Best ad blockers for iMac and MacBook Pro

There are lots to choose from. I've installed and tested at least a couple dozen over the past few years. We ended up using the free Ka-Block! on all of our devices. It's available on the App Store for Mac, iPhone and iPad. Works just as well as any of the others we tried, paid or not.

Per John Galt, Brave has its own built-in blocker. The beauty of it is nearly all sites don't even realize their ads are being blocked since there are no plug-ins to detect.

I get this at the Smithsonian magazine site in Safari on nearly every page, since it can detect my ad blocker:

In Brave? Nothing. I can move anywhere on the site (and pretty much any site on the web) and never see a popup begging, or demanding you turn your ad blocker off.

Brave incorporates content blockers.

https://brave.com/

Brave obviously lacks Safari's extensive macOS integration, but you did not mention a browser preference.

Kurt Lang wrote:

…I get this at the Smithsonian magazine site in Safari on nearly every page, since it can detect my ad blocker…

Wipr works in Safari on the Smithsonian magazine site, based on some quick tests.

Best for who? Best for which browsers? Best for which websites? Best with what budget? Etc.

Most common local usage is currently Wipr, though there are others I’ve installed and have used.

https://www.magiclasso.co/

look it up for yourself and see what you think - works very well for me

Ka-Block! does block any ads on the Smithsonian site. But do you mean Wipr also prevents the nag about having an ad blocker from appearing?