Wipr Review 2024: Lightweight but Powerful Ad Blocking

Wipr is a low-cost option that lets you avoid spammy ads and sit through YouTube videos without commercial breaks. It doesn’t log data and comes with powerful ad-blocking capabilities. 

However, Wipr is pretty bare bones and it lacks features you find on other ad blockers like malicious link blocking and ad blocking statistics. On the plus side, you can layer Wipr with security tools so you have a safe and seamless experience online.

Learn more about Wipr's blocking abilities to determine if it's the Apple ad blocker for you.

Wipr overview

3.9

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.

Editorial Rating

Learn More

On Wipr's website

Ad Blocker

Wipr

• Lightweight ad blocker that doesn't weigh your device down
• One-time low cost of $1.99
• Compatible with other ad blockers for max protection
• Lacks standard ad blocker features like malicious link blocking and ad blocking statistics

Our experience

Wipr is a pretty low-key, easy-to-use app that improves your online browsing experience. We tested it on an iPhone 12 Pro Max running iOS version 16.5.1. and found it almost impossibly easy to set up.

Once setup was done, the most we needed to do was turn Wipr off and on for testing purposes. Other than the ability to manually refresh Wipr, we didn’t find any other settings or functionality (which isn’t needed as the app automatically refreshes).

Overall, Wipr worked well, but there are some special things to note about the app. It isn’t going to give you a breakdown of the ads it blocked, simply because the developer doesn’t believe in prying into your browsing history.

To be able to tell you what Wipr is blocking, it would have to look at the sites you’re accessing. Instead, Wipr takes the stance that it blocks content that looks like ads, while also respecting your privacy.

Since there’s very little setup to do, you can turn Wipr on and then forget about it. The app refreshes itself as well as updates when necessary. It really is that easy. We’ll definitely be using this ourselves from now on.

Wipr for macOS no longer blocks trackers due to Mac limitations. Thankfully, Safari now includes tracker protection, and Wipr still blocks trackers on iOS.

Wipr paid plan

Wipr doesn't offer a free plan and there’s only one price for Wipr: a $1.99 one-time fee. This means you won’t pay annual or monthly fees. There are no upgrade options to purchase but you can tip the developer in the app. Tipping helps her continue to create more useful apps.

Considering that the cost of YouTube TV is about $73/mo, this is an extremely inexpensive way to rid yourself of YouTube ads if you aren’t considering YouTube’s TV component. With that low price you'll only need to pay once, you can't go wrong with paying for Wipr. 

Main features

There really aren’t very many features but that’s ok: Wipr was designed that way. You do have the ability to whitelist as well as the option to turn on Wipr Extra in your Safari settings.

Wipr Extra

Wipr Extra is touted as an extra strength ad blocker that needs separate permissions to tackle the really tough ads, like the ones you see on YouTube. We were impressed with how Wipr got around YouTube ads within the Safari browser.

Since Apple doesn’t allow apps permission to alter other apps, you won’t have success blocking ads inside the YouTube app. If you stick to watching YouTube in your Safari browser, however, you’ll enjoy an ad-free experience.

Whitelisting

Whitelisting is easy and done the same way you would with any Safari extension:

On iOS 13 and above: 

1. Tap the aA button in Safari’s address bar.
2. Select Website Settings.
3. Uncheck Use Content Blockers.

On macOS:

1. Select Safari from the menu bar.
2. Click Settings for [Site You Wish to to Whitelist].
3. Remove the checkmark next to Enable Content Blockers.

And that’s it! You can reverse this by following the same directions and clicking Use Content Blockers if you’d like to reactivate Wipr on that site. Just note that this feature isn’t available on older versions of iOS.

Wipr's test results

We use threesites to test the efficacy of ad blockers, AdBlock Tester, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF’s) Cover Your Tracks, and Can You Block It.

AdBlock Tester lists a variety of analytical and advertising tools similar to what you’d encounter on most websites, to see if the ad blocker in question is blocking them.

Cover Your Tracks checks three things: tracking ads, invisible trackers, and fingerprinting. Tracking ads and invisible trackers are codes embedded in websites that track your activities. Fingerprinting is how unique you appear on the internet. The more unique you are, the easier it is to identify and track you.

Finally, Can You Block It tests blockers against pervasive ads such as interstitial ads, ad blocker detection warnings, and banner ads. 

Wipr scores

Wipr was a formidable opponent against ads. It received a perfect score with both AdBlock Tester and Can You Block It.

