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Callum Tennent
Callum Tennent oversees how we test and review VPN services. He's a member of the IAPP, and his VPN advice has featured in Forbes and the Internet Society. Read full bio
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Our Verdict
Tor routes your internet traffic through a chain of decentralized servers, while a VPN routes it through a single, secure server. Choose Tor only if you need maximum anonymity and need to be discreet, like for accessing the dark web. A VPN, on the other hand, is a better choice for everyday tasks like streaming, hiding your activity from your ISP, and securing public Wi-Fi.
Tor and VPN software both encrypt your internet activity, hide your IP address, and improve online security, but they also have many differences.
Summary: Key Differences Between Tor and VPN
| Tor | VPN | |
|---|---|---|
| What’s it best for? | Anonymity | Privacy & Security |
| How does it route your traffic? | Via a random network of nodes (servers) | Via a single private server |
| Is your traffic visible? | No | Yes, reliant on no-log policies for privacy |
| What does it encrypt? | Tor browser traffic only | All device traffic |
| How fast is it? | Slow | Fast |
| How does it assign IP addresses? | Randomly | You can choose city/country |
| What are the biggest risks? | Exit node traffic exposed | Requires trusting VPN providers not to log |
The above table gives an overview of the differences between Tor or VPN, and a good idea of which would be the right option for any given situation.
If you want a more detailed comparison though, read on for our recommendations for when it’s best to each use of these powerful privacy tools.
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What Is Tor?
The Onion Router (Tor) is a free, open-source system designed to allow users to anonymously browse the internet.
Tor encrypts and anonymizes your online activity through a global network of volunteer-maintained access points or ‘nodes’. Your data is rerouted every ten minutes for enhanced security.
The network’s design ensures each node only knows its immediate neighbors, making it impossible to trace your data’s path.
Access to the onion network is limited to the Tor browser or Tor-compatible applications. Using other browsers or apps compromises your anonymity.
The Tor Browser is required to access the Tor Network.
Unlike a VPN that you simply ‘turn on’, Tor requires proper configuration and modified browsing habits, otherwise it’s very easy to inadvertently reveal your true IP address and identity.
How Tor Works
Here’s how the Tor network encrypts and anonymizes your internet traffic:
- Tor selects three or more random servers (nodes) for your connection.
- Your traffic is encrypted so only the exit node can decrypt it.
- Multiple layers of encryption are added, one for each node in the chain. Initially, at least three layers protect your data.
- The guard node sees your IP address but can’t access your traffic content or destination.
- It decrypts the first layer to find the next node’s address and forwards your still-encrypted traffic.
- Each subsequent node knows only the previous node’s IP address. It removes one layer of encryption to reveal the next node and passes the data along.
- The exit node decrypts the final layer, revealing your traffic but not your identity.
- Your traffic then reaches its internet destination.
Throughout this process, no single node knows both who you are and what you are doing.
How your data passes through the Tor network.
Benefits & Drawbacks of Tor
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Uses a decentralized network | Almost always slower than a VPN |
| Completely anonymous | Potential for malicious exit nodes |
| Bypasses regional restrictions | No geographical precision |
| Free to use | Can attract unwanted attention or surveillance |
| Poor compatibility with other devices | |
| Complex to set up | |
| No customer support |
What Tor Is Used For
Tor allows you to:
- Hide your IP address from the websites you visit
- Hide your identity from the nodes in the network
- Access ‘hidden’ .onion domains
- Anonymize your online activity
- Communicate confidentially
- Access censored content
Due to how it works, Tor attracts users prioritizing anonymity, including journalists and whistleblowers.
Unfortunately, though, criminals also use the service, as it’s the sole gateway to the Dark Web, an unregulated and high-risk part of the internet.
However, this shouldn’t deter you from using it for legitimate reasons. Tor itself is completely legal to use.
Your ISP can detect Tor usage, which might flag you for surveillance.
How to Use Tor
Here’s step-by-step instructions on how to use Tor:
- Download and install the Tor browser: The safest way to do this is from the official website.
- Open the Tor browser and connect to the network: Click on the ‘Connect’ button. Wait a few seconds for the browser to establish a connection.
- Check your connection: Visit the ‘Am I using Tor?’ webpage to verify your Tor connection is set up correctly.
- Start browsing the web anonymously: You’ll now be able to access websites safely, and also access ones that were previously hidden, like the dark web.
What Is a VPN?
A virtual private network (VPN) is software that hides your IP address and encrypts your web traffic.
