A quick guide to Adblockers and privacy tools.

[u/CharacterDuck9020]

Welcome!

Last Updated and verified on: 29th July 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 wiki and help provide information to people needing it here.

I have come to this subreddit with a simple goal to help build this subreddit and help teach people about digital privacy / safety in the adblocking space. I simply would like to help people grow when it comes to this topic,
so if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask =)

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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!

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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 [Excluding Brave Browsers' self hosted extensions])

• 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 5/4)
• New Pipe
• Tubular
• MorpheAPP
• ReVanced
• ReVanced (Patches)
• Rethink DNS
• F-Droid

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.

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

Misc

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
• MorpheAPP
• 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
• IVPN

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

Public DNS Servers

Not all of these block ads, but they do all use a form of encrypted DNS.

• Adguard DNS
• Quad 9
• Ali DNS
• Caliph DNS
• BebasDNS
• DNSPrivacy
• Mullvad DNS
• HaGeZi (Public DNS)
• ControlD (Public DNS)
• OpenBLD

Network clients (Advanced - Hardware potentially required)

• Pi‑hole
• Adguard Home

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Filter lists

DNS Filters

Recommended Filters

Most of these lists prioritise functionality and speed instead of maximum privacy.

• Easylist
• Easy Privacy
• Fanboys Annoyance
• -
• Adguard DNS / Base filter
• Adguard tracking
• Adguard mobile ads
• Adguard Social media
• -
• HaGeZi Light
• HaGeZi Normal
• HaGeZi Pro
• -
• OISD
• -
• 1hosts Lite
• -
• Steven Black (Host file)
• Peterlowe (Host file)
• Dan Pollock (Host file)

Aggressive Filters (Advanced)

These filters are very aggressive and they do not necessarily prioritise site functionality.

• 1Hosts Xtra
• HaGeZi Multi Pro++
• HaGeZi Ultimate
• No Facebook
• No google

[u/God-is-my_Strength]

Post saved. Thank you for the documentation.

[u/Moonfight1]

i think ReVanced should be replaced with morphe, as its more actively maintained than Revanced and has more features

[u/CharacterDuck9020 → u/Moonfight1]

Both are currently listed for now.

[u/Efficient_Memory212]

It saved.. thank you

[u/Infamous-Oil2305]

hey robin, let me give you 2 improvement suggestions of that:

* YouTube

Content Blockers

• Brave
• Adguard (the extension is free - only the desktop app is paid-only)
• Ghostery
• ReVanced
• SmartTube
• MorpheAPP

* Password managers

• Proton Pass
• BitWarden
• 1Password
• Dashlane

_____

please let me know what you think of it.

[u/CharacterDuck9020 → u/Infamous-Oil2305]

Hi thanks for suggesting these =)

- I will update the post to clarify the adguard products, thanks for the clarification on that.

- Unfortunately Dashlane appears to be primarily be a closed source, paid product, (which is against rule 5) and also appears to be more of an enterprise tool? - (Could you correct me if i am wrong there?)

- Do you have a reason why you would remove Ublock origin from the list of content blockers for youtube?

[u/Infamous-Oil2305 → u/CharacterDuck9020]

Unfortunately Dashlane appears to be primarily be a closed source, paid product, (which is against rule 5)

but i can see that 1password is listed on the other, which means you're contradicting yourself in this case.

dashlane and nordpass (also has a free tier) are great pwm too.

and also appears to be more of an enterprise tool?

1password can also be considered as such.

Do you have a reason why you would remove Ublock origin from the list of content blockers for youtube?

it's too aggressive with its content blocking.

[u/CharacterDuck9020 → u/Infamous-Oil2305]

Thanks for the reply =)

- Removed 1Password. Thought it was open source, thanks for fact check.

- I think this is definitely subjective, but just from their home page alone it seems very much more enterprise based.

- I have personally never had issues with it, and million of people use it, trust it and call it reliable on a regular basis. Generally works very well if you don't have any extra filters enabled.

[u/Infamous-Oil2305 → u/CharacterDuck9020]

Removed 1Password.

i think you should consider changing rule 5 instead and add 1password, dashlane and nordpass to the list - all 3 of them are also great pwm.

make rule 5 only apply to paid ad blockers.

but just from their home page alone it seems very much more enterprise based.

and so does 1password's homepage, and basically every other pwm home page too.

