Ublock origin is a great baseline extension if you lack the confidence to set up a pihole.
this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2025
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Note that Ublock and other adblockers work much, much better on Firefox than they do on Chrome and other Chrome based browsers (which is basically all other browsers; Edge, Opera, Brave, etc). This is because Google deliberately crippled adblockers.
Even if you set up a pihole you should use uBlock Origin, you can't block everything through DNS.
If you are up for some self-hosting, pi-hole can block some ads, and whatever domain names you'd like. Just have to set your device's DNS to its IP address. Some ads will get through but it can block a large amount of them.
For android on a per app basis, I use the pro version of NetGuard to block some apps from connecting to ad and tracking domains, or if an app has no good reason to connect to Facebook, etc.
If you have a pixel android phone, GrapheneOS is a great OS to limit what data is sent off to Google.
Alternative self-host solution that does not require a pi.
Get hold of a functioning spare pc with any os that can run docker containers ( highly recommended proxmox for server and opensense for diy router but that may be to advanced) but most os incl windows should work.
Install adguard home in a docker container. Its a dns based blocker like pihole above. Just set your devices to its ip for dns.
Want it on the go? If you have an internal vpn (wireguard) you can set it up so your tunneling al your traffic from home with all protections persisting.
I have not found a way on ios to block those last pesky ads that adguard misses but its still day and night difference.
FYI, pihole can run in docker on any device, not just a pi.
it's hard to block google these days as their recaptcha is gaining popularity
I've actually seen a lot of sites switching to cloudflare's and while it's not a wonderful company either their captcha isn't used for AI training. As someone behind a website with a captcha guard don't hesitate to complain to the site owner - it's such a rare thing that your request will usually get in front of the eyes of a human that can enact change.
Yeah as a web dev as well this seems like a pretty neat alternative:
The company "control d" (Canadian) come up as a DNS based solution to achieve this, but there are other adblockers available for your browser or entire phone.