Reviews for Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus by Adblock Plus
Review by H.R.
Rated 3 out of 5
by H.R., a year 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.