Quick Answer
- Use AdGuard apps for the most robust and configurable system-wide blocking.
- Use AdGuard DNS, ProtonVPN NetShield, or NordVPN Threat Protection as lighter, DNS-style filters.
- You can add a good browser extension (uBlock Origin) if you want fine‑grained browser control.
Core Models: How Each Blocks Ads
AdGuard Pro apps
- AdGuard works like a mini firewall on a device, inspecting traffic and applying filter lists, cosmetic rules, and per‑app policies.
- It can block in‑app ads, strip tracking parameters, and hide leftover ad containers, which DNS‑only approaches can’t do.
AdGuard DNS
- AdGuard DNS locks domains that serve ads, trackers, or malware at the DNS (lookup) layer, either per device or on your router.
- Simple to deploy across a whole network, but cannot clean up page layout or catch some first‑party or CDN‑hosted elements.
ProtonVPN NetShield
- NetShield is DNS‑based filtering integrated into ProtonVPN. It blocks known ad, tracker, and malware domains.
NordVPN Threat Protection / Pro
NordVPN offers two levels of adblocking:
- Threat Protection Lite: primarily DNS filtering when using the VPN.
- Threat Protection Pro (desktop): adds system‑wide ad and tracker blocking, phishing protection, and file scanning, and can work even when the VPN tunnel is off.
Browser Extensions (uBlock Origin, etc.)
- These run inside the browser, apply sophisticated filter lists, and do cosmetic filtering.
- uBlock Origin is open source, lightweight, and avoids “acceptable ads” pay‑to‑play schemes.
Blocking Strength (rough order)
- AdGuard Pro apps + uBlock Origin (max blocking and cosmetic cleanup)
- NordVPN Threat Protection Pro (good system‑wide coverage plus security scanning)
- AdGuard DNS ≈ ProtonVPN NetShield ≈ Nord Threat Protection Lite (DNS‑only class)
Privacy-Levels
- AdGuard, Proton, and Nord all market privacy and do not rely on selling user profiles, but you are trusting their DNS and filtering infrastructure.
- Browser‑only blockers like uBlock Origin minimize central data by design. The filtering happens locally and lists are community‑maintained.
Recommendations
- If you want maximum blocking and control use AdGuard Pro and optionally uBlock Origin.
- If you want simplicity with decent protection use NordVPN Threat Protection Pro or ProtonVPN NetShield.
