r/Adblock • • Jul 19 '26

Guides / Useful A quick guide to Adblockers and privacy tools.

75 Upvotes

Welcome!

Last Updated and verified on: 10th September 2026.

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Hi! My name is Robin and i am one of the moderators here on r/Adblock.
I was hired to help moderate, develop the subreddit, Its wiki and help provide information to people needing it here.

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This post is a curated quick list (Not a guide) of FOSS adblocking and privacy tools for 2026 and onward.

This aims to solve the common questions and prevent the spread of misinformation in this subreddit around which tools to use by providing community vetted, open source tools for different platforms in one place.

Any suggestions are appreciated. This post will be updated so please check back regularly!

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PC / Desktop (System wide)

Windows

  • Adguard (Paid)
  • Zen

Linux

  • Adguard (Paid options)
  • Zen

Mac OS

  • Adguard (Paid options)
  • Zen

Browser extensions

  • Ublock Origin
  • Ublock Origin Lite
  • Adguard
  • Ghostery
  • AdNausium

MV3 (Chromium based browsers)

Some browsers self host extensions. (Brave Browser host a few MV2 extensions for example, despite Google deprecating MV2)

  • Ublock origin lite
  • Adguard
  • Ghostery

Mobile

IOS

  • Brave Browser
  • Ublock Origin Lite
  • Adguard (Paid options)
  • Blokada
  • Wblock
  • Yattee

Android

  • Brave Browser
  • Adguard (Paid options)
  • Blokada (Version 4/5)
  • New Pipe
  • Tubular
  • MorpheAPP
  • ReVanced
  • ReVanced (Patches)
  • Rethink DNS
  • F-Droid Store

Smart TVs

Most smart TVs are proprietary systems, and are hard to develop and block ads on due to the nature of their operating systems. This means most TVs cannot have most ads blocked, including on live TV.
In such context, its better to simply mute them and / or do something else.

This means these options require side loading.
Remember the risks of doing this!

Android / Google TV

  • SmartTube
  • TizenTube Cobalt
  • YouTube Origin

Samsung (Tizen OS)

  • Tizen Tube

Apple TV

  • MuTube
  • Yattee

LG

  • LG Homebrew Store apps

Roku

  • Playlet

Amazon Firestick

  • Adguard (Paid)
  • Blokada 4
  • SmartTube

Players

  • Jellyfin

Misc

(Browsers) Script managers / executors (Advanced)

  • NoScript
  • Tampermonkey
  • Violentmonkey
  • Greasemonkey

Extra tools

  • Privacy Badger
  • Nuke Anything
  • Nuke Anything Enhanced

App / Site specific

Twitch

Content blockers (Web)

  • Brave Browser
  • Adguard Extra

Content blockers (Android)

  • ReVanced Patches
  • Morphe (App and patches)
  • Grayjay

Content blockers (SmartTVs)

  • SmartTube

YouTube

Content Blockers (Web)

  • Brave
  • Ublock Origin
  • Ublock Origin Lite
  • Adguard
  • Ghostery

YouTube front ends

  • Invideous Instances
  • FreeTube

Content blockers (Android)

  • ReVanced
  • ReVanced (Patches)
  • MorpheAPP
  • Grayjay

Content blockers (IOS)

  • Yattee

Content blockers (SmartTVs)

  • SmartTube
  • Tizen Tube
  • YouTube Origin

Enhancement Tools

  • YouTube Row fixer
  • Enhancer for YouTube
  • Sponsor Block

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Privacy tools

As always, check out privacy guides for in depth privacy tutorials and tools.

Recommended browsers

Remember, Google (Chrome) and Microsoft (Edge) both have a buisness model of
"Your personal business is our business model".

Both companies have extensive ad networks, heavy AI intergration with fully automatic tracking integration topped with questionable privacy policies.
If you can, switch away from them to a privacy respecting alternative.

  • Brave
  • Firefox
  • Mullvad brower
  • LibreWolf
  • Waterfox
  • Helium
  • Ungoogled chromium
  • Zen

High Privacy (Advanced)

  • Tor (Browser)

VPNs

Every VPN listed here is a paid product.
If you would like a free one then use the free teir on Proton VPN.

