Top 10 Best Free Ad Blockers

Have you ever been browsing through the web, and suddenly you see an advertisement pop up? Or have you been trying to read an interesting article on the internet, and you see an ad placed between the lines? These are annoying situations that we have all been in. There are more than a million users who use the internet for various purposes.

Let us assume that each surfer goes through five ads on a website. With this calculation, five million ads are being looked at every time a million users look through. An Ad-blocker blocks and makes sure that you don’t get these annoying ads.  

What is an Ad Blocker Software

An ad blocker is a plugin that blocks advertisements from popping up all over the website you are surfing through. With this software, you can go through clear websites with just the content you are looking for. Such websites provide a viewer-friendly experience to the audience.

These browser extensions can also stop the viewers from seeing and clicking on phishing advertisement links, which can turn out to be threats to your PC or download links to harmful files that can corrupt your computer.

Features of an Ad Blocker Software

Ad blockers, today, have a lot of features that come with them. The two main features that are offered by every Adblocker are Whitelisting and Accepting Non-Intrusive ads.

Whitelisting – Whitelisting is the opposite of blacklisting. Whitelisting is the process of picking a few items and providing them with access to pass through the entry veil. In this case, whitelisting refers to the process of filtering select ads to be displayed on the website. The ad blockers permit only the ads which are not links to scam sites or pop-ups that can be harmful threats to your PC. 

Accepting Non-Intrusive ads – Non Intrusive ads are the ads that do not pop up or scroll up on the website window, aggressive when you are trying to navigate through the site. Ad blockers only let non-intrusive advertisements be displayed on the site if the conditions are set. Only ads that are not annoying or intimidating to the readers are permitted to be put up on the ad blockers’ websites.

DNS Blocking – Ads seek the permissions of certain website servers to be displayed. Ad blockers prevent the servers from granting these ads access to be displayed. So, you may or may not see advertisements when you change your DNS. This can put trackers off your scent.

Script Blocking – Ad-blockers go through the script code that is used to design the website and place ads in it. It verifies the data that is passed in and out of the website. The information that comes into the site is compared with a list of ads’ scripts. If detected, they are blocked by ad blockers. 

Types of Ad Blocker Software

There are two different kinds of ad-blocking software. One is the browser extension for browsers, and another type is the standalone products. The browser extensions are add-ons for your web browser.

Adblock Plus, AdGuard, and Ublock Origin are some of the best ad-blocking browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera. Standalone ad blockers are downloadable software for your computer.

AdGuard and AdLock are some of the standalone ad blockers in the market. 

Advantages of an Ad Blocker Software

Just like every coin has two different sides, anything can have its advantages and disadvantages. These are the pro features of ad blockers.

1. Most of this software is available for both browsers and as stand-alone products.
2. Ad blockers are available for all Operating Systems, even mobile ones too (Android and iOS)
3. If you are a firm or an individual who places legit advertisements, you can arrange for your ads to be accepted by ad blockers.
4. They block malware, pop-ups, unwanted ads, and cryptocurrency mining. You might have seen a lot of Youtube, Facebook, and other video ads on the web pages that you were going through. They could be dangerous, and you will need to block them. 
5. Some ad-blockers let you choose the ads you want to let through, specifically, and add them to the whitelists. 

Disadvantages of an Ad Blocker Software

Here are the disadvantages of some Ad-Blocker software. 

1. Some ad-blocking software is not free. The developers set a price for their products, which is not preferred by many users. 
2. Not every ad blocker lets the users whitelist the ads that they want to. They cannot select the acceptable ads that they might want to see. 
3. Not all ad-blocking software is available for all mediums. Some ad-blockers which are available for Chrome are not available for another web browser like Safari. Some AD-blocking software for Safari (iOS) is not available for android.
4. Some ad blockers may take up too much of your CPU to function. 

Applications of Ad Blocker Software

Ad Blocking software has only a few known applications. 

1. You are preventing unwanted ads from popping up on your screen while you scroll through web pages. 
2. Prevent harmful threats from entering your system through the website you browse.
3. Decrease your exposure to web trackers and hackers by increasing your digital privacy.
4. Stop the downloading of files posing as the data the user wants but is actually a threat to your PC. 

How does Ad Blocker Software work?

In today’s digital market, there are a lot of ad blockers available. About 90% of them are marketed in the form of a browser extension. The content you see on web pages is rendered (loaded) so that you can see them.

Before rendering, it is in the raw script format. The ad blockers look through this script to detect ads. It has a whitelist to compare with the web scripts to check the website content for advertisements.

If they notice any advertisement script, the ad blocker prohibits it from being loaded. Only when the entire script is gone through by the ad blocker does it permit the website to be loaded. This process is out of the 

Who uses Ad Blocker Software?

