AdGuard — adblock&privacy Reviews

by Jasocci

I purchased ad guard for life time approximately fews months already. And I enjoyed the powerful ad blocking. However, since the AdGuard, there is always a window popped out in my MAC said apple wants to make some changes. I ignored at first. However I could not stand any note after frequently annoying popped out windows hundreds of times after, and I agreed the change Which disabled the adguard. I tried reset all settings and reinstalled it. It just didn’t work any more. Therefore, I tried to contract with the AdGuard service. One point I want to mention that I was pretty impressive AdGuard service works for 24 hours even in quarantine time. However, the guy was not professional at all. I followed his instructions reset and reinstalled at first which did not work, and he once remotely controlled my Mac, but the problem still didn’t solve. Finally, he left a message said this case is not typical but I will asked for our workers solved it and contacted you at most in 48hours. THIS IS A FAKE PROMISE AGAIN! yes! Before, he just kept giving me fake promise. And this time I waited 4 days already. No replying, and even the phone is not available now. I tried to have my best attitude because I understand their jobs are not easy. But at lease, giving back me a professional attitude and available credit. BECAUSE I SAW THERE WOULD BE LIFE TIME GUARANTEE WHEN I TRUSTED AND PURCHASED LICENSE FOR LIFE TIME WHICH IS NOT CHEAP!!!

by Let Down By The NFL

It works great for blocking those annoying ads. But it fails miserably at being able to whitelist more than one site. The first one I whitelisted, I have no problems with. But the second one? Can’t come close to saying the same. Nine times out of ten, when I visit that site, I get the message that its being blocked by an ad blocker. That defeats the entire purpose of having the whitelist function. Get it together.

Edit: Well, now it doesn’t even function at all! I had to turn the blocker off to use a site (the same one I alluded to earlier,) but after turning it back on, it blocks NOTHING! Even after making certain it was on, and restarting the phone 7 times already, I STILL get ****ing ads! EPIC FAIL!

Edit 2: It’s official. This is easily the worst “ad blocker” I’ve ever had. Despite being active, it does NOT block ads. I had to deactivate for a few minutes to use a site that was *supposedly* whitelisted. Then I reactivated it, and *nothing.* I closed all tabs, and restarted Safari. I wiped my history, and cookies. I even restarted the phone 3 times. Nothing. It is a colossal failure. I do not recommend it at all.

by 1995-2008 Gamer

Complaint #1: Every single time I toggle a filter, it pauses to “reload the filters”... I have to toggle a bunch of filters, how about you just sit and wait until I’m done instead of wasting my time reloading the filters after every single toggle. Easily five minutes of my life stolen from me by your dumb app functionality.

Complaint #2: Safari limits the number of filters to 50,000 per app, apparently. I have been noticing some oddly specific ads on Reddit, something that I definitely do not have on my desktop, so I decided to investigate, and made this discovery. I swear this wasn’t always the case, or maybe, AdGuardadblockprivacy just didn’t alert me to this previously, but either way... How about offering a suggested workaround? Obviously the problem is Apple, and the state of adblocking on iOS right now means that this will be my last Apple product, but rather than just alerting me that you’re not using all of the filters, do something more?

by MyHSplace

this use to work great in beginning but, it seems since the pay for extra features showed up, regular app works less and less as it use to do perfectly! currently, before and after current update, there are ADS, mostly adchoice ads, showing up again.. some pop ups on sites also came back a bit back. my settings weren’t changed so that is not the issue.. and reporting AD issues is a joke, you need to be a total pro at using this software/ AdGuardadblockprivacy to answer all the technical questions they ask you on like 8 pages/sections just to report the issue, i gave up after section 4!! thinking they forgot most of us are just regular adblock users and not puter/software nerds!!

btw hard to block these now showing up ads like on wedmd when you click on adguard in your browser and get a popup that says “error: this website’s security policy does not allow launching adguard assistant”” ..

by Treylan Peterson

In my last review, I praised AdGuardadblockprivacy for its simplicity. I still believe it’s a very easy to use app that cuts out most of the issues you would have on safari and such, if not all of them, in some cases.

