A list of content blockers for iOS 9

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Looking for the list of iOS 9 Safari content blockers? You’ve come to the right place.

As of this writing (19 Oct, 2015), we’ve added a few codes to each entry in the list to make them a bit more useful. The first code tells you whether the blocker is free or not, marked with either an F for Free, or a $, or with a number to serve as a footnote when clarification is needed.

The second code tells you if the blocker supports a user-edited whitelist, allowing the user to turn off blocking for specific sites. Blocking a site’s ads means less advertising money for the site, makes it harder for a site to stay in business. A W indicates a blocker supports whitelists, an X means the blocker does not, a number means check the footnotes.

My 2 cents: Choose an ad blocker that lets you build your own white list. Then take a few minutes to add your favorite sites to your white list.

Big thanks to Carlos Oliveira for his help in keeping this list both current and accurate.

Here’s the current list, in alphabetical order:

– [1W]: 1Blocker, from Salivate Khanov
– [FX]: AdBlock, from Betafish
– [FX]: Adblock Plus, from Eyeo
– [2W]: Ad-Blocker for Safari, from L. Schoenmaker
– [FX]: Adblock Fast, from 10x Studio
– [$X]: Ad Block Multi, from Roman Shevtsov
– [$X]: Adamant, from Cory Bohon
– [$X]: AdBlockX, from Mircea Guta
– [$3]: Ad Control, from Artur Grigor
– [$X]: AdMop, from iPhonsoGmvH
– [$W]: BlockBear, from TunnelBear
– [$W]: Blockr, from Tim Poller & Arno Appenzeller
– [F6]: Chop, from TalkAbout Design
– [FW]: Clear, from Tightrope Interactive
– [FX]: Clearly, from Gist LLC
– [$7]: Crystal, from Murphy Apps
– [$W]: Distilled, from Sean Murphy
– [FX]: F-Secure, from F-Secure
– [$8]: Flare, from Brandon Chester
– [FX]: Freedom, from Zach Simone
– [FW]: Just Content, from Blackwater Park Studios
– [FW]: Lionz Blocker, from Appsolute Secure
– [FW]: Magic AdBlock, from Audemars Apps
– [$W]: Oasis, from Squarevibe Inc.
– [$W]: Privacy, from Obsessive Software
– [$W]: Purify, from Charismatic
– [$W]: Rocket, from RTMS UG
– [FW]: Refine, from Luke Li
– [$W]: Silentium, from the Selenium team
– [FX]: Swab, from Peter Kamb, Swab only blocks the Deck’s ads on any site that uses it.
– [4X]: Vivio AdBlocker, from Jan Cislinsky
– [5W]: WebWipes, from Apptivity Labs
– [$X]: Wipr, from Giorgio Calderolla

NOTES:

  1. 1Blocker only offers blocking trackers OR ads OR any given category in its free tier. Blocking multiple categories is available as an in-app purchase ($2.99). 1Blockr also whitelists ads by The Deck, by default. To block these ads, you need to add a custom rule.
  2. Ad-Blocker for Safari free tier blocks ads by default. Blocking ‘Tracking Scripts’ and ‘Clickbait’ requires additional in-app purchases, individually ($0.99/each) or collectively (Ad-Blocker PRO, $1.99).
  3. Ad Control has limited whitelisting capabilities, allowing only 1 ad/day/favorited site.
  4. Vivio AdBlocker ‘General ad blocking’ and ‘Privacy protection’ (trackers) by default in free tier. Regional rules available as in-app purchase ($2.99).
  5. WebWipes offers ‘Banner Ads Cleaner’ in its free tier. Other blocking rules (‘Text Ads Cleaner’, ‘Tracker Cookies Remover’ and ‘Click Baits Cleaner’) available as in-app purchases, individually ($0.99/each) or collectively (‘All WebWipes’, $2.99).
  6. Chop has a whitelist functionally available in the Pro version as an IAP ($0.99).
  7. Crystal Whitelisting will be added in the next update. Will also offer an option for ‘Acceptable Ads’.
  8. Flare blocks ads selectively. It does not block Deck ads, for example. If you spot bad ads getting through, tap the in-app contact button to report it.


106 thoughts on “A list of content blockers for iOS 9”

  3. Do any of them allow you to, say, tell them I want to allow only up to 4 ads per page, and the software just let through 4 random ads? Why not? That kind of thing I could live with. Most web pages are just becoming unreadable, not to mention sucking up my data plan (on my iPad), because of the sheer numbers of ads per page. The program could even allow the ‘first 4’ ads, then the web sites could be greedy and negotiate the best deal with advertisers.

