MUGA vs ClearURLs vs Brave vs uBlock

MUGA: Privacy Without Breaking Creator Links  ·  Last updated: 2026-04-26  ·  Source code

The shortest version: every URL cleaner removes utm_source, fbclid, gclid, and the rest. MUGA does too. The difference is what they do with the affiliate tag of the creator who recommended you the link — the YouTube reviewer, the newsletter, the blog. Most cleaners strip it along with everything else; the creator gets nothing for the recommendation. MUGA leaves it alone, and the popup shows a "Creator referral preserved" badge so you know it happened. No other URL cleaner does this. None of them can without contradicting their own pitch.
Our approach to this page: honesty is more useful than marketing copy. Every claim in the table is verifiable — sources are linked in the footnotes. Where a competitor does something better than MUGA, we say so. If you spot an error or an outdated figure, open an issue.

Auditable benchmark — corpus match rate

Numbers below come from running each tool against MUGA's open URL corpus (tests/benchmark/corpus/). Each adapter consumes its own upstream rule set verbatim — no MUGA logic leaks in. The corpus + adapters + this report are all in the repo; reproduce locally with npm run benchmark.

Corpus size: 129 URLs  ·  Adapter contract + snapshot hashes  ·  Last refreshed (git history)

URL cleaner URLs changed Matched expected output Match rate
MUGA 129 129 / 129 100.0%
adguard 60 46 / 83 55.4%
clearurls 56 38 / 83 45.8%
baseline 41 34 / 83 41.0%
firefox 19 13 / 83 15.7%

Reading this table:

MUGA match rate by corpus category
Category Total Matched Match rate
affiliate-wrappers 15 15 100.0%
aliexpress 5 5 100.0%
amazon-affiliate-preserve 10 10 100.0%
analytics-clickids 15 15 100.0%
clean-urls 10 10 100.0%
email-trackers 8 8 100.0%
heuristic-negatives 6 6 100.0%
heuristic-positives 6 6 100.0%
misc-tracking 19 19 100.0%
path-trackers 5 5 100.0%
privacy-proxies 5 5 100.0%
social-shorteners 10 10 100.0%
utm 15 15 100.0%

No mismatches in the latest run — every corpus entry produced the expected output for MUGA.

Feature MUGA ClearURLs Brave (built-in) Neat URL uBlock Origin Honey (PayPal)
Surfaces preserved creator tag in UI Yes — visible badge16 No No No No No (silently overwrites)7
Replaces creator affiliates Never Sometimes (rule-dependent)17 Sometimes18 Sometimes17 Filter-list-dependent Yes (silently)7
Refuses redirect-based affiliate networks Yes — rejected 10+19 N/A (no affiliate model) N/A N/A N/A No (uses them)
Tracker count celebration in popup "Removed N trackers"16 No No (browser-level) No Badge counter only No
Tracking params stripped 450+ params1 ~3002 ~15018 ~2003 Limited (via filter lists)4 0
Domain-specific rules 150+ domains1 ~1002 Built-in list18 Manual (user-defined) Via filter lists N/A
AMP redirect Yes No Yes (browser-level) No No No
Redirect unwrapping Yes (6 networks)5 Yes6 Limited No Partial (via filters) No
Ping blocking Yes No Yes (Shields) No Yes No
Signed remote-rules updates (opt-in) Ed25519, weekly, opt-in20 Unsigned, on-demand11 Browser updates Manual Filter list updates Continuous (browsing data)
Open source GPL v3 LGPL v38 MPL 2.0 (browser)21 GPL v29 GPL v310 No
External server calls (default) 0 011 Browser telemetry (configurable) 0 Filter list updates Yes (PayPal servers)12
Data collected None None Anonymous metrics21 None None Browsing data12
Manifest V3 Yes (native) Partial (MV3 branch in progress)13 N/A (browser) No (Firefox only) Yes Yes
Works in any browser Chrome, Firefox Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera14 Brave only Firefox only9 Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, Safari
Interface languages (i18n) EN, ES, PT, DE EN, DE (partial)15 50+ languages EN 50+ languages 10+ languages
Per-domain param stats Yes No No No No No
Param breakdown (education) Yes No No No No No

The wedge, in plain English

"Fair to creators" is one paragraph long. A YouTube reviewer takes time to compare three products and recommends one. They link to it with their affiliate tag — that's how independent creators get paid for the recommendation. You click the link. It arrives loaded with utm_source=youtube, fbclid=..., e-commerce session noise, AND the reviewer's tag=reviewer-21. ClearURLs strips the lot, including the reviewer's tag. So does Brave's built-in cleaner. So does Neat URL. The reviewer gets nothing for the recommendation. MUGA strips the tracking and leaves the reviewer's tag alone. The popup tells you so with a "Creator referral preserved" badge. Same price for you, the creator gets paid, the tracking platforms get nothing. That's the wedge. No other tool does this — and the table above shows why: doing it would contradict the "strip everything" promise every other URL cleaner makes.

