When comparing Shout vs AdBlock Plus, the Slant community recommends AdBlock Plus for most people. In the question“What are the best Firefox add-ons?” AdBlock Plus is ranked 25th while Shout is ranked 31st.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Always connected
Unlike most other web IRC clients, Shout will stay connected even when you close the browser. It will allow you to see conversations that happened while you were away.
Pro Free & open source
Pro Blocks a wide selection of annoying ads
Video ads on YouTube, Facebook ads, flashy banners, pop-ups, pop-unders and much more.
Cons
Con Lacks searchable history
Con No native apps
It's only available as a webapp.
Con Doesn't manage presence
Users have to manually set away messages or away nicks to notify other users that they are not currently available.
Con Pressing escape will disconnect you
Con Can't send files
You can only share links to files, no way to share files directly between users.
Con This service isn't available.
in the browsers Chrome and Firefox
Con Uses too much RAM
AdBlock+ tends to use a lot of memory, which has been documented in many use cases as well as admitted by AdBlock themselves. Considering there are alternatives out there that can block ads successfully with half the RAM usage as AdBlock, one has to wonder why this is a problem specific to AdBock.
Con Users automatically opted in to whitelist
AdBlock+ has an automatic whitelist when installed that allows certain advertisers through the blocking mechanism. The fact that these advertisers pay for this privilege makes this particular scenario rife with conflict of interest.