Put simply, rather than rerouting your traffic solely via your ISP, a VPN securely channels it through a server located in a country of your choice. This enhances your privacy and security, as well as allowing you to bypass geo-blocks on websites and apps.
VPNs apps are typically well-designed and easy to use, and can be installed and use on almost every device, including desktop, mobile, and streaming devices.
Top VPNs, like ExpressVPN, are user-friendly and work on all devices.
How a VPN Works
When you connect to a VPN, the server acts as an intermediary, forwarding your requests to the target website and receiving the responses.
The VPN server re-encrypts the received information before sending it back to your device, where your VPN app decrypts the incoming data, allowing you to view the requested content securely.
This creates a secure communication channel between your device and the VPN server — often referred to as the “VPN tunnel”.
Benefits & Drawbacks of a VPN
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Almost always faster than Tor | Some providers keep logs of your activity or connection data |
| Easy to change your IP address | Premium VPNs have subscription fees |
| Widely compatible with other devices | Risks of data leaks |
| Provides network-wide protection | VPNs vary in quality |
| Easy to use | |
| Customer support available |
What VPNs Are Used For
Using a VPN offers two key benefits:
- Websites see the VPN server’s IP address instead of yours, allowing you to mask your identity and access geo-restricted content.
- Your online activity is shielded from ISPs, governments, and other third parties. They only see your connection to the VPN server, not your actual browsing details.
VPNs, like Tor, have servers worldwide. However, VPNs allow you to choose your server location.
This makes them highly effective for bypassing government censorship and accessing geo-restricted content.
For instance, connecting to a UK-based VPN server while in the US, for example, allows you to access the UK Netflix library.
How to Use a VPN
Here’s how to set up and use a VPN service:
- Choose and subscribe to a VPN: Visit the VPN’s website to create an account and choose a subscription plan.
- Download and install: Get the VPN app from the website (for PC/laptop) or your device’s app store (for mobile).
- Sign in and set up: Open the app, sign in, activate the kill switch, and select a protocol like WireGuard or OpenVPN.
- Connect to a server: Choose the country you want to appear to be in.
- Browse securely or access geo-blocked websites: Your VPN is now active, masking your IP and concealing your true location.
Tor vs VPN: Which Is Better?
Tor and VPN software have a lot in common. The right choice for you will depend on your needs.
Tor’s lack of security and very slow speeds make it a poor choice for popular activities, such as file-sharing, streaming, and shopping transactions. For these tasks, we absolutely recommend using a VPN.
VPNs don’t require the same level of technical proficiency as using Tor does. However, you should still make sure to pick a trustworthy, zero-logs VPN provider that does not leak user data.
Tor (left) has limited use cases compared to a VPN (right).
We conducted first-hand tests to find which option performed better for common use cases.
Here’s a summary of the results:
| Testing Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Privacy | VPN |
| Security | VPN |
| Anonymity | VPN |
| Speed | VPN |
| Location Spoofing | VPN |
| Price | Tor |
| Ease of Use | VPN |
| Dark Web Access | Tor |
Below, we explain and detail the scenarios where either Tor or a VPN might be the better choice for you:
Privacy
Winner: VPN
VPNs are generally more private and safer to use, though you are having to place trust in your chosen VPN service.
Still, malicious Tor exit nodes have been used for surveillance and man-in-the-middle attacks in the past, and the use of Tor alone can be enough to mark you for surveillance.
Security
Winner: VPN
Both tools robustly encrypt your web traffic and secure your data. Tor relies solely on AES, while VPNs often use a wider range of encryption ciphers, depending on the VPN protocol in use.
However, a VPN will encrypt all web traffic leaving your device, giving you comprehensive protection. The Tor Network only encrypts data sent directly from the Tor Browser.
Anonymity
Winner: Tor
Tor is better than VPN software for anonymity, but worse for privacy.
Tor’s routing method effectively disconnects your true IP address from your online activity, thanks to its decentralized network. This means your actions are visible but untraceable.
In contrast, VPNs operate through centralized connections, allowing service providers to potentially observe and record your activity. The risk of your traffic being linked to your real identity is therefore higher, particularly if your VPN keeps activity logs.
Speed
Winner: VPN
Using a VPN is almost always faster than Tor.
A VPN encrypts your data and routes it directly via a single VPN server to your destination.
Data in the Tor network is routed through multiple widely-dispersed nodes and encrypted and decrypted multiple times, which means it takes much longer to reach the final web server.
