AdGuard
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 16 ad blockers by recommenders
Recommended as a strong ad blocker for Safari and iOS that works across devices. Common caveat: the iOS version could be better and misses some annoyances.
Recommended as a strong ad blocker for Safari and iOS that works across devices. Common caveat: the iOS version could be better and misses some annoyances.
86 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 78
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 91%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 78 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 9.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Blocks ads well on Safari
“There are really good ad blockers on mobile these days. I use AdGuard for Safari and it's as good as uBlock on desktop Firefox.”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “I Now Assume That All Ads on Apple News Are Scams” “AdGuard works great, it has a native Safari extension and I don’t see a single ad on there”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “2026 Apple introducing more ads to increase opportunity in search results” “I play block blast classic mode with adguard and don't see any ads.”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “How Block Blast harvests its players for ad money” - Comment from 2 Sep 2026 in “Hang on to Your Firefox”
- Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Developer Gets Half-Life Running at 30 FPS on a Nokia N95”
- Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Introducing Ad Blocker for Firefox on iOS”
- Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “Apple is crossing a Steve Jobs red line”
Works across devices and DNS
“I can't recommend AdGuard enough. It works across devices, and just does all the DNS level blocking everywhere.”
Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “System-level ad-blocking in Android” “I use AdGuard as ad blocker, blocks ads as a browser extension and ads on websites and apps as a mobile app.”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “France to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls” “AdGuard content blockers to catch some web ads and annoyances that cannot be caught via DNS.”
Comment from 16 Aug 2026 in “Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker” - Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Google Chrome is killing all uBlock Origin bypasses, Edge, Opera to follow”
Blocks YouTube ads most of the time
“AdGuard, which, AFAICT, Just Works™ and even blocks YouTube ads most of the time”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?” “AdGuard manages to successfully block YouTube ads.”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Someone at YouTube Needs Glasses: The Prophecy Has Been Fulfilled” “I don't have YouTube ads with Safari and AdGuard”
Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Introducing Ad Blocker for Firefox on iOS” Strong language and custom blocklists
“Especially Adguard its language blocklists have much, much less breakage and missed ads than Easylist.”
Comment from 21 Feb 2026 in “AI uBlock Blacklist” “my appreciation of the block lists i have configured in adguard just notched up a few more points!”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “On The Conflation of Money and Things”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Misses some ads and annoyances
“AdGuard which works for some annoyances, but by far not all”
Comment from 1 Jan 2026 in “Web Browsers have stopped blocking pop-ups” “They also do not work on Youtube ads.”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal” “AdGuard just blocks much less.”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Apple's new 'Switch to Safari' campaign details why you should ditch Chrome”
Other ad blockers people recommend
The four most recommended other ad blockers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| uBlock Origin | 765 | 71 | 92% | 13 | 2 yrs9 owners | Approved |
| uBlock Origin Lite | 148 | 65 | 69% | 12 | 1 yr5 owners | Approved |
| AdGuardThis page | 78 | 8 | 91% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Wipr 2 | 41 | 7 | 85% | 11 | — | Approved |
| uBlock | 32 | 4 | 89% | 12 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 103 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“there are good system-wide ad blocking tools you can get”
“I play block blast classic mode with adguard and don't see any ads.”
“AdGuard just blocks much less.”
“I can't recommend AdGuard enough. It works across devices, and just does all the DNS level blocking everywhere.”
“seeing ads is very rare for me with AdGuard on Safari”
“I don't have YouTube ads with Safari and AdGuard”
“Those are also both excellent for security since the main threat is malicious scripts served up by ad networks.”
“AdGuard content blockers to catch some web ads and annoyances that cannot be caught via DNS.”
“I have been happy with my workaround for this issue which is using uBOL along side the AdGuard content blocker extensions”
“AdGuard and Wipr use both the Web Extension and Content Blocker APIs”
“AdGuard works under MV3 AND unlike uBlock supports element picker”
“I use AdGuard as ad blocker, blocks ads as a browser extension and ads on websites and apps as a mobile app.”
“The only other lifetime license I have bought is Adguard, also excellent.”
“I swear there are little gaps in each that the others get, but they're very minor.”
“They also do not work on Youtube ads.”
“if they're good enough for Safari, then you'll find they're exactly as good in Chrome”
“Using AdGuard Pro on iOS I’m not seeing any ads.”
“Everything is filtered at network level using a local proxy.”
“the free AdGuard extension (from the app store) does quite well.”
“I've been using this setup for a few years and it works close to 100% of the time.”
“my appreciation of the block lists i have configured in adguard just notched up a few more points!”
“AdGuard does have an option to supplant uBlock in this stack btw”
“I've run into odd/annoying routing/dns issues due to those things”
“it's free and can be up and running in a couple minutes”
“I had ublock origin (lite for chromium), adguard and NoScript”
“Especially Adguard its language blocklists have much, much less breakage and missed ads than Easylist.”
“There are really good ad blockers on mobile these days. I use AdGuard for Safari and it's as good as uBlock on desktop Firefox.”
“I have bought 20+ Adguard licenses and have never regretted buying them. Only if the iOS version could be much better.”
“AdGuard works better simply because there's a bunch of people being paid to work on it.”
“bans unskippable Ads without the pesky legal enforcement baggage”
“On iOS, Adguard does a decent job. It's the only way I would ever use the internet.”
“AdGuard which works for some annoyances, but by far not all”
“They actually try to push the limits of mv3 with workarounds.”
“AdGuard works great, it has a native Safari extension and I don’t see a single ad on there”
“AdGuard, which, AFAICT, Just Works™ and even blocks YouTube ads most of the time”
“AdGuard manages to successfully block YouTube ads.”
“use AdGuard only for its DNS blocking capability and not for DNS resolving”
“Adguard deserves the highest praise for publicizing this attack on them.”
“an ad blocker (like uBlock Origin or AdGuard on iOS)”
“in practice Safari with AdGuard is "good enough"”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.