Ideally want to use and open source one and the same one on both my iOS devices and my Mac.
AdGuard?
Blockada?
1Blocker?
Ghostery?
NextDNS?
Mullvad?
Privacy Guides recommends AdGuard but I am not loving it so far compared to 1Blocker.
IDK if this helps, but I started using Hyperweb instead of Ghostery. Ghostery was great, better than adguard in my opinion (less recourse intensive.), but Hyperweb had more customization for Safari. For example, you can use PiP for YT even if you aren’t a premium user. Only problem is that I don’t think that HyperWeb is open source.If you don’t care about PiP or some extra customization, I would recommend either NextDNS or Ghostery.
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Thanks! I will reconsider Ghostery
Don’t use Safari, but if I did I’d personally try:
- AdGuard + NextDNS
- AdGuard + Mullvad DNS
I’d go with AdGuard simply on the basis of them having some FOSS stuff, and I cannot love NextDNS enough, especially with HaGeZi blocklists 
Seems to be fairly personal preference though all things considered.
Out of curiosity, what about it do you prefer?
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Thanks Henry!
The complexity of NextDNS has scared me off a bit. I like the idea of an ad blocker and Mullvad DNS. I want as simple a set up as possible.
Just switched to AdGuard but it seems to break a few sites I use, and shows comments on sites that have them, a few ads have snuck through, YouTube ad blocking doesn’t seem to work as well as 1Blocker and when adding a rule (on iOS anyway) you have to open the app just to see a message banner and confirm telling you added a rule.
Those are the few minor complaints so far.
It’s definitely a bit overwhelming at first, but I found this guide here that would probably help a ton! (ahhh it’s so good!)
This is super valid too though if you want 0 configs & 0 hassle.
Got it! Was curious as I don’t use it much and haven’t heard many criticisms before. Hopefully others chime in with more feedback then given your situation. But Ad Blocker + DNS should already put you in a great place. The ad blocker you choose can definitely impact things, but just having one is likely the most important thing - and the options you’re stuck between all seem decent.
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Thanks! Appreciate you helping with this!
Do you use an ad blocker or just Brave’s built in ad/tracker blocking?
Really respect your opinion, and Jonah’s and Nate’s! Is Nate on here?
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I just use Brave Shields + NextDNS 
He has yet to confirm, but I’m fairly certain Nate hates forums 
Not sure why, but it’d be awesome to have him here!
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This is not a list of fully comparable (or mutually exclusive) things.
Content/ad blockers work in different ways and have overlapping but distinct scopes and purposes.
The two most common types of content blockers (in my experience) are:
- Browser based (extensions such as uBlock Origin or Adguard). These are super capable, flexible, and can be very fine grained and precise, but they are limited to just the browser.
- DNS based (for example NextDNS, Adguard DNS, or your VPN’s built in blocking), these work at the DNS level, they are less flexible and less fine grained than the browser based content blockers, but the big advantage is its easy to protect a whole device or a whole network with a DNS based solution.
- There are other less common types of blocking that work in different ways (for example a ‘hosts file’ or blockers that utilize a ‘local vpn’.
tl;dr browser extensions are limited in scope/reach but super capable and fine grained, dns based blocking has limited capability but a very broad scope/reach.
I would suggest using a combination of a browser based content blocker (Adguard is a good free option for Safari on iOS), and a DNS based content blocker (you could use Adguard’s free DNS servers or use NextDNS). These layers are complementary and will block most ads and trackers.
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