Table of Content
Advertisements! They are very annoying and will irritate any consumer; it may be because of the ad being explicit, placed in an incorrect location, or just plain old clutter on your screen.
Android is an open-source operating system that provides consumers with tons of configuration options. App developers are also offered unlimited possibilities, and some of them choose to bombard you with ads and infect your device with malware for money.
However, consumers can stop them by using Android ad blockers. Ad blockers not only stop ads from showing but they stop ads that run scripts behind the screen and steal your data. They can also prevent websites from keeping track of you.
Another useful feature of ad blockers is that they can significantly decrease the page loading time (pages will load approximately four times faster), and save your data (about 30-50%).
Note: Any of the below apps downloaded from Google Play Store will not work well because of Google’s terms and policies prohibiting any app from stopping developers showing ads. The apps on Play Store will work to block web browser ads, but not on in-app advertisements. The links found here are the full versions of each ad blocker.
Image Credit: Technosoups
5 Best Ad Blockers for Android
Here is a list of the top five Android ad blockers that will help you get rid of ads:
1. Seven AdClear
One of the best ad blockers for Android is Seven AdClear, which lets users remove most of the ads (in apps and browsers) without having to root your phone. Paired with an ad blocker, AdClear’s Firewall and Doze software is efficient because it uses less bandwidth, decreases loading times, and protects consumers from malware-infected advertisements.
AdClear uses a VPN that blocks ads across apps and browsers. It has HTTPS filtering, and DNS blocking, which includes DNS filtering and DNS request blocking. It also has System DNS that enables users to pick primary and secondary DNS from a collection of 16 public DNS suppliers, including DNS.WATCH, Google, Norton, Level3, Quad9, and several others.
AdClear has additional filters for websites with different languages and a “User Filters” option, which allows a user to block / whitelist / SSL bypass domains. A filter log allows you to see everything. This option is beneficial as it lets you support trusted developers or websites without annoying adverts.
Seven AdClear has an advanced protection feature that takes ad blocking to another level as it starts blocking ads more effectively, so much so that it even blocks video advertisements. If you think that turning Seven AdClear on and off manually isn’t a good option, there is a snooze feature that helps you to deactivate this application automatically.
Features of Seven AdClear:
- Blocks encrypted ads
- Supports non-rooted and rooted devices
- Shows a log of blocked ads
- Selective app filtering
- Saves bandwidth
Price: Free
Download Link: AdClear
2. AdLock
AdLock is one of the ad blockers that you can trust to keep your data safe while it does its job to block ads at the same time. It can even stop ads that are scripts or cryptocurrency miners. Usually, ad blockers simply block ads. AdLock, however, also tests the security of the links you visit, giving you brief information about any spyware or bugs.
AdLock also saves a lot of your mobile data by preventing anything useless from loading on your screen. You can choose to filter ads in specific apps. Loading times significantly decrease when using AdLock. This app has HTTPS and DNS filtering as well, and on the main screen, it will show how many requests it has blocked, traffic saved, blocked sites and blocked threats.
AdLock is capable of handling HTTPS traffic which guarantees that it will delete advertisements on the website instead of preventing ad domain requests. This approach is ideal because it ensures all pop-up ads are eliminated; it does not slow down the loading or break the connection with the website.
You can also have the option to include or exclude certain domains in your filter lists to make your experience more customizable. It has a Safebrowsing feature in its security panel, whereby websites that usually share unsafe or malicious links will be blocked. In the Traffic button, it shows statistics of how much traffic it has stopped, that was sent or received and which application was doing it.
Features of AdLock:
- Selective app filtering
- Extremely detailed logs
- Safebrowsing feature
- Fast and efficient
- Stops scripts
Pricing: AdLock Payment Plans (30-day free trial upon registration)
Download Link: AdLock
3. AdGuard
AdGuard is a very straightforward, customizable, and stress-free application to use. It has a beautiful and intuitive theme, making its use very comfortable. Its simplistic design doesn’t mean that it has basic functions because it can perform better than most of the ad blockers out there.
AdGuard is the perfect way to remove web surveillance and misleading advertisements and to secure your device from viruses.
AdGuard will remove any spaces or gaps left after the advertisement is removed, making the page look more pleasing, and making browsing smoother. This feature of AdGuard is called cosmetic page processing. Moreover, there are many types of filters available for you to customize things exactly the way you want.
All web requests which arrive via AdGuard are displayed in the Filtering Log. These logs are highlighted in various colors, for instance, disabled queries are highlighted in red. This way, monitoring what was blocked and what wasn’t is quite straightforward.
Filtering Log is vital for making your own rules because it gives users more customizability and gives you more control over what you see and what you don’t see. For any application, you can choose to turn off their access to cellular / Wi-Fi data, and restore it just as quickly.
This way, you can control the apps that transmit data. Another neat feature is their “Apps Management” module, which lets you see the total data consumed, and under it, you can see how much traffic data was consumed by each application.
Features of AdGuard:
- Easy to use
- Accessibility and customizability
- Parental control
- Cosmetic page processing
- Open source
Pricing: AdGuard Payment Plans (7-day free trial upon registration)
Download Link: AdGuard
4. Blokada
Blokada is a fantastic ad blocker for Android that automatically creates your identity (account) when you download the app. After that, it lets you manually customize and utilize different functions. Not only does Blokada prevent advertisements, it also has a database of blacklisted web pages.
The request to interact with blacklisted servers is thrown away by the app’s VPN. Blokada also helps you to modify the DNS service which you use. There are many options, from the newly released 1.1.1.1 platform for Cloudflare to the one for AdGuard, to Free DNS.
There’s a continuous indicator that allows you to see the last blocked domain, and sometimes you will see random domains accessed without your permission by the applications and browsers utilizing your battery and information.
Features of Blokada:
- Open source and free
- Tons of DNS to choose from
- Connects multiple devices and access from any Blokada application
- Supports all Android versions
- Host log
Price: Free
Download Link: Blokada
5. AdAway
AdAway requires root to run, and it is extremely efficient. It uses a changed host file, and all ad-related requests are submitted to 12.0.0.1. In simple words, the request to show ads goes nowhere, so you don’t have to see any advertisements. The software enables the user to choose altered or custom host files and if not, a default version can be accessed from this application.
Features of AdAway:
- Open source and free
- Simplistic
- Power-efficient
- Fast
Price: Free
Download Link: AdAway
Verdict: With the ever-increasing technological advancements, these ads are changing as well. Some of these are changing for the worse like turning into scripts and cookie grabbers, hence the need for ad blocker rises.
All of these Android ad blockers are powerful and handy tools to prevent malicious ads, phishing links, and other kinds of hostile software from tracking you or putting your security at risk. There is no clear winner here, but one thing is for sure, we all need these apps to keep our loved ones and ourselves safe from privacy and data breaches.