Random ads and pop-ups are annoying while surfing the internet. If you want to remove unwanted ads online, Adblock and uBlock are the two popular adblockers worldwide. You can install any one of them depending on the device you’re using for the internet and other requirements.
Advertisements are a major revenue source for the largest tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Yahoo. Though there’re high-quality websites that don’t show many ads and therefore, you may not need adblockers. But some websites contain poor-quality content forcing you to see annoying ads. So, using an ad blocker on Chrome or Firefox is the ideal solution.
However, it can be confusing to select the right AdBlocker for the browser. To help you do the selection, we’ll compare different aspects of Adblock vs uBlock so you can get the best one to block ads.
Ad Detection
Let’s start with the ad detection capability of two ad blockers. Adblock and uBlock both block ads from different websites and help in controlling your browsing experience. But apart from blocking ads, uBlock also eradicates the empty spaces left behind. Whereas AdBlock leaves white spaces.
Furthermore, website owners often disable content if ad blocks are turned on. They basically make money from ads. Therefore, they run ad blocker detection scripts on page load. In that case, both AdBlock and uBlock get detected easily.
User Interface
The user interface (UI) of uBlock is pretty simple. You can get options like a start/stop button, inspecting page elements, request logs, information about blocked webpages, etc. However, you can’t block ads from Microsoft, Google, or other big companies since they pay to keep their ads unblocked. That means it allows acceptable ads.
On the other hand, AdBlock’s UI is straightforward and provides more options than uBlock. For example, pausing and unpausing an ad is easier in Adblock due to its auto-refresh feature. Whereas, uBlock lacks this feature.
Adblock also allows acceptable ads from Google or Facebook. Moreover, it has a dynamic filtering technique to automatically block ads from known ad providers and servers. So, you can control the ads shown on a site.
Privacy
When comparing Adblock vs uBlock, both of them haven’t leaked users’ personal data to any third party. Though Adblock allows ads on certain websites even if it goes against their privacy policy.
In contrast, uBlock doesn’t allow any ads to show up on the websites. It doesn’t lower their security measurements for money.
Memory Usage
In the Adblock vs uBlock topic, uBlock is better than AdBlock because of its less memory usage. If you open Task Manager, you can check that the memory consumption of uBlock is lesser than Adblock. It helps uBlock to load faster and respond quicker.
Settings
As an advanced user, you may want to change the default settings of the ad blockers. uBlock gives you the privilege to customize its settings. It offers different options suitable for you. Unfortunately, AdBlock doesn’t have too much to offer in this case.
Size
Size is an important aspect while doing the comparison. The lower the size, the faster result and productivity you get. To be specific, Adblock is 2.68 MiB, whereas uBlock comes in 2.89 MiB.
Accessibility
Any extension or software that’s accessible on different platforms is in high demand and has more value. While Adblock is available on all browsers, uBlock seems to be missing in a few.
| Browser | Adblock | uBlock |
| Google Chrome | yes | yes |
| Firefox | yes | yes |
| Microsoft Edge | yes | no |
| Safari | yes | yes |
| Opera Mini | yes | no |
| iOS | yes | no |
| Android | yes | no |
Active Users
The number of users plays an important role in the Adblock vs uBlock comparison. Adblock has more than 60 million active users worldwide. It’s one of the most popular Google Chrome extensions with 350 million downloads.
On the contrary, the uBlock Chrome extension has over 10 million users and the Firefox version has approximately 5 million active users. So, Adblock is one step ahead of its competitor.
Conclusion
After discussing the difference between uBlock and Adblock, you can see AdBlock outsmarts uBlock. In some of the categories, Adblock is better than uBlock. Though they both help to get rid of annoying ads, uBlock may lack some important features. Furthermore, you can have optimizable control of AdBlock’s settings. So Adblock seems to be a better choice.
Hopefully, we have been able to clear your confusion. If you have any more thoughts regarding this topic, feel free to share them with us in the comment box.