Purify: Block Ads and Tracking Reviews

by Teshy09

I been getting pop up advertising when I opening certain articles, that you could barely make it through a paragraph. I thought it was the pages themselves.

I went to download an ad blocker, and forgot that I purchased this app awhile back until I noticed it was active in my safari settings.

I turned off this app turned the other one on, opened up the page no pop up. Then I decided to turn both off, and still no pop up. I turned this app back on, and boom pop up. I tried this multiple times to make sure it wasn’t a fluke!

by Jadedjawa

Previously a four star review. this app worked well blocking ads (sometimes too well, but nothing that couldn’t be tweaked) but now I’ve found it has started to block certain articles on all major news sites. I’m not really sure what the trigger is. So far it’s definitely every article relating to the US Presidents social media executive order, plus some other minor topics that could be flukes since not every site is reporting on them. I’m just going to turn off Purify for now until I can be sure I’ll have access to the pages I’m trying to read.

by Skdkflakam

After finding Purify ’s official website and reading through the functionality and list of features, not once does it mention that this Purify only supports Safari. Hell, it doesn’t even vaguely allude to it. After reading all the nice features and what I gave Purify description a quick glance and then pulled the trigger.

It’s only if you read all the down at the bottom of Purify Store description does it finally mention this highly critical fact that this app “is a content blocker for Safari”

Chris, If you aren’t going to list some kind of “system requirements”-esque list somewhere in your description where you mention you have to use Safari, you really need to re-word things at the very beginning of your descriptions both on the site and on Purify Store to make this more clear.

by I Met Zach

It’s never really blocked ads as much as it blocks scripts. This means that on most sites if there is a menu to open or a search, it doesn’t work until I whitelist it. Usually I’ll white list a site and afterwords I’ll remove it from the whitelist.

Now with iOS 15 it doesn’t show the newly white listed sites in Purify anymore. On top of that when I go into private mode it treats every site as white listed. At least it seems that way so far. When I white list a site, the only way to remove it from the list is to go to that site and select the “this app Preferences” again.

When Apple announced that Safari extensions were being added in iOS 15 I was excited that this app would be updated as an extension, if not already. But now I see it hasn’t been updated in a few years.

by Nunyrbusiness

I was so sick of all the pop ups on my iphone (6plus up to date) every time I go anywhere to read the news or try to read anything on Safari. I am having to shut down pop ups constantly so trying to get one paragraph read is impossible. It has come to the point that any site that immediately interrupts me with stupid pop ups or any videos that are interrupted to present ads are shut down immediately. Can’t believe people think this is acceptable. Getting to the point where I hate trying to use the Internet on a mobile phone. It’s ridiculous. So I was hoping after reading the reviews that this application would curb that and I don’t see where it has. And yes I have hit all the settings as indicated in their instructions. Just not working.

by Tbxmar

I really wish the developers of Purify would use the same lists as uBlock Origin, including the custom ones. The difference is obvious when I’m browsing on my iPhone vs on my laptop. For example, on my iPhone I see Reddit’s promoted ad content/posts, but on my laptop uBlock Origin blocks all of that. Frustrating considering this is a paid app, definitely could be much more effective if they desired it to be (just reference uBlock Origin lists already).

by LarryKxx58

I've been using Atomic Browser with Adblock for years. Since Atomic is no longer being updated I will eventually need to switch to another browser. This plug-in makes Safari a viable option. So far it works great. I had to whitelist a few sites but latest updates have allowed me to remove some of them. Keep up the good work!