  4. I don’t have a preference yet. They are still so new to me. I just haven’t had enough experience yet to call out one over another.

  6. I absolutely want a whitelist. I use Ghostery on Safari and one of the reasons I like it is that I can whitelist both specific kinds of items (for example, Google Analytics) while blocking others and that I can whitelist sites. This site, DF and a few others do things right in terms of not plastering ads all over and I’m happy to whitelist the site to support it. Others, not so much.

  7. I’m hoping Ghostery shows up on the list. I’m guessing that’s one of the two that Gruber says is missing. Any guesses as to the other?

  11. Ghostery on Mac is incompatible with many websites I depend on heavily. So I suspect I will have to try a bunch of them and go with the most conservative one that doesn’t slow things down drastically. Purify seems to be the front runner.

  12. I hear nothing but good things about Crystal. A number of the Apple tech journalists have been beta testing, and all seem to really like it.

  15. Are these out yet? I’m using 9.1 public beta and all of these links take me to the app store saying they’re aren’t available yet. One even says iPad required even though I’m using an iPad.

  19. Crystal is currently the only one available on this list for non-US iTunes users. All the others require a US iTunes account.

  22. I don’t think site white lists are that important, really. I’m able to just enable most of the things the sites I use want. If I don’t trust Google Analytics, I don’t trust it from ANY site. On the other hand if I trust Disqus, I trust it from any site.

  23. I don’t think this will help yet because Crystal is the only one available in the US store right now too, but try removing the /us from the url and see if that lets you through on a non-US account?

  24. I don’t recognise any of these and many of them aren’t available outside of the USA anyway. Considering the security implications, I don’t recommend installing any of these and will be waiting for an established player to enter the field myself.

    Wake me up when AdBlock or Ghostery is available.

  26. “Considering the security implications”

    And that would be?

    All they do is talk with an API made by Apple. They give Safari a json with rules for things to block. The apps themselves don’t actively do anything besides provide customization of what to block (depending on the app of course). They don’t know what you’re visiting or even what’s being blocked, they can’t get this information.

  27. I’m trying Purify, but I had to acquire and install it through the store on my MBP, then through sync and install. I could not get it directly on my iPad through the store.

  28. Now it’s telling me it’s not compatible: Retina iPad a couple years old. Shouldn’t that be iOS-based, not HW based? Weird.

  31. Yep, thanks! Could install that without switching countries. Works very well so far, but does not seem to have any customization options. Fine with me, but some people might want a bit more control.

  32. I don’t think this is possible, because the content blockers don’t provide code that runs inside Safari. Instead, they just provide a description—as a JSON file—of what should be blocked. These typically are URL patterns; e.g., block “ads.example.com/*”.

    The ad blocker has no way of knowing that four ads have been blocked, so it can now let the rest through.

    This simple, though limited, system has two prime benefits: It is efficient in terms of processing and battery usage, and it prevents the blocker from “spying” on your web browsing.

    There is code behind the content blocker app, but all it does is present a UI for you to configure what you want blocked, then generate a JSON file from that configuration. The app isn’t called while you’re using Safari.

  34. It’s coming up as not available in the US when I try to load it. Hopefully it will turn up soon

  35. Not very fond of needing to download an app for this. Like keyboards I just don’t see why they can’t do it without requiring an app download. Or at least download the app, install it and be able to remove the app without losing the tweak. A folder ful of this kind of stuff is killing my OCD

  36. Marco Arment has just released Peace (£2.29) and I’m kinda blown away by it. Only tried that and Crystal, though. I’m still waiting to see what 1Blocker is like. That was going to be the only one I paid for, but Peace had some pedigree behind it so I made an exception.

  37. Peace uses Ghostery if that helps? I have no useful experience with ad-blocking so can’t say anything useful beyond that.

  38. Purify seems to be making Safari the fastest overall in the only tests I’ve seen. I acquired it just before Peace was released however, so I’m curious to see how it stacks up.

  44. The content blockers don’t get to see what they’re blocking. They just provide Safari with a list of things that should be blocked (given as regular expressions wrapped on JSON) and an app to configure that list. Content blockers don’t get to run any code when blocking things.