Honest notes

uBlock Origin is not a URL cleaner — and that is fine. uBlock Origin is a full-spectrum content blocker. URL parameter stripping is a small part of what it does, and it does it well for the most common cases. If you already use uBlock Origin, you do not need MUGA for basic UTM stripping. MUGA adds value on top: visible feedback when a creator's tag is preserved, AMP redirects, and 150+ domain-specific rule sets that target tracker params unique to individual stores. The two are complementary — uBlock filters network requests, MUGA cleans the URL bar.
ClearURLs was the pioneer. ClearURLs was doing this before most people knew tracking params existed. MUGA builds on the same open-source ethos and adds more domain-specific rules, the explicit "fair to creators" model (visible affiliate-preservation feedback, refusal to use redirect-based affiliate networks), and AMP redirect handling. If you already use ClearURLs and it works for you, that is a perfectly reasonable choice.
Brave's built-in cleaner is good — if you use Brave. Brave ships URL parameter stripping at the browser level, no extension needed. It is fast and well-integrated. The catch: it only works in Brave. If you use Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, or any other browser, Brave's cleaner is irrelevant to you. MUGA exists because most of the web does not run on Brave — and because Brave (like every other tool in this list) does not distinguish a creator's affiliate tag from a tracking parameter.
Where ClearURLs beats MUGA right now. ClearURLs supports Edge and Opera in addition to Chrome and Firefox. MUGA currently supports only Chrome and Firefox officially (it likely works on Edge and Opera as Chromium derivatives, but is not tested there). If you are on Edge or Opera as a primary browser today, ClearURLs is the safer option until MUGA expands official support.
Where uBlock Origin beats MUGA. uBlock Origin supports 50+ interface languages and has a mature, battle-tested filter infrastructure maintained by a large community. MUGA currently supports four languages. If broad language support matters to you, uBlock Origin (combined with a URL-cleaning filter list) has the advantage.
About Honey. Honey was acquired by PayPal for $4 billion. That price reflects the value of the browsing data it collects, not the coupons it finds. Honey's own privacy policy confirms it collects information about every page you visit on shopping sites.12 Additionally, multiple independent reports found that Honey silently overwrites affiliate links created by content creators without notifying the user or the creator.7 MUGA takes the opposite approach: all processing is local, nothing leaves your browser on a default install, and affiliate tag handling is always disclosed with a visible notification.

Methodology

MUGA numbers (tracking params, domain rules, redirect networks) are taken directly from the source files in the public repository. Competitor numbers are based on public repository data, extension store listings, and published documentation linked in the footnotes below. Counts for competitors are approximations and may change as those projects update. If you find a discrepancy, please open an issue.

  1. MUGA source: src/rules/tracking-params.json (450+ params), src/rules/domain-rules.json (150+ domain rule sets).
  2. ClearURLs rules: github.com/ClearURLs/Rules. Parameter count varies by version; ~300 is an approximation based on the global rules list.
  3. Neat URL rules: github.com/Smile4ever/Neat-URL. Count includes default parameter list; users can add more manually.
  4. uBlock Origin strips tracking params via the removeparam filter cosmetic option. Coverage depends on the filter lists the user has enabled. uBlock Origin docs: removeparam.
  5. MUGA unwraps redirects from: Awin, ShareASale, Admitad, Admitad/AliExpress (alitems.com), Sovrn/VigLink, and Tradedoubler. See src/content/redirect-unwrap.js.
  6. ClearURLs redirect handling: github.com/ClearURLs/Rules — includes redirections entries.
  7. Honey affiliate replacement reports: PCMag: PayPal Honey stealing credit from influencers; MegaLag: video investigation. Honey's own ToS does not prohibit this behavior.
  8. ClearURLs license: github.com/ClearURLs/Addon — LICENSE.
  9. Neat URL license and browser support: github.com/Smile4ever/Neat-URL. Firefox Add-ons only; no Chrome version available.
  10. uBlock Origin license: github.com/gorhill/uBlock — LICENSE.
  11. ClearURLs external calls: the extension fetches its rules from a remote URL on first install and on updates. No browsing data is sent. See github.com/ClearURLs/Addon.
  12. Honey privacy policy: joinhoney.com/privacy. Honey collects page visit data on shopping sites and transmits it to PayPal servers.
  13. ClearURLs MV3 status: github.com/ClearURLs/Addon issues. MV3 migration is tracked but not yet complete as of early 2026.
  14. ClearURLs browser support: available on Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-ons, and Edge Add-ons. clearurls.xyz.
  15. ClearURLs i18n: the extension ships with English and German UI strings. Community translations exist but are incomplete.
  16. MUGA "Creator referral preserved" badge: introduced in v1.11.0. The popup surfaces a green badge with the preserved tag whenever MUGA leaves a third-party affiliate tag untouched on the current URL. The tracker count celebration in the same release displays "MUGA removed N trackers from this URL". See CHANGELOG entries for v1.11.0 (#327, #326).
  17. "Replaces creator affiliates: sometimes" for ClearURLs and Neat URL: both tools strip whatever is in their tracker list. Whether a specific creator's affiliate parameter (e.g. tag, aff_id, ref) is on that list depends on the rule set version and the site. Neither tool exposes UI feedback when a creator's tag was preserved or stripped — the user has no way to tell either way.
  18. Brave's built-in URL parameter stripping: brave/brave-core: query_filter/utils.cc. The list is curated by the Brave team and ships with the browser. AMP redirect ("De-AMP") is also part of Brave Shields. Brave does not distinguish creator affiliate parameters from tracking parameters — both are stripped if matched.
  19. MUGA's rejection of redirect-based affiliate networks: documented in src/lib/affiliates.js with the explicit list of evaluated-and-rejected programs (Awin, ShareASale, Admitad, Skimlinks, Sovrn, CJ Affiliate, Impact Radius, Rakuten LinkShare, AliExpress redirect, Temu, and others). See src/lib/affiliates.js.
  20. MUGA signed remote-rules: optional, off by default while the signing infrastructure stabilizes (the default may flip in a future release; see CHANGELOG). Ed25519-signed payload fetched from a public GitHub Pages endpoint, verified against a public key shipped with the extension, max 1 fetch per 7 days, piggybacked on natural service-worker wake events. See docs/transparency.html.
  21. Brave Browser license and metrics policy: the browser is open source under MPL 2.0 (brave/brave-core LICENSE). Brave collects anonymous, aggregated metrics by default (brave.com/privacy/browser) — these can be disabled in Settings → Privacy and security.