Location Spoofing
Winner: VPN
You can hide your public IP address with both a VPN and The Onion Network.
However, Tor nodes are randomly allocated, which means choosing a server location is very difficult.
VPN services provide servers in dozens of locations worldwide, allowing you to manually select your preferred server location. This makes VPNs the preferred method of bypassing geo-restrictions.
Price
Winner: Tor
The Tor Network is most commonly used through the Tor Browser.
This is a free, Firefox-based application that you download and install onto your computer.
By contrast, most secure VPN services charge a monthly subscription fee.
There are free VPNs available, but they often pose significant security risks.
Ease of Use
Winner: VPN
VPN software is much easier to use than Tor. Using a VPN, we could quickly connect to our chosen server location in one or two clicks. It automatically works with every browser and app, and it’s also easier to set up on a range of devices, including Fire TV and Android TV.
With Tor, you’ll need to download a dedicated browser, which functions differently from other ones. More advanced features, such as setting up bridges or relays, are complex and typically beyond the skill level of the average user.
Dark Web Access
Winner: Tor
The dark web (.onion websites) is only accessible through the Tor browser. However, users can opt to use a VPN with Tor for an extra layer of security and to hide that they are even using the tool at all.
Using Tor and VPN Together
Rather than choosing one over the other, it is sometimes even more secure to use both a VPN and Tor at the same time.
There are two ways to use these tools together: Tor over VPN or VPN over Tor.
We generally recommend Tor over VPN, where you connect to a VPN server before accessing the Tor network. Watch the video below to see how we set this up to access the dark web safely:
That said, both setups have unique outcomes but some pretty major drawbacks, which we will cover in the following sections.
Tor over a VPN
‘Tor over VPN’, also known as Onion over VPN, is when you connect to your VPN before you run the Tor Browser. This is the most common way of combining Tor with a VPN.
It’s easy to do: just connect to your VPN then launch the Tor browser from your desktop or smartphone.
If you want to use Tor over a VPN, it’s important to choose a VPN that’s been optimized for Tor, meaning it has a private logging policy, no leaks, fast speeds, and anonymous payment options.
When you combine the two tools in this way:
- Your ISP and network operator will not know you are connected to the Tor network.
- The Tor network entry node will not see your true IP address.
- Your VPN provider will be unable to see your traffic.
NordVPN Onion Over VPN Servers.
This is particularly useful if you do not want a network administrator to know you are connecting to Tor, or if your VPN provider has an invasive or vague logging policy.
However, it should be noted that:
- Your VPN provider will see your true IP address.
- Your VPN provider will also be able to see that you are connected to the Tor network.
- Tor exit nodes – including malicious exit nodes – will still be able to view your traffic.
VPN over Tor
‘VPN Over Tor’ is when you connect to the Tor network before using your VPN.
This is technically possible, but not easy. Currently, very few VPNs offer support for running via Tor in this manner.
When you combine the two tools in this way:
- All of your VPN traffic goes through the Tor network, not just your web browsing.
- Alongside the benefits of Tor, you also get the advanced features of your VPN. This includes the ability to switch servers for better speeds or use the kill switch to prevent unwanted IP address leaks.
- If you need to use .onion resources you can get to them via an alternative browser (not just the Tor browser) through your VPN.
- Tor exit nodes will no longer be able to view your traffic.
However, using a VPN over Tor allows your provider access to the same information as using the VPN alone, just with the added slowness and inconvenience of the Tor network.
There are a few other key downsides worth mentioning when you use a VPN provider that offers a specific Tor option:
- Your choice of VPN provider will be restricted.
- You will experience a huge hit to your connection speeds. Using a VPN over Tor could make a sluggish VPN even more of a chore to use.
- Encrypting data with a VPN and then encrypting it again with Tor is overkill that will not improve your privacy significantly.
- Using a VPN through Tor will usually require extra configuration. You may have to install a specific client, download a specific connection file, or change your settings — all of which require time, technical knowledge, and patience.
VPNs and the Tor browser both enhance your privacy independently of each other. You can connect to your VPN and then use the Tor Browser if you’re really concerned, but combining the two is overkill for most people.
You’re better off using Tor if you need complete anonymity in extreme circ*mstances. If it’s just all-round internet privacy you’re looking for, choose a VPN.
Related guides
Web Proxy vs. VPN: What’s the Difference?
The Best Private and Secure Web Browsers
How to Hide Your IP Address
