Poper Blocker Review 2024: Does It Burst the Ad Popper Bubble?

We were unimpressed with Poper Blocker despite its partial ad blocking success. The free version didn’t block any ads and even the Pro version couldn't block any trackers. Plus, we found the Mozilla Firefox extension was unavailable for download, even though its website advertises a download page for it.

Continue reading as we review Poper Blocker’s features, free version and pricing plans, and our experience testing its ad-blocking capabilities.

Poper Blocker overview

Ads blocked on Forbes	4
Adblock Tester score	63/100
Cover Your Tracks score	0.5/3
Can You Block It score	2/3
Does it block YouTube ads?	Yes
Whitelisting	Yes
Blacklisting	No
Compatibility	Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge
Paid version	Starts at $1.59/mo (billed annually)

We last tested Poper Blocker on December 13, 2024.

Our experience

To evaluate Poper Blocker, we downloaded its Edge and Chrome extensions. Both add-ons were straightforward to download and ready to use immediately. Although Poper Blocker lists a Firefox extension on its website, it was unavailable on Firefox’s extensions page for reasons unknown — a significant downside for Firefox users.

Regrettably, the free version we downloaded would not detect or block any ads on the Forbes website, which was a major drawback for us. So, we opted for the Pro version by signing up for a free trial. We then tested Poper Blocker’s functionality since the Pro version was capable of detecting and blocking ads. 

One standout feature included with both the free and Pro versions is whitelisting, which allows you to add websites to a URL allow list.

Poper Blocker’s Pro version also boasted additional features, including blocking ads on social media sites, YouTube, and other websites. It provided options to block basic and advanced pop-ups, hide website notifications, and hide pesky cookie requests many prefer to avoid.

Poper Blocker’s user-friendly dashboard, complete with a counter displaying the number of blocked ads, added to the overall experience. It also allows you to customize which ad-blocking settings you would like turned on.

In short, our experience with Poper Blocker was satisfactory, but the necessity of the Pro version for full functionality and the lack of a Firefox extension were both significant drawbacks.

Poper Blocker paid plan

Poper Blocker offers both a free and a paid version, with the latter providing a substantially enhanced browsing experience. In our tests, the free version fell short, failing to detect or block ads on Forbes.com.

However, the Pro version, a paid subscription plan for $1.59/mo (billed annually) or $4.79/mo (billed monthly), demonstrated commendable ad-blocking capabilities.

The paid version blocks ads on websites, YouTube, and social media sites and hides website notifications and cookie requests. While the decision is ultimately up to your preferences and needs, our testing suggests that investing in Poper Blocker's paid plan could significantly improve your browsing experience, given its more advanced features.

	Free	Pro
Price	Free	$1.59-$4.79/mo
Blocks basic pop-ups
Blocks overlays
Remove website elements
Whitelisting
Blocks trackers
Hides YouTube ads
Hides cookie requests
Blocks social media ads
Details	View plan	View plan

Main features

Poper Block primarily comes with standard features for blocking ads but it also has some unique features like the social media content filter.

Here are Poper Blocker's key features and what they do. 

Ad blocker

Poper Blocker blocks both basic pop-up ads and advanced pop-up ads, known as overlays. Poper Blocker states these features are available with the free and Pro versions (its paid subscription plan). Unfortunately, when we tested the free version on Forbes.com, it did not block any ads.

However, when we tested the blocker’s Pro version, it could detect and block ads.

Magic wand

Even on the free plan, Poper Blocker lets you remove any part of a website with its "magic wand." It claims you can use it on ads, buttons, images, and more. 

We clicked over on the Poper Blocker extension and found a button that read Hide more distractions on this site right below the ad blocker counter. 

After clicking, Remove any part of a website, our cursor became a magic wand. We clicked on the image of Mike Tyson with the magic wand and just like that, it was gone. 

Whitelisting

Poper Blocker has a whitelisting function, which can let ads through on websites you designate. Just pop over to the settings tab in Poper Blocker, and add URLs to the list as needed. 

Whitelisting is handy if there are certain content creators you want to support. You can add them to your whitelist so you don't block their ad revenue.

Social media content filter

One Poper Blocker feature we were really impressed by was the social media content filter. It allows you to hide posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter that contain words you've selected. 

Poper Blocker provides categories of words for you to go over or you can type in your own blocked words. It's nice to be able to do this across multiple sites instead of going to each one and muting or blocking the words. 

