We constantly update our list of general-purpose ad blockers. What if you’re in need of an ad blocker designed specifically for Apple iOS devices like iPhones and iPads? In that case, Purify Blocker is a good solution.
Most all-purpose ad blockers work as browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome, the most popular cross-platform browsers. Few support Safari, the default browser on Apple’s mobile devices.
In contrast, Purify works on Safari — and only Safari, for which it was specifically designed. The app’s developers pitch it as “the easiest native blocker for Safari on iOS” and promise that it “gives you ultimate control and downloads pages an average of 4x faster.”
The developers don’t provide numbers to back up the claim of four-fold speed improvements, but it’s a safe bet that blocking ads on your iPhone or iPad will help you load websites faster. It will also save on data costs, since fewer ads to download mean fewer data charges. Last but not least, of course, it helps you stay private by blocking ads that track your online movements.
Purify’s developers also pitch the app as exceptionally easy to use. It provides a simple interface for enabling or disabling certain types of ads and related content, such as images, comments on social media and scripts.
The downside to the ease of use is that Purify doesn’t support granular configuration options. You can whitelist sites in order to except them from ad blocking, but you can’t, for example, block only certain types of ads while allowing others. You also can’t disable ads on one site while allowing images on the same one, unless you allow images in general.
The lack of detailed configurations might disappoint some power-users, but most people will find that Purify is a simple solution for ad blocking on iOS.
We’d like it if Purify were free and open-source. Unfortunately, its code is closed, which means no one but the developers can inspect it. And it costs money, but only $0.99, which will not break the bank for most people.
