, guards your system performance, and speeds up the loading of webpages.
- In short, it does everything that you need to enjoy a hassle-free and disturbance-free browsing!
- If you think AdLock is what you’ve been looking for, you can subscribe to its monthly, annual, or a 5-year subscription plan today and let it do the job right away!
4. Ghostery (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari)
Ghostery is one of the best ad blockers used by people for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari browsers. It has very interesting features in it and has the ability to block analytic scripts, privacy scripts, web beacons, widgets, social media trackers, and of course, advertisements. Another important feature is that it is easily accessible as you can easily enable or disable the scripts as per requirement without any hindrance.
Ghostery is an ad blocker, featuring great detection, blocking of scripts, elements and cookies, and opt-out options. This adblocking extension is also available for Internet Explorer and mobile operating systems.
5. uBlock Origin (Chrome, Firefox)
This one is one of the most advanced adblocking software which is available for Chrome, Firefox browsers. uBlock Origin also claims to be very CPU and memory efficient. It does block Google Analytics by default, and this tends to block a number of websites at a time, which in turn helps in loading your actual web page for which you are browsing. However, you can customize the blocking to your preferences. You can also allow or block specific sites from loading on the page via advanced mode.
6. AdBlock Pro (Chrome)
AdBlock Pro is based on AdBlock Plus but has a simpler options interface. This adblocking extension available for the Chrome browser has no acceptable ads option. And the icon bar is just there on the address bar (instead of the normal add-on area) and you just have three simple options to choose for.
7. AdRemover (Chrome)
AdRemover is based on AdBlock extension, having the same number of options available. The difference is just regarding certain presentation features and is also sponsored by various social media sites. But any kind of donation is not asked.
8. SuperBlock AdBlocker (Chrome)
This is another AdBlock fork developed by the same people who developed an ad blocking extension called ‘AdRemover.’ It is an upgraded version of the ‘AdRemover’ blocking software and is almost the same. The only difference is the addition of an extra feature in the filter list and change of style or theme as well.
9. Adguard (Chrome, Firefox)
Adguard is another adblocking extension available for both Firefox and Chrome. It is quite accessible in nature and you can easily add extra blocking scripts to it as when it is required.
Adguard’s main product is a shareware desktop application that blocks all kinds of ads without the need for browser add-ons. Beta versions of both add-ons are available for testers.
10. Disconnect (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari)
Disconnect is a powerful browser add-on for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari that allows users to see advertising, analytics, and social media tracking cookies. It offers the option to disable them globally or selectively. This tool includes whitelists, blacklists, tracking visualizations, and more.
11. Privacy Badger (Chrome, Firefox, Opera)
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)’s Privacy Badger extension was born from the EFF’s concerns about the business models of some privacy tools and ad blockers.
Privacy Badger functions similarly to extensions like AdBlock Plus (on which it was based) and Ghostery, selectively blocking the ads from executing, with built-in learning algorithms that adapt to the sites you visit as well as any new tracking tools discovered.
While not explicitly an ad blocker, Privacy Badger does also blocks some advertising, depending on how aggressively the ads track you across websites.
Ad Blockers for Mobile
- AdBlock Plus Mobile (Android, iOS)
- Ghostery Privacy Browser (Android, iOS)
- Firefox Focus (Android)
- Brave Browser (Desktop, Android, iOS)
- 1Blocker (iOS)
