BlockBear! Reviews

by JohnnyStacks

Back when when they first allowed ad blockers on BlockBear Store, I used Purify. That was the best! Never saw an ad. Now, Purify was taken off BlockBear Store so I had to look for a replacement. this app seemed great as I was already familiar with TunnelBear. Super easy to set up, works instantly! My only complaint is that ads still seem to pop up. Definitely a major reduction, but I wished ALL the ads were gone, like my previous ad blocker.

by Vsatips

Everyone should use an ad blocker and Block Bear is the best one I've found. I've tried a lot of them. Block Bear offers the best and easiest to use ad blocker available for ios users. While it doesn’t always block everything and sometimes it blocks things it shouldn’t it still works better than most. Plus it’s free!

If it blocks something it shouldn’t you can just add that site to your whitelist to unblock it. There are 2 ways to white listsomething theoretically...but only one way works. To whitelist a webpage just open BlockBear and copy/paste the link of the site you want to block to Block Bears whitelist. The other alternative to add a site to your whitelist is to use the share extension in Safari...but this method has never worked for me which is unfortunate because it’s the faster alternative.

The reason it seems that the Safari share extension doesn’t work is because instead of accurately copying the website address Block Bear copies a different link instead of the actual website link. This erroneous link always includes 'ycombinator' in the text. I'm not sure what ycombinator even is but it never works. This bug has existed as long as Block Bear has. So as long as you know that and stick to using BlockBear to whitelist sites you want to block you'll be fine!

by Hallmark_s

Much improved over my try at it a year or so ago.. seems to block most things but a few still slip thru. If it could somehow allow you to flag or report adds that get by it would be a final improvement. Maybe you can already do this but if so it isn't obvious how that is done. I ended up with a much faster internet connection and a data limit so not having all of those useless adds chipping away at my data bank makes more sense now than ever. Overall data usage is significantly and noticeably less.

by ConceptR

I love the Bear apps and their simplicity. One suggestion for improvement: when this app can't load new lists, a red banner drops down from the top to notify the user to tap on the banner to refresh/update the lists.

This banner drops down and disappears too quick to be read and I had to just wait for it to drop down again to quickly read the error message. A fix to have this drop down error message stay a bit longer would be great.

Another thing is when opening a new tab or site with Safari, Imthe page will load up blank and I'll have to refresh the page again. This happens quite a lot and becomes a bit irritating when opening up multiple tabs.

Other than that, great app and use it in conjunction with TunnelBear!

by SdcbsjGdjvb32

Great at stopping the two scourges of auto-play videos, and of sudden screen-covering panels that ask you to subscribe whilst you’re in middle of reading their article.

But I wish it also more successfully halted iFrames or other floating panels on the sides. Nothing worse to my eyes than to be reading and scrolling, but have a vertical tower of ‘next’ or ‘social’ icons hold fast to the side of the screen.

Otherwise a solid product, and a nice name. Go this app!

by Justin Zwick

BlockBear is super easy to set up and works as intended, so far without any need for intervention. The one suggestion I thought of is to have an option to turn it off for a small increment of time from within the safari toolbar. For instance, if I’m clicking on different google ads intentionally, I could deactivate it once instead of every time I click.

by Agentdax5

this app has been my godsend. App discovery on iOS is a disaster so once I found this app I was so relieved to stop searching. It is no frills, does what I want, and comes with more cute bears to invade my phone.

I am not a TunnelBear customer (another product by this developer) but that may be my next purchase given the good experience I have had with this.

Thanks my dudes

by JaredHylton

I’m impressed. I’ve been using this for several days now, and I’ve had a few ads make it through, but about 98% less than before. Keep it up, devs! A+ from me!

by Kylie_number_1

I read a lot of comics online and one thing that ticks me of is when there is a add when I am trying to read so this is good for keeping those ads away when you are browsing or reading.

by Devburke

BlockBear hits a balance that not enough do. It gives you just enough options, while staying very simple. I similarly liked Firefox Focus too, but noticed that it would sometimes leave empty boxes where ads were blocked, and didn't allow any whitelisting, at least not from Safari. this app covers both of these things! I just wish they had it for Mac Safari too, I'll try out Nope for that.

by Eddie Jesus

I’ve tried many apps which claim to block this and that, but the Bear app did way better than most!! Although there are some pages that are challenging to block advertisements BlockBear is much better than others

by Derpy Runner

Sometimes I end up having to turn off the beat in order to load something mundane like package tracking. But it's worth it to know I'm not the one being tracked. The sarcasm and jokes that are provided in the notice bar as you adjust your privacy settings offer a welcome bit of humor. Very clever creation

by Lightning Le 'Bran

Cutest, easiest ad blocker I've used. It didn't slow things down, was more or less just running in the background and required no attention. It did not interfere with my browsing speed. And of course the little bear transformation as adorable.

by Thecodingturtle

This is exactly what I need. I can’t stand getting ads on mobile browsers, and this does a great job of blocking the ads from coming through. I’ve had to whitelist a few sites in order to be able to log in to my account, but there haven’t been any issues so far that I couldn’t easily fix. Highly recommend.

by Bangheart

But my phone still keeps crashing on and off while using apps and apps will start showing a message on phone’s screen asking me, ( Are you having internet connection troubles? ) and at the same time my applications will get very slow 🤷‍♀️

by Bitties Be Crawlin'

Excellent at blocking ads on safari, though it blocked a link I opened from email from shazam, which was odd because it was a confirmation-type link for account creation.
I hope in the future this could extend to other apps without using a vpn, because I’d rather not lose any speed just to stop capitalism from trying to brainwashing me

by BritG87

BlockBear really does prevent annoying pop-up ads!
I frequent cooking blogs and they all have those random video pop-up ads, but no more.
BlockBear also blocks videos at the top of news stories from popping out and following you as you scroll down the webpage.

Highly recommend.

by Rad Ray

A very simple to use content blocker that pretty much runs "behind the scenes." It doesn't stop some ads embedded within applications (e.g., USA Today) and some sites will not work (for me) even when listed on the White Page list (e.g., FedEx tracking). Still, a very well developed app, but looking forward to some updates to address these and glitches mentioned by other reviewers.

by Maliceon

I have been getting messages like the following that prove to me that it IS WORKING perfectly. Quote "Pleasee add us to your whitelist. Once you turn off your adblock software or whitelist this site you should be able to see the kind of Google ad below that when people click on them it helps to fund the site and then hit the back button to read the post you were aiming for."

by Haus Blend

this app blocks malicious content from dangerous sites and protects you from companies that try to spy on you or steal your private information. Today I got saved from being victimized by the t-mobil Metro site that has so many redirects to suspicious sites (more than 20) that it breaks my browser. Scary!! Thanks, Block Bear!!