UPDATE Nov. 3, 2020: Purify hasn’t been updated in quite awhile. Doesn’t seem to work as well as it used to. Changing my rating from 5 stars to 3 stars.

by Daemonaquila

No app is ever perfect at its job, particularly when it’s an arms race like you have between ad blockers and advertisers. It’s money well spent. However, I can’t give it 5 stars because I can’t get settings to change, and can’t edit the whitelist for a particular site, after initial setup. It just doesn’t work.

by Wisdom.Teeth

Works fairly well but be aware some social media sites work hard to make your life a little worse if you use a blocker. For instance, if you disable social media buttons Twitter URLs will always fail (“something went wrong”). This is not specific to this product; just a reminder these blockers can make some of your online life harder as the other side fights dirty.

by Djgynee

I'll get straight to the point. I had 2 iPhones mine and my son’s. Both iPhone 5s , both on same wifi, both exact set up. I went to a site I frequent that has those pops that come just as you touch the screen and redirects you. I have this app he did not (yet). I pressed go and the same time. Mine loaded about 1.5 sec faster (which is a lot) and NO POP UPS. the other iPhone same bs. About 95% of video ads everywhere are gone.

by RAKFLA

Almost all pages display well - minus ads! You will still see some 'sponsored content' links but not all of the blinking and pop-up type garbage that you used to have to normally wade through. Occasionally I have to turn it off to get things to work on a particular page but overall great job this app! Please add autoplay-video blocking if you can and I will give your app six stars! ;-)

by ObiJon2012

this app works exactly as claimed and has greatly improved my browsing experience. It is one of my favorite apps in Purify Store. I don’t understand the negative reviews and have to think they come from people who didn’t bother to read the installation instructions. There is more to it than just downloading Purify . Follow the instructions to get the benefits of this app. It is well worth the effort.

by Whatever_whatever

The title says it all, but I should add that unlike other ad blockers I’ve tried (and I have NOT tried them all), it also can significantly speed up browsing by optionally blocking scripts and images. Of course that breaks a lot of web pages, but it’s worth it to turn that on when you find yourself on a slow internet connection.

by Harbolt

This has been one of the best and easiest to use ad blockers that I have encountered. I don’t know why these other people are reporting problems because it works great for me. It has cut down on almost all ads when I visit website through Safari. I love this program! Highly recommend!

by Noir Shoppee

Has served me well for (going on) 3 years now. A solid service that couldn’t be easier to utilize. Great job. Thanks.

Wow! Reading some of the few reviews that say Purify isn’t working for them. I wish there was a magical way for reviews to be applicable to an apps rating once the reviewers been proven to understand how to use Purify on their device.

by Chinch07

I’ve tried so many content blockers and this app is still the only one that eliminates ads cleanly. So many replace ads with a blank box that say “ad” or have weird spaces around web pages. this app removes the ads and makes the web pages look natural. It’s hard to describe. Just try it lol. My only gripe is that I wish I could use this app on my Mac. Now that Mojave supports content blockers let’s hope they come out with a Mac app.

by Roo558

I’ve been using Purify for a couple of years now and I love everything about it. Its very simple to use and understand . Even the customer service is awesome, early on right after I downloaded it I had a few questions about it so I contacted them by email and they were extremely prompt about getting back to me I think it was only a matter of about 3 or 4 minuets before I had a reply. They stayed on the phone with me for a good 20 minuets answering my questions and didn’t end the call until they were confident that I fully understood everything about Purify .

by D&Z-74

Best $1.99 app in the store. KILLS those painfully annoying ads such as found in news articles. Web pages load so much faster cause you don’t have to wait for the gazillion ads to fill your screen.

Also, in my case, certain websites, chocked full of ads, caused the back of my iPhone to get very warm. I assume that had something to do with how power was being used/drawing from my battery (due to ads loading). Whatever the reason, since installing this app, that happens no more.

We spend 5 bucks on coffee that’s gone in 30 minutes. Two bucks on Purify will last a lot longer.

by _jbrown

Been using this app for 6 months after trying several other Safari ad blockers a try. this app does what it says and does it unobtrusively. It has a whitelist function that is accessed directly thru the browser so it's convenient and quick. I've had to whitelist only a few sites. Such a great ad blocker!

by Sancho De Tumujer

I’ve had this for the last 3 years and it has not failed me since. I recently got a new iPad and wanted to keep it separate from my iPhone data. My iPhone has the this app app and my iPad did not. I got a couple of free ad-blockers to see if they could block ads and NONE worked like this app does. I installed this app on my new iPad and all the crap ads are gone! Great product, low price and no ads. Thanks!!!