I’ve only encountered one issue, which I found after my last review. I’m unsure if this is actually the ad blockers fault or not, but the ad blocker is successful in blocking out every type of ad EXCEPT for the types of ads that are in certain safari videos. The ones where you click on the video, and it automatically brings you to another site. It’s especially annoying on sites like 9anime, where I have to traverse 20 pages (albeit they’re all blocked and don’t show anything, but the issue is I don’t want to be redirected from the page in the first place) just to watch my anime.

All in all, great app that covers all bases but one.

by RurouniH

I’m currently looking into adblocking apps atm the will operate on the phone entirely, not on just ine aspect. In this case the basic and important protections and guards center on safari and little else. Though aware if I go pro some of is indirectly dine via dns protections and so on. Just reading through the reviews really had me sold on it capability, which is not in doubt, and more so seeing someone/the developer actually responding back on reviews good and bad. In most cases giving concise answers and explanations to the whys or look to fixing issues. That to me is amazing really and sadly rarely see. Especially today. So as nice as AdGuardadblockprivacy operates which I verified using safari only briefly to test AdGuardadblockprivacy and it does operate beautifully. It just doesn’t meet my needs. Thank you for making such a wonderful app.

by Kingmasters

Kept having trouble accessing websites because of over use of adds but with AdGuardadblockprivacy it was very helpful in getting rid of them. Upon downloading it shows a video on how to use it which is very helpful for many people who learn visually instead of teaching them with word instructions like with most apps. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work with chrome and I haven’t tested on my other iPhone browsers yet but I did try Firefox and it doesn’t seem to work there either. I would also recommend not using the paid version as it doesn’t have support like this one. I was actually introduced to AdGuardadblockprivacy from someone in the community I’m apart of on reddit funny enough and they even help teach me more advanced ways to use AdGuardadblockprivacy.

by TheOmegaCarrot

AdGuardadblockprivacy has been incredible, as has been the desktop version, but both are missing a simple feature.

While I have scarcely seen an ad on safari since installing adguard, I have a couple of times seen it flag a false positive, and actual content I want gets blocked. While this is very rare, I would very much appreciate a little button that shows ads that were blocked on the page, with an option to “allow anyways” individually. Or even a button to disable until page refresh or something of the sort.

by MandyLikesToLaugh

This extension does it all, I’m a victim of identity theft and this has been a God Send. For over ten years someone has sit around watching my ever move through my main email with yahoo. I had this email for over 15 yrs now. These people took every financial account I had and then spent money on everyone. They have accounts with each of the credit bureaus, they have subjected me to countless data breaches, in which they claimed my claim in their names.I have had no relief since August 2020 when I first found out that my identity was stolen. Sorry I’m rambling but I just cannot say enough about this AdGuard, it has given me relief it has given me options in my reliefAnd just when I thought it couldn’t get any better I got an invitation to do the testing! I’m at awe at the work you all have put in to help others, I would have given as many stars as there were if there could be more. My only complaint is I have bought the upgrade and it got stolen because these people are roothless and make aliases to every email account I make, then they take it over. This has happened with many apps and extensions not just this one! However, this one is by far my favorite then and now and probably forever. If you need something g that really works and that is user friendly, I’d urge you to try AdGuard and AdGuard VPN as well it’s a package deal really.

by NC GAL 2

I installed it on my iPad and iPhone for Safari. I don’t use either as much as I do my main laptop and desktop but for the times I do the ads were getting out of hand. On one website, the same ad appeared eight times on the page at the same time. It has only been a couple of days but the ads are gone. Whether that continues remains to be seen. If not, I will go to plan B.

