It feels like annoying ads are an embedded, inescapable part of the internet. It doesn’t matter if you’re watching a video on YouTube or browsing a blog for a new recipe, advertisements are everywhere.

As more people move away from cable subscriptions, advertisers are becoming more relentless with targeted online ads. To say they’re distracting is an understatement. But how do you avoid them?

There is something you can do about all that visual clutter. Apps like Adblock Plus, which is a free, open-source ad blocker extension, are out there fighting the good fight. Ad blockers work by scanning a site and blocking content that looks like an ad.

There may be some hesitation to use an app like Adblock Plus, and you may have even heard it’s a virus. The service is not only safe — as long as it’s downloaded from the site — but also useful.

Let’s take a closer look at Adblock Plus (also called ABP) and all it has to offer. It just may make your browsing experience a pleasant one.

Adblock Plus overview

Adblock Plus pros and cons

Adblock Plus features

Adblock Plus is a browser extension that comes with a clean, user-friendly interface and increased functionality. The free version may be all you need to enhance your web page experience.

It blocks YouTube ads, follow-along video ads, display ads, and banner ads. The paid version can even get rid of those annoying videos that pop up as you’re scrolling. While this is great for convenience, it also helps protect you from ads or pop-ups that may contain malware. Adblock Plus also allows you the freedom to browse anonymously without trackers creating a profile of you.

One of the more helpful features is the allowlisting toggle. You can whitelist a site to always allow ads or toggle off the blocker for a specific page. There’s no need to create a block list, as the plugin does that for you. There are even options to disable tracking features on social media sites so they can’t build a profile of you. This is all extremely useful, especially for a free product.

Not all the features worked perfectly on every browser. Per usual, the Apple option, Safari, had far fewer features available than Chrome or Edge. However, Adblock Plus still held up by blocking ads on Safari.

In a search on safety, we came across a note from the developers of Adblock Plus to only download the extension from a reputable extension store or from the Adblock Plus website. They mention downloads from other sites may contain malware. This warning coupled with the power of the product makes it an excellent choice with great transparency.

Adblock Plus test results

To test Adblock Plus, we used AdBlock Tester and Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF’s) Cover Your Tracks tools.

Adblock Tester looks at specific forms of ads like contextual advertising, banner advertising, analytics tools, and more. Adblock Plus passed all the administered tests. Some of the tests failed to load, which reduced the overall score to 73, but there were explanations saying this could be due to browser settings.

With the Cover Your Tracks test, there was partial protection from tracking ads and invisible trackers but a nearly unique fingerprint. Fingerprints online are much like real fingerprints: a collection of data regarding hardware, location, usage, and other very specific information that helps profile you.

The more unique your fingerprint, the easier it is to build a profile of you. Adblock Plus didn’t help with generalizing our fingerprint.

Adblock Plus scores

Does Adblock Plus block YouTube ads?

Yes! Adblock Plus blocks YouTube ads both at the beginning and throughout the video. It’s worth noting that it took a few seconds of loading to get to the “Skip Ads” feature, but we never had to watch an ad during that loading time.

YouTube videos have increasingly become filled with advertisements in the company’s efforts to push its subscription-based services. It can be frustrating when you’re trying to watch a longer video or follow a recipe and an ad interrupts your flow. Some advertisements on YouTube will even disrupt content to the point of turning the app off.

If you’re a regular user of the site for long-form videos like nature sounds for sleep or calming music for your pet when you’re gone, blocking these ads can enhance your experience.

As YouTube continues to push its paid subscription services, products like Adblock Plus are extremely useful for people who feel like they’re already paying too much for piecemeal entertainment.

Our Adblock Plus experience

Adblock Plus was a breeze to install. Ours was installed on a Safari browser on both macOS on a MacBook and iOS on an iPhone, as well as a Chrome browser on our MacBook.

From YouTube to blogs to sites like Forbes, ads were blocked and browsing was clean and seamless. The YouTube blockers were especially impressive because they blocked the ads at the beginning and eliminated any loading of ads in the middle of a video.

We also liked that you could turn on acceptable ads, which are non-invasive advertisements on a site as well as allowlisting certain sites for ads. This gives back to creators, like your favorite blogger, who rely on ad revenue for the content they create. Adblock Plus allows you the choice to support content you find relevant, and we really appreciated that.

Adblock Plus compatibility

Adblock Plus has a decent offering of browser compatibility. It would be nice to see additional browsers included as well, but these are a great start.

Compatible browsers

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Safari
• Microsoft Edge
• Opera
• Yandex Browser

Incompatible browsers

• Netscape
• Vivaldi
• Tor
• Brave
• Others

Additionally, you can grab the Adblock Browser for Android on the Google Play Store and for the iPhone or iPad on the Apple App Store.

Adblock Plus Premium

Adblock Plus, while a powerful free tool, has a Premium subscription plan that allows for even more options like blocking site notifications and blocking floating videos. Anyone who’s visited a recipe blog knows that these can overwhelm the page to the point of making it nearly unreadable.

The Premium subscription also supports the work the Adblock Plus crew is doing so they can continue to bring a powerful and useful tool to all internet users. For less than $20 a year, Adblock Plus Premium is absolutely worth it especially if you value the work they’re doing.

Adblock Plus Premium prices

Adblock Plus promises that it exists solely on paid subscriptions and donations. This means your data is never for sale. The app even notes in its privacy policy that you’re practically invisible to the company as well. Adblock Plus does note that it shares aggregated anonymous information with some third parties, but that info cannot be traced back to you.

Adblock Plus FAQs

Bottom line: Is Adblock Plus good?

The short answer is yes, Adblock Plus is good. It allows you to browse the internet without having a million distractions, and possibly malicious files, overwhelming you.

Using Adblock Plus was easy and made the experience of browsing the web, watching videos, and visiting blogs much more enjoyable. You don’t realize how annoying visual clutter is until you don’t have to worry about it any longer.

If you’re browsing on your phone, you may need to update your privacy settings to enable everything for the extension to begin working. This might feel confusing, but Adblock Plus has plenty of user-friendly guides to help you install the extension and get it running.

All told, installation took less than a minute on each browser option we tested. There really aren’t a ton of drawbacks to using Adblock Plus. If you’d still like another option you can go with one of the other popular ad blockers like Total AdBlock, uBlock Origin, AdGuard, or Ghostery.

Learn More

On Total Adblock's website

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• Hands-off ad-blocking experience
• Easy to set up

• Free version excludes top 15,000 websites

Ads are annoying at best, and downright dangerous and loaded with malware at worst. We used to think they were just a necessary nuisance to browse the internet, but that doesn’t have to be true. Do yourself a solid and block them. You won’t regret it.

Learn More

On Adblock Plus's website

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• Free product works great
• Blocks YouTube ads

• Need paid subscription to block pop-up videos, survey requests, and site notifications

Author Details

Mary James

About the Author

Mary lives in Los Angeles and has been writing about tech for over 5 years. When she's not writing for work or fun, you'll find her in a theatre, at the movies, volunteering, or hiking the gorgeous SoCal landscape.