Zen Ad-Blocker
Zen is an open-source system-wide ad-blocker and privacy guard for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. It works by setting up a proxy that intercepts HTTP requests from all applications, and blocks those serving ads, tracking scripts that monitor your behavior, malware, and other...
Features
Properties
- Privacy focused
- Lightweight
Features
- Ad-free
- Block Trackers
- Dark Mode
- No registration required
- No Tracking
- Portable
- Firewall
Zen Ad-Blocker News & Activities
Recent News
Recent activities
- anfragment liked Zen Ad-Blocker
WontedTangent added Zen Ad-Blocker as alternative to Clean View Filter
UniqueGo added Zen Ad-Blocker as alternative to Total Adblock
POX added Zen Ad-Blocker as alternative to WebShield
Zen Ad-Blocker information
Developed by
Ansar Smagulov Licensing
Open Source (MIT) and Free product.Written in
Alternatives
56 alternatives listedSupported Languages
- English
AlternativeTo Categories
Security & Privacy, Web BrowsersGitHub repository
- 3,767 Stars
- 115 Forks
- 58 Open Issues
- Updated
What is Zen Ad-Blocker?
Zen is an open-source system-wide ad-blocker and privacy guard for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. It works by setting up a proxy that intercepts HTTP requests from all applications, and blocks those serving ads, tracking scripts that monitor your behavior, malware, and other unwanted content. By operating at the system level, Zen can protect against threats that browser extensions cannot, such as trackers embedded in desktop applications and operating system components. Zen comes with many pre-installed filters, but also allows you to easily add hosts files and EasyList-style filters, enabling you to tailor your protection to your specific needs.
Comments and Reviews
Great, system-wide ad-blocker. You can use this rather than having something like uBlock on all your browsers, and it protects in other apps as well.
However, when tested, it's not quite as good as uBlock or Brave Shields. While it blocks the ads, often there is just an empty gray box that says advertisement where using only Zen, while with uBlock and Brave Shields, they remove that element to make the page look more clean.
It's also only useful as a stupid simple GUI. You can just add blocklists to DNSCrypt. Having this is redundant.