Ghostery Review 2025: It's Like Ads Were Never There

Ghostery is a effective free ad blocker that continuously improves its capabilities. During our latest round of testing, Ghostery earned high scores on our ad blocking tests and tracker blocking tests. 

Ghostery also consistently blocks ads on YouTube, from pop-ups to mid-roll video ads. Learn more about our thoughts on Ghostery and how it compares to the best ad blockers. 

Overview

Ads blocked on Forbes	4
Adblock Tester score	99/100
Cover Your Tracks score	2/3
Can You Block It score	3/3
Does it block YouTube ads?	Yes
Whitelisting available	Yes
Blacklisting available	No
Compatibility	iOS, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Safari
Paid version	Starts at $1.99/mo
Learn more	Get Ghostery

We last tested Ghostery on October 21, 2025. 

Our experience

Ghostery is easy to install and largely hands-off. We added the extension from the Chrome Web Store and hit Enable Ghostery on the setup page. 

Once it's enabled, you can let Ghostery take the wheel. You can open up the extension on any page to view what kinds of activities are being observed and blocked. The Forbes homepage is typically cluttered with ads, but Ghostery blocked four trackers. 

You can enable or disable ad blocking, anti-tracking, and the never-consent feature directly from the main extension tab. It's also easy to whitelist sites from this tab if you select the pause button at the top. You can pause for one hour, one day, or always.

Overall, our experience using and testing Ghostery was solid. The ad blocker was easy to install, and it blocked most of the ads from the websites we visited.

Is Ghostery free?

Ghostery is a free ad blocker but you're also encouraged to become a contributor. Contributors can help Ghostery fund the development of the Ghostery Privacy Suite.

Other free Ghostery features include WhoTracks.Me (for tracker statistics), plus a Private Browser and Search.

Main features

Ghostery is a great privacy tool for blocking ads, which can improve the performance of the webpages you visit by reducing their load times. Its free plan includes the ad and tracker blocker, a never-consent feature, as well as whitelisting.

Let's break down Ghostery's key features.

Ad and tracker blocker

Ghostery automatically detects and blocks various types of ads, site analytics trackers, and social media trackers. Its intuitive user interface is easy to navigate, and it has an "ads blocked counter" that displays the number of activities that have been blocked on each webpage you visit.

Ghostery blocks ads and trackers through advanced technologies that analyze and collect data from the top 10,000 websites. This data is continually updated and posted in a database at WhoTracks.Me. 

Additionally, the library is community driven and lets anyone submit a tracker they find on a company website, making it easier to add any trackers that may have been missed.

Never-consent

Ghostery’s convenient ‘never-consent’ feature can automatically decline those pesky cookie pop-ups, so you don’t have to click anything yourself.

Whitelisting

Ghostery also allows you to whitelist sites you wish to support. You can allow ads and trackers on specific websites by opening the pause options and selecting Always. 

Previously, Ghostery allowed you to blacklist websites, meaning ads will always be restricted. But we could no longer find that feature during our most recent testing. 

Ghostery's test results

We tested Ghostery using AdBlock Tester, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF’s) Cover Your Tracks, and Can You Block It. 

• AdBlock Tester checks for the presence of ad blocker software on a webpage. 
• Cover Your Tracks tool evaluates the effectiveness of the ad blocker in blocking third-party tracking technologies such as web bugs, web beacons, and scripts. 
• Can You Block It tests if your ad blocker can guard against pervasive ads like ad blocker detection warnings, banner ads, and interstitial ads. 

Learn more about how Ghostery performed in each test below. 

Ghostery scores

	AdBlock Tester	Cover Your Tracks	Can You Block It
Ghostery score	99/100	2/3	3/3

Ghostery got a near-perfect score with AdBlock Tester, with only one test being listed as "most likely passed." Considering that Ghostery previously got a 96/100, we were glad to see some improvement. 

Ghostery also passed all three Can You Block It's tests. It previously failed to block the interstitial ad, so this was another improvement from Ghostery. 

Although Ghostery has repeatedly failed the Cover Your Tracks tests during in-house testing, it performed admirably this round. Ghostery provides strong protection by blocking both tracking ads and invisible trackers. 

It didn't obscure our fingerprint this time, but this is a common result among the ad blockers we've tested.

YouTube ad test

Overall, Ghostery was remarkably effective at removing YouTube ads. There were no ads before YouTube videos or in the middle of watching them. Also, there were no delays, lags, errors, or other problems that disrupted our viewing experience.

But you should keep in mind that some ads may still get through. This is because YouTube is always making changes to improve its ad system, so some ads may be tailored to get around ad blockers.

Lastly, it's important to remember that ads help YouTubers and other creators get paid, so if you enjoy watching a certain channel, turning off your ad blocker when you watch their videos can help them earn money.

Bypassing paywall test

Sometimes you find an interesting article while browsing, and as soon as you read the intro, you'll find a paywall. This can be frustrating, to say the least. 

Few ad blockers can bypass paywalls, and Ghostery isn't one of them. We were still prompted to subscribe when clicking through articles from The Washington Post, Bloomberg, and The Atlantic. 

What browsers and software is Ghostery compatible with?

The Ghostery extension is a powerful and versatile ad blocker that’s compatible with a number of popular web browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and more. It also has an app for iOS.

Ghostery is compatible with the following:

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Safari
• Opera
• Microsoft Edge
• iOS
• Firefox for Android

How to use Ghostery

Ghostery is a completely free ad blocker, so you'll just need to select your preferred browser and download the Ghostery extension. Here's how to use Ghostery once you download the extension:

1. On the Ghostery welcome page, click Enable Ghostery.
   

   

2. On the setup successful page, you'll receive instructions on how to pin the extension for easy access.
   

   

3. With Ghostery on your toolbar, you can open the extension to pause ad blocking, whitelist pages, and more.

Top alternatives

We love that Ghostery is a free ad blocker dedicated to protecting user privacy. However, our recurring in-house testing shows that Ghostery can't consistently block trackers. It performed well during recent testing, but historically, it failed to block any trackers during the Cover Your Tracks tests. 

Ghostery also doesn't include extra perks or advanced security features you can get with premium ad blockers, like a virtual private network, complete antivirus protection, and more.

Here are some of our top tested ad blockers if Ghostery isn't the choice for you:

Ghostery FAQs

Bottom line: Is Ghostery good?

Ghostery is a reliable ad blocker against pop-ups, banner ads, YouTube ads, and more. It can also automatically decline cookies, saving you the effort of doing so manually.

Ghostery appears to have removed its blacklisting feature, so it's not as robust as it used to be. Also, we find its extension analytics to be overwhelming, but this is a minor gripe.  

Review our list of the best ad blockers or see how Ghostery compares to alternatives:

• Ghostery vs. Total Adblock
• Ghostery vs. AdGuard
• Ghostery vs. Adblock Plus
• Ghostery vs. uBlock Origin
• Ghostery vs. Privacy Badger
• The best Ghostery alternatives