In plain terms
Free software still costs something to make
So the honest question is not whether you pay, but how — and whether anyone told you.
Ad blockers have a particular problem here. Some answer it with a subscription, some by letting "acceptable" ads through for a fee, and some by quietly selling the browsing data they sit in the middle of. AdBolish answers it with a different arrangement, and this page is the whole of it, including the parts that are less flattering.
The exchange
Bandwidth instead of your wallet or your data
The usual arrangement
A yearly subscription for a filtering service that runs your lookups through someone else's servers. Or a free blocker whose business model is the data it sees. The payment is there; it is just not itemised anywhere.
Ours
AdBolish offers a slice of your PC's spare internet bandwidth to Massive when it can. In exchange, every block list and every feature is free and unlimited, filtering runs entirely on your own machine, and the signed app updates itself. What you browse, and what AdBolish blocks or allows, is not part of the deal in any form.
The bandwidth is used by Massive, our vetted partner network, which relays other people’s ordinary web traffic — the same category of arrangement that funds a number of free desktop tools. It reads nothing on your disk, and your own browsing is not touched or recorded. AdBolish lets the Massive agent’s own lookups through unfiltered, because they belong to that relayed traffic, and never counts them in your charts.
The specifics
What it is, and what it isn't
The second list matters more than the first, so it is not in the small print.
What it is
- A share of your spare internet bandwidth, offered when your connection is not busy — and only when it can be offered at all. Only one Clearware app shares at a time, so if another one is already sharing on this PC, AdBolish counts that and does not add to it.
- Opt-in at install, in plain language, before anything starts.
- Switchable off at any timefrom Settings, AdBolish’s tray menu or Massive’s own tray icon. Blocking pauses while it is off, and the app says so.
What it is not
- Not your browsing. The domains you look up, and what AdBolish blocks or allows, are never read by the sharing agent or sent anywhere.
- Not your files. Nothing on your disk is read, uploaded or transmitted.
- Not crypto mining. Nothing here consumes your processor for someone else. The one thing being shared is network capacity. AdBolish blocks crypto-miners, for that matter.
Good-citizen defaults
How it behaves on your machine
An app that changes your DNS, sees every lookup and shares bandwidth has to be unusually well-behaved about all three, and unusually clear about saying so.
You are asked first
A plain-language page in the installer, before any sharing begins. The arrangement is stated before you commit to it, not discovered afterwards in a settings pane.
It never hides
AdBolish has a visible tray icon, a menu with its own sharing switch, and a working Quit. Massive has its own tray icon too. An app that shares bandwidth cannot also be coy about being there.
Your way out always works
With sharing off, new protection settings are refused, but turning things off, pausing, allowing a site, restoring your DNS and quitting never are. You are never locked in.
One switch, and an honest trade
Sharing lives behind a single switch. Blocking pauses while it is off. That is the exchange, said plainly rather than buried, and your internet keeps working either way.
Your control
One switch, and what it actually does
Sharing lives behind a single switch in Settings and in AdBolish’s tray menu, and you can also stop it from Massive’s own tray icon. Once it has been off for about two minutes, blocking pauses until you turn it back on.
That is the exchange, and we would rather write it down than have you discover it. It is not a paywall: there is no tier to buy and no list held back while it is running. With it off, your internet keeps working, lookups simply pass through unfiltered, and SafeSearch and YouTube Restricted Mode stay on if you set them. If you would rather not take part at all, uninstalling ends it completely and puts your DNS settings back. It removes the Massive agent too, unless another Clearware app you still have installed uses it.
Privacy
What we can and cannot see
Every lookup is filtered on your machine. AdBolish counts only what it blocks, keeps those counts on your PC, and never records an allowed lookup. No domain you visit is ever sent to us.
The shared bandwidth carries other parties’ web traffic across your connection. It does not read your disk, your clipboard or your browsing, and it is not a channel through which anything of yours leaves the machine.
The full detail, including the little we do collect, is in the Privacy Policy.
That's the whole arrangement
No subscription, no premium tier, and nothing you browse leaving the machine. Free for Windows.