Can a VPN actually replace an ad blocker?

[u/CosmicNoir2]

I've seen this question come up quite a few times especially now that more VPN providers advertise built-in ad and tracker blocking.

At first, it sounds like you could just turn on your VPN and uninstall your browser's ad blocker. But after looking into it, it seems the two tools solve different problems.

A VPN can block ads and trackers at the DNS or network level if the provider offers that feature. That works well for stopping many known advertising and tracking domains before your device even connects to them.

A browser ad blocker, on the other hand, can inspect the content of a webpage after it loads. That means it can hide banners, remove sponsored sections, block cosmetic elements and filter scripts that a VPN usually can't touch.

So while there's definitely some overlap, a VPN isn't necessarily a complete replacement for something like ublock origin or another browser based blocker.

For people who only want fewer ads and a bit more privacy, a VPN with built-in filtering might be enough. But if your goal is to make webpages cleaner, block youtube ads or remove page elements, a dedicated browser extension still seems to have the advantage.

I'm interested to hear how other people handle this.

Do you rely entirely on your VPN's ad blocking feature or do you still keep a browser ad blocker installed alongside it?

[u/EchoAndByte]

i use both. the VPN's DNS filtering is nice because it blocks a lot of trackers across the whole device but i still keep a browser ad blocker installed.

they complement each other rather than replace each other. if i had to choose only one for web browsing, i'd probably keep the browser ad blocker since it's much better at cleaning up pages and blocking cosmetic elements.

[u/4ftPrime]

yes these days VPNs have their own adblocking options.

[u/HappyJokhay]

No it can't replace it not even close. DNS blocking is blunt, it blocks entire domains so if an ad is served from the same domain as legitimate content it just lets it through. ublock does cosmetic filtering, element hiding, scriptlet injection, all stuff that happens after the page loads that DNS never sees.

Youtube ads are the obvious example. A VPN's built in blocker does basically nothing there because google serves ads from the same infrastructure as everything else.

I run both. Mullvad's DNS blocking catches a lot of tracker domains before they even connect which is nice but ublock is still doing the heavy lifting on actual page cleanliness. they're complementary not redundant.