Total Adblock and Surfshark CleanWeb are both bundled ad-blocking solutions. They’re paid solutions in a see of free extensions. Don’t get me wrong, free extensions are amazing, and they’re free! But that also means they’re limited in resources. Paid ad blockers have a lot more unique features that is supported by your patronage.
Total Adblock comes from a Total AV bundle. Total AV is an award-winning antivirus that is well-regarded in the privacy space. And Total Adblock builds on that reputation.
Surfshark CleanWeb is more of a feature than a bundle, to be honest. And it works as a great addition to a VPN, as intercepting ads at a network level becomes more easier.
Both have their strengths and weaknesses, and we’re going to explore them in this article.
Quick Comparison Between Total Adblock and Surfshark CleanWeb
| Total Adblock | Surfshark CleanWeb | |
| Starts at | $29/year | $41.85/year + 3 months |
| Free version | Yes | Yes |
| Blocks YouTube Ads? | Yes | Yes |
| Blocks Trackers? | Yes | Yes |
| Compatibility | Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, and iOS | Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS |
Pros & Cons
Total Adblock
Pros
- Simple, classic browser extension experience
- Strong blocking on most websites
- Comes bundled with TotalAV on paid plans
- Easy allowlisting and quick on/off controls
- Good fit for non-technical users
Cons
- Not great on anti-adblock detection
- Extension-only blocking, no true system-wide layer
- Some YouTube coverage gaps can show up (like Shorts)
Surfshark CleanWeb
Pros
- VPN-level blocking often works beyond the browser
- CleanWeb 1.0 can dodge basic detection since it isn’t an extension
- CleanWeb 2.0 adds pop-up blocking plus malware and breach alerts
- Strong YouTube performance in testing, including Shorts
- 24/7 live chat and stronger overall support
Cons
- Best results often require keeping the VPN on
- No deep customisation, no custom filter lists, no power-user controls
- Not designed for paywall bypassing
Key Differences at a Glance (TL;DR)
- Total Adblock is the easy, browser-first option that works well on most sites and feels familiar, especially if you also want the TotalAV bundle.
- Surfshark CleanWeb is the broader “VPN + ad blocking” approach, with stronger support, better YouTube consistency, and network-level blocking that can cover more than just your browser.
- If you want a simple extension and an antivirus bundle, pick Total Adblock.
- If you want wider coverage across apps and stronger support, pick Surfshark CleanWeb.
Real World Ad Blocking
We put Total Adblock and Surfshark CleanWeb to the test on some of the most ad-heavy sites on the web – YouTube, major news outlets, Reddit, X, and a few more. As it turned out, the way each tool is integrated into your system makes a pretty big difference.
YouTube
Total Adblock managed to block nearly every single ad on YouTube. The skippable and non-skippable pre-rolls, those annoying mid-rolls, the short videos leading to ads, banners on the homepage, and even the video units in your feed. The only slight weakness we found was on YouTube Shorts where ads did sneak in occasionally.
Surfshark CleanWeb actually did them one better. It didn’t just block all ad types on the site but also managed to get rid of them on YouTube Shorts. And to top it off, it kept playback smooth and instant and even removed those nags for you to try out YouTube Premium.
Both give you a YouTube experience that feels like you’re using the premium version, but CleanWeb gets the win for consistency across Shorts.
News Sites
Total Adblock did a pretty good job at getting rid of all the clutter on most news sites. Forbes and NYT loaded up just fine without all the banner ads and side units and all that nonsense. You could even read the articles without any cookie prompts getting in the way. Of course, the paywalls on those sites still kicked in after the free article limit.
Surfshark CleanWeb managed to scrub those same banners, inline ads and cookie notices just as easily. It didn’t pretend to handle the paywalls but hey, at least it made the pages load a little faster since the ad requests never made it to the browser.
Both handled news sites just fine. No ads, no pop-ups, just reading. Neither even tried to touch those subscription walls.
Reddit & X
Both of these ad blockers performed about the same. Total Adblock wiped all those ‘Promoted’ posts from your Reddit and X timelines, which restored your feeds to their original state.
Surfshark CleanWeb also did the same. It got rid of the sponsored posts and inline promotions, kept the layout and media intact.
It was a tie. Both handled social feeds perfectly.
Key Features
Ad Blocking Capabilities
Total Adblock and Surfshark CleanWeb do the job of blocking ads, but they seem to have two completely different mindsets.
Total Adblock
Total Adblock is the one we know and love. The classic browser ad blocker. Install the extension, give your tabs a quick refresh and suddenly all that annoying junk just disappears: banners, pop-ups, those floating ads you can’t get rid of, video ads, sponsored posts and all the tracking that comes with them. Plus it comes with an Allow List so you can let a few websites slip through the net even if they’re plastered with ads.
The catch is that you have somewhat limited control. Total Adblock is geared towards people who don’t want the hassle of managing filter lists, writing their own rules or manually blocking bits and bobs. You get a handful of toggle switches and a few categories to play with, not a toolbox the size of a hardware store. It works no problem, but you’re basically relying on the defaults and not getting to shape things to your liking. And to be honest, surfacing certain bits like consistent YouTube blocking is only available in the paid tier. Not to mention the free tier is all about keeping things watered down on the most popular sites.
