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Best for Hands-Off Ad Blocking
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Instantly blocks distracting ads on millions of websites, including Facebook and YouTube ads
Blocks third-party trackers to protect your privacy and information
Improves page load times and enables faster browsing
Best for Anti-Tracking Protection
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Completely free, open-source privacy tool that detects and blocks third-party trackers
Automatically opts out of data sharing and tracking
Can block some contextual ads and analytics tools
For comprehensive ad and tracker blocking, Total Adblock beats Privacy Badger with ease. Privacy Badger is focused on blocking third-party trackers, so you can browse online without worrying about your data being collected.
However, Total Adblock can block banner ads, pop-up ads, and even those pesky YouTube video ads. Total Adblock Premium also includes additional blocking of browser notifications and social media tracking, as well as antivirus protection.
We’ve tested both Total Adblock and Privacy Badger, so keep reading for a comparison of features, pricing, compatibility, and more.
The main difference between these two products is that Total Adblock is a traditional ad blocker, while Privacy Badger is a privacy tool focused on blocking trackers.
If you want to effortlessly stop third-party trackers, Privacy Badger is a better fit. Even though it’s only a free browser extension (there’s no mobile app), you can add it to a few popular browsers.
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Our Pick
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| Best for | Best for hands-off ad blocking | Best for anti-tracking protection |
| Price | Free or $1.59/mo | Free |
| Ads blocked on Forbes | 12 | 31 |
| Does it block YouTube ads? | ||
| Compatibility | Chrome, Edge, Opera, Safari | Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera |
| Mobile compatibility | Android, iOS | Add-on to Firefox on Android only |
| Learn more | Get Total Adblock | Get Privacy Badger |
Focused on blocking trackers, not ads
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Our Pick
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| Price range | Free or $1.59/mo | Free (donations accepted) |
| Best value plan | Annual plan for $1.59/mo (billed annually) | Free |
| Free version available | ||
| Money-back guarantee | Yes, 30 days | N/A |
| Learn more | Get Total Adblock | Get Privacy Badger |
With Total Adblock, you’ll pay $1.59/mo (billed annually) for the first year, but then the annual price for the premium plan jumps to $8.25/mo (billed annually).
If you want to try out a premium plan, Total Adblock comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. We also picked the paid plan as the best value because it offers more features.
For around two bucks per month to start, you can block third-party trackers, have unlimited ad blocking, and get award-winning antivirus protection. That’s a win in our book.
Comparatively, Privacy Badger is free to use, but donations are accepted to help support the product. Just note that Privacy Badger wasn’t designed for ad blocking. It’s designed to detect and stop third-party trackers, and it does so at no cost to the user.
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Our Pick
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| 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 Total Adblock | Get Privacy Badger |
Based on the features table, it's clear that Privacy Badger doesn't block many types of ads compared to Total Adblock. Privacy Badger isn't the best ad blocker around, but it wasn't designed to block ads. It’s a privacy tool rather than a traditional ad blocker.
One of Privacy Badger’s unique features is that it independently discovers trackers and can automatically update your privacy settings to prevent further tracking.
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Comparatively, Total Adblock is designed to block all types of ads. Other than no blacklisting option, Total Adblock shines in the features department.
It also may be the best ad blocker for Chrome since it includes tracker blocking, improves page load times, and stops YouTube video ads.
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If blocking as many ads as possible is crucial to you, Total Adblock is the better tool. But if you’re more concerned about privacy and want to stop trackers seamlessly, Privacy Badger is the tool you need.
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Our Pick
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| AdBlock Tester score | 100/100 | 67/100 |
| Cover Your Tracks score | 2/3 | 2/3 |
| Can You Block It score | 3/3 | 2/3 |
| YouTube ads blocked | ||
| Paywalls bypassed | ||
| Learn more | Get Total Adblock | Get Privacy Badger |
Our test results show that Total Adblock outperformed Privacy Badger in the ad blocking tests. First, we started with AdBlock Tester, which offers free comprehensive testing to gauge the effectiveness of your ad blocker.
Total Adblock received a perfect AdBlock Tester score of 100/100 as it successfully detected and blocked all the tested advertising and analytic services, including contextual and banner ads.
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But Privacy Badger scored only 67/100. It effectively blocked contextual ads and most analytics tools, but failed the tests in the banner ads and error monitoring categories.
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Can You Block It tests for common ads, such as ad blocker warnings, banner ads, and interstitial ads (those pesky ads that display while the webpage loads). Total Adblock blocked all three ad types, while Privacy Badger failed to stop interstitial ads.
