Ad Blocking - Does is still affect speed?

[bp1000]

I remember years ago when I last used an adblocker, they tried to analyse the page and remove ads as the page was loading, it slowed down loading, caused a few lockups occasionally, did strange things to the UI and on some sites triggered messages to remove blocking before continuing.

Have things improved these days? I'm primarily concerned about web page speed. Are there any slow downs with modern ad blocking?

I read safari has an API for adblocking which is suppose to make it a lot more efficient and prevent any delays with page load, is this how it works now?

I'm looking to use AdGuard on Mac and iOS and I'm curious how it does on speed and memory.

Thanks

 

[Pakaku]

Sounds like a strange sort of adblocker. Nothing I've used has ever affected speeds negatively, and probably only improved things by keeping bad stuff from loading in the first place.

 

[JW5566]

I can't say I have found it slow (Adblock on iOS and Ublock Origin and others on Chrome on Mac OS). Sites overloaded with adverts and scripts actually run quicker for me.

 

[sracer]

I remember years ago when I last used an adblocker, they tried to analyse the page and remove ads as the page was loading, it slowed down loading, caused a few lockups occasionally, did strange things to the UI and on some sites triggered messages to remove blocking before continuing.

Have things improved these days? I'm primarily concerned about web page speed. Are there any slow downs with modern ad blocking?

I read safari has an API for adblocking which is suppose to make it a lot more efficient and prevent any delays with page load, is this how it works now?

I'm looking to use AdGuard on Mac and iOS and I'm curious how it does on speed and memory.

Thanks

I've never experienced ad blockers slowing down page loading or locking up browsers. There WAS a time back when ad blockers first started to appear that ad companies would spread FUD about blockers doing those things. But in actuality, ad blockers reduce page loading times, reduce memory usage, and reduce the possibility of coming into contact with malicious ads.

And it isn't just the ads that you see. There are "tracking pixels" to deal with as well.

 

[Marshalus]

Only thing I notice is that some more aggressive ad blockers tend to break sites, I've been using Ghostery for the last few weeks and like it. Better Blocker used to be my favorite but then it got discontinued. Ka-Block was also great but they've not had any updates in a while.

 

[russell_314]

I don’t trust most ad blockers because who’s to say they’re not sending your information off to some analytics server to sell. Just make sure before you use an ad block product check online for reviews.

The only thing I use sometimes is the uBlock origin extension for Firefox. It’s trusted as safe by many security experts. Unfortunately Apple has nerfed extensions a few patches back on Safari. It’s not a problem because I prefer Firefox anyway.

As to it slowing down browsing not at all. If anything it will speed up your browsing on a slower connection because ads don’t have to load. On a fast connection you won’t notice a difference.

It will break some websites and others will refuse to load because they can detect you’re using an ad blocker. Then your choice is to either disable it for that website or just don’t go to that website. I find the websites that this happens on is getting fewer and fewer because I think they realize people just close the page if the website doesn’t load.

Right now I’m using Pi-hole with a Raspberry Pi just because I don’t have to do anything and it works on all my devices.