Phoenix Ad Blocker FAQ

Phoenix Ad Blocker is the first product from Better Web For All, an employee-owned and operated company founded by some of the earlier contributors of AdBlock. We're creating an ad blocker structured to serve users first, with no revenue from advertisers. The goal is to build effective ad blocking without the conflicts of interest that can arise when companies need to balance user needs with revenue generation.

Better Web For All is currently developing Phoenix Ad Blocker thoughtfully rather than rushing to market. Sign up for updates to be notified when we launch our beta testing phase and eventual full release. We'd rather take the time to build this right than ship something incomplete.

Yes. Phoenix Ad Blocker will be free forever for everyone. When we launch, Better Web For All will accept optional donations to support development, but the core extension and all its features will never cost money or be paywalled. Free means free, not freemium.

Phoenix Ad Blocker is built by Better Web For All, an employee-owned and operated company founded by some of the earlier contributors of AdBlock. Our team helped build AdBlock, which grew to 140 million users. We have over a decade of experience in ad blocking and privacy tools. Phoenix Ad Blocker is our first product, applying those lessons and building something structured differently from the start.

uBlock Origin is excellent and we have tremendous respect for it. Phoenix Ad Blocker takes a different approach with Better Web For All's team-based employee-owned and operated structure designed for long-term sustainability thanks to donations. Different models, same commitment to putting users first.

Phoenix Ad Blocker is built by Better Web For All, an employee-owned and operated company with zero revenue from advertisers. Some ad blockers use 'acceptable ads' programs where advertisers can pay for exceptions. This makes business sense when companies need revenue, but it creates an inherent conflict between serving users and generating income. Better Web For All's governance structure eliminates this conflict entirely. We can't take advertiser money because doing so would require collective agreement from the team, and that's not happening.

Brave implements ad blocking at the browser level, which is effective. Phoenix Ad Blocker is a browser extension that works on Chrome, and eventually on Edge. The goal is to bring Phoenix Ad Blocker with you on any browsers compatible with Manifest V3. It's about giving users choice rather than requiring a specific browser.

Fair question, especially given what's happened in this industry. Better Web For All is structured as an employee-owned and operated company where no single person can sell the company. There are no investors who could pressure us toward monetization. The governance structure requires collective decision-making by the team building Phoenix Ad Blocker. This isn't just a promise or policy that could change. It's the legal structure of Better Web For All itself. To compromise on user interests would require every team member to collectively agree to undermine what we're building, which isn't happening.

Yes. Phoenix Ad Blocker is architecturally designed so Better Web For All cannot see your browsing data. All ad filtering and tracking protection happens entirely on your device. We don't run analytics servers collecting user behavior. Your browsing history never leaves your computer. This isn't a privacy policy we promise to follow. It's how Phoenix Ad Blocker is built. There's no backend infrastructure to collect data even if we wanted to, which we don't.

Yes. When we launch Phoenix Ad Blocker, the code will be publicly available for security researchers, developers, and users to audit. Open source isn't just about philosophy for us. It's about verification. You shouldn't have to trust our claims about what Phoenix Ad Blocker does. You should be able to see the code and confirm it yourself.

No. Better Web For All is building Phoenix Ad Blocker without external funding or venture capital. When we launch, Phoenix Ad Blocker will be supported entirely through optional donations from users. No investors means no board pushing for growth metrics or eventual acquisition. No pressure to find ways to monetize user data or attention. The only people we answer to are the users we're building this for.

Yes. Phoenix is designed to work within Chrome's Manifest V3 architecture while maintaining effective ad blocking. Manifest V3 introduced constraints that affected some ad blockers, but we're building Phoenix from the ground up to work well within those technical limitations. It's a different approach than adapting an existing extension, which gives us more flexibility.

We're launching on Chrome first since it has roughly 65% of browser market share. This lets us reach the most users quickly and gather feedback. Edge support will follow shortly after. We're building Phoenix with a browser-agnostic architecture so we can expand to other browsers as the user base grows.

No, quite the opposite. Ad blocking actually speeds up browsing because ads, trackers, and analytics scripts never load in the first place. Our target is 25 to 30% faster page loads compared to unblocked browsing, plus reduced bandwidth usage. We're also optimizing Phoenix for minimal memory footprint so it runs efficiently even on devices with limited resources.

Yes. Phoenix uses community-maintained filter lists like EasyList and EasyPrivacy by default. These lists have been refined over years by contributors who focus purely on effective blocking. You'll also have the option to add custom filters if you want to block specific elements or fine-tune your experience. Power users get control, casual users get good defaults.

When Phoenix launches, we'll accept optional donations from users who want to support development. That's the entire revenue model. No acceptable ads programs, no selling user data or attention. If you want to donate, great. If you can't or don't want to, Phoenix still works fully. Donations support development, they don't unlock features.

We're not trying to build a billion-dollar company or justify venture capital returns. If Phoenix can support 7 to 10 full-time contributors, we can build and maintain an excellent ad blocker. That's the goal. Wikipedia raises over $180 million annually from donations. Signal supports millions of users. Mozilla sustains Firefox. Donation models work when users trust the mission and see transparent use of funds.

No. Everyone gets the same Phoenix, regardless of whether they donate. We're not creating premium tiers or paywalling features. Phoenix is free and full-featured for everyone. If you donate, it's because you support the mission and want to help sustain development, not to unlock capabilities. This is important to us because we've seen how tiered models create pressure to hold back features.

We'll consider transparent corporate donations, such as companies supporting tools their employees use, but never in exchange for allowlist deals, logo placement, or special treatment. Any corporate sponsorship would be publicly disclosed with full transparency about amounts and terms. The same employee-owned and operated governance that prevents us from taking advertiser money would prevent us from compromising for sponsors.