By Chrome is ending support for many extensions, including uBlock Origin.
Even with uBlock Lite extension, you are now forced to watch YouTube with ads and there’s no way to avoid it.
The only solution is to switch to a different browser.
I tested several different browsers over the past few days and came to the conclusion that Firefox and Brave are the best alternatives available right now.
After using both browsers for a while, I’ve come to the conclusion that Brave is the best alternative to Chrome.
Keep reading to find out why.
Why It’s Time To Ditch Chrome
Google has been in control of the browser monopoly for decades. To this day, Chrome is the most-used browser in the world.
The only problem they had was having to deal with ad-blockers. Specifically uBlock Origin, which is the only ad-block that was able to block ads on YouTube.
Google’s solution to this problem is to introduce a new system for extensions, called Manifest V3, which disables the ability for extensions to have deeper control over the browser.
Google has been rolling this out over the past few months and by July 2025, they are completely ending support for extensions that are not compatible with Manifest V3.
This includes uBlock Origin extension.
If you’ve received a notification saying some of your plugins have been disabled by Chrome, that’s the reason.
uBlock introduced a new extension to fight this, called uBlock Lite. This extension helps you with blocking some ads on websites, but it is not capable of blocking ads on YouTube.
So, right now, your only solution is to either ditch Chrome and switch to a different browser that still supports ad-blocking. Or continue to use Chrome and live with ads.
I chose the first option.
Why I Chose Brave Over Firefox
Truth be told, Firefox was my first choice.
But after some tests between Firefox and Brave, I decided to use Brave as my default browser. And this is the main reason:
Firefox consumes more RAM and system resources than Brave. Even though I have plenty of RAM to compensate for that, I wasn’t going to let it happen when I have a better alternative. The browser also felt slower compared to Brave.
There are other benefits to using Brave as well.
It’s Chromium-Based
Brave claims to be the fastest browser and I felt it!
Brave is made with Chromium, the same system that powers Chrome. This makes Brave the closest thing you can have to an experience similar to Chrome.
That also makes Brave extremely fast and lightweight.
Brave has a lot of “additional” features like an AI bot, a rewards system, a built-in VPN, and more. But, even with all those extra features, the browser runs smoothly without consuming more system resources.
Brave Has Built-In Ad-Block
If Brave is made with Chromium, wouldn’t it also have to use Manifest V3 at some point in the future? Yes, but there’s a solution.
Brave has promised to support uBlock Origin for as long as it can, even after a Manifest V3 update.
But, what makes Brave better, is that it has a custom-built ad-blocker baked into the browser. Brave’s ad-blocker is not an extension, so it’s not affected by the Manifest V3 and it will continue to function no matter what happens.
Brave’s ad-blocker is actually pretty impressive and it blocks YouTube ads, along with ads on all other websites.
You can learn more about this here.
Private Browsing with Tor
When you open a Private browsing tab on any browser, it only means that the browser will stop storing the browsing data happening on that session. But your Internet provider and the websites you visit will still be able to track you.
Brave has an incredible system that prevents that and it’s one of the many features I loved about this browser.
Brave has the usual Private window option and has an additional Private window with Tor option that launches a secured browsing session that runs your connection through a Tor network.
With Tor enabled, your browsing data is much more secure than running a simple Private window.
If you’re not familiar with Tor, you can read more about it here.
Brave Doesn’t Collect User Data
I highly value privacy and I was delighted when I found out that Brave does not store user data, unless you opt-in.
This is the official message you can find on the Brave privacy policy page:
“Our company does not store any record of people’s browsing history. We don’t write any personal data to the blockchain. The only way a user’s data is stored by Brave is if the user has switched on Rewards or Sync.”
Until recently, Firefox also had a similar stance on user privacy but they changed it after deciding to collect and sell user data. That turned me away from Firefox. More on that in a bit.
Other Benefits of Using Brave
Those are the main reasons why I chose Brave. There are several other benefits to using Brave, like a built-in VPN, a rewards system that pays you in exchange for ads, and a built-in AI chat bot called Leo.
The VPN costs $9.99 per month so it’s definitely not worth it when you can get a much cheaper VPN to run system-wide. I also came here to avoid ads, so I don’t want to enable ads even if they pay me. And I don’t care about AI in my browser, I can go to ChatGPT for that.
I was able to disable/hide most of these so it’s not a huge problem for me.
Having said that, there may be some people who might benefit from those features.
Firefox is Not Bad
Firefox is still a good option to switch over to and much better than continuing to use Chrome.
Even though I went with Brave, you might find Firefox to be better. Especially if you want to completely avoid Chromium-based browsers.
Firefox Controversy Explained
Firefox recently changed their privacy policy, along with their entire company vision.
Firefox always aligned themselves as a not-for-profit company that values user privacy. And they strongly believed in not selling user data.
That all changed in February 2025, when the company quietly changed its terms of service, along with the entire vision by deciding to collect and store user data.
Then they also silently changed their website’s mentions about “not collecting and selling user data”.
Experts like Lois Rossman believe that this was simply poor communication from Mozilla and it’s not something to worry about. Some say this move is done to gather data to train Mozilla’s upcoming AI features, which is the most likely explanation for this.
Either way, it’s not a good feeling to know that your visits to PornHub and weird subReddits are all being recorded by the browser company.
Supports uBlock Origin
Firefox will continue to support uBlock Origin. Firefox has no plans to introduce any new systems like Manifest V3 to block extensions.
So if you really want to use uBlock, Firefox is the best place to be. And that’s the only good thing I can say about Firefox right now.
What About Other Browsers?
Of course, there are tons of other browsers out there. Like Vivaldi, Opera, Edge, and the new Firefox alternative LibreFox. Even DuckDuckGo has a browser that promotes user privacy.
I actually tried most of these browsers, except for the DuckDuckGo browser, and the results were disappointing. But you should do your own tests and see what you like.
Many people are promoting LibreFox right now, but according to some forums and Reddit, the developers of this project are not the most trust-worthy folks.
I’ll leave it up to you to decide. For now, I’m happy with Brave.
