About

Who we are?

We are the team of experienced specialists from AdGuard Software Limited — an IT company that develops a range of AdGuard software products for internet filtering. We are not just creators of AdGuard, but rather jedi of the light side of the Internet.

What we do

To date, we have made a real breakthrough in the field of internet advertising blocking. Our flagship product AdGuard enjoys wide popularity — we help millions of regular users worldwide. Considering the wishes of our customers, we are constantly engaged in improving our products, and therefore developed a whole range of software, which includes a multifunctional AdGuard ad blocking desktop programs, mobile apps and browser extensions. Our solutions are not just an ad blocker; they protect from online threats, prevent tracking, and filter obscene materials. This comprehensive approach provides high-quality filtering, making AdGuard an essential tool for every internet user. Our mission is to make our users' web surfing most comfortable and safe.

The Chronicle of AdGuard

Kommunarka, Moscow Region

2009

The birth of AdGuard

Moscow, 2009. The global financial crisis that started in 2008 is rampant and makes life difficult for startups. Future founders of AdGuard are busy developing NetChart — a free web analytics service. It was working on NetChart that allowed us to understand the potential of user data — what kinds of personal information can be received, what can be done with it, and how to abuse it. It also allowed us to understand that the users themselves are not aware of its potential and dangers. This is how we came to create AdGuard.

Logo evolution

2010

A few months after the first official release, we released an update to the program. Its quality was extremely poor, we were criticized, but thanks to this, we made Forum — a beta testing program with the participation of active users.

It still works and helps us a lot: the scale of our gratitude to users is comparable only to the amount of their contribution to the quality of AdGuard applications. By the way, if you want to join the team of beta testers, fill out this form.

AdGuard 4.2.2

2011

This year, we took our first step towards taking the world over: we translated the app's interface into English. And in October 2011, we released such a global update that it could be considered a completely new application. The interface has complete redesigned, there was a power save mode and a browser plugin named AdGuard Assistant. We have added several experimental security techniques, a proxy server, and many other features.

AdGuard Browser Extension

2013

In August 2013, we realized we needed to communicate with our users, tell them news about AdGuard, and discuss ideas for development. This is how AdGuard blog appeared.

In September 2013, we learned how to block ads in encrypted traffic — now blocking started to work in services with user authorization, such as social networks.

In November 2013, users who lacked the free version of AdGuard received an extension for Chrome. It also became our first open source product.

Google kicked us out of their Play Store

2014

We finally ceased custom web development and focused on AdGuard. Another important decision was to enter the global market and stop being limited to the CIS countries. To do this, English had to become the main language of all interfaces at the development stage. All our localizations are also open-source, a community of translators is working on them, and we treat this community with a lot of love and appreciation. You can become a part of it.

In November 2014, the long-awaited app for Android was released. Even two apps: paid and free ones. But, alas, a few days after the launch, Google removed these apps from the Play Store.

AdGuard for macOS

2015

In January, we wrote AdGuard Filter Policy. At the same time, we started distributing free licenses to schools. We believe that ad blocking for children and teens should be available for free, because ads harm them more than adults, and abuse of their private data is potentially more dangerous.

In March 2015, AdGuard for Mac OS was released — the first system blocker for the Mac ecosystem that can block ads in different apps on the device.

AdGuard on Webit

2016

In April, we won the Webit Awards startup competition at the Webit.Festival Europe.

In June, we made Annoyances Filter.

In July, we were on standby and ready for the invasion of the Internet of Things: AdGuard DNS started working.

In September 2016, AdGuard Pro for iOS was released.

AdGuard Website

2017

Development has gained impressive momentum: several global updates of all applications and 25 releases of varying scale.

We completely redesigned the website , translated it into more than a dozen languages, and fully adapted it for mobile devices.

Since 2017, we have been developing research and analytics sectors. We want to understand where the advertising industry, marketing, technology, and the Internet are heading to protect users from new threats.

2018

The most important change in 2018 was CoreLibs, the new cross-platform engine for all AdGuard products. The fight against ad blocking is carried out on all “fronts”, but thanks to CoreLibs, AdGuard is now again one step ahead.

In 2018, we started releasing Nightly builds — the “raw” versions of AdGuard. Thus, our tireless testers take on the first wave of nasty bugs, so that ordinary users get the most stable version of the program.

And at the end of the year we released two powerful products — AdGuard Home and AdGuard DNS. This is the first step towards users’ full control over all devices on their home or work networks.

2019

It's impossible to fit all that happened to AdGuard in 2019 in few sentences. We released numerous updates for all of our products, launched a new one — AdGuard for Safari — and even reanimated AdGuard Pro for iOS.

Privacy continued to be our top priority. We introduced 2FA for our website and exposed several fake ad blocker extensions that were stealing users' personal data.

But it wasn't all work, we had some fun too! AdGuard celebrated its 10th birthday, and participated in Ad Blocker Dev Summit along with many other major industry players.

2020

It's safe to say that 2020 was in a lot of ways a unique year for everyone. AdGuard, just as everybody else, had to adapt to new realities. But that doesn't mean we stopped improving our products. Far from that, we even developed new ones!

Of course, the biggest thing that happened to us this year was AdGuard VPN. It was a very natural continuation of our efforts to improve users' privacy. We tested the waters with a browser extension, which was then followed by apps for Android and iOS. Versions for Windows and Mac are in development and you'll read about them in the next year's recap

It's also impossible not to mention the fact that AdGuard DNS became the world's first DNS-over-QUIC resolver, and you can try it out in our Android and iOS apps, or with the help of AdGuard Home.

2021

Our story continues. We improve and develop our apps, striving to make them more beautiful and easier to use. We are preparing new research, dissecting threats to security, privacy, and effective web surfing. And we thank every AdGuard user: thank you for being with us, motivating us and helping us a lot!

Team