Advice Request Is uBlock Origin with AdGuard filters + ClearUrls as good as AdGuard?

Please provide comments and solutions that are helpful to the author of this topic.

JasonUK

Level 5
Thread author
Apr 14, 2020
232
Okay I'm officially driving myself nuts :)

I've been through a phase of combining uBlock Origin+Privacy Badger+HTTPS Everywhere+Decentraleyes+ClearUrls but reading through the numerous threads, the changes to PB, question marks over whether Decentraleyes adds anything and switching to Brave (I also use Firefox) led me to question whether less would in fact be more!

For Brave I've ditched all the extensions listed above as it has HTTPS & a decent adblocker inbuilt only adding AdGuard with stealth filters to the mix which blocks a surprising number of items even with Brave in 'aggressive' mode ~ uBlock Origin with default settings by contrast blocked nothing on Brave. My only niggle is that it's difficult to see exactly whats being blocked with AdGuard and uBlock is far easier to customise for a specific website, in short I like AdGuard's apparent performance but with uBlocks UI!

My question is whether uBlock Origin, perhaps with ClearUrls, can match AdGuard by applying AdGuard's filters in uBlocks' filter list? Would they produce comparable performance with uBlocks better interface? I don't use AdGuard's phishing protection but is there anything else I'd be missing that's important? The AdGuard filters on uBlock say they're 'out of date' too which is another question mark.

Any input/insight would be appreciated.
 

oldschool

Level 81
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Mar 29, 2018
7,043
@JasonUK I use ClearURLs and LocalCDN in Brave. The latter in Chromium tends to be good on shopping sites and some 3rd rate news sites, etc, plus it has more features than Decentraleyes. Both of these extensions actually work better on Firefox. ClearURLs is being totally overhauled and I'm hoping it improves its Chromium performance, e.g. ETag filtering, etc. And remember, Brave has some link cleaning features built-in + referrer protection.
 

Nightwalker

Level 24
Verified
Honorary Member
Top Poster
Content Creator
Well-known
May 26, 2014
1,339
Speaking of this, has anyone seen this latest test?



Testing Adguard extension and also comparing the ad blocking feature vs Ublock Origin.


The adblock comparison against uBlock Origin is totally nonsense, he was testing the two extensions working together, it will obviously impact in the results and it is hard to compare the numbers reported directly.

About the phishing/malware, it is meaningless too, those results are highly depending of the source of the URLs and its "freshness", it is just a "entertaining" video I guess.
 

Nightwalker

Level 24
Verified
Honorary Member
Top Poster
Content Creator
Well-known
May 26, 2014
1,339
But which is better? Ublock doesn't seem to have malicious warning for sites like Adguard I guess unless you use Adguard filters on Ublock or just use Adguard?!
AdGuard should be better because its malware filters are updated more often (real-time?) while uBlock depends on more static filters lists (you have many lists options there, but they arent that efficient).


 

SeriousHoax

Level 47
Well-known
Mar 16, 2019
3,630
But which is better? Ublock doesn't seem to have malicious warning for sites like Adguard I guess unless you use Adguard filters on Ublock or just use Adguard?!
According to some benchmarks, uBlock Origin is faster and also use less memory. Using the malware protection filter may slow down page loading a bit. Don't need to use the malware protection option if you're using a third party AV with good web protection. Another way to use Adguard's malware protection filter is to use Adguard DNS.
Both are very good with some extra features not available in the other one. Use the one you're more comfortable with.
 

Lenny_Fox

Level 22
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Oct 1, 2019
1,120
I don't know whether Adblock, uBlockOrigin and AdGuard are able to process the advanced rules features of each other. When looking at their documentation their scope seem to differ (meaning uBO might offer an advanced feature AG does not have) and the syntax of the advanced features which do perfrom simular functions seems to be slightly different, see the examples in this post Q&A - Which block lists do you use with UBO, AG and ABP ? | MalwareTips Community

So my best guess would be NO
 

Jan Willy

Level 11
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jul 5, 2019
544

Gandalf_The_Grey

Level 76
Verified
Honorary Member
Top Poster
Content Creator
Well-known
Apr 24, 2016
6,505
AFAIK Adguard DNS doesn't include special anti malware and anti phishing filters. A review on the site How good are public DNS providers in blocking malware & phishing? – Skadligkod.se seems this to confirm. At least you can't expect great malware protection from Adguard DNS.
A later test from that site:
Vedicts
Starting with the newcomer Cloudflare families, I’m not impressed by it’s results. Non of the domains connected to phishing links where blocked. When it comes to malware links, here at least 25% of the domains where blocked.

Quad9, CleanBrowsing and OpenDNS are very good in blocking phishing links (100 – 92%).

On the malware blocking test, CleanBrowsing did still block 50% of the tested doamins.

Sadly, OpenDNS did not block any malware domain tested, having a high score on blocking Phishing they also need to improve their filtering of malware domains.

AdGuard DNS on the other hand has rather equal results in blocking Phishing and Malware domains (42 % / 67 %). Using Adguard would also give you the advantage of blocked advertisement in your browsing traffic.

The total winner of this test is Quad9. Blocking 96% of everything I tested in this review. All 12 phishing domains where block and only one malware domain did it let go through. Very impressive results!

I was first thinking about giving Cloudflare families a try to be my main DNS service. But I was expecting much better results from Cloudflare, a company having a huge Content Delivery Network around the world as they have. But after my review it’s clear for me, to continue using Quad9 as my DNS service on all devices as I have done for about two years now.
 

SeriousHoax

Level 47
Well-known
Mar 16, 2019
3,630

About us

  • MalwareTips is a community-driven platform providing the latest information and resources on malware and cyber threats. Our team of experienced professionals and passionate volunteers work to keep the internet safe and secure. We provide accurate, up-to-date information and strive to build a strong and supportive community dedicated to cybersecurity.

User Menu

Follow us

Follow us on Facebook or Twitter to know first about the latest cybersecurity incidents and malware threats.

Top