Best Google Chrome Ad-block Extensions

Total Adblock is a Chrome extension that effectively blocks annoying ads, trackers, and pop-ups. Paid version also includes its proprietary antivirus TotalAV, malware and spyware protection, and an exclusive YouTube ad-blocker. Besides, by removing cookies, this ad-blocker makes your internet experience safer and faster. Total Adblock is a superb choice for Chrome users, but it works like a charm across all the other popular browsers too, including Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Opera.

Block unwanted ads, trackers, notifications, and more

Not only does Total Adblock eliminate ads and trackers while you're browsing on Google Chrome, but it also helps you:

• Enjoy seamless video watching, without auto-play advertisements


• Prevent third-party trackers from snooping on your online activities


• Avoid ads and trackers on popular social platforms such as YouTube and Facebook


• Restrict ads and trackers on streaming websites like ESPN and CNN


• Block ads on the go with the Total Adblock app


• Enjoy browsing on Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and other browsers too, unhindered by annoying ads and notifications

Tailored service

Another significant benefit of Total Adblock is that you can let through all the ads that you find useful or, at least, acceptable, thanks to the ‘Acceptable Ads’ option. It's always good to have the option of managing your own list of preferred websites and ads that they are showing. Besides, by whitelisting your favorite websites, you support them by allowing them to show you their ads.

Go premium

While the free version of Total Adblock offers decent (but limited) protection from suspicious ads and trackers, the premium option has great additional benefits. For starters, you'll no longer see its upgrade pop-ups, which some users find quite annoying. Even more importantly, you'll be able to block unlimited ads, including those on YouTube, and you'll get free award-winning antivirus protection.

So, for just a fraction of a price of an average ad-blocker, you get layered protection for all your devices. Plus, if you're a first-time subscriber, you can also benefit from some large discounts this company often sets in place.

Surfshark’s CleanWeb functions as an ad-blocker, as well as a cookie pop-up blocker and alert service. It’ll tell you whether individual sites have suffered from data breaches in the past or been infected by malware. The service is available either via the Surfshark browser extension or app.

Opening the CleanWeb 2.0 Chrome browser extension takes you straight to the dashboard, with its clean and intuitive GUI.

If you discover a website that won’t work with CleanWeb turned on, you can add it to a bypass list by clicking the plus symbol in the upper-right corner of the screen. As well as bypassing CleanWeb, you can also set it to bypass the VPN.

The CleanWeb browser extension has four main protective features: the ad-blocker, pop-up blocker, data breach alert, and malware alert.

The ad-blocker removes all adverts from pages before they are displayed to you. This includes video ads shown by streaming platforms.

The pop-up blocker stops cookie requests from being shown. It works in the background to reject all that it can. Of those that can’t be rejected, the blocker only accepts those that are strictly necessary for the site to work.

The data breach alert notifies you if a site that you’re visiting has ever been breached. If so, it will provide you with the date of the incident and the number of accounts exposed. The malware detector, meanwhile, alerts you to the presence of a virus or malware.

You can select which of these features to enable via the CleanWeb settings tab. Note that you don’t need to be connected to the Surfshark VPN for CleanWeb features to function.

As well as Chrome, the CleanWeb 2.0 browser extension is available on the Firefox and Edge browsers.

Rather than running as a browser extension, AdLock is a stand-alone app that runs on your device of choice, with support for five different devices on one subscription and apps available for Mac, iOS, Android (though not through the Play Store, the .APK must be manually installed on your device), and Windows PCs. It will protect not only Chrome, but all your other apps and browsers as well. It can even block YouTube ads!

Reasonably priced

Unlike some of the other options on this list, AdLock does not have a free tier. Even so, we think it's well worth your money, with competitively priced monthly, yearly, or five-yearly subscription options on offer. We think it's a brilliant choice for both mobile and desktop users and should you find it's not quite a fit for you, it's backed up by a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can try it out with no risk at all.

Responsive support

One of the benefits of opting for a paid product rather than a free one is that you get proper customer support. In our testing, we found AdLock's support super responsive to our questions, updating their filters in a matter of hours when we flagged sites that weren't working properly. You won't get that sort of fast reply with any of the free options on this list.

Block apps entirely

Not only capable of blocking ads, AdLock comes with built-in firewall functionality to restrict internet connectivity for apps and browsers. This is especially important if you're using mobile broadband as they often have fairly stingy download caps where every megabyte counts. With AdLock, you can restrict internet connections to just browsers, messengers, or only to selected apps. This way, you can make sure nothing is quietly downloading some massive update in the background that's going to use up your allowance.

AdGuard's user base may not be as impressive as uBlock Origin's or Adblock Plus', but its ad-blocking credentials are nothing to be sneezed at. AdGuard's Tracking Protection filter is designed to remove all forms of tracking with a filter list even larger than Ghostery. Version 4 of the extension has just been released and brings with it an impressive suite of new features and quality of life updates that make it well worth a look.

Stand-alone and browser

AdGuard comes in a variety of flavors depending on your needs. There's both a stand-alone desktop version available for macOS, Windows, and more, and also a browser extension that can be downloaded and used on your browser of choice – like Chrome! While there is a paid offering available that offers additional functionality, the browser extension can be used free of charge.

