Ghostery vs. Adblock Plus 2025: Your Expert Guide

Adblock Plus offers a free ad blocker or a discounted rate when purchasing an annual plan, and it provides social media tracking with the free plan. Ghostery doesn’t fall short on options, though. With a donation, you get priority customer support, an ad-free private search, and a few more options.

The best ad blockers enhance the online experience by blocking trackers, banners, and pop-up advertisements. We take a deep dive into these two ad blockers and show you their features, test scores, and prices.

Best protection against unwanted ads, trackers, and cookies

Ghostery vs. Adblock Plus compared

• Ghostery: Best for extra ad blocking features
• Adblock Plus: Best for budgets

	Our Pick
Star rating	4.1 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.	4.1 AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.
Price	Free	Free or $3.33-$4.00/mo
Ads blocked on Forbes	16	30
Does it block YouTube ads?
Compatibility	iOS, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Safari	Android, iOS, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Safari
Mobile compatibility	Android (Firefox), iOS	Android, iOS
Learn more	Get Ghostery Read Ghostery Review	Get Adblock Plus Read Adblock Plus Review

Ghostery pros and cons

Ghostery asks for contributions, starting at $1.99/mo and topping out at $11.99/mo. Since Ghostery considers these donations, you don’t get more features for different plans.

Adblock Plus pros and cons

In contrast, Adblock Plus has a Premium plan that costs $3.33/mo (billed annually) if you choose an annual subscription. Otherwise, the price is Free for month-to-month.

Ghostery vs. Adblock Plus: Prices

	Our Pick
Price range	Free	Free or $3.33-$4.00/mo
Best value plan	Monthly contribution for $1.99/mo	Adblock Plus Premium for $3.33/mo (billed annually)
Free version available
Money-back guarantee		Yes — 60 days
Learn more	Get Ghostery Read Ghostery Review	Get Adblock Plus Read Adblock Plus Review

Both ad blockers offer free versions if you’re on a budget or not yet ready to pay for the features included in their paid subscriptions.

Typically, ad blockers work by blocking intrusions. Normally, the more you pay, the more features you get. This isn’t the case with Ghostery, as all paid options are considered donations, which may also be why there is no money-back guarantee.

Adblock Plus offers a 60-day trial period, allowing you to test the blocker and receive a full refund if you’re not satisfied with the results.

Ghostery vs. Adblock Plus: Features

	Our Pick
Whitelisting
Blacklisting
Ads blocked counter
Bypasses paywalls
Block pop-up ads
Block tracking
Block video ads
Block banner ads
Block push ads
Learn more	Get Ghostery Read Ghostery Review	Get Adblock Plus Read Adblock Plus Review

When looking at Ghostery and Adblock Plus side by side, they’re equal competitors. Both come with features like an ads blocked counter, whitelisting, and the ability to block multiple types of ads like banner ads, video ads, and push ads.

Both services block YouTube ads, allowing you to enjoy your videos uninterrupted.

Ghostery vs. Adblock Plus: Test results

	Our Pick
AdBlock Tester score	99/100	100/100
Cover Your Tracks score	0.5/3	0/3
Can You Block It score	3/3	1/3
YouTube ads blocked
Paywalls bypassed
Learn more	Get Ghostery Ready Ghostery Review	Get Adblock Plus Read Adblock Plus Review

We perform extensive testing in our ad blocker reviews using AdBlock Tester, Cover Your Tracks, and Can You Block It. AdBlock Tester measures the effectiveness of your ad blocker in blocking error monitoring, analytics tools, contextual advertising, and more.

Adblock Plus reigned supreme at blocking ads, scoring a perfect 100/100 from AdBlock Tester. Ghostery wasn’t far behind with 99/100, but not quite as good as Adblock Plus.

Although both ad blockers claim to protect you from trackers, our testing noted otherwise. In fact, neither one passed our Cover Your Tracks test, leaving you vulnerable to tracking ads and invisible trackers. But Ghostery performed marginally better than Adblock Plus.

However, that doesn’t mean that some trackers won’t get blocked, but it may illustrate that more will get through. That inconsistency alone may be enough to give you pause if anonymous browsing is your preference.

However, Adblock Plus failed the Cover Your Tracks and Can You Block It tests, allowing Ghostery to take the lead. Ghostery also offers additional features, including the option to decline cookies automatically.

Ghostery vs. Adblock Plus: Compatibility and customer support

		Our Pick
Windows
macOS
Android
iOS
Linux
Browser extensions	Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera	Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera
24/7 customer support
Customer support options	Email, online guides	Email, online guides, support forums
Learn more	Get Ghostery Read Ghostery Review	Get Adblock Plus Read Adblock Plus

Installing Adblock Plus proved to be easy. The browsing was clean, and we noticed no system lag during testing. It blocked YouTube ads at the beginning and during the middle of our videos.

Whitelisting and blacklisting are great features because you can accept certain harmless ads, such as those from your favorite content creator, and block the ones you never want to see.

Ghostery was user-friendly and easy to navigate. Like Adblock Plus, the whitelisting and blacklisting features proved effective. The interface is clean, and you can stay engaged by viewing the ads blocked counter.

Ghostery and Adblock Plus both offer a knowledge base with FAQs, and both enable you to submit a ticket if you need to reach human support. Adblock Plus also has support forums where you can ask questions to other users.

FAQs

Ghostery vs. Adblock Plus: Which is better?

Ghostery does a good job of blocking YouTube video ads and other types of ads. While not as good as Adblock Plus in our AdBlock Tester category, it still scored well and was able to block way more trackers than Adblock Plus. Ghostery and Adblock Plus are both reliable ad blockers with plenty of features, but if you’re on a budget, Ghostery gives you most of them for free.

While both Ghostery and Adblock Plus have plenty of features and the prices aren’t unfair, you may be unhappy with the tracker scores. We were, too, so we’ve included some alternative ad blockers that might be more suitable — considering privacy and extra features — for your budget.