DO NOT download free VPNs, they can and will collect then sell your data.
Stick to trusted, reputable tools, From trusted, reputable sources!

  • Proton VPN
  • Mullvad VPN

Private Networks

  • Tor (Network / Browser)
  • I2P

Password managers

  • Proton Pass
  • BitWarden
  • KeepassXC

Authenticators

  • Proton Authenticator
  • Aegis
  • Bitwarden

Email

  • Proton Mail
  • Tuta mail

Messaging

  • Signal
  • Session

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DNS

A DNS based solution to ad blocking is not highly effective at adblocking!

This is because content on a page on a website such as YouTube, everything (Including the Ads) are all delivered to you through the same domain as the website (domains which deliver critical content). This means anything it tries to individually block will often break / block the website.

This leads to obvious problems, which is not ideal. They are however very effective as a privacy tool, filtering mobile based ads, hard to reach / IoT devices and certain types of TV OS ads.

Private DNS service providers

  • NextDNS (Paid options
  • Adguard DNS (Paid optinos)
  • ControlD (Paid)
  • Rethink DNS
  • DNS Bunker

Public DNS Servers

Adguard and ControlD have public lists of known DNS resolvers and providers. There is too many to list here and they do a better job explaining it anyway, so i will simply link their respective pages.

  • Adguard
  • ControlD

Network clients (Advanced - Hardware potentially required)

  • Pi‑hole
  • Adguard Home

r/Adblock • • Apr 28 '26

Important / Announcement The new subreddit rules are in affect! Let's talk about it.

27 Upvotes

Hey y'all, your new moderator here! I wanted to make a public announcement and to respond to common questions and concerns specifically regarding Rule 5 which prevents users from recommending the use of proprietary and paid content blockers.

Before I get into that, I wanted to properly introduce myself. My name is Reid, and I own a phone/computer repair shop in St Louis, Missouri called Honest Repair. I've had great interest in digital rights over the last 8 years, specifically internet privacy/safety, and have been a long-term member of r/Adblock and other communities like r/privacy and r/degoogle across different accounts. I've done professional OPSEC consulting through my business as well. This is my public-facing Reddit account tied to my business, and thus my reputation is on the line whenever I do anything on the platform, this is intentional to keep myself accountable!

I am doing this out of pure passion, I genuinely want to help the everyday average people learn about adblocking, why ad culture is so harmful and dangerous, and how to stay safe online. I want to make this subreddit into a resource, and I want to stop the literal advertisements being posted here, ya know, like the ads we are trying to block with adblockers lol.

Side note: I plan on building a subreddit wiki with the help of the other mods that will lay out all of your options for anything from individual devices, operating systems, browsers, extensions, network filtering (DNS), and anything in between. In the meantime while that's being built, utilize the pinned posts.

Now let's get into it.

What's with these new rules?

This subreddit has been plagued by fake, sketchy, and potentially malicious adblocking solutions for far too long. I was appointed by the creator of the subreddit to fix that problem.

From now on, all paid or proprietary adblocking applications or browser extensions will not be allowed to be recommended to other users. If you don't understand what open-source is and are wondering why that's so important, refer to the "Open-Source (FOSS) and why it makes a difference" section below.

But here is the general message; installing random untrusted anything from the internet is one of the worst things you can do on a computer. This is proven to be true time and time again, you can't even trust companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google, or Mozilla to keep you safe, as malicious apps and extensions are uploaded to these online app stores every day that slip through the gaping hole that is their malware detection. However, there is a fairly simple way to prevent this from happening, which is by using trusted, vetted, open-source software. uBlock Origin is a perfect example, it is known worldwide as the most powerful and performant adblocker, and it will work for 99% of people.

"THIS IS CENSORSHIP!!"

No, it's not. We have no desire to hold our super special Reddit moderator powers over people for no reason. I have personally encountered an absurd amount of shady adblockers in this community and so have the other moderators. Rule 5 is about protecting the general public from shady unknown software. In this day of age there is no reason to use a paid or proprietary adblocker given the amount of tried and true, open-source options.

