More and more consumers are looking to load ad-blocking software on their desktops to avoid the annoyance of advertisements. Where there is a demand there is plenty of supply, with countless ad-blockers offering desktop extensions to provide a solution for consumers.

In the past 12 months ending Q2 2015, ad blocking had risen by 41 percent, bringing the total number of consumers using ad blocking to 198 million.  According to a recent report by PageFair and Adobe, this 41 percent increase will cost advertisers $21.8 billion this year, with this figure rising to $41.4 billion for 2016.

If you are not one of the 198 million who is using ad blocking, then here are just three of the options that are available.

AdBlock Plus

Available for: Android, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Maxthon, Opera, Safari and Yandex.

With AdBlock Plus, no advertisements are blocked until you add external filter lists. These lists are a set of rules telling AdBlock Plus what elements of the website you want to block. You will be able to block advertisements, disable tracking and block known malware spreading domains, among other things.

Certain default lists are included when you first get started. EasyList is an ad-blocking list based on your browser language. The other default list is the Acceptable Ads list, which had AdBlock Plus under the spotlight at the beginning of the year. The Acceptable Ads list displays certain ads that AdBlock Plus deem are nonintrusive. Companies can apply to AdBlock Plus to be whitelisted and in some cases will pay a fee. Google is one of these paying customers, but according to AdBlock Plus, approximately 90 percent of whitelisted companies do not pay any fees. Depending on your preference, it is possible to remove both of the default lists and see no advertisements.

AdBlock Plus is a free service and has approximately 50 million to 60 million active users per month.

uBlock

Available for: Chrome, Safari and FireFox

uBlock is an efficient, fast blocker extension, which actually makes your web pages’ content load quicker. It comes with various built-in lists that will block advertisements on the web pages that you visit. It also blocks pop-ups, phishing, spam, etc. and various tracking requests.

uBlock is completely free, but there is the option to donate to keep them alive.

AdBlock

Available for: Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari

AdBlock comes loaded with default block lists. You can stick with these default lists, subscribe to additional default lists or create your own. You also have the option to whitelist certain sites and are able to pause or disable AdBlock for any web page that you visit.

AdBlock is a pay-what-you-want software; however, contributions are optional. AdBlock is the number one most downloaded extension for Chrome and Safari with 40 million users.

As shown in the report presented by PageFair and Adobe, only a small percentage of ad blocking is happening through mobile devices, just 1.6 percent. However, mobile ad blocking is gaining momentum and with Apple providing developers with the opportunity to create ad-blocking apps for iOS 9, this momentum could increase dramatically next month with the release of iOS 9.

Image credit: kropekk_pl via Pixabay