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12 Feet Ladder not only can unlock paywalled sites, it can also remove popups, banners, and ads on websites.
It is also available on iOS.
Interestingly, this online tool seems to be very popular with many users.
Even though it is not able to access that many major websites.
Technically it works somewhat like the 13 Feet Ladder.
It mimics search engine crawlers (like Googlebot) to bypass its restriction, thus granting full access to the paywalled content.
Possibly it uses cached versions of web pages; where search engines often maintain caches of the pages they crawl.
12 Feet Ladder could also remove JavaScript code or HTML elements that implement the paywall overlay or content blocking.
Anyway, here is a detailed guide, "How to disable JavaScript to access paywalled articles."
Unfortunately, 12 Feet Ladder is "too low" to get over the paywall of The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or The Japan Times.
But it is still an option to access the blocked websites, where you do not have to sign up as a subscriber.
Welcome to another useful post from The DiGiztal Paywall Access Tips Series.
12 Feet Ladder to read web articles for free
There are four ways to use the 12ft Ladder to read breaking news stories, articles, opinions, and editorials.
Table of Contents:
1. Paste article URL in 12 Feet Ladder homepage
Copy out the URL of the paywalled article, then paste it in the box provided in the 12ft Ladder homepage.
Then click the "Clean Webpage" button.
2. Prepend 12 Feet Ladder domain at article URL
It means you add either https://12ftladder.net/ or 12ft.io/ in front of the paywalled article URL
For example this is the blocked article URL from The Atlantic:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/05/maga-influencers-press-new-media/682666/
After prepend the 12ft ladder domain, it looks like this:
12ft.io/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/05/maga-influencers-press-new-media/682666/
Reload the blocked page by pressing on the "Enter" key.
Now the full article reloads without the blurred-out text and the reminder: TO READ THIS STORY, SIGN IN OR START A FREE TRIAL.
3. 12 Feet Ladder browser extension
For ease of use, install its extension to your browser toolbar.
For the Chrome browser, get the 12ft Ladder extension from here.
For the Mozilla Firefox browser, get the add-on from here.
When at a paywalled article, click the icon on the toolbar.
4. 12 Feet Ladder bookmarklet
This is a one-click tool to get around paywalls.
Save a snippet of JavaScript code in the browser bookmark.
First open bookmark manager.
Google Chrome:
Press Ctrl + Shift + O keys to bring up the Bookmark manager page called Bookmarks.
Click the three dots on the top right-hand corner.
A menu pops up; click “Add new bookmark.”
In the Bookmark Manager, click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the window and select "Add new bookmark."
The "Add bookmark" box appears.
The Name space, enter any descriptive name you like; it is to help you identify its function.
Paste this line of JavaScript code inside the URL box.
Click the Save button.
Now the 12ft Ladder bookmarklet is in your Chrome toolbar or bookmark.
Each time you want to read paywalled articles from Scientific American, the Bloomberg news site, or Wired, click the bookmarklet.
These are the four methods of using the 12 Feet Ladder to view premium web articles for free.
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