Also highly recommended for people who are willing to spend a little more time to control where their browser retrieves content is uMatrix[1]. Written and maintained by the most esteemed Raymond Hill who creates uBlock Origin.
If you're on Chrome, don't forget to also install uBO-Extra[2] along with uBlock Origin[2], otherwise you don't get WebSocket coverage.
[1] https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix
[2] https://github.com/gorhill/uBO-Extra
In Hundreds of web firms record 'every keystroke'gorhill
uMatrix
JavaScript2014–2025
gorhill / uMatrix · Archived
uMatrix
uMatrix: Point and click matrix to filter net requests according to source, destination and type
102Distinct people
123Mentions
4Explicit recommenders
4.7KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
uMatrix: Point and click matrix to filter net requests according to source, destination and type
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
I love uMatrix, but all evidence is that they stopped developing it in 2021. https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix I don't know the implications of that, it's the only tool I've…
neltnerb used a recommendation phrase. 4 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- gorhill/ublock · linked in 17 of the same discussions
- gcarq/inox-patchset · linked in 2 of the same discussions
- gorhill/ubo-extra · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 4:01:40 AM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year123 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2014-12-27 13:39:25 UTC to 2025-12-17 19:45:41 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 15 | 0 | 15 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 18 | 0 | 18 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 16 | 0 | 16 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 27 | 1 | 26 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 12 | 0 | 12 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 9 | 1 | 8 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 11 | 3 | 8 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
uMatrix
Definitely for advanced users.
Keep Github issues for actual bugs. User support is /r/uMatrix.
Forked and refactored from HTTP Switchboard.
Install manually the latest release, or install from:
Firefox AMO
To help find issues with ongoing development: uMatrix dev build in Releases (click the latest uMatrix.webext.signed.xpi link of the last pre-resease.)
Chrome store
To help find issues with ongoing development: uMatrix dev build in Chrome store
Opera store
You may contribute with translation work:
For in-app strings, on Crowdin: uMatrix on Crowdin.
For description (to be used in AMO, Chrome store, etc.), submit a pull request. Reference description is here (feel free to improve as you wish, I am not a writer).
HTTP Switchboard's documentation is still relevant, except for uMatrix's differences with HTTP Switchboard.
You may contribute with documentation: uMatrix's wiki.
Warnings
Regarding broken sites
uMatrix does not guarantee that sites will work fine: it is for advanced users who can figure how to un-break sites, because essentially uMatrix is a firewall which works in relaxed block-all/allow-exceptionally mode out of the box: it is not unexpected that sites will break.
So this means do not file issues to report broken sites when the sites are broken because uMatrix does its job as expected. I will close any such issue without further comment.
Using uMatrix logger is key to un-break sites: the logger will show you all that uMatrix does internally.
I expect there will be community driven efforts for users to help each others. If uMatrix had a home, I would probably set up a forum, but I do not plan for such thing, I really just want to code, not manage web sites. If you need help to un-break a site when using uMatrix, you can try Wilders Security, where you are likely to receive help if needed, whether by me or other users.
uMatrix can be set to work in allow-all/block-exceptionally mode with a single click on the all cell in the global scope *, if you prefer to work this way. This will of course break less sites, but you would then lose all the benefits which comes with block-all/allow-exceptionally mode -- though you will still benefit from the 62,000+ blacklisted hostnames by default.
License
GPLv3.
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
16 sources> looking at you, UA switching
Agreed, I plan to remove this. See:
https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix/issues/771#issuecomment-2...
In Extensions in Firefox 58uMatrix is a replacement extension from the creator, and compatible with, uBlock. uMatrix migrated to Quantum leveraging the existing Chrome codebase already about a month ago: https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix
Some learning curve is required compared to NoScript since uMatrix allows even finer grained control (not just scripts, but images, cookies, iframes and XHR as well), but I personally migrated about a year ago successfully. Very happy with uMatrix so far with the latest Firefox.
