All About Cookies is an independent, advertising-supported website. Some of the offers that appear on this site are from third-party advertisers from which All About Cookies receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear).
All About Cookies does not include all financial or credit offers that might be available to consumers nor do we include all companies or all available products. Information is accurate as of the publishing date and has not been provided or endorsed by the advertiser.
The All About Cookies editorial team strives to provide accurate, in-depth information and reviews to help you, our reader, make online privacy decisions with confidence. Here's what you can expect from us:
- All About Cookies makes money when you click the links on our site to some of the products and offers that we mention. These partnerships do not influence our opinions or recommendations. Read more about how we make money.
- Partners are not able to review or request changes to our content except for compliance reasons.
- We aim to make sure everything on our site is up-to-date and accurate as of the publishing date, but we cannot guarantee we haven't missed something. It's your responsibility to double-check all information before making any decision. If you spot something that looks wrong, please let us know.
- Free product blocks ads, pop-up, trackers, push notifications, social media icons tracking, and even YouTube video ads
- Open-source software allows for custom filtering and community-based support
All About Cookies is an independent, advertising-supported website. Some of the offers that appear on this site are from third-party advertisers from which All About Cookies receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear).
All About Cookies does not include all financial or credit offers that might be available to consumers nor do we include all companies or all available products. Information is accurate as of the publishing date and has not been provided or endorsed by the advertiser.
The All About Cookies editorial team strives to provide accurate, in-depth information and reviews to help you, our reader, make online privacy decisions with confidence. Here's what you can expect from us:
- All About Cookies makes money when you click the links on our site to some of the products and offers that we mention. These partnerships do not influence our opinions or recommendations. Read more about how we make money.
- Partners are not able to review or request changes to our content except for compliance reasons.
- We aim to make sure everything on our site is up-to-date and accurate as of the publishing date, but we cannot guarantee we haven't missed something. It's your responsibility to double-check all information before making any decision. If you spot something that looks wrong, please let us know.
It feels like annoying ads are an embedded, inescapable part of the internet. But trusty ad blockers like Adblock Plus can scan sites you visit and block content that looks like an ad. It's a free, open-source ad blocker extension that can fight the good fight against those pesky ads.
Adblock Plus, when downloaded directly from the site, is a safe and effective tool for blocking ads. Let’s take a closer look at Adblock Plus's main features, premium offerings, ad blocking tests, and more. This extension may just make your browsing experience a pleasant one.
- Free product works great
- Allows for cleaner viewing of blog pages
- Allowlist for ads to support creators
- Blocks YouTube ads
- Need paid subscription to block pop-up videos, ignore survey requests, and block site notifications
- Struggles with blocking trackers
- Fewer features on Safari
Our experience
Paid plan
Features
Test results
How to use Adblock Plus
Alternatives
Compatibility
FAQs
Bottom line: Is Adblock Plus good?
Adblock Plus Overview
Ads blocked on Forbes homepage | 56 |
AdBlock Tester score | 100/100 |
Cover Your Tracks score | 0/3 |
Can You Block It | 3/3 |
Does it block YouTube ads? | Yes |
Whitelisting available | Yes ("allowlist") |
Blacklisting available | Yes |
Compatibility | Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Opera, Yandex |
Paid version | Starts at $4.00/mo |
How we test and rate ad blockers
Each ad blocker we review goes through a standardized test designed to push the limits of what the software is capable of. This includes vigorous third-party testing using websites like adblock-tester.com, coveryourtracks.eff.org, and canyoublockit.com. We also visit popular websites to test the ad blocker’s day-to-day capabilities, including watching YouTube videos and browsing Forbes.
Once we’ve completed the testing, we calculate our editorial rating by taking into account key features you’d expect from a good product. We score each ad blocker in the following categories and use a weighted average to calculate the final rating out of 5 stars:
- Price
- Test scores
- Features
- Browser support
- Editorial score
To learn more about how we test, read our full ad blocker methodology here.
Our experience
Adblock Plus was a breeze to install. During testing, we installed Adblock Plus on a Safari browser on macOS and iOS and tried out the Chrome extension as well.
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 noninvasive advertisements on a site, and add certain sites to our "allowlist" so that the ads display. 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 appreciate that.
Adblock Plus paid plan
Adblock Plus is a powerful free tool, but it has a Premium subscription plan that allows for even more options, like blocking site notifications and 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 $3.33/mo (billed annually), Adblock Plus Premium is absolutely worth it, especially if you value the work they’re doing.
Adblock Plus Free | Adblock Plus Premium | |
Price | Free | $4.00/mo or $3.33/mo (billed annually) |
Blocks ads and pop-ups | ||
Blocks trackers | ||
Blocks push notifications | ||
Blocks social media icons tracking | ||
Blocks site notifications | ||
Blocks survey requests | ||
Blocks floating videos | ||
Blocks cookie consent pop-ups |
Adblock Plus promises that it exists solely on paid subscriptions and donations. This means your data is never for sale. eyeo, the company behind Adblock Plus, 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.
Main Features
Adblock Plus is a web browser extension that comes with a clean, user-friendly interface and increased functionality. The free version may be all you need to enhance your webpage experience.
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.
Ad blocking
It blocks YouTube ads, floating 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.
Anonymous browsing
Adblock Plus also allows you the freedom to browse anonymously without trackers creating a profile of you. You can select which trackers you want enabled or disabled.
Allowlisting (whitelisting)
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. However, our testing found that Adblock Plus struggled to actually block those trackers.