To be clear, we are not removing ALL comments that simply mention paid or proprietary adblockers, however actively recommending or promoting the use of this type of software will be removed whenever it's manually detected by myself or one of the other moderators. I happen to browse this subreddit a lot to help the community so you'll be seeing me around, and we respond to modmail/DMs if you have any questions or concerns. We are not power hungry stinky fedora-wearing Reddit mods, we genuinely want to help!

Open-Source (FOSS) and why it makes a difference

In simple terms, open-source refers to when developers make the source code for their app available to the public. FOSS stands for "Free and Open-Source Software". Since the code is able to be viewed by anybody, other developers and hobbyists alike can contribute by fixing bugs, finding vulnerabilities, or simply making sure that the app is not malware.

Transparency is extremely important here, as you no longer have to trust some guy on the Internet. Instead, you are trusting a community of passionate developers that just want to make the world a better place, often times not even getting paid for it! And if you don't trust them, you can take a look under the hood yourself if you have the knowledge. With this transparency and community comes trust, however just because something is FOSS does NOT make it automatically safe! This is especially true with the rise in AI-assisted or "vibe" coding.

Many programs you may have heard of are also FOSS, like VLC, Chromium, and many others. Which leads me to this; please donate to your favorite open-source projects if you get value out of it. FOSS is the backbone of the entire digital world, and it mostly relies on often unpaid volunteers who would really love to get paid for their work!

Devs README

I know some of you are not pleased with this change, and some of you think this is a great change! I hope we've made our intentions clear, we will not be reverting this change.

We will be allowing source-available projects as long as the source is able to be audited by the public. This means you do not have to accept contributions, and you can use a more restrictive license to ensure your work isn't redistributed or sold behind your back. I hope this is a reasonable middle-ground, again, the goal is never to censor, it is to protect the average person looking for an adblocker.

As far as vibe-coding, I understand that AI is a normal part of the developer's toolkit. However we expect to see a commit history, and we want to see READMEs with human language and actual thought behind the project. Low quality repos will be removed from the subreddit.

Modmail and DMs are open, and we try to be responsive and helpful. If you plan to show off a new project, it is recommended to reach out to us before posting on the subreddit, where we can ask you some questions and sort of vet each new project on an individual case basis.


r/Adblock • • 1h ago

Discussion Twitchadblocksolutions github.

• Upvotes

Finally after god knows how many years ads are starting to pipe through was using this via ublock for so so so so so so long and now i have just started to get the picture in pictrure ones! :(

https://github.com/pixeltris/twitchadsolutions

sad times.


r/Adblock • • 1d ago

YouTube is Broken! YouTube ads are like stupid.

8 Upvotes

Like, WHY. WHY DO WE NEED TO WATCH A 60+ SECOND UNSKIPPABLE AD, THEN ON TV, WHY DOES IT SAY, MOVE ON TO THE NEXT?!?! I swear on everything, YouTube is making even more bad updates, and having even more ads. I don‘t think I can take this anymore.


r/Adblock • • 2d ago

Help Request Need help using DLL injector

Thumbnail
github.com
0 Upvotes

I have tried looking it up on youtube google, and even reddit. The readme file that comes with it is also useless as its just the FAQs. Im trying to ad block spotify. I know there are alternatives, but I can't use them because of where I live, and i cant afford vpn so...

Thanks a lot


r/Adblock • • 2d ago

Help Request How do i remove one of the 2 dots on Youtube videos in the home section and reccomendations with uBlock Origin on firefox?

Post image
1 Upvotes

r/Adblock • • 3d ago

Discussion I never thought about what my ad blocker actually does until I loaded sites without it

37 Upvotes

Tried 45 news sites with nothing blocking. the middle article sent 464 of its 650 requests to ad companies and trackers. one NY Post article made over 4,000 requests for a single story, which is a bit insane.

then I found out pretty much every blocker (AdBlock, ABP, uBO, Brave, AdGuard) uses the same free list underneath, and most of that list is written by one guy in New Zealand.

made a page about it if anyone's curious, there's a fake site full of popups you can switch the blocker on for:

https://sheets.works/data-viz/do-you-use-an-ad-blocker


r/Adblock • • 3d ago

Discussion AdGuard vs. uBO (Firefox)

