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I ran my reference benchmark to compare against three popular blockers.

Results -- figures are 3rd party / all:

µBlock 0.1.0.4

  • Domains: 66 / 67
  • Hosts: 117 / 171
  • Scripts: 239 / 321
  • Outbound cookies: 8 / 42
  • Net requests: 1,035 / 1,877

Adblock Plus 1.8.3

  • Domains: 72 / 73
  • Hosts: 124 / 177
  • Scripts: 243 / 328
  • Outbound cookies: 8 / 44
  • Net requests: 1,041 / 1,913

Ghostery 5.3.0

  • Domains: 83 / 84
  • Hosts: 140 / 211
  • Scripts: 239 / 343
  • Outbound cookies: 17 / 57
  • Net requests: 1,046 / 1,930

Adguard 1.0.2.9

  • Domains: 89 / 90
  • Hosts: 145 / 217
  • Scripts: 262 / 349
  • Outbound cookies: 18 / 68
  • Net requests: 1,064 / 1,904

Disconnect 5.18.14

  • Domains: 95 / 96
  • Hosts: 163 / 239
  • Scripts: 283 / 381
  • Outbound cookies: 18 / 74
  • Net requests: 1,087 / 1,989

No blocker

  • Domains: 380 / 381
  • Hosts: 566 / 644
  • Scripts: 490 / 592
  • Outbound cookies: 245 / 315
  • Net requests: 1,950 / 2,871

The figures show the number of requests allowed, thus lower numbers are better. The point is to show how many 3rd-party servers are hit on average after running the reference benchmark (three repeats in the current instance).

The less hits on 3rd-party servers, the better. All blockers where configured in such a way as to compare apples-vs-apples.

Since Disconnect doesn't support blocking social widgets, these were not blocked for other blockers (so Fanboy not selected for µBlock/ABP, and social widget blocking not selected for Ghostery/Adguard).

So I would say µBlock does pretty well block-wise. It's less sexy etc.. (keep in mind it's v0.1), but then it's also completely devoid of any agenda -- aside that as a developer it's nice to see my stuff used.

Edit: Adding benchmark details so that other people can reproduce. All blockers were configured in such a way as to compare apples-vs-apples:

  • µBlock: out-of-the-box settings -- no change.
  • Adblock Plus: EasyList, EasyPrivacy, Malware Domains checked. Acceptable ads unchecked.
  • Ghostery: Advertising, Analytics, Beacons, Privacy checked. Widgets not checked. GhostRank unchecked.
  • Adguard: English, Spyware and tracking, Phishing and malware protection checked. Social media not checked. Acceptable ads unchecked.
  • Disconnect: out-of-the-box settings -- no change.
/r/firefox Thread