Both Total Adblock and Privacy Badger scored 2/3 for the Cover Your Tracks test. Since this gives an overview of how visible you are to trackers, we were a little surprised that Privacy Badger didn’t receive a perfect score.
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Privacy Badger is, by design, a tracker blocker. Still, the test showed that it provides strong web tracking protection akin to Total Adblock’s capabilities.
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| Windows | ||
| macOS | ||
| Android | ||
| iOS | ||
| Linux | ||
| Browser extensions | Chrome, Edge, Opera, Safari | Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera |
| 24/7 customer support | Yes, for billing questions | |
| Customer support options | Email, phone, chat, online guides | Email, online guides |
| Learn more | Get Total Adblock | Get Privacy Badger |
Privacy Badger is easy to use, thanks to its tutorial during setup.
If you open the extension, you'll find a list of all the trackers being blocked and you can choose to allow a domain, block cookies, or block a domain completely.
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Total Adblock is also simple to use. Once you install the software, you can just leave it alone to block ads and trackers for you.
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If you need to disable Total Adblock on a specific site, you can just open the extension and hit the pause button. You can also allow ads from certain websites that you deem acceptable.
While Total Adblock is compatible across popular browsers and has a mobile app, Privacy Badger has more limited compatibility. It’s also not the best ad blocker for Safari because it isn’t available for that browser yet. (Even though Privacy Badger doesn't work with Safari, it's currently building an app for Safari on macOS.)
We wouldn’t consider either product to have stellar customer support. Total Adblock has 24/7 support for billing questions, but you’ll need to submit a ticket for technical support or find your answer in the help center.
We found only an email option for Privacy Badger, but since it’s a free product, we didn’t expect extensive customer support.
Privacy Badger works well for a free product that stops third-party trackers from viewing your online activity. According to our Cover Your Tracks results, it provides strong protection against web tracking.
Privacy Badger is a browser extension that blocks advertisers and other third-party trackers from tracking you online. It's not a traditional ad blocker.
Total Adblock is an ad blocker designed to block different types of ads, while Privacy Badger may block only a few. It also includes advanced antivirus protection in its paid plan.
Total Adblock is one of the best ad blockers for many browsers, but certainly not all. For instance, it's not the best choice to block ads on Edge. For that, you may opt for NordVPN Threat Protection or another one of the best ad blockers for Edge.
Total Adblock’s downside is that the free version excludes thousands of the top websites. You’ll also get pop-ups encouraging you to upgrade to the paid plan, which is annoying and ironic for an ad blocker.
It’s not easy to compare these products, but Total Adblock wins because it's one of the best ad blockers we've tested.
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Our Pick
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| Value | ||
| Features | ||
| Test results | ||
| Compatibility & customer support | ||
| Learn more | Get Total Adblock | Get Privacy Badger |
Privacy Badger can’t live up to Total Adblock’s features and performance against ads, but it was never designed to be an ad blocker.
For the most part, ad blockers scan websites for identified ads and block them. Privacy Badger is a browser extension that analyzes and blocks trackers. It doesn’t prioritize ad blocking and blocks only the ads that track you.
If you’re looking for software that stops sites from tracking your online behavior, Privacy Badger is a great tool. But if you want a full-on ad blocker that even blocks social media ads, Total Adblock is your best bet.
Instantly blocks distracting ads on millions of websites, including Facebook and YouTube ads
Blocks third-party trackers to protect your privacy and information
Improves page load times and enables faster browsing
We’ve researched and tested many ad blockers and know that it comes down to which feature you want or need. If you’re not sold on Total Adblock or Privacy Badger, here are some other options to consider:
 Threat Protection |
 CleanWeb |
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| Best for | Best overall | Best for blocking streaming ads |
| Price | Starts at $4.39/mo (billed every two years) | Starts at $1.99/mo (billed every two years) |
| Adblock Tester score | 96/100 | 96/100 |
| Cover Your Tracks score | 2/3 | 0/3 |
| Can You Block It score | 2/3 | 3/3 |
| Blocks YouTube ads? | ||
| Compatibility | Threat Protection: Windows, macOS
Threat Protection Lite: |
Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, FireTV |
| Learn more | Get NordVPN Threat Protection | Get Surfshark CleanWeb |
Instantly blocks distracting ads on millions of websites, including Facebook and YouTube ads
Blocks third-party trackers to protect your privacy and information
Improves page load times and enables faster browsing
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