Custom filtering
Because Adblock Plus is open source software, users have the ability to use custom filters. In addition to using the built-in filter lists, you can add community-trusted filters, create your own filters, or add filters based on the URL.
Transparency
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,Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF’s) Cover Your Tracks, and Can You Block It.
AdBlock Tester looks at specific forms of ads like contextual advertising, banner advertising, analytics tools, and more. Adblock Plus initially scored 77/100, having passed all the tests for contextual advertising and banner advertising. It failed some tests for error monitoring, and other tests failed to load, but there were explanations saying this could be due to browser settings.
However, when we enabled the Block additional tracking and Block social media icons tracking features and retested, Adblock Plus scored a clean 100/100.
The Cover Your Tracks test results indicated that Adblock Plus provided no protection from tracking ads and invisible trackers, which can be dissuading if you prefer to be anonymous online. We also went into the settings to turn on the Block additional tracking and Block social media icons tracking features, but the result was the same.
It also determined that our browser has a 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
AdBlock Tester | Cover Your Tracks | Can You Block It | |
Adblock Plus score | 100/100 | 0/3 | 3/3 |
YouTube ad test
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 block 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.
Bypassing paywall test
Although it's not surprising, Adblock Plus is unable to bypass paywalls. Ad blockers, free or paid, typically can't bypass hard paywalls like the ones you'd see on national news sites. But some of the most powerful ad blockers can bypass soft paywalls like the ones you'd see on local news sites. Unfortunately, Adblock Plus isn't able to bypass either.
How to use Adblock Plus
Adblock is easy to use. After navigating to the website to download the extension on our preferred browser, we just needed to enable it. Open the extension in your browser and toggle to enable/disable.
To set up more advanced features, select the settings icon in the upper right-hand corner of the extension management view.
In Settings, you have the option to enable/disable special tracking features, show acceptable ads, add "allowlisted" websites, create custom filter lists, and get in touch with customer support.
Adblock Plus Alternatives
If you’re not sold on Adblock Plus, there are plenty of options for ad blocking software. Here are some of the best ad blockers you can consider instead. Plus, all of these tested and recommended ad blockers can block YouTube ads.
Threat Protection |
CleanWeb |
||
Best for | Best for blocking YouTube ads | Best overall | Best for blocking streaming ads |
Price | Starts at $1.59/mo (billed annually) | Starts at $3.59/mo (billed every two years) | Starts at $1.99/mo (billed every two years) |
Free version? | |||
Adblock Tester score | 100/100 | 93/100 | 96/100 |
Cover Your Tracks score | 2/3 | 2/3 | 0.5/3 |
Can You Block It score | 3/3 | 2/3 | 3/3 |
Blocks YouTube ads? | |||
Compatibility | Windows, Mac, Chrome, Edge, Opera, Amazon Fire, Safari, Android, iOS | Threat Protection: Windows, macOS
Threat Protection Lite: |
Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, FireTV |
Learn more | Get Total Adblock | Get NordVPN Threat Protection | Get Surfshark CleanWeb |
Total Adblock is an easy-to-use ad blocker you can get for free or bundled with the highly recommended antivirus software TotalAV. It also received a perfect AdBlock Tester score and passed 2/3 Cover Your Tracks tests, which proves it’s a powerful tool.
NordVPN Threat Protection comes with one of the best VPN providers, NordVPN. It also equips you with antivirus features so you can stay safe from malware, ads, and trackers.
Surfshark CleanWeb is a budget-friendly ad blocker that includes top-notch VPN services. This cybersecurity duo blocks video ads, protects against malware, stops pop-up ads, detects hidden website data breaches, and more.
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 download the Adblock Browser for Android from the Google Play Store and for iPhone or iPad from the Apple App Store.
FAQs
Is Adblock Plus really free?
Yes, while there are some enhanced features worth paying for with the Premium subscription, the free version of Adblock Plus blocked the majority of ads.
Is Adblock Plus safe to install?
Yes, Adblock Plus is safe when downloaded from the official site or an official browser extension store. If you download Adblock Plus from any other location, it could contain malware.
How does Adblock Plus make money?
Adblock Plus makes money from donations as well as its Premium subscription, which costs $3.33/mo (billed annually).
Should I use AdBlock or Adblock Plus for Chrome?
AdBlock and Adblock Plus both do the same job of blocking ads. Adblock Plus allows you to see what ads were blocked, so it’s up to personal preference on which one you’d like to use.
Bottom line: Is Adblock Plus good?
Adblock Plus is good, especially for a free ad blocker. 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 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 anymore.
However, we were disappointed that it failed to block any trackers according to its Cover Your Tracks test results. If you’d still like another option you can go with one of the other popular ad blockers like Total Adblock.
Ads are annoying at best and downright dangerous and loaded with malware at worst. We used to think they were just a necessary nuisance when browsing the internet, but that doesn’t have to be true. Do yourself a solid and block them with one of the best ad blockers on the market. You won’t regret it.
Featured ad blockers to consider
Ad blocker | |||
Best for | Best for blocking YouTube ads | Best for streaming | Best overall |
Price | Paid plan costs $1.59/mo (billed annually) | Paid plans start at $1.99/mo (billed every two years) | Starts at $3.59/mo (billed every two years) |
Blocks YouTube ads | |||
Learn more | Get Total Adblock | Get Surfshark CleanWeb Ad Blocking | Get NordVPN Threat Protection |