Total Adblock is one of the few ad blockers people leave for reasons that have nothing to do with whether it blocks ads. It does. The complaint is almost always about the bill.
The renewal is the problem
The pattern goes like this. A trial starts when you install the extension. The first year is sold at a low introductory rate — cheap enough that it doesn't feel like a real decision. Then it renews, and the renewal is several times the introductory price.
Nothing about that is hidden. It's in the terms you agreed to, and there's a money-back window if you catch it quickly. But most people don't read renewal terms on a purchase that cost less than a coffee, and a year is long enough to forget the subscription exists. The charge that eventually lands doesn't resemble the one they remember agreeing to.
The other two recurring complaints follow from the same model: cancelling takes more steps than signing up did, and the trial is followed by a run of upgrade emails.
To be fair to the product — this is a pricing strategy, not a broken features" class="doc-internal-link">ad blocker. If you're happy with what you're paying and it's blocking what you want blocked, there's no technical reason to move. This page is for people who looked at a statement and went looking.
Before you switch, cancel properly
Switching blockers doesn't cancel a subscription. Uninstalling the extension doesn't either. Those are separate systems, and an uninstalled extension will keep billing you.
Cancel through the account you signed up with first, confirm you've had a cancellation confirmation, and only then move on. If a renewal has just gone through, check whether you're still inside the refund window before you do anything else — that's time-limited and easy to miss while you're busy picking a replacement.
What to switch to
uBlock Origin — free, and free in the way that matters
No paid tier, no trial, no upsell, no company behind it selling anything. It's the obvious answer to "I don't want to pay for an ad blocker", and it's also simply very good.
The catch is which browser you're on. Chrome's move to Manifest V3 means Chrome and Edge users get uBlock Origin Lite, a narrower tool — no dynamic filtering, no per-site rule editing. The full version still runs on Firefox, Brave and Opera. We've covered which browsers still support it in more detail.
AdGuard — if you want something beyond the browser
The browser extension is free. AdGuard also sells desktop and mobile applications that filter system-wide rather than only inside the browser, and those are paid — but the pricing is conventional, without the introductory-rate-then-jump structure.
Adblock Plus or AdBlock — with one caveat
Both are free, and both ship with Acceptable Ads switched on by default, which permits some ads to reach you. It's a checkbox away from off, but it's on when you install. They also now share an owner — eyeo acquired AdBlock in 2021 — so switching between the two changes less than the different names suggest. More on that here.
DNDShield — what we charge for, plainly
We're the ones writing this, so the useful thing is to be specific about our own model rather than pitch.
Ad, tracker and pop-up blocking is on the free plan. There's no trial that converts, and no introductory rate that renews higher. What's paid is streaming support for platforms whose video ads are stitched into the stream — Dailymotion, Crunchyroll and Twitch — where handling them means muting and speeding through rather than blocking, and YouTube is handled free. Cloud sync across devices is also a paid feature.
Where we're narrower: we're built on Manifest V3, so we operate under the same platform limits as uBlock Origin Lite. If dynamic filtering is something you use, we don't replace it — and on Chrome, nothing does.
What carries over
Your allowlist won't. There's no shared format between blockers, so sites you'd permitted ads on will be blocked again until you re-add them. It's usually a short list.
Uninstall the old blocker rather than disabling it. On Chrome and Edge, extensions share a static rule budget — two blockers installed at once can leave both with fewer active rules than either would have had alone. Running two doesn't add up to more protection.
FAQ
Is Total Adblock a scam? No. It blocks ads, and its terms are published. The complaints are about the renewal being much higher than the introductory price people remember agreeing to, which is a pricing strategy rather than fraud.
Does uninstalling the extension cancel my subscription? No. Billing lives with your account, not the extension. Cancel through the account first and keep the confirmation.
Is there a genuinely free ad blocker that's as good? uBlock Origin, on a browser that still supports the full version. On Chrome and Edge the choice is narrower, but free options remain — see our comparison.
Why is my new ad blocker letting ads through after I switched? Most often because the old one is still installed. Two blockers on Chrome or Edge share a rule budget and can each end up with less than they need.
Will I lose my settings? Yes — allowlists and custom rules don't transfer between blockers. Note down the sites you've allowlisted before you uninstall.
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