What Ghostery actually does
Ghostery is a privacy suite built around a browser extension, developed by Ghostery GmbH in Germany, with roots going back more than 15 years. Its central idea is that blocking trackers is only half the job — the other half is showing users, in plain language, exactly which company was trying to track them on the page they're viewing.
The core product
The extension blocks ad banners, video ads, pop-ups and sponsored placements, and separately blocks tracking scripts using a database maintained by WhoTracks.Me, a transparency project Ghostery also runs that has crawled millions of pages to catalogue which companies embed trackers where. Instead of a generic "12 trackers blocked" counter, Ghostery names them — Google Analytics, a specific ad exchange, a named data broker — so users can see the actual tracking landscape of the sites they use daily. A feature called Never-Consent automatically rejects cookie-consent tracking requests on sites that show those banners, cutting down on both the tracking and the click-through annoyance. Where blocking outright could break a site's functionality, Ghostery instead swaps in randomized values so scripts get data that doesn't identify the real user. The extension is available for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari and Opera, and Ghostery also ships a standalone Android browser app built around the same blocking engine.
What's new or notable
Ghostery's own corporate history predates the Cliqz name most people associate it with: the extension itself launched in 2009, was acquired in January 2010 by ad-transparency company Evidon (which briefly open-sourced the code before locking it down again by 2016), then passed to German company Cliqz GmbH in February 2017, which reopened the source on GitHub in 2018. When Cliqz shut down in 2020, the product and much of the team continued under a newly formed Ghostery GmbH, still headquartered in Germany. Along the way, Edward Snowden publicly recommended Ghostery as a privacy tool in 2014, a notable early endorsement for a tracker blocker. More recently, Ghostery has expanded past pure ad blocking into a broader privacy suite: a private search product (in closed beta at time of writing), a cookie-consent management layer for the browser, and continued investment in WhoTracks.Me as an independent, publicly browsable tracker database that researchers and journalists also cite. In 2024 the company discontinued its short-lived Ghostery Private Browser (previously branded Dawn), narrowing its lineup back toward the extension and consent-management side of the business rather than maintaining a full standalone browser alongside it. The company states clearly on its site that all core features — ad blocking, tracker blocking, consent handling and detailed tracker insights — remain free, with optional user contributions supporting ongoing development rather than a mandatory subscription gate.
Who should use Ghostery
Great fit if…
- You want to know who's tracking you, by name — the per-site breakdown is the main reason to pick Ghostery over a generic blocker.
- You're annoyed by cookie-consent banners — Never-Consent auto-rejects tracking consent instead of making you click through each one.
- You want one tool across Chrome, Firefox and Android — the same blocking engine and lists are consistent across all supported platforms.
Skip it if…
- You're on iPhone/iPad only — there's no full Ghostery app for iOS, just a limited Safari content-blocker path.
- You just want silence, not information — if the named tracker breakdown doesn't interest you, a simpler blocker with less UI may suit you better.
Pricing in detail
As of this check, Ghostery's own site states every core feature is free with no subscription required, and funds development through optional voluntary contributions rather than a locked paid tier. A historical "Ghostery Plus" paid add-on existed in past years but does not appear as an active offering on the current site.
| Plan | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Ghostery | Free — €0 (optional voluntary contribution) | Ad blocking, named tracker blocking, Never-Consent, WhoTracks.Me insights, Chrome/Firefox/Edge/Safari/Opera extension + Android app |
Where it falls short
- No real iOS product — Apple's extension model leaves Ghostery without the full feature set on iPhone.
- Interface-heavy for casual users — the tracker-naming feature that makes Ghostery distinctive also adds a layer some users will simply skip past.
Privacy & data
Ghostery's blocking happens locally in the browser using downloaded lists; the company states it does not sell browsing data. WhoTracks.Me publishes its tracker-prevalence data openly rather than keeping it proprietary, which is unusual for a company whose core business is privacy tooling.
How we checked this
Verified directly against ghostery.com's homepage and product pages, checked 2026-09-05, cross-referenced against third-party pricing aggregators that still list a legacy "Ghostery Plus" tier no longer visible on the live site.
What you get, what you give up
What you get
- WhoTracks.Me, its open tracker database built from continuous crawling, names the exact companies blocked rather than showing an anonymous count
- Never-Consent auto-rejects cookie tracking consent banners instead of just hiding them, reducing how many popups you have to click through
What you give up
- No dedicated iOS app — Safari on iPhone only gets Ghostery through a content-blocker extension, not the full product
- Being useful requires reading its per-site tracker breakdown; users who just want silent blocking with zero interface get less value from its signature feature