Anyone who uses the internet can use ad blocker software. From a toddler who watches rhymes on Youtube to a student who looks for answers to his assignments to a programmer who does complicated code compiling to a retired grandfather who likes scrolling through his Facebook feed, everyone must use an ad blocker.

Especially in the devices used by those who are unaware of the advertisement links that can be fatal to your Operating System. If you own a PC that unaware users use, this is your reminder to install a plugin that blocks ads and pop-ups from the website they look through.

How to choose the right Ad Blocker Software

The perfect ad blocker for you can be determined by a few factors that the user has found favorable. These factors are

1. Pricing – Most adblocking software is, basically, free. But when you start opting for this software’s premium subscriptions, you will have to pay a small fee for using more features they provide. Some blocking software is worth paying for. You will have to read the details about the services offered by each software on their sites or from the platform/website you downloaded it from. 
2. Benefits – The adblocker you chose might be free. But the reason it is free could be because of the fact that it offers very few features. You might find another blocker that is not free. This could be because they provide better benefits than the previous one. This could also not be worth your money. Check with the website before you pay. 
3. Reviews and Ratings – You will be able to read the reviews about a lot of ad blockers. If you have a specific tool in mind, you can scope it out through reviews. Any popular service has ratings and content curated about them. And obviously, there is a reason it is popular. 
4. System Requirements – Some add-ons might use CPU a bit more than other similar software. Why would a rational computer user spend extra CPU to run a plug-in? If your choice of an ad blocker can reduce the life of your hardware, you picked the wrong one. Find another one that isn’t so hard on your RAM.

It is the responsibility of the user to check with every trustworthy source to back up their information and then proceed in acquiring the software.

Top 10 Best Free Ad Blocker Software

We spent our time with you and picked out ten of the best Ad-blocker software. The best ad-blocking software was based on the factors you need to watch out for when you pick the ad-blocker. Go through this elaborate list of the best Ad-blockers and choose the one which would be perfect for you. 

There are links on our site, which will guide you to the developers’ web pages, the Chrome Web Store page for the pop-up blocker, the Firefox extension store, or both. May you find the best ad-blocker on this list. These are free ad-blockers, some of which have premium subscription options. 

1. AdBlock Plus

Adblock Plus is one the most popular free ad blocker in the Chrome web store. It takes annoying video ads, pop-ups, and banners off websites for you. AdBlock Plus permits the custom whitelisting of advertisements and supports Acceptable Ads, which can be turned off by the user. 

Adblock Plus is free to download. Adblock Plus is available on the Chrome web store.

The developers offer Adblock Plus for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Android devices. It has an average review rating of 4.4 / 5 by the users of Adblock Plus. Adblock Plus has over 10 million downloads to date. This is not to be confused with AdBlock, another similar development for Chrome, Firefox, etc. 

Adblock Plus site

2. Ublock Origin

Ublock Origin is one of the best ad blockers for today’s internet browsing. Like the other ad blockers, this blocks trackers and malware-infested video ads from fluttering across your desktop. This is well known for not using too much of your CPU and not preventing the browser from functioning fast for your convenience. 

Ublock Origin is available on the Chrome Web Store and Firefox store for free as a browser extension. 

UBlock Origin is available for Chrome, Firefox, Chromium, Edge, Safari, Opera, Palemoon, and iOS. It is free and open-source. Ublock Origin has over 10 million downloads so far. More than 24000 users rated Ublock Origin 4.7 stars out of 5. 

3. Adblocker Ultimate

Adblocker Ultimate is an open-source ad-blocking Chrome extension cum stand-alone software. Even during the beta test, this pop-up blocker blocked Youtube ads. But there have been ads on certain websites that this ad blocker was unable to block.

This has a quick block feature that blocks ads, which bypasses the ad-blocking script instantly. This pop-up blocker is also known to receive very few updates. But this software blocks ads efficiently. So it is worth it. 

There are two versions offered by the developers of this adblocker. There is the plugin for Chrome, in the Chrome Web Store, and standalone software for PCs, on their website.

This extension is free but is exclusive to the Chrome browser. The stand-alone software provides a free trial for the first 15 days after installation. If you like this adblocker, you can always buy a subscription for a price.

The Adblocker Ultimate software for PC protects the privacy of the renderable content in Chrome, Edge, and Internet Explorer. Firefox and Safari are left out. 

This extension has a rating of 4.8 / 5 in Chrome Web Store and has over 900,000 users to date. 

Adblocker Ultimate Site

4. AdGuard

AdGuard is a pop-up and adblocker which was designed specifically to work for Google Chrome. AdGuard has been tested and has proven to make browsing faster. It is known to block third-party trackers/tracking systems, thus giving you more privacy than before.

