Reviews for Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus by Adblock Plus
Review by H.R.
Rated 3 out of 5
by H.R., 5 months agoTLDR - ABP is 100% adequate software. It does exactly what it says on the tin and nothing more. If you're a privacy-conscious home user, you would be better served by uBlock Origin. Enterprise users and casual home users, however, have much more incentive to use AdBlock Plus over competitors like uBlock Origin and AdGuard.
Pros:
1. Long history as robust, well-tested, well-maintained open-source software.
2. Default filter lists block advertisements, though not other forms of online tracking (see "Tangent" section of this review for why I think this is a pro.
3. Simpler content blocking rules mean that it's less liable to break stuff than a more robust content blocker.
Cons:
1. "Acceptable advertisements" are enabled by default. This fact becomes much more revolting when you keep in mind that Eyeo GmbH (the company that owns ABP) literally charges advertisers a hefty fee to be on the "acceptable ads" list, and that advertising networks who pay into the acceptable ads programme don't always adhere to the guidelines that Eyeo GmbH sets. You CAN opt out, and I encourage you to do so. This is a huge black mark on the reputation of a still-useful and beloved open-source application.
Neutral/Your Mileage May Vary
1. In enterprise/business situations, AdBlock Plus may very well be the *only* ad blocker your IT team recommends.
2. Relatively limited selection of filter lists. You're basically limited to the standard ABP filters, EasyList, EasyPrivacy, I Don't Care About Cookies, and the foreign language EasyList filters. Third party filter lists used to be commonplace, but a lot of them use UBO syntax as opposed to ABP syntax nowadays.
Tangent: ABP and Privacy
→ I would like to point out that almost every major browser from Firefox, to Safari, to Edge, to Brave, to Vivaldi, among countless others, all have *some* form of built-in privacy protection. They all use the same list of known trackers provided by the Disconnect team. Here's a rather shocking revelation: you DO NOT need to use tons of filter lists with ANY ad blocker when the browser you're using already has robust tracking protection built in by this point. ABP on default settings, acceptable ads turned off, and Firefox ETP settings set to "strict" will have you pretty well-protected from both targeted advertisements AND surveillance capitalism more generally. Anything else you do beyond that is subject to diminishing returns.
I give it three stars because it's a functional product that does exactly what it says on the tin and nothing more. It's not perfect, but it does not need to be. I would've given it four stars had Eyeo GmbH not irrevocably stained the reputation of this project with the Acceptable Ads programme. As for how I use it: I use ABP on my work laptop's browsers (Firefox and Edge) and it does the job.
Pros:
1. Long history as robust, well-tested, well-maintained open-source software.
2. Default filter lists block advertisements, though not other forms of online tracking (see "Tangent" section of this review for why I think this is a pro.
3. Simpler content blocking rules mean that it's less liable to break stuff than a more robust content blocker.
Cons:
1. "Acceptable advertisements" are enabled by default. This fact becomes much more revolting when you keep in mind that Eyeo GmbH (the company that owns ABP) literally charges advertisers a hefty fee to be on the "acceptable ads" list, and that advertising networks who pay into the acceptable ads programme don't always adhere to the guidelines that Eyeo GmbH sets. You CAN opt out, and I encourage you to do so. This is a huge black mark on the reputation of a still-useful and beloved open-source application.
Neutral/Your Mileage May Vary
1. In enterprise/business situations, AdBlock Plus may very well be the *only* ad blocker your IT team recommends.
2. Relatively limited selection of filter lists. You're basically limited to the standard ABP filters, EasyList, EasyPrivacy, I Don't Care About Cookies, and the foreign language EasyList filters. Third party filter lists used to be commonplace, but a lot of them use UBO syntax as opposed to ABP syntax nowadays.
Tangent: ABP and Privacy
→ I would like to point out that almost every major browser from Firefox, to Safari, to Edge, to Brave, to Vivaldi, among countless others, all have *some* form of built-in privacy protection. They all use the same list of known trackers provided by the Disconnect team. Here's a rather shocking revelation: you DO NOT need to use tons of filter lists with ANY ad blocker when the browser you're using already has robust tracking protection built in by this point. ABP on default settings, acceptable ads turned off, and Firefox ETP settings set to "strict" will have you pretty well-protected from both targeted advertisements AND surveillance capitalism more generally. Anything else you do beyond that is subject to diminishing returns.
I give it three stars because it's a functional product that does exactly what it says on the tin and nothing more. It's not perfect, but it does not need to be. I would've given it four stars had Eyeo GmbH not irrevocably stained the reputation of this project with the Acceptable Ads programme. As for how I use it: I use ABP on my work laptop's browsers (Firefox and Edge) and it does the job.
10,547 reviews
- Rated 3 out of 5by Matchofu51, 4 hours ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Amenhanbadiba, 4 hours ago
- Rated 1 out of 5by Era, 5 hours agoIt use to be great, now they focus on (ironically) advertising adblock plus Premium through "donations". Every time its updated (every 2-3 days) it'll bring up a page that begs for donations, and you can't disable it. But if you "purchase" premium, that page won't come up.
I've seen the developers responses, trying to skirt around the issue "But if its multiple tabs at once then report to us immediately!"
Absolute adwere scam. Absolutely ironic. - Rated 5 out of 5by Jungan, a day ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by ababo, 2 days ago
- Rated 1 out of 5by Firefox user 18402899, 2 days agoБольше не бесплатный. Требуют от 500р за покупку
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 13911071, 2 days ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 18401529, 3 days ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by x0bo, 3 days ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by danuta, 4 days ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Malawan, 4 days ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Philippe Mingers, 6 days ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 17779283, 7 days ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 18396228, 7 days ago
- Rated 1 out of 5by Tehhutch, 7 days agoRemoved after years of use, My browsing session being interrupted by tabs informing me of updates, then nagging for donations is more annoying than the ads it's supposed to block.. I get that developers need support, but there's better ways of doing this.
"Once per browser per device" every time an "update" is pushed out is a terrible way of doing this and false when I see the tab opened several times in an evening during a browsing session.
ABP could do better, instead I have removed it and moved on to other add-ons as it's not worth the headache or interruptions. There are better, more competitive tools out there these days, that behave better than this... Sorry but you could do better. - Rated 5 out of 5by Yu, 7 days ago
- Rated 1 out of 5by Firefox user 18395091, 7 days agoHow do I know I have ABP? Nothing tells me that it's on my computer anywhere. I paid for this and now I don't have a clue where it is !
- Rated 5 out of 5by 1st Arkansas Car Brokers, 8 days agoI have been using adblock plus for almost 8 years and prefer its style and features over any other blocker i have used hands down. I use it for home and all three business i help run
www.1stArkansas.com if you need a car in texas - Rated 1 out of 5by Firefox user 15535007, 9 days ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 13696439, 10 days ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 18389854, 11 days ago
Developer response
posted 12 days agoHi,
Can you please send us a message to support@adblockplus.org with some example URLs where you have been seeing ads, and some screenshot of the ads and of your ABP settings? We would be happy to look into it for you!