uBlock Origin Lite
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 16 ad blockers by recommenders
An official, lightweight Manifest V3 ad blocker that most people find blocks ads about as well as full uBlock Origin, though it lacks the element zapper and advanced filtering.
An official, lightweight Manifest V3 ad blocker that most people find blocks ads about as well as full uBlock Origin, though it lacks the element zapper and advanced filtering.
213 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 148
- criticize it
- 65
- approval share
- 69%
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)
Owned for 1 year
Median of the 5 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 148 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.3 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 reliably
“People who complain about MV3 probably spent more time complaining about it than actually trying uBOL and seeing that it works just fine.”
Comment from 16 Aug 2026 in “Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin” “I've used uBlock Origin Lite and have had no issues with blocking ads. The only downside I've seen is that I can't do "Block Elements"”
Comment from 8 Aug 2026 in “Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did” “I just tested Chromium with uBlock Origin Lite (default settings, aka "Optimal") and had no issue blocking YouTube ads.”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “Google Chrome's Next Update Will Mark the End of Popular Ad Blockers” - Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “Google Chrome's Next Update Will Mark the End of Popular Ad Blockers”
- Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “PipePipe: NewPipe hard fork implementing SponsorBlock”
- Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “'Doomsday fish': Once-in-a-lifetime sea creature encountered in Monterey Bay”
- Comment from 9 Aug 2026 in “Windows 11's built-in Weather app wastes more than 1 GB of RAM”
- Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Windows 11's built-in Weather app wastes more than 1 GB of RAM”
- Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “Google Chrome's Next Update Will Mark the End of Popular Ad Blockers”
Barely different from full uBO
“I honestly haven't really noticed a difference in ads after switching to the Lite version. It seems to work well enough.”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin” “uBlock Origin Lite works nearly as good as uBO and is generally indistinguishable from its MV2 counterpart”
Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Android 17 is the first since 3.x to add new APIs without releasing to the AOSP” “I'm fairly happy with uBlock Origin Lite. Sure the original was better but this one does the job as well.”
Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Google Has Removed MV2 Extensions from the Chrome Web Store, Including UBO” - Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Hang on to Your Firefox”
- Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Google Chrome is killing all uBlock Origin bypasses, Edge, Opera to follow”
- Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “Google Chrome update will close the door on ad blockers”
Efficient, better performance
“UBOL uses vastly more efficient compiled code that is part of the browser and is just a far better ad blocking experience altogether.”
Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Firefox Has Integrated Brave's Adblock Engine” “the MV3 approach is less resource intensive and didn't require sacrificing any of the features”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “Google Chrome update will close the door on ad blockers” “The lite version has better performance since it's effectively just a bunch of MV3 blocklists.”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “uBlock Origin Lite is back on Firefox add-ons” Supports custom filters and rules
“you can always increase the filtering level if you’re willing to grant the extension read access to pages to basically match uBO”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Apple's new 'Switch to Safari' campaign details why you should ditch Chrome” “which works in chrome; just paste the content directly into the custom filter settings”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “uBlock filter list to hide all YouTube Shorts” “I also prefer the custom element removal or uBlock and can reuse my desktop filters.”
Comment from 22 Jul 2026 in “Safari Technology Preview 248 Released” - Comment from 8 Aug 2026 in “Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Weaker than full uBO under MV3
“it's got all the limitations of Manifest V3 which prevents it from doing a good bit of blocking”
Comment from 16 Aug 2026 in “Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker” “It's a best effort attempt at converting UBO rules to Apple's declarative blocking framework, but is nowhere near as capable as actual UBO.”
Comment from 16 Aug 2026 in “Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker” “it cannot do dynamic filtering, script blocking, or url parameter removal, among other limitations”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “8M users' AI conversations sold for profit by "privacy" extensions” - Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “The Mozilla Cycle, Part III: Mozilla Dies in Ignominy”
- Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Google Chrome's Next Update Will Mark the End of Popular Ad Blockers”
- Comment from 1 Jan 2026 in “iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan”
Missing element zapper
“I've used uBlock Origin Lite and have had no issues with blocking ads. The only downside I've seen is that I can't do "Block Elements"”
Comment from 8 Aug 2026 in “Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did” “it's missing the element zapper and has some other limitations, but it works pretty well for the most part”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Apple's new 'Switch to Safari' campaign details why you should ditch Chrome” Some ads and tracking slip through
“I’ve found uBlock Origin Lite (and every other non-uBlock Origin blocker) to struggle with websites using Ad-Shield.”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin” “It will be "largely fine" until the ad networks start using the methods not blocked by the Lite version.”