With Cover Your Tracks, it was less successful. There was only partial protection with tracking ads and invisible trackers and our fingerprint was very unique. This means Wipr failed the fingerprinting test while only gaining half a point each on the tracking ads and invisible trackers tests.

YouTube ad test

Yes, Wipr blocks YouTube ads, but you have to watch videos through Safari, not in your YouTube app. YouTube ads are a little extreme lately, likely because it wants you to purchase a subscription to eliminate them, and viewing a video can get annoying quickly. Enter Wipr.

Ads on YouTube require more than the regular content blockers, so Wipr included the Wipr Extra feature.

During setup, the Wipr app tells you what settings you need to change to enable all of Wipr, including where you can find Wipr Extra. You don’t have to enable Wipr Extra to get Wipr’s ad-blocking capabilities, but you will need it to block YouTube ads and other stronger ads.

Without Wipr Extra

With Wipr Extra

Bypassing paywalls test

We've all clicked on an article we wanted to read only to be blocked by a paywall. It can be frustrating, to say the least, so we test all of our ad blockers to see if they can bring down those paywalls.

But considering how simplistic Wipr is, we weren't surprised to find that paywalls remained when we opened articles from The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and the Washington Post. We'll keep testing until we find an ad blocker that bypasses those paywalls. 

What browsers and software is it compatible with?

Wipr is built exclusively for iOS and macOS devices and you can find it in Apple’s App Store and the Mac App Store.

If you do an internet search for Wipr for Android, there are a few websites that come up. They aren’t verified download sites and we recommend not downloading from them. If you’re going to download a mobile app, it’s best to do it from the official app store for your device. Wipr is available for the following:

• iPhone, iPad, or iPod running iOS 12.0 or later
• MacBook running macOS 10.13 or later

How to use Wipr

Wipr is pretty bare bones and it's only available for Apple products. However, Wipr walks you through the set up process with step-by-step instructions. 

Here's how to get started with Wipr:

1. Purchase and download the Wipr app.
2. Open Safari.
3. Click Preferences from the Safari menu.
4. Select Extensions.
5. Check of Wipr Part 1, 2, and 3 to enable them.
6. To enable Wipr Extra, click Edit Websites. 
7. Set For Other Websites: to Allow.

Wipr alternatives

If you’re an Android user or want a little more customization with your ad blocker, there are several alternatives you can use that have more features than Wipr.

VPNs with built-in ad blockers give you more security by allowing you to browse anonymously while ad blockers tend to only block content. And make sure you’re still protecting yourself from malware, viruses, and ransomware with an antivirus product.

		Threat Protection	CleanWeb
Best For	Best for blocking YouTube ads	Best overall	Best for blocking streaming ads
Price	Starts at $1.99/mo (billed annually)	Starts at $3.99/mo	Starts at $2.29/mo (billed biennially)
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	N/A	3/3
Blocks YouTube ads?
Compatibility	Android, iOS, Chrome, Edge, Safari, Opera	Threat Protection: Windows, macOS Threat Protection Lite: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, Chrome, Edge, Firefox	Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, FireTV
Learn more	Get Total Adblock	Get NordVPN Threat Protection	Get Surfshark CleanWeb

Wipr FAQs

Bottom line: Is Wipr good?

Yes, Wipr is a good product. While it’s lightweight and doesn’t offer a lot of features, that also means it won’t be logging your data or weighing your device down. It also works with other ad blockers, so you have the ability to double up — one of the best ways to block ads.

Since Wipr is limited to iOS and macOS devices as well as the Safari browser, you may be wondering what other options are available for non-Apple users. Our Wipr alternatives all have extensive compatiability with apps for your desktop, phone, and browser extensions as well as additional features to further protect from trackers, malicious sites, and more.

Anyone interested in reducing the amount of online clutter they see when browsing the internet should use an ad blocker. Whether you use Wipr, a free version of one of the products we mentioned above, or another ad blocker, you’ll definitely see the difference.

3.9

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.

Editorial Rating

Learn More

On Wipr's website

Ad Blocker

Wipr

• Lightweight ad blocker that doesn't weigh your device down
• One-time low cost of $1.99
• Compatible with other ad blockers for max protection
• Lacks standard ad blocker features like malicious link blocking and ad blocking statistics

Author Details

Mary James

About the Author

Mary is a seasoned cybersecurity writer with over seven years of experience. With a B.S. in Liberal Arts from Clarion University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Point Park University, she educates audiences on scams, antivirus software, and more. Her passion lies in educating audiences on helpful ways to protect their data.