Surfshark CleanWeb
Surfshark CleanWeb on the other hand is a bit more like a lowpass filter, or a gatekeeper. When you flip the switch inside the Surfshark app, it blocks all connections to known ad and malware domains before they even load into your browser. That’s the key bit, because it can clean up your browsing on devices other than just your main browser tab. You’re basically filtering the traffic before it gets to your screen, particularly handy on mobile or devices with dodgy extension support.
And then there’s CleanWeb 2.0, the extension which can basically run on its own and does things a bit differently. It allows you to set up ad blocking, pop-up blocking (that includes cookie prompts), malware and data-breach alerts – it’s not exactly a rules playground but it gives you a bit more control and is more hands-on than the single toggle switch inside the surfshark app.
Want a straightforward browser extension that doesn’t get in your way? Total Adblock is the one. Want a bit of ad blocking that follows you around and works on your tablet, mobile and whatever? CleanWeb is the better bet.
Privacy and Security
Ad blocking is a simple matter, but the real question is what’s lurking behind the ads: all those sneaky trackers, dodgy redirects, phishing pages, and the little bits of personal info you unwittingly leave scattered all over the web for anyone to pick up.
Total Adblock
Total Adblock does the job most people expect in 2025. It blocks a lot of third party trackers and cuts down the noise from ad-tech that follows you around. It also flags and blocks known malicious sites thats a big deal because a lot of what gets passed off as “ads” are actually just delivery systems for scams and sketchy redirects.
The truth is though the privacy ceiling is still pretty low. It can whack some tracking, but it’s not going to do much to stop the kind of tracking that goes on through things like fingerprinting – that’s the kind that can identify your browser even when cookies are limited.
The real security value though is the package deal. On the paid plan, Total Adblock comes bundled with TotalAV. So you’re not just getting an ad blocker, you’re also getting a bit of antivirus action and a PC tune-up tool. In practice that means Total Adblock handles the web clutter while TotalAV is there looking after malware and the overall safety of your device outside the browser.
Surfshark CleanWeb
CleanWeb’s story starts with the fact that it exists inside a VPN ecosystem. When you’re using Surfshark, your traffic gets encrypted and your IP address gets masked. That’s a different kind of protection to a browser extension. It’s especially useful on public Wi-Fi or on your mobile, where trackers and network snooping are a lot more common than most people would ever guess.
CleanWeb itself blocks ads, trackers and known malicious domains. Then CleanWeb 2.0 adds the more “security-like” extras: a pop-up blocker that handles those annoying cookie prompts, a malware alert for compromised pages and a data breach alert that warns you if your credentials have shown up in a leak. It can even run on its own, which makes it useful as a browser add-on too.
The catch is, its not super deep. CleanWeb is not a hardcore anti-fingerprinting tool, and tracking tests aren’t its strongest suit. Its more of a broad all-round shield that prioritises coverage and simplicity over precision control.
Performance & Resource Usage
Both of the tools help pages load a lot faster by removing ads and trackers, but they do it in different ways and that changes how they feel when you’re using them every day.
Total Adblock
Total Adblock is a browser extension so its performance impact is usually pretty small. It blocks those ad elements before they even load, which means fewer scripts running, fewer bits downloaded, and less of the CPU being spent on rendering ad junk. Most of the time on a most machines you won’t even notice it slowing down Chrome, Edge or Firefox.
The bigger performance question is actually the TotalAV bundle. If you install TotalAV alongside Total Adblock you’re adding a full antivirus running in the background – that can be a good thing for safety but at the same time its also the part that can start taking up more system resources: all those background scans, real time protection & cleanup tools can add CPU and RAM usage depending on what device you’ve got and how you’ve got it set up. So the extension by itself is pretty featherlight but the ‘Total’ package can sometimes feel like it’s dragging the system down if your laptop is already running slowly.
Surfshark CleanWeb
Surfshark CleanWeb behaves in a different way depending how you’ve got it set up:
- Running it from within the Surfshark VPN app: You get domain level blocking while your traffic is encrypted & routed through a VPN server. That can be a bit of a drag on speed & latency – especially if you’ve got to connect to a far away server or your internet connection is already pretty slow. On the other hand your pages will still feel pretty light even with the VPN on because ads & tracking domains never even load.
- Running it from the CleanWeb 2.0 browser extension: It’s a lot lighter. You get to keep the ad blocking & pop-up handling without having to pay the price for the VPN. It behaves more like a normal extension and usually doesn’t have any noticeable impact on how fast your browser is.
If you want the lightest setup possible, running Total Adblock by itself is going to be quicker than running a VPN all day. But if you’re already using Surfshark VPN for privacy or to spoof your location then CleanWeb feels like a bit of a bonus with a pretty small extra cost.
Anti-Adblocking & Detection Bypass
Neither Total Adblock nor Surfshark CleanWeb is actually built to get around ad-blocking detection. There’s no “stealth” mode to hide from sites that tell you to turn off your ad blocker and no script tricks to beat those pesky “disable ad blocker” messages.