This is an update since my original review a couple of months ago. It is still working as it is supposed to on both my iPhone and my iPad. None of the ads I was getting before have come back nor have there any new ads.

if it continues to work as promised, I should have no problem. so far I am very satisfied with it.

by IG@M€$ D!ZZ¥ D

Reddit Rated this a top free stuff on the internet to take advantage of for free, and as an iOS user it sounded like it was worth a try and haven’t been let down yet. So good job reddit(so far), and a thumbs up to AdGuard(unless suddenly my sense of caution I ignored was right and my whole life is stolen by Debembe Numiponokee a Nigerian prince who quit emailing the world population, and started covert oppositional hacking under the guise of a promising app...lol) for being what it was said to be by many, and is so far a 4.5 star rated app.

P.S. if the Nigerian prince thing happens to take place.... Face on you buddy boy! Be me if you’d like, but know I wouldn’t want to be. U.S student loans, and medical bills have made me like most. In the red and worth more dead. Lol

by RatKingBeeSting

Ever since I started using AdGuard I’ve seen a noticeable increase in the does at which pages load. I’ve also noticed many if the pages I would frequently visit now load in with the ads automatically blocked. If there is a page where you would like to block additional elements, you can do so easily using AdGuard’s feature. I really like to see the the lost if requests because it shows you exactly what website is trying to track you and you can easily choose to block that domain directly from AdGuardadblockprivacy . By far the best ad blocker I’ve ever used. I highly recommend it.

by Rise Mental

Do not mind the negative reviews - most of those users do not configure things correctly and do not bother to look for something that is right in front of you from the jump.

I’ve had AdGuard for a few years now and I’ve seen it continue to improve. It’s adblocking/annoyance blocking capabilities are very powerful and have cleaned every page I visit - leaving no wasted space and ads. On top of that, with the new native dns for iOS 14, I have been able to use my NextDNS profile within AdGuardadblockprivacy and it’s encrypted more queries than the NextDNS app itself. There is virtually no ads on my phone at all and NextDNS has even double the protection in tandem with my safari blockers.

by Sergioskd

I have tried many Adblockers and when I found AdGuard I never looked back. AdGuard works perfectly and gives you immense power to block all ads and tracking on the internet. AdGuard was designed with user in mind. You can block a few ads or you can black them all, it’s your choice. With AdGuard you can dial you experience to your liking. With AdGuard DNS you can block Ads on your device. My phone is super snappy everything I need loads super quick. No red lights here, no waiting! I love it I recommend it to all my friends and my friends recommend to theirs. It’s a beautiful app that is backed by a very experienced programmers and a trusted company!

by ThisKIDhere

Installed this on my iPad first, before any of my family’s iPhones, and I am pleasantly surprised - it actually does exactly what it is supposed to. No more of those hyper-annoying, sensationalist clickbait ads. Just news stories and legitimate links to things you actually might be interested in - not ads disguised as articles, or low-life tricks. I love the filtration and the promise the company makes not to use trackers. So far, I am loving this trial-run on my iPad and will most likely be adding to our phones next. Perhaps even upgrade if there is a paid version with more benefits? But this free version seems to do everything I wanted without bugging me to pay for another version. A+

by Jj.b.jj

The best ad blocker around. I've been using this for months on my iPad, iPhone and both of my Macs. I use it with Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. It consistently blocks all things I do not want to see, I have no problems seeing what I choose to accept, and it provides a more than acceptable level of customization by way of configuration and selection of standard and proven subscription choices. I've tried seven other options since ad blocking extensions were enabled for iOS and Adguard is definitely the best.

