WBlock: A New Ad-Blocker for Safari | Hacker News Reader

WBlock: A New Ad-Blocker for Safari

github.com

While the comparison doc mentions it, I don't see anyone here talking about Wipr 2. As the comparison doc states, if all you need is configuration-free ad blocking on macOS and iOS, Wipr 2 definitely gets my vote.

I'm not sure if I'm just completely unlucky and/or illiterate, but I coughed up for Wipr and it really has not panned out as effectively as I'd hoped. I recently also tossed in UBOLite and the difference is night-and-day: actually being able to browse without ads.

Wipr is deprecated for quite the while now. Wipr 2 is a complete rewrite and separate purchase.

And don’t forget to activate Wipr Extras.

Just installed it to see if it might be better than AdGuard on memory usage, and now I’m getting constant “Pssst! You forgot to apply some settings” notifications as soon as I leave the app. Clicking it takes me back to the app, where it does an update of everything, and… That’s it. Leave the app again, and the notification reappears. Quite annoying!

Edit: it appears it doesn’t remove ad content blocks like AdGuard, and doesn’t let me pick and choose elements to add. I might revisit in a few months, but for now I’m back to AdGuard.

>Just installed it to see if it might be better than AdGuard on memory usage

Why would it be? All adblockers are using the same content blocking API, so at best you'll be using less memory usage while it's updating, which happens so rarely that it's not worth worrying about.

Some blockers lean more heavily on javascript, mostly ublock lite.

I've been using https://1blocker.com for many years now without issues. It isn't in their comparison list, but looks pretty similar design wise.

isn't 1blocker a subscription service?

Yes, kind of. It has a subscription option, but you can also pay for a lifetime plan. They've done several major upgrades/redesigns and the lifetime plan is still honored.

Same here, I have a lifetime license. And it works on both MacOS and iOS. It's a small indie app (1-2 devs I think).

> uBlock Origin Lite: Chromium-only Manifest V3 extension. Not available for Safari.

How did I install it as a safari extension on iOS from the App Store?

This comparison is outdated.

This is also outdated. Gorhill did release uBlock Origin Lite for iOS Safari.

Does anybody here know how that's implemented, and what the difference is to this (if any)?

I lost track of all the methods (current and past) to block ads via browser extensions. Which of the two, if any, use "declarative blocking"; which inject JavaScript (and by extension require trust and site access permissions)?

Been using wBlock for a while. It blocks ads pretty well, supports custom blocklists and userscripts and does get rid of entire DOM nodes containing ad elements instead of leaving annoying empty elements. Compared to Adguard, you do lose cosmetic filtering but gain better battery life.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ublock-origin-lite/id674534269...

For those looking for the iOS / safari option for Ublock origin lite.

I'm interested in trying this, but not really interested in signing up for the whole Testflight rigamarole. I've had uBlock Origin Lite installed ever since it was released, but I prefer Safari's Content Blocker approach which uBlock doesn't use. (uBlock uses manifest v3, and it sometimes it leaves those small "empty image" boxes where an ad would be; I'm not sure if those two things are related.)

Is there any reason to prefer uBoL over Pi-Hole/Adguard Home?

Those are DNS only adblockers.

It works when you are outside your home network, without the additional rigamarole of setting up a VPN for all your devices to pass their internet through your home server.

Home Adguard Home works regardless of if I'm at home or not, without a VPN. I'm on Android though and I just set the Private DNS setting - I have a domain and point it at that. I dunno if you can do Private DNS on iOS though?

NextDNS setup has an iOS(/macOS) configuration profile generator which allows you to "lock down" the dns (and use DoH).

Oh sweet this is good to know, I want to set this on my daughter's iPhone (if/when we get her one)

Pihole/adguard are great, and while their function overlaps with uBo, they are still different. You should use both.

UBo (and uBoL) have additional rules that can clean up pages. E.g. removing containers of ads.

It does much more too.

Absolutely. Pi hole does network blocking via DNS, uBoL does blocking via DOM queries.

Why would you need testflight? This app is on the app store

Is it? I searched wBlock in the ios app store and found nothing.

https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/wblock/id6746388723

The github page has a link to the app store

Oh, I somehow missed that. On their comparison page it still talks about signing up for TestFlight to install it, which was the case the last time this extension made the rounds on HN.

Just downloaded this and it seems to be everything I've wanted on an ios safari adblocker. I was using ublock origin lite before. Its completely free like ublock but you can use your own filter lists. Thanks!

wBlock is a new ad-blocker for Safari. It supports (in general) everything Wipr, AdGuard for Safari/iOS, uBlock Origin Lite can do except for maybe multi-device sync

And what does it do differently?

Well, they have this list in their repo: https://github.com/0xCUB3/wBlock/blob/main/Adblock_Compariso...

Only one I can see is (slightly) less RAM use.

They do have a compare page here: https://github.com/0xCUB3/wBlock/blob/main/Adblock_Compariso...

I wonder why would they include GitHub stars as comparison point. Not only it is useless, it will mostly be wrong unless dynamically generated and updated.

It does indicate interest in the product from developers, which is helpful to know for smaller OSS projects because it means that people might be able to assist with development and it reduces the likelihood of the project being abandoned when the OG dev moves on.

Supports iOS 17.

Ad blocking on Safari is partially broken before iOS 18.6, hence the requirement of iOS version on uBlock Origin Lite.

https://matisyahu.blog/2025/07/31/and-it-is-raining-again/

The readme proudly proclaims: “ The end of Safari ad-blocking B.S.”

Except that it’s just another declarative blocker spread across 4+ extensions. This seems like the same old B.S to me. Better off sticking with Firefox.

After using uBlock origin lite on Safari for a while I went back to blocklist-based blockers. They are just faster. They don't suddenly break, making me reload site or restart browser. And the only thing needed on top is just some JS script injection via a separate extension for some sites like YouTube

wblock seems to have youtube script injection in the app

It's just another declarative adblocker, as that is all Safari (and now Chrome) allows. There's vanishingly little room for differentiation in this space.

That info is outdated. Safari also allows JS scripts running on sites, i.e. extensions working like script injectors. The difference with content blockers is those extensions must be explicitly allowed to access sites being browsed first, for privacy reasons.

Chrome can do that too on desktop, and on iOS Chrome can't run any extensions at all. Safari web extensions have been around since iOS15, so several years now.

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