head to head · open source
uBlock vs duckduckgo-privacy-extension
uBlock has 69,033 GitHub stars, 4,427 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped yesterday. duckduckgo-privacy-extension has 1,510 stars, 339 forks, 198 open issues and last shipped yesterday. uBlock leads on adoption by 4,472% (69,033 vs 1,510 stars). uBlock is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; duckduckgo-privacy-extension is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. uBlock has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, duckduckgo-privacy-extension 22%. uBlock was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (browser-extension, firefox), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| uBlock | duckduckgo-privacy-extension | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 69K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 339 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick uBlock if
- You weight community size — 69K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick duckduckgo-privacy-extension if
- You want the duckduckgo-privacy-extension feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and duckduckgo-privacy-extension fits your workflow better
About uBlock
[![Badge Commits]][Commit Rate] [![Badge Issues]][Issues] [![Badge Localization]][Crowdin] [![Badge License]][License] [![Badge NPM]][NPM] [![Badge Mozilla]][Mozilla] ![Badge Chrome] [![Badge Edge]][Edge] uBlock Origin (uBO) GitHub Releases Stable and development versions on Firefox, Chromium MV2, and Thunderbird. Must be placed manually into web browsers; the Chromium and Thunderbird versions usually won't auto update. Related: uBlock Origin Lite uBlock Origin (uBO) is a CPU and memory efficient [wide spectrum content blocker][Blocking] for Chromium and Firefox. It blocks ads, trackers, coin miners, popups…
read the full uBlock overview →
About duckduckgo-privacy-extension
DuckDuckGo Browser Extensions DuckDuckGo Firefox, Chrome, and Edge extensions. Visit our Web Tracking Protections page to learn how each of our web tracking protections works and how they work together in our browser extensions and apps to provide overlapping protection. DuckDuckGo Privacy Extensions is distributed under the Apache 2.0 License. Latest Versions Firefox Chrome Edge Opera Safari The code for the Safari extension is an Xcode project which you can find here. The Safari extension can be installed from the App Store. Other browsers If you use another Chromium based browser like Vivaldi, you can usually…
read the full duckduckgo-privacy-extension overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is uBlock or duckduckgo-privacy-extension more popular?
uBlock has 69,033 GitHub stars and duckduckgo-privacy-extension has 1,510. uBlock has the larger community by that measure.
Are uBlock and duckduckgo-privacy-extension free?
Both are open source. uBlock is licensed under GPL-3.0 and duckduckgo-privacy-extension under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between uBlock and duckduckgo-privacy-extension?
uBlock is written in JavaScript and duckduckgo-privacy-extension in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, uBlock or duckduckgo-privacy-extension?
Choose uBlock if you want the larger community (69,033 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose duckduckgo-privacy-extension if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.