I use a paid OpenDNS subscription passed through DNSCrypt for DNS at home and NordVPN when I go into the wild, so I cannot speak to the DNS style Adguard ad blocking. Regardless, my not using the Adguard DNS servers has had zero effect on how well this extension does its job.

by John Goodin

My only real gripe about the program is the amount of time it can take if you try to manually update the filters. It’s a three step process. First it has to manually download all the filters, second it has to convert all those filters, and third apply all those filters. Depending on how many filters you have it can sometimes take up to almost three minutes or more. It there’s any bug / error in the process you have to repeat it all over again. Most of the time it’s no real problem. I always try manually updating them then I’m connected to external power. No real reason to use up your battery only to get no results. I always try manually updating them when I first connect my iPad to power and then just before I shut it down for the day.

by NoParallelsLeader

When downloading it blocks all ads from appearing, like the ones that overhang top, bottom of screen, video ads and image ads, it is very helpful. However Pop-up ads are not blocked because they are not considered ads typically.

I dont have, but i see you can buy premium to filter what sites you want to appear or something like that which means you need to manually copy and paste the ad URL into a blacklist i think.. i assume that this wont prevent the pop-up itself from appearing, only the site the URL came on so you still will have an annoying extra tab to delete. I dont think there are work arounds unless apple themselves fix that issue. Id like to know who actually blocks sites on their phone when you dont get viruses and can just not click it if given the choice.

Anyway, 10/10 app itself and I recommend getting it and switching from Chrome back to Safari just for AdGuardadblockprivacy.

by Omfganimal

I had been waiting about 6 months after emailing support asking about making an easy way to block filters. I was told it would be in the next update and the update is here. The interface is better than the other adblockers with much more info and a greater aesthetic appeal. It reminds me a little bit of the desktop version. You can import and block/unblock domains on the fly. It's done very quickly with no time wasted. The only thing I can critique is that you can't search my domain category (i.e. CDN, Advertising, Misc, etc.) and to be able to make notes on exact domains in the domain log. I would say the price could be a bit lower for the DNS considering the other competitors are like $2 (even AdGuard pro, a different app, is $2) but eh. AdGuardadblockprivacy now shines above the other competitors.

Edit: after aug 18th update it's even better. I used to have to tap on every suspicious domain name to check what category it was but now they have icons in the list for what they are. Mega time-saver

by Good Ol' Sparky

I’ve become so skeptical of developer claims and disappointed with “bait and switch” free downloads that I no longer have hope that any app will improve my life.

I’m extremely delighted to find that AdGuardadblockprivacy, even in the basic free version delivers far beyond my expectations and has removed above 90% of website pop ups, banners and redirections. The included ability to surgically remove additional annoyances and define custom rules is an unexpected control that is decreasing my browsing aggravations while saving me time and improving my research results.

The subscription is well worth the investment. If other developers are interested in growing their products they would do well to study this model of performance, value and service.

by Uninterrupted Worship

So first thing I did after I downloaded this was go straight to YT and even though the yellow ad tab is there, it went right over it with NO AD!!! Then I clicked on another song and boom.. again NO AD.... y’all I am about to cry! All the features still work in YT as well. The auto play still works(with others I’ve tried it didn’t) and there is no difference in playing the videos with quality and so forth! Sooooooo amazing! Now I can worship with NO interruptions... even if I had to pay for this ap I would in a second but just the fact that it’s free and it works.. is a huge bonus and completely unexpected! Love love love you guys soooo much!

Edited, well I’m not sure if YT has an ad blocker “blocker” because now all of the ads are getting in and I’m back to square one. I’m considering being done with YT. Uninstalling AdGuardadblockprivacy now since it has been rendered useless for me now. So bummed.

by WhySteamWhy?

AdGuardadblockprivacy does its job, and it does it well. However, the latest update claimed that it improved iOS functionality substantially...I really wish that I had read some patch notes prior to updating.

They removed the ability to add custom filters in the free version. That was a feature that had been there for quite a while. AdGuardadblockprivacy had also been a darkly styled app...but now AdGuardadblockprivacy is sun blaringly bright; with the dark mode being locked behind a yearly subscription paywall.

I would without a doubt purchase the premium version if it wasn’t subscription based. I wouldn’t even mind paying extra to do so.

