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I use AdAway - https://f-droid.org/packages/org.adaway/ on my Android phone. Downloads lists of advertising hostnames and blocks them via /etc/hosts. It's licensed under GPL-3.0. Requires you to have rooted your phone.

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Another option for Android users (that doesn't require root) is Blokada -https://f-droid.org/packages/org.blokada.alarm/

Just looked into how it works without root access. It apparently creates a local VPN interface and routes traffic through it. Which is a fine way of doing it, except it prevents you from using other VPNs on the same device at the same time - https://blokada.org/api/v3/content/en/help.html#howitworks - FWIW, this is also how Tor on Android (using Orbot) works for non-rooted devices (if you want to routes apps that don't have socks proxy support).

Just to clarify re "VPN", it's not actually a VPN to any third party service, it's just a local "fake" VPN interface to intercept traffic.

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