Ghostery is a popular adblocker that has been around since 2009. It was founded by Evidon, a company that specializes in online data and analytics.
Ghostery's flagship product is its browser extension, which blocks ads and trackers on websites. This extension is available for most major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
The extension uses a database of known trackers to identify and block them, which helps to prevent companies from collecting your data without your consent.
Take a look at this: Clear Storage Google Extension
Features and Functionality
Ghostery is a powerful tool for blocking ads and improving your browsing experience. It includes an ad and tracker blocker, whitelisting/blacklisting, and a never-consent feature that removes annoying popups asking for cookie consent.
The free plan is quite robust, blocking HTTP requests from third-party tracking scripts and preventing them from monitoring your browser behavior and serving ads. The company's vast script library is continuously updated with new scripts, ensuring you stay protected.
Ghostery's script library is community-driven, making it easy to add trackers that might have been missed. You can even monitor the number of ads blocked on every web page you visit with the ad blocks counter.
You can whitelist or blacklist specific sites, allowing trusted sites to show you ads while keeping others blocked. This feature is especially useful for supporting your favorite blogs or websites.
Reporting
Reporting is a key feature of Ghostery that helps you stay on top of your online tracking.
Ghostery reports all tracking packages detected, and whether Ghostery has blocked them or not, in a "findings window" accessible from clicking on the Ghostery Icon in the browser.
This findings window provides a clear picture of what's going on behind the scenes, allowing you to see exactly which trackers are present on the page.
When configured, Ghostery also displays the list of trackers present on the page in a temporary purple overlay box, giving you a quick and easy way to see what's being tracked.
For your interest: On Page Seo Content
Features
Ghostery is an excellent tool for blocking ads and improving your browsing experience. The free plan includes the ad and tracker blocker, whitelisting/blacklisting, and a never-consent feature that removes those annoying popups that always ask for cookie consent.
Ghostery blocks HTTP requests from third-party tracking scripts, preventing these scripts from monitoring your browser behavior and serving ads. This is done by maintaining a vast "script library" containing script-serving domains, which is continuously updated with new scripts.
The company's script library is community-driven, so anyone can find and submit a tracker, making it easier to add trackers that Ghostery might have missed. You can monitor the number of ads blocked on every web page you visit, thanks to the "ad blocks counter".
You can whitelist or blacklist specific sites, allowing you to choose which ads to see and which to block. Whitelisting a site will show its ads on your browser, while blacklisting a website removes all ads from that site.
Check this out: Google Ad Networks
Ghostery offers a simple feature to avoid cookie and tracker consent popups, giving an automatic never-consent response. This eliminates the annoyance of constant popups asking for consent.
Contributors get advanced features, including historical tracker stats, daily, monthly, or custom tracker blocking stats, and priority support. They can also personalize their Ghostery dashboard with custom color themes.
Plans and Pricing
Ghostery offers a free version that includes fundamental protection services like tracker blocking, ad blocking, and real-time privacy tracking.
You can enjoy the core ad-blocking tool for free, without any restrictions.
Ghostery also has optional "contributor" plans that range from $1.99 to $11.99 monthly, which give you access to complementary features like custom teams, historical tracker analysis, and priority customer support.
The free version of Ghostery includes robust security capabilities that will protect you immediately.
The premium subscription provides access to advanced features, but you can still benefit from the basic security functions without paying a dime.
Worth a look: Google Search Ad Block
Comparison and Verdict
Ghostery is an effective ad-blocking tool that's completely free to use. It's a great option for those who want to block ads without paying a dime.
In fact, the TechRadar Verdict section confirms that Ghostery is an effective ad-blocking tool that can be enjoyed without any cost.
Suggestion: Pop-up Ad
The Competition
The Competition is fierce in the ad-blocking space, with several notable players vying for attention.
Ghostery has a few notable rivals, including Privacy Badger and Wipr.
Privacy Badger is a free browser extension available for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera.
It blocks ads and tracking scripts effectively, similar to Ghostery, to improve your browsing experience.
Unlike Ghostery, Privacy Badger doesn't have a mobile app.
Wipr is another contender in the ad-blocking space, but unfortunately, we don't have any specific information about it in this article.
Final Verdict
Ghostery is an excellent free ad blocker that effectively blocks trackers and gives you details to confirm what has been blocked.
You can use it as a browser extension or mobile app, although not for Android, to improve your browsing experience.
The main drawback we observed is the limited customer support, but that’s understandable for a free tool.
Ghostery is an effective ad-blocking tool you can enjoy without paying a dime.
Why Choose Ghostery?
If you're tired of online tracking and annoying pop-up ads, Ghostery is the perfect solution. It blocks thousands of scripts with every website visit, making tracking invisible scripts obvious.
Ghostery protects your personal data from disclosure without your consent, giving you the freedom to control your online privacy.
Every user deserves to protect their personal details, and Ghostery offers clear information about the specific functions of each tracker, refusing to block everything indefinitely.
With Ghostery, you can enable selected tracking services that you trust for accessing specific sites that require those services, giving you total control over platform decisions.
Ghostery increases your browsing speed by disabling tracking scripts, improving web page loading times dramatically.
Ghostery installs an integrated ad blocker, blocking all flashing banners and autoplay video ads during your browsing sessions.
If this caught your attention, see: Online Advertising in China
Featured Images: pexels.com