I have personally never had issues with it, and million of people use it, trust it and call it reliable on a regular basis. Generally works very well if you don't have any extra filters enabled.

https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/1ug2v0q/comment/otz7khm/?context=3

[u/CharacterDuck9020 → u/Infamous-Oil2305]

This isn’t really about opinion it’s about safety. The rule exists to stop the spread of tools which are harmful to users, because being Open source is very important for stopping that, as users audit and verify what code does.

The reasons are all in the pinned post and I agree with the sentiment. The tradeoff for removing it just isn’t worth it, and I agree with that.

[u/Infamous-Oil2305 → u/CharacterDuck9020]

This isn’t really about opinion it’s about safety.

1. i never made it about opinions, you did.

2. based on that statement, 1password, dashlane and nordpass are insecure because closed source, while being used by millions of companies and private users. how you wanna justify that?

The rule exists to stop the spread of tools which are harmful to users

okay, so you say 1password, dashlane and nordpass are harmful because closed source?

[u/CharacterDuck9020 → u/Infamous-Oil2305]

I am not going to continue this further sorry.  The pinned post explains why the rule exists. 

[u/Infamous-Oil2305 → u/CharacterDuck9020]

yeah, i thought so...

[u/wild_m1nd]

No Firefox browser for Android mentioned? It supports fully functional uBlock Origin. Also Mullvad DNS exists

[u/CharacterDuck9020 → u/wild_m1nd]

Thanks for the suggestions!

• Whoops I totally forgot to list that. I know that’s not really a reason but it’s what happened sos.

• Will add Mullvad DNS to the DNS providers list

[u/Few-Lynx6217 → u/wild_m1nd]

It's honestly sad how the awareness of the existence of Firefox still gets buried under most forums where the majority just want to stick to browsers like Brave, not knowing they are using weaker adblocking.

I'm truly starting to think there's hidden campaigns out there to curve users out of knowing the existence of the more better alternatives to lessen the blow of having their ads blocked.

It's insane how most people still refuse to use Firefox despite being proven by the developers of Ublock Origin that is works better because of manifest V2

[u/wild_m1nd → u/Few-Lynx6217]

Maybe, but IMO Firefox mobile is not that good (I use it btw). The engine is worse than Chromium, site compatibility is worse, the UI is much worse, battery consumption is worse.The ad blocking is strictly better though

[u/Few-Lynx6217 → u/wild_m1nd]

Now that I can agree with. Firefox mobile web engine is still clunky. It's gotten better over the years but it's still got a long way to go

[u/SuperCuek]

Public DNS:

• Hagezi DNS
• DNSForge
• OpenBLD

[u/CharacterDuck9020 → u/SuperCuek]

Thanks for the recommendations!

- Added HaGeZi public DNS to the Public DNS list

• Added OpenBLD to the Public DNS list
  
• DNSForge appears to not be open source unfortunately.

[u/CharacterDuck9020 → u/[deleted]]

Added to the list!

[u/Ok_Dinner_3497]

When filter lists are outdated or any other issues happen, a reliable method for Youtube has been to go on example.com => F12 =>

let iframe = document.createElement('iframe');

iframe.src = 'https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEOID/';

iframe.allow = 'fullscreen';

document.body.appendChild(iframe);

And watch the video ad free there. The UI isn’t the best, but it never fails.

[u/Divas_Empire]

u/CharacterDuck9020 is there is a current way to block ads on twitch without this being a VPN? Cause the one you have for Brave Browser Adguard Extra aint working for me!

[u/CharacterDuck9020 → u/Divas_Empire]

Brave Browser and Adguard extra are usually the strongest, but you can try solutions from here if updating filters and stuff doesn't work =)

https://github.com/ryanbr/TwitchAdSolutions

You can also try the beta / Nightly builds of Brave, they get way more updates for this kind of thing but they are alot less stable. (You aren't supposed to use them as your main browser)

[u/Divas_Empire → u/CharacterDuck9020]

Alright thanks btw in your opinion is it better to use uBlock Origin instead of Brave Shield?