In NoScript Not Available for Latest Firefox> sync my black/whitelists through Firefox Sync
It's technically possible, although UX is terrible. Go to uMatrix settings, make sure to "enable cloud storage" option is set in the "settings" tab, then manually upload and download rules in the "my rules" tab.
No automatic sync (won't be implemented[1]) and, no merges at the moment (button's broken[2]).
[1] https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix/issues/467
[2] https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix/issues/807
In Firefox 57.0 Releasedumatrix [1] from gorhill (ubo dev) does that pretty well (along with a bunch of other things)
[1] https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix
In Ask HN: Why does my credit union check if I'm logged into Steam and Reddit?Use uMatrix from gorhill:
https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix
to block all third party connections unless required. It will stop the coin-hive mining script.
In ThePirateBay.org is making users mine BitcoinsWTF! (also verified)
You can block it with the uMatrix plugin ( https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix ) but you have to manually enable it for about:addons :/
In Firefox about:addons is using Google AnalyticsIf tracking cookies are your concern, I can recommend uMatrix: It's basically a rule-based firewall for requests (like an adblocker on steroids). You can declare rules like "filter all third-party cookies, except $THIRD_PARTY_DOMAIN on $FIRST_PARTY_DOMAIN". It can also be used to block JS, XHR, frames, etc., but if you only need the cookie filtering, you can set the rules for those request types to "allow all".
https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix
In Firefox 54: E10S-Multi, WebExtension APIs, CSS Clip-PathuMatrix [0] "Point and click matrix to filter net requests according to source, destination and type" is also nice.
0: https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix
In A day without JavaScriptuMatrix[0] is a fantastic way to get more performance out of old computers.
I have a low-end laptop that I use for travel - a ThinkPad x131e running OpenSuSE. uMatrix makes the difference between a machine that's unusable for web browsing and one that's actually fast.
However, it is kind of a pain to figure out what pieces need to be allowed for a site to work and what are superfluous. Once you get it nailed down though, you can just press the lock icon to make it remember your selections.
[0] https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix
In The iPad Mystery- uBlock Origin (cosmetic filtering): https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/
- uMatrix (host-based filtering): https://github.com/gorhill/umatrix/
- HTTPS Everywhere: https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
- Self Destructing Cookies (fine grained cookie control): https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/self-destruct..., the latest Chrome & FF have better settings for this built-in though.
In Ask HN: What are your favorite browser extensions?Most of the people who read HN are probably knowledgable enough to also find uMatrix very useful (from the same author): https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix
In short, it allows for much more granular controls over what does and does-not load from any given domain. By default, it breaks a lot of websites. But with about 30 seconds of work, you will generate a policy for the domain, you hit save, and then that domain will be unbroken on every subsequent load. I find it useful as a noscript replacement.
In The company behind Adblock Plus is acquiring micropayment service FlattrGreat summary. I recommend uMatrix (https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix) which has really good controls for toggling not just JavaScript but also cookies, XHR, frames, etc for origin and 3rd party/cross-domain requests with per-site settings. A lot of websites that need JavaScript will still work if you enable loading of scripts from the origin domain but leave things like Google Analytics, etc, from other domains blocked. uMatrix is also easier to use and has a much smaller footprint than ad blockers.
In Show HN: Kite, copilot for programmers, available for PythonYou can block all cookies on the website if you want a paywall bypass that works without needing incognito - an extension like uMatrix [1] does this persistently (click on the plugin icon when your browser is navigated to The Economist, then click on the bottom half of the "cookie" box in the "all" row. The column should turn red, indicating that cookies are blocked).
[1] https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix
In Some Saudi women are secretly deserting their countryIf I'd use something that required configuration, I think I'd use https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix. I did use it for quite awhile, but ended up ditching it. Now I'm on uBlock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere and Self-Destructing Cookies. Although I might lose some control, it just works.
In I invented the web. Here are three things we need to change to save itShowing the 15 most recent of 16 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.