  45. Yeah, I just purchased Peace as well. I can’t believe how fast pages load with it enabled! Its powered by the Ghostery plugin for the desktop browsers which I’ve used for quite some time.

  46. it seems content blocking is only from iPhone 5s and above.

    🙁
    couldn’t find any mention of this fact anywhere.

  47. crystal works perfectly. you dont need to customize anything. it just works. i also have purchased blockr. blockr has a lot of functions, kinda whitelist functionality and so on, BUT pageloading is faster with crystal (testet with theverge.com)

  48. It isn’t technically possible with the SDK as it is right now, but even on a practical level — each one of those ads relies on other scripts, which come from various sources (which is key to how they track you). You couldn’t select four random ads to load — you’d need to load everything on the page and then remove all but four, which defeats the main benefit of running blockers (i.e., not needing to download as much data or run as much code).

  50. What ad blocker supports an iPad 3 with iOS9? None of those listed (on the dutch iTunes store) do: Crystal, Blockr, 1Blocker, Adamant (unavailable), Freedom (unavailable), Purify and Silentium (unavailable).

    This seems pretty weird considering that:
    1) The iPad2, iPad3 and iPad4 generations are supported by iOS9 (and consequently also suitable for content blockers);
    2) content blocking is not a US-specific feature.

  51. Do you support older iOS devices? Are you registering the app on (all) international app stores?

  53. Blockr has a granular whitelist (ads, media, cookies, social media buttons etc.) accesible from the “actions” menu

  55. Marco Arment is very reputable – (Peace). Also – there isn’t much/any shady stuff you could do with a content blocker, even if you somehow get through the App Store submission process with a shady app (highly unlikely).

  63. I reviewed the API documentation, and you are absolutely correct. The content blocker itself cannot gather information about your browsing habits.

    However, you are still installing their app on your phone/tablet, and the app is not any more restricted than any other sandboxes app. Hence, the objection remains for a security-conscious user, as does my preference for a more reputable vendor (which is addressed by Marco’s entry, “Peace.”)

  64. Agreed, I have purchased Marco’s Peace, as I consider him to be trustworthy. I hope he decides to support a blacklist model at some point (rather than the current whitelist model) so I can ban bad actors but allow by default. Even without that feature, I’m pleased with Peace so far, and consider the most well designed and implemented blocker currently available. I also prefer that it is a reasonably priced paid app– I prefer a simple and understandable business model, as it is harder to trust an app that I don’t understand how they make money.

  65. It can do literally anything any other app can do. The content blocking framework is spectacularly well designed, but it still requires installing an app, and that app is not restricted in any way.

    Obviously, if a Content blocker app like crystal, purity, peace, etc. started asking for access to address book or camera etc. people would be suspicious, and App Store reviews have thus far proven fairly effective. So I’m not raising alarms, I’m just suggesting that the same level of user scrutiny is required for CBers as any other app.

  66. Correct, and you stated this more accurately than anyone else: nothing new. It’s just a regular app with no special abilities. Still, though, I am reluctant to install apps on my phone from vendors I don’t know Until they have been in the store for a while.

  67. Thanks for the reccommendations folks. Playing with Peace now. I’ll likely try several so alternates are appreciated.

    @stevenfisher – they are for me, might not be for others. I don’t have an issue with whitelisting ads on a site that is well behaved (DF, Loop etc). Ads don’t offend me, it’s the egregious use of them and especially all the trackers etc that I dislike. Especially for small sites whose writing I really like I’m likely to whitelist the site. I’d like, too, a whitelist this ad network feature, but that’s going to be an edge case since the vast majority of people won’t know that some networks are fine others are crap.

  69. One thing about Ghostery is that you can allow/disallow things at a pretty granular level and kind of need to. Otherwise things can get wonky. For example, I allow all commenting systems. Others might view the lack of comments as a plus 🙂

  73. Nearly 3 euro for a filter? I am sorry, but, I rather buy a full fledged game – there’s so much great software out there that’s just a euro that’s certainly worth 10 euro, I don’t know why I’d pick his over Crystal or some of the others?

  74. Just a shame that none of these are of course able to help with those reverse-proxy ad-served content, :s

  75. Are any compatible pre iPhone 5s? I’ve got my 6s on preorder, but I want to see what they’re like on my 5

  78. Marco just revealed that he is no longer supporting Peace, he feels bad about creating the app. Should have thought about that before people purchased it. Now WE have to do the dirty work to get refunds, not him. He just made sure I will NEVER purchase an app from him again.

