I've used Firefox Focus as an ad blocker for Safari on iOS for several years now. I don't actually use it as my browser, I just use Safari as normal, but it integrates with Safari, and seems to work well enough.
From what I can find, the original Wipr was released for iOS in Sep 2015 and the macOS version followed in Aug 2018.
Wipr 2 is a complete rewrite and was released in Nov 2024. So, in theory, for £1.99 you could've gotten 9 years of ad-blocking on iOS and for another £1.99 the same on macOS for 6 years.
And since this requires maintenance of the blocklists and associated code, I am totally fine with paying a small amount once every few years. And I'm not even forced to pay as the older versions usually continue to run - albeit on life support.
yea...I in theory would be excited about ublock coming to safari but Wipr is working so well I'm kind of reluctant to change...I do want to support gorhill working on MacOS though...
Good! Wipr was very cheap, so was Wipr 2, if paying a tiny fee every few years for a well-made app that does its job well keeps the developer in business and able to keep maintaining it, then I'm happy to do it.
That said, I'm not actually convinced there will be a Wipr 3, at least not without some significant change to the ecosystem first. Wipr 2 was a complete rewrite of Wipr, there's no reason to expect it will need yet another complete rewrite.
As someone currently on 1Blocker (and decently happy with it, esp. the 'vpn' hack to block in app content too); what made you switch and how does it improve over 1BLocker?
Honestly, I forget. I talked to the author on Mastodon when it came out, and mentioned it reminded me of 1Blocker. She set me straight on the many advantages and I figured why not and bought it, since it’s so cheap. It’s nice stuck with it.
I don’t remember what those advantages were, except that I was persuaded thst they seemed like good ideas.
Sorry. I know that couldn’t be more vague if I tried.
Try Brave browser on iOS, it cuts everything irrelevant without third-party apps, and you also get background media playback on locked screen (settings toggle) on youtube as "one more thing".
