Because of the dark web’s association with illicit activity, your use of Tor may be tracked by your ISP, drawing unwanted scrutiny to your browsing behavior. The Tor Project says that of the 2 million people using Tor every day, only 1.5% of them are accessing hidden or dark websites (that’s 30,000 people). Most dark web websites are in English; according to one estimate, a staggering 78% of information on the dark web is in English. LifeLock Standard helps safeguard your personal information, accounts, and identity. For those venturing to the shadier side of the web or those who just want to know their identity is safe, dark web monitoring tools and identity theft protection are a must-have.
Understanding Local Laws
Another problem is that Tor makes the IP addresses of all public Tor exit nodes public(new window), which makes them very easy for governments to block. Protect your business with end-to-end encryption and compliance-ready security. Qubes is used by journalists, as it is directly used to run SecureDrop, another dark web website on our list. While there are many great Linux distributions to work with, Qubes should be high on your list if you value privacy.
Verified And Categorized Content
- The Hidden Wiki is a longstanding directory of dark web sites that offers a way to browse onion services.
- This search engine’s mission is to be leaders in providing services on the deep web, protecting the anonymity of each user.
- Android users need to download the Tor Browser app, while iPhone fans should get the Onion Browser app.
- Besides monitoring and improving the network, the data can be used to detect possible censorship or attacks.
You can also search for onion links on DuckDuckGo’s onion page by clicking Onionize. To contribute a tip, join the community, which can be done anonymously through an approved onion link. The site is strongly resistant to hackers and encrypts your data in transit as well as the rest. Among many open-source whistleblower sites, SecureDrop is currently a leading platform. Many prominent media sources and journalists maintain a presence on this website location to securely accept documents from anonymous senders. These include big names, such as Al Jazeera, CBC, Forbes, Huffington Post, The New York Times, and many more.
Then get a VPN to help protect your privacy on dark web websites or wherever you browse online. Most dark web search engines rely on these crawlers, but some also utilize manual link submission. It means they search for .onion websites through automated means but also allow users to suggest new sites, most often anonymously. Like traditional search engines, dark web search engines also use web crawlers, but not the same ones. The difference is that they are specialized web crawlers designed to operate within the Tor network and index .onion sites. However, the process is slower and much more complex because of the encryption, anonymity protocols, and the unstructured nature of many dark web sites.
OnionLinks
It allows storytelling, as well as lets users 3D, render their own fantasies with “relaxation” as the only end-goal. The messages are heavily encrypted, and it has the unique concept of sending the message of every user, to the inbox of every Bitmessage user. It also provides “chans” which lets users broadcast message to a group in a single go. The Hub is a deep web forum run by a real doctor, who advises people on how to deal with drugs and minimise their adverse effects on the body.
This entire process ensures that the Tor network itself does not need a central directory of .onion sites. Instead, the addresses are self-authenticating, and the network relies on a distributed system to locate and connect users to these hidden services, adding another layer to the onion’s anonymity. Onion sites are part of the deep web, accessible only through specialized browsers like Tor. These sites, with their “.onion” suffixes, are not indexed by search engines, allowing for a level of privacy and anonymity unattainable on the surface web.
- Install Avast SecureLine VPN for iOS to protect your privacy and keep your data from falling into the wrong hands.
- Learn how to automate financial risk reports using AI and news data with this guide for product managers, featuring tools from Webz.io and OpenAI.
- Just remember, if you want to explore the dark web, be very careful.
- DuckDuckGo is a popular privacy-focused search engine that doesn’t track you across the web.
What Kind Of Content Is On The Dark Web?
However, because it’s almost completely anonymous, there are a lot of illegal images, information, products, and services on the dark web. Attempting to even view these can be illegal in many countries and states, so stay well clear of them if you want to keep a clean record and conscience. Also, only use .onion links from legitimate sources like The Hidden Wiki. Dark web links can change frequently, so always verify addresses from multiple trusted sources before visiting any .onion site.
How Did We Select These Best onion Sites?
For example, I used the “radio” keyword and the third result was Deep Web Radio, which is a popular online radio station on the dark web. You can also filter the results by telling Ahmia to only display links from the last day, week, or month. So, I put together a list of the best dark web sites in 2025 to help you get started. I also included instructions on how to access the dark web, and outlined how to stay safe when browsing dark web links (the dark web is also home to many scams and malicious sites). Ahmia developers believe that the Tor network is an important distributed platform to protect anonymity and privacy around the world.
However, to maintain the servers, they offer the possibility of inserting advertising banners on their home page. Tor Search is a very efficient search engine because it indexes new content all day from the TOR network. Always remember that while the above measures significantly reduce risks, no method guarantees complete security on the dark web. Always exercise extreme caution and verify the legality of any services you access.
Start Your Protection,
ProPublica was the first online publication to win a Pulitzer prize. They were also the first to host a .onion site to make their content accessible to everyone everywhere, regardless of censorship or anti-journalist laws in certain countries. Still, since they exist within the dark web, there is a high chance that malicious entities have co-opted one or more for illegal activities. Thus, staying connected to a VPN when you access these sites is vital. OnionLinks is a library of dark web links, most importantly, active links.
Explore Freely
The last thing you need to do is to start researching vendors and determine what marketplace is a possible vendor to buy the products from. Next, disable Javascript in your Tor browser to prevent malicious scripts from attacking your browser sessions. You can disable Javascript by clicking on “Preferences” in the macOS app or “Settings” in the Windows app. That means that when Tor is compromised, or perhaps there’s a new vulnerability exploit in the Tor network, a VPN will still protect your privacy. The compromised Tor exploit might trace back to you, but then again, your VPN will lead it somewhere else – which makes it impossible to be traced back to you.
Exploring Safe And Useful Onion Sites
Many free VPN providers lack basic security features and track your online activity, so they don’t offer much privacy. Visiting onion sites on older Tor versions can needlessly expose you to added risks. Many dark web links could get you mixed up in some kind of criminal activity of another, whether you’re looking for it or not. The deep web is rife with sales of illicit drugs, weapons, and goodness knows what else, and steering clear of these nefarious web pages is easier said than done. Tor Metrics highlights that about 22% of daily Tor users come from Russia, while the USA ranks second at 15%. Tor has around 2 million daily users exploring over 65,000 onion sites.
The kill switch feature also ensures your real IP stays hidden if your connection drops. Proton Mail’s dark web version provides end-to-end encrypted email with enhanced privacy protection. The service doesn’t require personal information to create an account and works seamlessly through Tor.
Chainalysis says that $790 million worth of cryptocurrencies were used to shop in darknet markets during 2019. While some studies have claimed that illegal Bitcoin activity is as high as 44%. Tails always starts with a clean slate and any evidence of the activities you engage in while using Tails disappears when you shut down Tails. This includes evidence of any websites you visit, files you open, passwords you use, and even any other devices or networks you connect to. Tails never writes anything to the computer’s hard drive, running only from the RAM of the computer, which is wiped clean when the computer is shut down.
It is a component of Whonix, an operating system that functions as a whole inside a virtual computer. It includes all the essential productivity software, including MS Word and an email client. Be sure that your experience with Whonix will be comparable to Tor because both programs share the same source code. Initially, the dark web was mainly used by government agencies, big businesses, hackers, and cybercriminals.
Since you cannot access a library of dark web links using the regular Internet, you can check out platforms dedicated to indexing these sites, like The Hidden Wiki. This browser is the most suitable option for accessing the dark web, thanks to its multiple layers of encryption. Each time you connect to a dark web link, your request and traffic are routed through at least three different server points, ensuring your IP remains hidden.