  81. I would trade off the speed to have it on my iPad 3s. The delay can’t be that much slower than the crap gunking up the browser. I’d rather have my experience slow because tracking stuff was being blocked instead of being loaded.

  82. Actually he IS a human being. He took an ethical stand and explained himself and is willing to take the hit, both financially and in criticism for it. Visit his blog for his side.

    Respect.

  84. Hi, SamuraiArtGuy – Let me introduce myself. My name is Kevin Roa, I live in San Antonio Texas. My email address is spudboy_boy@hotmail.com I’m married (18 years) and have two daughters (17&10). Let’s have a beer sometime and talk about how I’m a troll.

  86. Is it even possible for him to request the refund for us? I’d have real concerns about my privacy if he could. He provided links on his blog that explained the process and it took me 2 minutes on my phone to do so. I’m not happy about it, but I think it’s fair enough and he at least announced his withdrawal, rather than just quietly stopped supporting it.

  87. He didn’t take a huge financial hit. Most apps make most of their money in the first couple days of popularity. He cashed in big-time and now pretends to be all moral?

  88. How in the world is selling an ad-blocker violating anybody’s conscience? What, he has a friend who sells ads on their website? There are ways to sell ads without using the prepackaged ad-network trash. Should Microsoft and Apple and Google all feel super ashamed for putting pop-up blockers in their browsers?

  89. Same here. I was considering Overcast as an alternative to Apple’s Podcasts app, but seem to have second thoughts now. Between him selling off Instapaper and The Magazine, retracting his “functional high ground” words and now withdrawing Peace after 2 days, he doesn’t really come across as a reliable supplier to me. I tried to sympathise with his stance, but I’m afraid this will hurt his business in the long run more than he can foresee at this time.

  90. Hey Kevin. My thought was that the notion of a software developer having a conscience being a bad thing was kinda trollish. I think we were both being kinda flip on the topic. Kurt Griffith here, a web and graphic designer in WV. I lean towards Sam Adams.

    Tho’ I wouldn’t mind Adobe growing a friggin’ conscience. They’re a routine source of my professional pain.

  93. There are several of them in the app store. Never heard Mercury having a “shady” new owners. Used it for years.

    Another great one is iCab.

  94. Crystal seems to block more ads than 1Blocker. Those are the only two I’ve tried. But Crystal does break at least one site. ESPN’s Survivor league (and possible ESPN in general – not sure). I can’t login when Crystal is enabled. I had to disable it, log in, then enable it. It seems to block the pop-up for logging in.

  95. I was using Weblock without any issues on my iPad with iOS 8. Just upgraded to iOS 9 and am having issues with Disqus now. It will only load after disabling/enabling wifi. Anyone else having this issue? Disqus loads ok when not using the Weblock proxy. Also adding “https://disqus.com/*” to the whitelist, did not help.

  97. There needs to be a way to block re-directs so apps can’t use ads to open up Safari or a malicious site. Not sure why this feature isn’t added in any ad blocker for Safari yet. Closest thing I’ve seen to this is blocking all scripts which means if enabled you can’t even sign into apps using Facebook. I dont mind seeing non intrusive ads, I do mind ads with the ability to open sites or the AppStore though. And it’s better to block all ads than keep ads that can open the AppStore or take you to a dangerous site.

  98. Apple is refunding everyone’s money who bought Peace. So he isn’t making money off it. Best alternative to Peace is Purify but it’s $1 more. The fact it block scripts makes it useful for those who use another browser and just want to secure Safari. it’s next best thing to blocking re-directs.

  99. Absolutely. I have no doubt that he’s a good person with high moral standards, which is one of the reasons I’m a loyal ATP listener. But I would have preferred for him to own up to this actions, stand behind his product and improve it the way he sees fit, instead of just withdrawing the whole thing because some of his friends saw their The Deck ads blocked. Ghostery shouldn’t be very amused with this situation, I can imagine, and I hope they come out with their own solution.

  101. So far Blockr has best features to price ratio I’ve seen. Same price as Crystal, but has options you can set.

  102. Doesn’t sound like he’s too happy about it. Blasting Apple for a variety of different things on twitter today…

  103. I was using Crystal , but felt cheated when the developer started accepting payment to let some ads through. I use AdBlockX now.

  105. There are ad blockers on the app store that don’t require modern devices. Weblock and Adblock, both by Futuremind, for example, can block ads in Safari and in apps.

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