Stealth mode

One of the greatest feathers in AdGuard's cap is Stealth mode, which offers a truly impressive array of options for blocking not just adverts and trackers but a range of other online options that can compromise your security. You can hide your search queries so websites don't know what you typed in to find them, block WebRTC entirely to protect your IP address, hide referrer details, block or limit cookies, and more. This flexibility makes AdGuard one of the most full-featured Chrome extensions around.

Blocking adverts

Again, all of this is great, but it's useless if an ad blocker doesn't block adverts. AdGuard won't let you down, with the ability to set up and customize multiple filters for all kinds of ads and trackers. It comes with categories already set for ad-blocking filters, social media-related filters, and more. You can either just choose the individual filters you want, or all of them at once. All of this functionality comes free in the browser extension, and the stand-alone version comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee, so there's no risk in giving the paid version a try!

uBlock Origin is a fork from the original uBlock ad blocker. It's completely free, like most of the other extensions on this list, and is completely open-source. It maintains unparalleled transparency, which sets it apart from many competing products, featuring a statistical breakdown of how well the ad blocker has performed across the current session.

Lightweight ad-blocking

Top-of-the-range filter lists are used to block intrusive advertisements, malware, and trackers, including AdServer List, Advanced Tracking List, EasyPrivacy List, and Malware Domains. uBlock Origin also allows users to choose separately whether they block pop-ups, large media elements, cosmetic filtering, remote custom website fonts, JavaScript, and more, all while remaining lightweight and minimally impacting how your device runs. With efficiency as the main priority, uBlock Origin is ideal for a relatively resource-hungry browser such as Chrome as it taxes your system much less than other competition with a low resource overhead.

Simple setup

uBlock Origin can be downloaded from your add-on/extension page of choice within your browser. There's support for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Microsoft Edge and, unlike some of its competitors, uBlock Origin works right out of the box. With a one-click install, you'll be set up and protected from adverts and trackers, whereas some of uBlock's competitors still leave these things enabled and rely on you to go in and manually disable them, which can be a daunting prospect for inexperienced users.

Additional privacy

uBlock is what's described as a "wide-spectrum content blocker". What this means is that it's more than just an ad-blocker, it's a general-purpose blocker for all kinds of internet irritations. As well as blocking ads, it blocks trackers, it can disable pre-fetching to keep you from leaking your IP address to pages you haven't yet loaded, and it can even help protect you from WebRTC leaks!

Adblock Plus first made a name for itself on Firefox before being ported over to Chrome. Its open-source approach has prompted several notable competitors, with the similarly named but unaffiliated 'AdBlock' using Adblock Plus' source code. The organization behind it is responsible for establishing one of the most comprehensive filter lists out there, as well as adding support for 52 different languages. The Adblock Plus extension also sits among the most frequently updated.

Simple to use

It doesn't matter how good your product is if it's too difficult to use, and Adblock Plus makes sure that getting started is a breeze. Just install the extension and you're good to go, though you will need to go into the settings if you want to change the Acceptable Ads filter or start whitelisting individual sites. AdblockPlus even shows you how many ads it's blocking on the page, so you can immediately see how effective it is at streamlining your browsing experience.

Blocks ads and more

It wouldn't be much of an ad-blocker if it didn't block adverts, and Adblock Plus certainly doesn't disappoint. While the inclusion of the Acceptable Ads scheme may be controversial for some users, Adblock Plus is still perfectly capable of blocking YouTube adverts, pop-ups, pop-unders, multimedia ads, banner ads, and more. All this not only saves you bandwidth, but will also improve website loading times and even protect you from adverts carrying malware.

Selective ad blocking

As you may already know, some websites depend on their advertising to survive, and maybe there are some sites you visit regularly, and you want to support them by leaving adverts enabled on their pages. Adblock Plus allows you to configure whitelists where sites are allowed to show their ads, especially if they are non-intrusive and do not really disturb your browsing session. This is above and beyond Adblock Plus' built-in Acceptable Ads filter, which can also be turned off if you disagree with them about what adverts are acceptable!

Ghostery is built with privacy in mind, designed to stop trackers and block advertisements. The extension blocks ads, site analytics, and adult advertising trackers by default, but this can be customized depending on your needs. Unblocked and unknown trackers are also anonymized with enhanced anti-tracking turned on.

Tracker blocker

Ghostery can block an impressive number of different web trackers, including ad trackers, analytics, social media, comments, chat, and more. You can even choose whether to restrict or trust sites on a case-by-case basis. It even tells you how many trackers are on the site you're visiting, displaying a handy little floating box that shows the number of trackers it's found, giving you access to see exactly what's on the site and which are allowed/blocked.

Smart-Browsing

Smart-Browsing is a clever little feature Ghostery employs when full-on ad/tracker blocking would stop a site from working properly. Instead of completely blocking the tracker, Ghostery lets it run but removes any of your personal information from it. Not only does this ensure that your sites still work properly while protecting your privacy, but it also means that any trackers using browser fingerprinting will be useless. Ghostery modifies the information that's sent back, which means that your fingerprint will keep changing so you can't be tracked.

Ad blocking

All this is fine and good, but the main purpose of an ad-blocker is to, well, block adverts. Ghostery doesn't disappoint in that regard, being more than capable of blocking banners, pop-ups, and interstitial adverts to ensure that your web browsing experience will be a smoother, cleaner, and faster one. The best part of all this is that the browser extension is available for the low price of absolutely nothing. It's entirely free to download and use, so there's no reason not to give it a try for yourself.