That being said, Surfshark CleanWeb 1.0 sometimes manages to slip under the radar because of how it works. Rather than relying on a visible browser extension, it blocks ads at the VPN/network level. And that can sometimes pay off because a lot of the anti adblock systems are pretty lazy. They just look for the usual browser extension fingerprints, common script hooks or the standard behaviour of an ad blocker. If CleanWeb is filtering traffic in the background without raising a flag, some of those checks never get triggered and guess what, you get through without a hitch.
Its not foolproof, and it won’t see off the sophisticated stuff, but what it can do is occasionally avoid getting flagged by a site just because CleanWeb doesn’t look like an ad blocker to them.
Usability & Customisation
Installation & Setup
Total Adblock
Total Adblock is ridiculously easy to get going. You just install the extension, pin it, and youre good to go. No messing around with techy setup, no fussing with filter lists or getting bogged down in an “advanced mode” – just plug in and play. If you spring for the bundle the setup gets a bit more involved with installing TotalAV too, but even then it’s all guided so you cant go wrong.
Surfshark CleanWeb
CleanWeb has two easy entry points. If you already use the Surfshark VPN service it’s just a toggle inside the app. Flip the switch and you’re blocking ads and trackers at the network level with barely any effort at all. If you use CleanWeb 2.0, you can install the browser extension on its own and run it with or without the VPN. Either way its a breeze to set up and get going.
Day-to-day Experience
Total Adblock
Day to day, Total Adblock feels like your run-of-the-mill ad blocker. You click the icon to see what’s being blocked, pause it on a site if something breaks, and pop in an allow-list when you need to. Its designed for people who just want fewer ads in their lives, not folks who like to tinker with settings.
Surfshark CleanWeb
CleanWeb inside the Surfshark VPN app is about as hands-off as you can get. You just leave it on and forget about it. The CleanWeb 2.0 extension is a bit more interactive, with separate toggles for ad blocking, pop-up handling, malware alerts and breach warnings – but its still super lightweight and easy to use, and wont demand your full attention.
Customisation
Total Adblock
Customisation is pretty much limited to the basics:
- Pause, or enable it per site when you need to
- Allowlist management
- A few simple settings for how aggressive you want it to be
It’s all about keeping things simple and letting it do its job on default settings.
Surfshark CleanWeb
CleanWeb 1.0 is, to be fair, a bit on the minimalist side. Its pretty much just “on or off” really. CleanWeb 2.0 has a bit more juice, though, you can toggle ad blocking and pop-up blocking on and off, and even enable or disable malware and breach alerts, or pop in websites to white-list. But still, you cant go and add custom filter lists, or write your own rules, or try to surgically block individual elements, you’re stuck with what they give you.
In the end, both are still super easy to use, but CleanWeb has a bit more flexibility because you can choose to block ads and trackers at either the VPN level, through the extension, or both – whereas Total Adblock sticks to the classic extension-only experience.
Customer Support
Total Adblock
Total Adblock’s support system seems like it was set up with billing in mind and troubleshooting as an afterthought. You can try to access the support area from the extension, but it usually sends you to a help centre that’s focused on account and subscription type issues. And quite honestly, there’s no live chat to speak of, and the email and phone support mainly deals with billing problems. If you’re the type of person who loathes chasing after payments or digging through help articles just to find a solution, then this is where Total Adblock lets itself down.
Surfshark CleanWeb
Now Surfshark is a complete opposite story. They give you 24/7 live chat, a email support system that works via a ticket form, and a help centre that actually delivers. Because CleanWeb is part of the Surfshark package, you also get to tap into their VPN support – so that means you get help with all the setup, speeds, app issues and more – all from the same support team. If you value getting answers quickly and dealing with actual real people then Surfshark is hands down the stronger contender here.
Final Verdict
Total Adblock and Surfshark CleanWeb both get the job done when it comes to blocking ads and tracking, but each one tackles the problem in a slightly different way. Total Adblock is just a no-nonsense browser extension that comes with a security suite. CleanWeb on the other hand, is a VPN feature that blocks ads and dodgy websites at the source, and is even got a browser extension to give you extra control.
So if you’re trying to decide between them, the choice comes down to how you actually use the internet.
- If all you want is a simple ad blocker and you don’t see the point in VPNs, go for Total Adblock.
- If the thought of getting an antivirus package (TotalAV) with your ad blocker is a selling point, then Total Adblock is your best bet.
- If you mainly use one laptop and just want stuff to work the way it used to, Total Adblock is still your best option.
- If you already use Surfshark and just want to block ads with the click of a button, Surfshark’s CleanWeb is the way to go.
- If you want to block ads across loads of apps as well as your browser, CleanWeb is the one you need.
- If you value quick support and want to be able to get help at any time, CleanWeb is your best choice.
Both do a great job of making the internet less annoying. But if you want a system that can block ads at the source and comes with 24/7 support, then Surfshark CleanWeb is the one to go for.