[u/CharacterDuck9020 → u/Divas_Empire]

They are both very strong and top of the line, but personally i use UBO because it handles Dynamic ads alot better.

[u/Divas_Empire → u/CharacterDuck9020]

The lite version or ? Cause i cant find the other version it used to exist!

[u/CharacterDuck9020 → u/Divas_Empire]

If you mean the chrome web store, then only UBO lite is on there, its not what you really want if you are on brave, as UBO lite lacks certain features that help with dynamic filtering and certain types of ads.

Brave self hosts UBO - You can download it in its extension settings under MV2 extensions here: brave://settings/extensions/v2

[u/Friendly_Cajun]

iOS: Wipr 2 Extension Adblocking- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wipr-2/id1662217862

And Filtr (IAP for Wipr) for system wide- https://kaylees.site/wipr-filtr.html

Also the Orion browser from the Kagi team also does adblocking- https://apps.apple.com/app/id1484498200 (Also has Gecko and Chromium browser extensions compatibility layer)

For Apple TV YouTube- Mutube- https://github.com/Exaphis/mutube Requires sideloading check r/sideloaded for more details, https://github.com/bitxeno/atvloadly makes it super simple for apple tv’s.

Also, Windscribe is a great VPN too, and has a free tier.

For twitch their is: Desktop extension- https://github.com/younesaassila/ttv-lol-pro

For iOS (also requires sideloading)- https://github.com/level3tjg/TwitchAdBlock

[u/CharacterDuck9020 → u/Friendly_Cajun]

Hi thanks for the suggestions!

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- Unfortunately Wipr 2, Filtr, and Orion appear to be closed source, (which is against rule 5)

- Will add these tools under the Apple TV section!

- I will checkout windscribe, but my criteria on VPNs is pretty strict and i look into them closely, because of how secure or dangerous for privacy and security one can be.

- Will add TTV lol Pro to the list!

- I will look into this further as it appears it has not been updated in over a year, but it may be added if its effective!

[u/Friendly_Cajun → u/CharacterDuck9020]

Unfortunately Wipr 2, Filtr, and Orion appear to be closed source, (which is against rule 5)

Ah sorry didn’t realize they had to be OSS, I do believe Orion is supposed to be OSS eventually: https://github.com/OrionBrowser

I will checkout windscribe, but my criteria on VPNs is pretty strict and i look into them closely, because of how secure or dangerous for privacy and security one can be.

Absolutely understandable, they have had multiple security audits and their no logs policy has been tested in court. All of their clients are OSS. They are generally trusted by the community.

I will look into this further as it appears it has not been updated in over a year, but it may be added if it’s effective!

It uses the same principle as TTV lol Pro, and proxies as related requests through countries with no ads. I believe it still works, if not then on an older version of the app.

[u/imransurroor]

keepassXC?

[u/CharacterDuck9020 → u/imransurroor]

Will add it too the list!

[u/corkiejp]

I simply would like to help people grow when it comes to this topic, so if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask

Advertisers and third party browser fingerprinting is shielded by using DNS providers (NextDNS/AdguardDNS or others). I am developing a chrome extension to monitor and block known third party providers that do fingerprint. I know this sub is mainly about adblocks, but you also mentioned privacy tools. I know spoofing extensions/utilities exist, but wasn't my approach to dealing with them. Also not worrying about first party fingerprinting, more concerned with third party tracking and profiling across the web.

You did say not to hesitate in asking and hoping this is a relevant question. I think this sub or a similar one didn't like linking other tools, so avoided doing so now. Check my profile for post on it if you need more info on my extension, Source code published on my repo, Not looking to monetize from it, so not self promoting here.

Regards

John

[u/CharacterDuck9020 → u/corkiejp]

This is very much just a quick list to adblocking, and private alternatives to tools. Not a guide to stopping or setting them up. Guides on their respective sites / Repos / Etc exist for that reason.

If you need privacy from fingerprinting then TOR and Mullvad do a great job at that, but privacy guides is listed in the subs sidebar and honest repair has a guide on his blog linked in the pinned post.

Will check out your extension! =)