The social media content filter can also work as parental controls to help keep your kids away from concerning topics.

Other premium filters

Poper Blocker’s Pro version also comes with the following:

• Block trackers to protect your privacy
• Automatically hide cookie requests and reject cookie access
• Hide ads on YouTube to avoid pre-roll ads and ads during your video
• Block ads on social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn
• Block ads on any site (not including video ads)

Poper Blocker's test results

To gauge Poper Blocker’s ad-blocking effectiveness, we tested it with AdBlock Tester and EFF’s Cover Your Tracks tool. 

With AdBlock Tester, we evaluated if Poper Blocker can block ads by loading various ad and tracking methods. 

Cover Your Tracks helped us determine how well Poper Blocker can deter trackers from collecting browsing data, which is critical for safeguarding online privacy. 

And Can You Block It allowed us to test Poper Blocker against self-hosted ads like banner ads, interstitial ads, and ad blocker detection warnings. 

Poper Blocker scores

	AdBlock Tester	Cover Your Tracks	Can You Block It
Poper Blocker score	63/100	0.5/3	2/3

Poper Blocker only scored 63/100 with AdBlock Tester. It passed most of the contextual advertising, which is considered to be the most important type of ad. These collect data about you to deliver advertisements tailored to you.  

But it failed most of the tests against banner advertising and error monitoring. It's not the most proficient ad blocker we've tested by any means. 

Poper Blocker also completely failed at blocking trackers and invisible tracking. The free version doesn't block trackers, so we tested with the Pro version. Even with the Block online trackers toggle on, Poper Blocker didn't help us stay anonymous online. It only partially obscured our fingerprint. 

We were relieved to find that Poper Blocker passed 2/3 of the Can You Block It tests, so at least it works against those banner ads and ad blocker detection warnings. 

YouTube ad test

We test all ad blockers for their ability to block YouTube ads. These video ads can be a nuisance an wants a smooth, uninterrupted experience watching YouTube videos. 

We opened a YouTube video on a browser with no ad blockers and were greeted with the usual pre-roll ads and banner ads. 

After switching over to a browser with Poper Blocker enabled, we noticed the banner ads remained. Unfortunately, a video ad eventually cut into our Tiny Desk stream. Poper Blocker previously blocked YouTube ads, so we were disappointed that it didn't work this go around.  

Bypassing paywalls test

Like most people, we've been frustarated after being hit with a paywall right after clicking through on an interesting article. That's why we've been testing ad blockers to see if they can get past those paywalls. 

But even with Poper Blocker Pro, we were hit with a paywall when visiting The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and The Atlantic. 

What browsers and software is it compatible with?

Poper Blocker offers ad-blocking extensions for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. It doesn't offer extensions for other web browsers, like Safari, Brave, and Opera, desktop apps for operating systems, like macOS or Windows, or mobile apps for iOS or Android.

Although its website shows that a Firefox add-on is available for download, we found that Poper Blocker no longer exists on Firefox for unknown reasons, without any explanation or update on their website.

How to use Poper Blocker

If you've downloaded Poper Blocker for Chrome or Edge, you're probably curious about how to use it. Here's how to set up and use Poper Blocker:

1. After installing the Poper Blocker extension, select Agree and continue.
   

   

2. Choose Start my free trial to test out Poper Blocker Pro or hit Continue with free plan.
   

   

3. From the Control panel, select the toggles you want on or go to settings to add sites to your whitelist.

Top alternatives

Poper Blocker has some neat features, like the magic wand and the social media content filter, but we wish it had stronger protection against ads and trackers. If Poper Blocker isn't check all the boxes for you, we recommend considering some of our favorite ad blockers:

FAQs

Bottom line: Is Poper Blocker good?

Poper Blocker let us down in a few significant ways. Our overall opinion was negatively impacted by its lack of ad blocking in the free plan, its inability to block trackers, and its false advertising of a Firefox extension. When we tested the free version on Forbes, it failed to block any ads, so a paid upgrade was necessary.

Based on our research, we strongly advise Chrome and Edge users to look elsewhere for a comprehensive ad blocker capable of blocking trackers. Although Poper Blocker does a decent job of blocking a wide variety of ads with its paid version, we think you’re better off spending your money on a paid plan elsewhere. Our alternatives can all enhance your online privacy with their ad and tracker-blocking capabilities.

See how Poper Blocker compares to other ad blockers:

• Poper Blocker vs. Total Adblock
• Poper Blocker vs. uBlock Origin