Comparative benchmarks against widely used blockers: Methodology and notes

Methodology

Benchmarks were done using Browser session benchmark.

The benchmarks are run on Chromium Linux Mint 64-bit. Any Chromium-based browser should be able to run it though.

Adblock Plus, Adblock:

• Allow some non-intrusive advertising was disabled
• Filter lists used:
  • EasyList
  • EasyPrivacy (starting June 4th, 2014)
  • Fanboy+Easylist-Merged Ultimate List (before June 4th, 2014)

HTTPSB^BA/AX and HTTPSB^AA/BX:

• "BA/AX" means "block all / allow exceptionally"
• "AA/BX" means "allow all / block exceptionally"
• Blacklists used:
  • Out-of-the-box blacklists
    • All malware, ad servers, trackers, nuisance lists.
    • EasyList, EasyPrivacy
    • Fanboy+Easylist-Merged Ultimate List Not anymore since May 2nd.

Ghostery and Disconnect were set in their respective equivalent of "Block all trackers" mode.

The latest version of all blockers was used on the day of the benchmark.

Chrome Settings / Privacy / Content Settings / Cookies => "Block third-party cookies and site data" was disabled (to see what a blocker won't block).

Chrome Settings / Privacy / Content Settings / Plug-ins => "Click to play" was selected.

Chrome Settings / Privacy / Content Settings / JavaScript => "Allow all sites to run JavaScript" was selected.

Notes (unsorted)

"Adblock+" means Adblock Plus.

"3rd-party" in the strictest sense, meanings if the domain name of a request differs from the domain of a page URL address, the request is deemed 3rd-party.

"Cookies" means outbound cookies, i.e. cookies reaching a remote host. These are the cookies which really matter with regard to privacy.

Keep in mind:

• A user can not add new filters in Ghostery or Disconnect.
  • Correct me if I am wrong.
• A user can add new filters in HTTPSB and Adblock+. Where these two differ:
  • How easy it is to add/remove filters: Adblock+ = advanced users, HTTPSB = easy (just click on a cell in the matrix).
  • The granularity of their filters: Adblock+ = coarse- to fine-grained, HTTPSB = hostname/type of request (firewall-like).
  • With Adblock+ it is not possible to completely block all requests to an entire web site (see Why was "Site blocking" removed?), meaning that even if you create an Adblock filter to block, say, evil.com, there will still be a request made to evil.com if you try to open a web page from evil.com.
  • Adblock doesn't prevent the execution of inline javascript.
  • HTTPSB^BA/AX breaks a lot of sites, because it allows only images and stylesheets, and block everything else (javascript, cookies, etc.) Thus:
    • HTTPSB^BA/AX is rather for the more advanced users.
    • HTTPSB^AA/BX is more comparable to other blockers mentioned here.

I will repeat the benchmark once in a while and add results here in order to show consistentcy of results over time. Keep in mind contents of benchmarked web pages will obviously change, so results are meaningful when compared to each other within the same benchmark.