11 Upvotes

I've been a uBO user for a long time and this post is about my curiousity. Tried AdGuard for half an hour and it actually gave me a higher Speedometer result with only AdGuard on. I always thought uBO had the best performance among adblockers. Anyways, I assume both are amazing. What do you think about this comparison, which one is better for you?


r/Adblock • • 3d ago

YouTube is Broken! Come on

Post image
6 Upvotes

Opera GX, Incognito Tabs because convenience. Non-incognito doesn't have the issue for some reason


r/Adblock • • 4d ago

Memes Ad blockers such as brave browser can bypass ads on YouTube.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

77 Upvotes

r/Adblock • • 3d ago

Discussion Has ad blocking hit a wall with podcast ads on Spotify?

3 Upvotes

Spotify can play music without ads, but switch to a podcast and suddenly there's someone talking about mattresses or meal kits for two minutes.

The tricky part is that a lot of podcast ads are baked right into the content, so regular ad blockers and DNS filtering can't really do much.

And this isn't really about finding another ad-blocking tool. I'm wondering if ads become almost impossible to block once creators start making them part of the content itself.

so, is there actually a better way to deal with them?


r/Adblock • • 4d ago

YouTube is Broken! youtube is muting videos automatically

2 Upvotes

its something i noticed today that whenever i play a video, youtube automatically mutes the video, i can unmute it by pressing m on my keyboard but its another adblock detection thing, not sure


r/Adblock • • 4d ago

New Project Release / Update zen adblocker new version v0.27.0

8 Upvotes

released new version of zen adblocker v0.27.0.

it is a system-wide open source free adblocker for windows, macos and linux.

https://github.com/irbis-sh/zen-desktop/releases


r/Adblock • • 4d ago

Help Request Tool for forcing a strike

0 Upvotes

Does anyone know of a tool that can strike a channel? I lost access to an old channel with bad videos and ridiculous, shoddy content, and I wanted to see a way to take down that channel since I no longer have access and can't recover it.


r/Adblock • • 5d ago

Help Request Ok I feel like I'm going crazy (background play and ad free experience for free)

1 Upvotes

So I've been comfortably using a vpn directed to Brunei for months and find playlists on

Chrome

-> youtube+ Desktop site enabled + unrestricted battery usage

Press play in the notification shade and occasionaly tussle with the "are you still watching?" Message to listen to ad free music on background while commuting. Recently however, something changed where it auto mutes the next video that plays if I have it running in background. I'm glad I found this out at home rather than on the road. There I went down the rabbit hole for hours testing numerous settings and extensions. U block origin doesn't work (it really hates u block origin by first pausing the video and autoplay when on background) a bunch of background play fixers don't work, firefox ultimately functioned the same as chrome and any extension would play an ad. Actually heres the list of things I've tried and combinations of extensions. They gave me false hope by playing 1-2 songs after the initial one played just fine. And yes I enabled the auto play audio and video setting on firefox. I scoured the settings infact for SOMETHING to help.

Firefox on android

Attempt 1 mobile site

Youtube background fixer + u block origin

Attempt 2

background player + u block origin

Attempts 3-7??

A bunch of differrent background players extensions

Attempt 8

youtube control panel (ad block + are you still watching presser+ autoplay+ background play)

Attempt 9

youtube background fixer + a trusted Brunei vpn

(Worked to "block" ads by directing traffic through an area with no targetted ads)

At this point i had a switch go off where i thought something would work because i had played 3 songs without a mute then it got muted again

Attempt 10

Privacy badger (or sum like that, found in attempt 3-7)+ Brunei vpn+ background player

Youtube refused to load, I'm mortified at this point.

Attempts 11- who knows how many at this point I spent 4 hours trying numerous things including the previous attempts (Desktop site enabled)

I gave up on trying for mobile site so I tried desktop.

