# uBlock Origin 765 Hacker News commenters recommended uBlock Origin and 71 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 13 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 2 years (9 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** A trusted, free content blocker that strips ads, trackers, cookie banners and annoying page elements, best on Firefox now that Chrome dropped full support; occasionally breaks sites. ## Why people recommend it - Blocks ads and trackers (6 comments): "You can accomplish "no ads" and arguably substantially less tracking without Premium, though, with (e.g.) firefox and ublock origin." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48357370)) "Watching youtube with Firefox + ublock origins still gives you an experience free of the peppering of insufferable ad breaks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50323236)) "combine a trustworthy VPN, a fingerprint-resistant browser, and uBlock Origin, you get a damn good internet privacy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48364713)) - Removes unwanted page elements (6 comments): "You can use ublock origin browser extension per-site CSS rules to restore an arbitrary number of rows and columns to the youtube frontpage." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46052277)) "the useful thing about ublock isn't just that it stops ads from loading, but that it lets you remove unwanted divs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48495475)) "I like that uBO can manipulate the dom, so that I can remove annoying divs or animations that I don't want." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47244992)) - Important security protection (5 comments): "There really is no excuse in my mind for not running an ad blocker. It's as vital to personal computing security as firewalls and anti malware." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47005757)) "At $JOB IT actually bundles uBlock in all the browsers available to us, as per CIA guidelines it's a very important security tool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46983033)) "Those are also both excellent for security since the main threat is malicious scripts served up by ad networks." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49515759)) - Hides cookie notices and annoyances (3 comments): "Fortunately, if you have uBlock Origin, you can enable Easylist cookie notices under annoyances and avoid most of them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49059080)) "Luckily tools such as uBlock Origin let you block all those nasty scripts, including the cookie banner themselves." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48905343)) "whatever ublock origin on firefox does to remove overlays and ads seems to be also removing the paywall on that" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50039587)) ## What people warn about - Occasionally breaks websites (6 comments): "it's uBlock Origin causing the problem. Disabling the plug-in for the site means Firefox no longer displays an error." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46513300)) "This occasionally causes breakage though; because many cookie notices open up modal dialogs and disable scrolling." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45979990)) "UBlock and other options remove the banner or consent screens fine, but this breaks functionality sometimes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46672322)) - Crippled on Chrome and Safari (3 comments): "this change removed capabilities that content blockers like uBlock Origin relied on for effective ad and tracker blocking" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48556961)) "The UBO on Safari has the same issue as chrome except that it has been that way for several years longer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49515323)) "Google garnered a lot of opposition to its evil rule by destroying ublock origin (on chrome)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49321304)) - Some ads slip through (2 comments): "Twitch did that a while back and uBlock Origin was ineffective against their video ads within a few months." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49282679)) "uBlock Origin doesn't block the modern equivalent of pop-up ads unless you manually block elements" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46457267)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [uBlock Origin Lite](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ublock-origin-lite.md): 148 recommend - [AdGuard](https://hackerapproved.com/p/adguard.md): 78 recommend - [Wipr 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wipr.md): 41 recommend - [uBlock](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ublock.md): 32 recommend - [AdBlock](https://hackerapproved.com/p/adblock.md): 18 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "uBlock Origin", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ublock-origin/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).