5 of the Best Ad Blockers for Your iPhone
Pop-up ads might just be one of the most annoying things the Internet has ever invented. It’s a total PITA to be trying to access an article, a tasty queso recipe for NFL season or maybe a travel blog and having to click out of a pop-up on that tiny screen. With the iOS 9, we got a lot of cool new features on our iPhones, and one of them is ad and content blocking — which blocks ads, trackers, videos and popups — for Safari. Unfortunately, ad and content blocking only works on iOS’s native browser Safari, so if you’re using a third-party browser like Chrome, you’re currently out of luck.
One thing to note: In order to enable content blocking on your phone, you need to have iOS 9 installed. To turn it on, after you’ve installed a content blocking app, go to Settings > Safari > Content Blockers and make sure the app is toggled on.
We’ve reviewed several of the most popular apps in ad-blocking and came up with a list of the top five apps that are the most customizable, work most effectively and also offer whitelisting.
1. 1Blocker: As far as content blockers go, 1Blocker is considered the cream of the crop. Aside from providing a whitelisting option, there are several ways to customize this bad boy with the $2.99 Pro version, which is totally worth it. For the free version, you can only select one “Preinstalled” feature to block. “Block Ads” is a good option for that. With 1Blocker, your browsing experiences truly gets a boost.
DL It: Free on iOS ($2.99 for Pro)
2. Adblock Plus: The best known ad-blocker for desktop Internet browsers like Chrome has released their own app for iOS. The Adblock Plus app is extremely streamlined and simple — once you turn it on, it’s working. There’s no customizable list for whitelisting, but acceptable ads as per the developer’s discretion are allowed so long as the option is switched on.
DL It: Free on iOS
3. Refine: Refine has several blocking rule sets created by other users, and you can create your own sets of blocking rules. It also has a whitelist you can tailor to your needs. The best part about Refine, though, is that it is completely free. The only downside is that it’s a little bit more clunky than other ad-blockers, but still awesome.
DL It: Free on iOS
4. Purify: Purify is one of the most popular downloads for ad-blockers, and it’s easy to see why. The extremely user-friendly interface mimics Apple’s own settings page, with easy-to-use functions and personalization. Plus, Purify makes whitelisting easy: From the Share icon, you can whitelist with the tap of a finger.
DL It: $0.99 on iOS
5. Blockr: Blockr is another popular choice for content blocking. It’s got an attractive UI that gives you the option of blocking ads, cookie warning pop-ups, media and more. Blockr also works seamlessly with Safari by allowing you to access Blockr’s settings directly from the Share feature within the browser.
DL It: $0.99 on iOS
Will you be trying out any of these ad-blockers? Tell us in the comments below!