Honestly speaking, this is still a very good app, I consider it a “must have” for all iOS users. That’s why despite my dissatisfaction with the most recent changes to AdGuardadblockprivacy , I can not rate it any lower. That being said, I will always look at AdGuardadblockprivacy (as app people should with all apps) with a greater degree of scrutiny than I have in the past.

by Edwad M

It’s not the apps fault it doesn’t work on anything other than safari for iOS. The ability to work on other browsers is simply out of their control but most people and almost all younger/somewhat technologically knowledgeable people use the google chrome app or DuckDuckGo, the latter of which is supposed to be more secure. I normally use chrome but if I’m doing a lot of research I’ll use safari just for the ad blocker. It’s still significantly easier to use a laptop/PC for browsers because ad blockers are easy to use. For what it has to work with it’s pretty good.

by €hrï$$¥

So far it’s doing well! I’ve only had it up and running now for about a full 24 hours. So far it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing for me. We’ll see if I need to update this later down the road, but I sure hope not! I don’t mean to be skeptical, but everything else I’ve tried seems to not work, or crash, Or slow down my phone and stops blocking anything it’s supposed to after so much time of using them. I’m hoping I don’t have to update from here and it ends up being great like I have heard it was, because it was highly recommended to me!

by Hirotoshi-sama

The only thing that would make AdGuardadblockprivacy perfect is to block ads in Facebook app (like when looking at a Ranker list inside the Facebook app—Thus no more “congratulations” malware pop up) and block ads in games. I’d do it myself using the “user filter” option but I’m a dummy when it comes to creating filters and such. It’s still the best one out there that’s actually free and it’s pretty user friendly.

by WeeabooGamer

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much. The title seemed generic so I assumed that AdGuardadblockprivacy would be a little low on the quality side. Boy, was I wrong.

This adblocker goes further than blocking ads in your browser. In certain apps, it seems its almost random which ones, but it blocks all of your banner ads and sometimes even those annoying video pop up ones. Or i'm just not seeing them. I don't know, but if it is truly blocking these, that's absolutely fantastic!

The only reason it's not five stars is because it lacks as a browser Ad filter, often letting ads in safari show.

by EL2sees

Exceptional options for blocking for protection and privacy. Premium version protects even more, though free version meets my needs for now. And customer service responses from their techies are exceptional. They respond timely and communicate intelligently and helpfully on blovking issues that come up. And if others have problems with same issues as you, you get notified of responses they receive on same issue. So you're well informed of other answers others get on same issue you have. Great Blocking options, great customer service, and kept in the loop on issue. You can't lose.

by Ccccccc Bbbbb

I just wanted to take a minute and thank you for your product. It is much appreciated. Unfortunately I live on a budget so I don’t have your pro version but I have the free one and I just wanted to let you know how thankful I am that you make your product available to those of us who can’t afford to pay. So far I haven’t got the first complaint. I only have good things to say about your product. I do pass along to family and friends. when I am happy with the product like yours I do talk about it to family and friends. I hope you always have your free version. Thank you very very much!!! Keep up the great work!!!

by Kskillet521

Don’t mind the negative reviews, this adblocker does work. If the free version isn’t enough and you complain about the premium payment, then you should have no reason to comment as you need to understand the developers need a way to keep things up and running for us to get the best experience. I have a license for both Mobile and Mac and they both work like a charm. I have been protected against malicious websites, saved data while browsing and have blocked hundreds of thousands of ads while seeing little to no breakage and ads that slip through.

by Oh Hai There

I enjoy reading comics on safari, but often ads will be gross or NSFW and that bugged me. This works perfectly for my use, no ads show up that are potentialy 18+. This also helps because I know some younger children because I babysit and sometimes I'm on my phone, once I got a call from a kids mom asking about an ad on my phone that her daughter saw. It freaked me out and I've had close calls similar to that one. AdGuardadblockprivacy however makes sure none of those bad apps show up on my phone and nothing bad has ever happened. I recommend AdGuardadblockprivacy strongly.