Comment from 14 Aug 2026 in “Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin” “I've tested and see that ads pass through, and tracking passes through with uBo light on Chrome.”
Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Firefox Has Integrated Brave's Adblock Engine” - Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin”
- Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “uBlock Origin Lite is back on Firefox add-ons”
Limited on iOS Safari
“it only works in Safari but doesn't provide ad blocking in the web views like the other two do”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin” “it's only using the iOS content blocker and it doesn't work effectively in many use cases”
Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “'Doomsday fish': Once-in-a-lifetime sea creature encountered in Monterey Bay” “uBlock Origin Lite on Safari on iOS is a poor man's imitation of the real uBlock Origin”
Comment from 1 Jan 2026 in “iOS allows alternative browser engines in Japan”
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 |
| AdGuard | 78 | 8 | 91% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Wipr 2 | 41 | 7 | 85% | 11 | — | Approved |
| uBlock | 32 | 4 | 89% | 12 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 287 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it's missing the element zapper and has some other limitations, but it works pretty well for the most part”
“you can always increase the filtering level if you’re willing to grant the extension read access to pages to basically match uBO”
“it's worse at blocking ads(which cause more performance issues than the ad-blocker itself)”
“The lite version has better performance since it's effectively just a bunch of MV3 blocklists.”
“I use the official Chrome (not Chromium) with uBlock Lite and everything works perfectly”
“uBlock Origin Lite works nearly as good as uBO and is generally indistinguishable from its MV2 counterpart”
“uBlock lite is enough for me. I switched from normal to lite and did not notice a difference.”
“I'm fairly happy with uBlock Origin Lite. Sure the original was better but this one does the job as well.”
“I have been happy with my workaround for this issue which is using uBOL along side the AdGuard content blocker extensions”
“it's got all the limitations of Manifest V3 which prevents it from doing a good bit of blocking”
“It's a best effort attempt at converting UBO rules to Apple's declarative blocking framework, but is nowhere near as capable as actual UBO.”
“People who complain about MV3 probably spent more time complaining about it than actually trying uBOL and seeing that it works just fine.”
“I honestly haven't really noticed a difference in ads after switching to the Lite version. It seems to work well enough.”
“With the lite version you might not be seeing most ads but you are certainly being tracked more”
“it only works in Safari but doesn't provide ad blocking in the web views like the other two do”
“I’ve found uBlock Origin Lite (and every other non-uBlock Origin blocker) to struggle with websites using Ad-Shield.”
“It will be "largely fine" until the ad networks start using the methods not blocked by the Lite version.”
“Ok I guess I just hallucinated all the blocked ads I don’t see when using UBO lite.”
“seems to work just fine in my experience, at the core function of being an ad blocker”
“I've used uBlock Origin Lite and have had no issues with blocking ads. The only downside I've seen is that I can't do "Block Elements"”
“that works great, keeping itself updated from EasyList and allowing for custom rules”
“I also prefer the custom element removal or uBlock and can reuse my desktop filters.”
“An adblocker not only blocks ads and trackers but also cookie notices, so that could improve your experience on the web.”
“They operate at a reduced level of functionality that does not match previous capabilities.”
“ublock origin lite is blocking a bunch of stuff for me, and things are unbearable when I turn it off”
“I just tested Chromium with uBlock Origin Lite (default settings, aka "Optimal") and had no issue blocking YouTube ads.”
“i've noticed essentially no difference in the performance. all the ads are blocked”
“uBlock Origin Lite is at worst a minor loss in quality most people wouldn't notice.”
“the MV3 approach is less resource intensive and didn't require sacrificing any of the features”
“works perfectly fine on Chrome. I don't notice a difference to the classic uBlock Origin”
“I've tested and see that ads pass through, and tracking passes through with uBo light on Chrome.”
“UBOL uses vastly more efficient compiled code that is part of the browser and is just a far better ad blocking experience altogether.”
“should work with any moderately recent version of iOS/iPadOS. Installed this on my family's Apple devices and it works pretty well.”
“which works in chrome; just paste the content directly into the custom filter settings”
“I replaced adguard with uBlock lite months ago and haven’t noticed any problems since.”
“it's only using the iOS content blocker and it doesn't work effectively in many use cases”
“uBlock Origin Lite on Safari on iOS is a poor man's imitation of the real uBlock Origin”
“Lite's really not that bad. I agree you'd rather ff and the full ublock but it's still a vastly better experience”
“it cannot do dynamic filtering, script blocking, or url parameter removal, among other limitations”
“the replacement for UBO is noticeably worse in many ways, which is entirely the fault of MV3”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.