Umbra - Ad Blocker for Safari Browser, Best Free Content & Ads Block Extension Reviews

by FakeIanHowland

It started so good when ad blockers for safari were new and now it blocks nothing. Makes you wonder if they loosened the rules for some advertisers. I will be removing Umbra and moving to a different one.

by Cj_ferndale

Used to do a great job but up until recently nothing is being blocked. I'm even getting pop-ups on a recipe/cooking webpage that doesn't allow me to move until I close it out. Time to look for replacement.

by Sam55@

It kept getting stuck trying to update. I have given up on this one.

by Badkitty_

Doesn't block a single ad. Spectacularly fails every test on ad blocker test websites.

by DSMIA

Messes up the navigation on many websites by excessively blocking too much content. Deleted.

by Mishi782

And mozilla's focus won. Sorry this app, probably getting deleted after this review..

by Lvlar

Doesnt work for me, errors!

by Brianfulda

Just realized this ad blocker was preventing twitter from loading properly on safari on iPhone. XR. Had no idea what was causing it until I disabled this app. Everything worked perfectly afterwards.

by JLawson2001

Installed and set up one evening. Went to bed with 100% battery...woke up with 65%. Battery normally stays at 100% until morning. Looked at battery usage...35% dedicated to Safari browser. Promptly uninstalled this app.

by Ericmercapto

Not only does all the annoying ads disappear, but so do all the images on many sites.
I'd like to give more stars to Umbra, but since the developers have not been able to fix the overzealousness of Umbra in spite of monthlong promises three stars is all Umbra gets.

by Game Center: XMatt Perkins

I'm only giving it a 3 star rating because it doesn't block ad-tracking just the ads themselves. It also has no option to block scripts which is key to me.

If you don't want to pay for an Adblocker then this is your best option even if it lacks something as simple as blocking ad-tracking.

by AHuestiPA

I love it finally no more ads!

by LateApp

Great! Works as advertised and the performance increase can be remarkable, not to mention the nicer page flows.

I've noticed a couple issues clicking on an ad I actually wanted that was visible on Google, and a Video I wanted to watch at the bottom of a tech site page. Both were visible but the Google link led to and empty page and the video did not start.

Still this is a great, it really saves time and makes my phone and tablet much more enjoyable to use. Especially the phone since it does not have room or the processing power for all those crap ads. We are all safer with out all this data being collected also.

by Thegadget.hymer

I was getting so tired of trying to browse sites with ads blocking a 3x3 chunk of content and no way to read behind it. Sometimes you could rotate your iPad, and you could read the article but most of the time not. This little free app works great. I have always had a soft spot for dolphin browsers, and it looks like they are helping again, and I love it. Thank you!

by Ren88

Looks good so far. It doesn't appear to block the sponsored results type ads, but those aren't the most annoying/data hogging type anyway. If I want to buy products I can make my own decision about what to get without marketers stealing my limited data. Hey marketing geniuses, just do what dolphin does and make good products. Then maybe I'll like your brand too.

by Xgh

I loaded 2 ad intensive sites and looked at the content blocking ability of each of the below list. Criteria were eliminating ads, page load speed and page's ability to render seemlessly.

Adblock by MoboTap: Best. Did a good job on all criteria.

Clear: Also very good to excellent.

Nautilus: Very good.

AdBlocker by icodesign: Missed some ads, let animated ads animate, difficulty rendering pages at times.

Ad Blocker by Lei Wang: As above.

1Blocker: Pretty much useless. Allows ads through, allows animated ads. Page rendering issues and resulting slow loading times.

Stop Ad: Same as above.

by Jbram63

Awesome app. Nicely cleans up websites. No more annoying adverts for things you don't need. Get the articles and photos cleanly (much like Apple's reading view).

Can be considered immoral since the advertisers won't make money, but since Umbra is free, there's no problem!

On a side note, if people are paying to see less adverts (or none at all) on websites, then those advertising companies must be doing advertising very incorrectly. Maybe now they'll do something different than view your cookies and bombard you with adverts for previously searched items.

by Paleo Schnauzer

I feel like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Some adblockers are too wimpy. Lots of annoyances get through. Or they only allow a small amount of a page to display. Grrr slow. Then there are apps like weblock which seems to hate IOS 9 and freezes up the entire iPad until you have smoke coming out your ears in frustration. Umbra however does what it is supposed to do. I like it so much that I may get the paid version. I used weblock right up to iOS 9 and it became impossible to use the device at all. If they don't release an update I'm done with them and sticking with adblocker.

by Michdavidadams

All the other web browsers didn't really work for me. This one does, yay! Thanks!

by Birju76

Works very well and helps me enjoi the internet again!!!

by Neun.elf

... it seems to have stopped working. It isn't hurting anything, but it's also not blocking ads. I went to one of my own sites where I serve ads (ironic, I know), and I saw my own simple ad, so I know it's not working properly. Timing suggests it's related to the latest release.

I installed a competitor's blocker and enabled it. I then refreshed my site in Safari, and the ad on my site was blocked, as expected.

by TempestBlayze

This is working great! Sad that there is no option to whitelist sites I enjoy and want to support.