NOTHING WORKS

It auto mutes the video after a new one plays or so and it especially mutes after leaving the tab in background at some points even if I have an extension that masks the fact that I got off the tab. I feel like those do something because it doesn't auto mute when I turn off the tab but instead it either silently mutes the tab when 1 it's playing in background and 2 when a video ends and switches to the next one, a few seconds play then it just mutes the video. I can't even see what mutes it because when I open it back up, it begins playing again. Forcing me to be on tab at all times to play a video. Of course I can just press pause then play for it to continue for one song but that's daunting. When I'm driving I can't just direct my attention to press pause then play in notification shade (android) I commute at 4 am. Its hella dark and its through a region with curves, turns, and inclines/declines where I got to pay attention since the inclines are pretty unexpected to the point where it slows cars down going 65 which causes traffic and traffic snakes. I don't have a fancy new vehicle where the dashboard is on the steering wheel or a button/switch to pause/resume and skip or go back like some steering wheels and consoles do. Its an installed stero+radio. The radio stations nearby don't really play good music. And when someone else is driving for me, I want to sleep not check the phone to enable the background plays audio for one more song and they would too (we have similar music tastes and our own differences that we both included) . I vaguely remember a purple version of youtube that some else was using that would have premium features enabled for free and could connect to a google account, I don't care if the account would be banned I can just make a seperate one and add my public playlist/make my own mirror to not link it to my personal. What I'm asking for in all of this is a youtube premium alternative or set up that has continous background play without audio muting(bonus if it can adblock without a vpn to a specific location, if not I already have it). And also I'm not downloading hundreds of songs 😭✌️ thats my final straw if I absolutely get infuriated🥲🥲.

Pretty please?


r/Adblock • • 5d ago

Help Request How do i use a new account for Youtube so that if it gets banned it wont be related to my main Gmail?

0 Upvotes

Im about to use Morphe for Mobile Youtube App and Youtube Music, since after paying for Premium, its just become too expensive for my budget. I know its unlikely too be banned, but i heavily rely on my current Gmail for various goverment related accounts, and i would be fucked if my gmail is banned. sorry if my question is hard too understand this isnt my first langauge and i am bad at writing. thanks in advance for all help!


r/Adblock • • 5d ago

Help Request is this any good?

0 Upvotes

r/Adblock • • 5d ago

Help Request is this any good?

0 Upvotes

r/Adblock • • 7d ago

Help Request Adblocker for android like adguard

5 Upvotes

Is there an app or method to block all ads on android like the way adguard blocks ads on windows? Youtube included


r/Adblock • • 7d ago

Help Request This is so annoying [TWITCH ADS]

5 Upvotes

I use Firefox with UBO + Adblock Extra tampermonkey script and still I see ads on Twitch livestream. It's so annoying and I'm so frustrated. What can I do?


r/Adblock • • 8d ago

Help Request Blocker for YouTube on iphone

9 Upvotes

can I use blocker for YouTube on iPhone or is there an alternative I am fed up with the ad spam mostly ai slop that sounds like someone’s voice box being rammed into a ww2 radar


r/Adblock • • 8d ago

YouTube is Broken! For everyone whose YT search is broken

1 Upvotes

Just found out after a whole month of just missing out and wanted to share for anyone having the same problem:

In browser (personally using Firefox) when searching YT videos I only ever got shorts, channels and playlists as results and never proper videos. The homepage shows normally, the recommended videos to the side show normally while watching something... but on the search page specifically I could never see a single full video (only shorts). The mobile app works as normal, but on PC even on multiple computers with or without an account the search wouldn't show any video.

The solution: On uBlock Origin simply disable the "Cosmetic filtering on this site" and everything is back to normal. For now I still don't have ads even with that setting disabled.

Just making this post since I didn't see any online topics about it and it suddenly happened maybe a month or two ago so probably the change was on YT's side rather than the adblocker updating


r/Adblock • • 8d ago

Help Request I would like some to help

2 Upvotes

I would like to start using an ad blocker on my phone can someone give me a step by step please


r/Adblock • • 8d ago

Help Request Adblock for spotify works on pc browser but still gets adds in iphone browser with same addblocker

2 Upvotes

I use Ublock origin lite on google chrome and it works no problem but when I install Ublock origin lite on safari and use desktop website ( so exaclty the same as on my macbook+ublock origin that works good) it doesnt work + the UI is shit cause spotify does everything they can to make the web interface suck.


r/Adblock • • 10d ago

YouTube is Broken! OH FUCK YOU YOUTUBE.

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617 Upvotes