The User Interface (UI) looks really good. This pop-up and adblocker are quite popular because of their speed and less memory usage. This is one of the best ad-blockers there is in the market. 

AdGuard adblocker is available on the Chrome Web Store, only for the Chrome browser. But this is available for multiple Operating Systems like Android, Mac, iOS, and Windows. The AdGuard extension has over 1 million downloads and a rating of 4.7 stars out of 5.

5. Fair Adblocker

Fair Adblocker is an excellent multi-tasking software. It blocks ads, pop-ups, tracking, and malware. This improves your virtual privacy and gives you faster bandwidth for your network.

The users can enable acceptable ads through this free and open-source extension. The algorithms used by this browser add-on are different from the others and are supposedly better than the others in a way. 

Fair Adblocker is available on the Chrome Web Store. This is a free ad-blocker. This is quite popular and efficient as it has a score of 4.8 / 5. 

Fair Adblocker site

6. Ghostery

Ghostery belongs to the list of the best ad-blockers. This is because this popular ad-blocker not only provides you with the features to block ads and tracking but also gives you data after analyzing the blocking process. The UI is also quite easy to use. 

Ghostery is open-source and a free adblocker software. It has been built for Chrome, Opera, Edge, Firefox, and Cliqz for Windows. There are also privacy browsers designed for both iOS and Android mobiles.

This is available for free in the Google Chrome Web Store. You can subscribe for paid subscriptions if you want. This extension has been downloaded over two million times, and it has a rating of 4.6 stars out of 5.

Ghostery site

7. Privacy Badger

Privacy Badger is a unique browsing extension that doesn’t keep lists of scripts to ban. Instead, it sniffs out tracking and malware from the behavior of these scripts in websites. This permits acceptable ads and lets you whitelist ads. There are quite a number of version updates for Privacy Badger, the latest one being version 2021.2.2. This is a good sign for people who are looking for privacy. 

Privacy badger is an open-source and free extension. It is available for free in the Chrome Web Store. It is available for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Opera for Windows, and for Android too. It has a rating of 4.4 out of 5. 

Privacy Badger developer site

8. Opera Browser

The Opera Browser is an excellent adblocker. Not only is it one of the multitasking browsers, which can do it all. This browser has a built-in ad-blocker, and a VPN service comes with it. It warns the users about possible and existing malware and fraudulent online advertising. The best part is that you can add further extensions to it. It is a safe browser that respects your online privacy and secures your browsing. 

Opera Browser is free to use, and since it is a browser, it is available for download. The built-in ad-blocker is a great deal for you. There is a smaller browser version of the browser known as Opera Mini. This is available for Windows, Android, and iOS. 

Opera Site

9. Hola Ad remover

Hola Ad Remover is another free advertising, malware, and trackers blocking software. This does not permit the browsers to whitelist any ads in the browser, nor does it let any ad be displayed on websites.

As its developer script instructs, there are no exceptions to this extension to block every ad and pop-up. This is one of the top ad removal tools in the online market known for its tracking and malware blocking. 

This extension is available on the Google Chrome Web Store for free. This online privacy protection tool has a rating of 4.5 / 5 and has more than 100,000 downloads.

Hola Ad Remover developer site

10. NoScript

NoScript is one of the best ad-blockers/blocking extensions. This was built exclusively for the Mozilla Firefox browser. This adblocker can be used to block tracking and ads designed with Javascript, Java, Flash, and other plugins. You can still allow acceptable ads with this extension. But this does not block advertising on videos.  

This is free. This open-source software is now available for Chrome. It has a rating of 4.4 / 5 in the Chrome online web store. 

NoScript Mozilla download site

NoScript Chrome download site

Conclusion

There is a lot of data and the internet involved in the ever-expanding online world that we live in. There’s a large question mark over your privacy. You may find several browsers and websites dedicated to the subject.

You’re bombarded with advertisements every time you visit a website. Or, before you watch the video, you’ll hear a commercial.

There is no necessity for these obnoxious advertisements to be promoting a product or service. There is a chance that they are a front for trackers, spyware, or a false online network.

Ad-blocking software prevents your browsers from seeing these ads since it removes them from the website script. If you want to preserve your privacy and block these adverts, there are browser extensions you may install.

To speed up your internet and browsing, you may use these extensions in any of your browsers to stop advertising from loading. It’s possible to block the advertising you don’t want to see with extensions like AdBlock (Windows), AdGuard (iOS), Ublock Origin (Android), and Ghostery (Windows).

If you spend a lot of time online, you should definitely install an ad-blocking application. If you’ve previously installed an ad-blocking plugin, verify the version and update it if it’s out of date. Make sure you’re secure when browsing the web!