- Category
- Browser · SaaS alternative
- Cost
- Free
- Country
- US
- Licensing
- FOSS
- Platforms
- Linux · macOS · Windows · Android
Pros and cons
- +Strongest anti-fingerprinting defaults of any mainstream browser
- +Three-hop onion routing hides your IP from the sites you visit
- +Built-in censorship circumvention via pluggable transports (obfs4, meek, snowflake)
- +MPL 2.0 source, reproducible builds, signed releases
- +Free, no account, no telemetry
- −Slow by design; three relay hops add real latency
- −Many sites block or CAPTCHA-wall Tor exit nodes (Cloudflare in particular)
- −Not suitable for streaming, video calls, or large downloads
- −No official iOS build; the project recommends Onion Browser, which uses WebKit and is weaker
- −Browser fingerprinting protection only works if you avoid resizing the window or installing extensions
- −US-based steward with significant US government funding history, a recurring trust discussion in the community
Privacy notes
Tor Browser is a patched Firefox ESR that sends every request through three Tor relays (guard, middle, exit) so no single party sees both who you are and what you are visiting. Anti-fingerprinting is aggressive: letterboxed window sizes, JavaScript restrictions tied to a Standard, Safer, Safest slider, and a one-size-fits-all user profile so users are hard to tell apart. The browser ships with NoScript and HTTPS-Only mode, blocks third-party cookies, and clears state on exit. The Tor Project is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit; roughly a third of its 2023 to 2024 budget came from US government sources (State Department, USAGM, NSF), with the rest from individual donors, corporates, and other non-profits. The code is auditable and the network is decentralized across thousands of volunteer relays.
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