Social media platforms like Facebook and news sites like the BBC and ProPublica have also waded into the dark web’s waters. These legitimate media companies keep a presence on the dark web to help users who might, for a variety of reasons, have difficulty accessing their content on the open web. In the internet’s darkest corners, a myriad of hidden websites cater to an array of needs and interests. From encrypted communication channels and hacking forums to illicit marketplaces, the dark web is a destination for millions of daily users. Read on to learn more about the five main types of darknet websites and what they contain. Proton Mail’s dark web version provides end-to-end encrypted email with enhanced privacy protection.
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- This means the VPN provider doesn’t see your real IP address and the VPN protects you from those bad exit nodes.
- The deep web is just the part of the internet you can’t find with a search engine.
- You check if a name is available, pay a fee, and “rent” it for a year or more.
- This makes it incredibly difficult to find out who you are paying.
- Onion sites are websites on the dark web that use the “.onion” top-level domain instead of “.com,” “.net,” “.gov,” etc.
- If you want to access this site, do so only for fair purposes and with proper security measures.
Initially, Tor gave intelligence agencies a private way to communicate, which is especially useful in hostile environments. Since then, it’s played a role in both saving and destroying lives. This includes paywalled pages, internet banking, private emailing, password-protected websites, and intranets for educational institutions, companies, or governments.
Use a VPN
You can easily find what you are looking for, even links to hidden dark web rooms. When you access this site, do so with extra protection, even if you are technically anonymous when you use the Tor browser. We highly recommend using a strong VPN like NordVPN to stay safe and private. It’s because the US Navy created Tor for anonymous communication. Later, the CIA released its onion website to provide worldwide access.
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In addition to the Tor browser, you should use an antivirus program (like Norton 360) to protect your device from malware infections, and a VPN (like ExpressVPN) to secure your IP address and traffic. Also, only use .onion links from legitimate sources like The Hidden Wiki. You may never have expected Facebook to have a dark web mirror, but the reality is that even Zuck wants to ensure that people all over the world can access Facebook if they need to! Just remember that when you login to and use Facebook, the service still knows who you are. Thus, the dark web version of Facebook is there for bypassing censorship, not for gaining anonymity on the social media platform.
What Are Onion Sites?
The Internet is a vast and complex landscape, much larger than the familiar interface we use every day. Tor Browser masks your IP address and routes traffic through multiple servers. Unlike the surface web (the normal, open internet we use every day), you can’t search for .onion sit… We ensured that the dark web sites we chose had reviews and feedback from real users on other forums; this way, we can be sure of the site’s reliability and legitimacy. This platform is a time capsule with content, primarily web pages.
Tor News
Even platforms like Netflix, which require paid access, are technically part of the Deep Web. There are estimated to be 1.1 billion websites on the Surface Web as of 2025 (Internet Live Stats). Exploring the dark web can seem mysterious, but with the right guidance, it becomes a valuable tool for privacy, security, and uncensored access to information. This process makes it extremely difficult for anyone (like governments or ISPs) to track who visited a site or where the site is located.
TorLinks
Tor browser is named after “The Onion Router” protocol that powers the dark web. As mentioned, Tor servers are completely concealed from regular internet browsers. However, by connecting to them using the Tor browser you can easily access them in a completely private and anonymous manner. Regular browsers like Firefox and Chrome can’t access this concealed portion of the internet, because they are not designed to find websites listed using The Onion Router hidden service protocol. With plenty of scams, malicious links, and phishing sites, it can be easy to find yourself in trouble. Use a VPN when you go on the dark web to improve your privacy and security, and never click on random dark web links.
BBC Tor Mirror
In the image above, (a) is the surface web, which includes publicly visible websites like blogs, shopping sites, and news sites. (b) is the deep web, which consists of sites that require a login to access like email accounts, banking portals, and subscription services. And (c) is the dark web, which is the part of the deep web that isn’t indexed by search engines and requires special tools like Tor Browser to access. The darknet version of DuckDuckGo is not a search engine for the dark web, but a private browsing tool for the dark web.
Final Thoughts: Actionable Steps For Safely Accessing Darknet Links
Our search engine at GOTDW is here to help you explore more safely, but we still urge extra caution as you dive in. All content on this site is strictly for educational purposes; we neither endorse nor encourage illegal activities of any kind. Ultimately, your safety on these sites is your responsibility, so please keep your wits about you as you navigate. If you’re new to the dark web, start with the resources in our list. These trusted sites will help you gain confidence and minimize risks.
A quick guide on how to use a VPN with Tor
The extra privacy afforded by the dark web is undoubtedly abused by criminals to scam people, sell drugs, host illegal content, and more. The high-profile rise and fall of the Silk Road marketplace(new window) for illicit drugs is the best-known example of this. Once you have the Tor Browser installed, launch it and click “Connect.” That’s it! Keep in mind that because Tor encrypts your traffic, your internet speeds may be slower than usual. But rest assured that your privacy and security are well worth the trade-off. Do not log into any of your personal accounts, such as social media platforms, email inboxes, or bank accounts, when exploring the dark web.
But anything that’s against the law on the regular web or offline is also illegal on the dark web. This includes buying or selling illicit goods, illegal transactions, and downloading copyrighted material. Keybase is an encrypted communication platform that enables secure file-sharing and messaging using public key cryptography.
Use it to link your GitHub account, Twitter, Bitcoin address, and Facebook. This .onion link makes it impossible for hackers to impersonate your profile. SecMail is one of the most popular email services on the dark web.
How do I find .onion links for sites?
Yes, you can access interesting websites through the Tor network. Yet the dark web differs from the surface web, as it lacks both a security wall and regulation between users and malicious actors. If you want to access the dark web through Tor, it’s best to start by learning some cybersecurity best practices. Why would a website built around connection, sharing, and personal information sharing use the dark web? One case is that many countries block users from accessing Facebook.
Verify All .onion Links
It saves a select version of each page and preserves it even after upgrades have taken effect on the original site. Accessing tunnels is illegal and dangerous, which is why records of these “adventures” can only be found on the dark web. If you want to access this site, do so only for fair purposes and with proper security measures. The site has a simple interface and offers filters to find books. However, not all books on this site are legally available, so they don’t have copyrights.
Because of its anonymity, the dark web is filled with illegal services and is used by numerous criminal groups, including ransomware gangs. It is also used by whistle-blowers, journalists, and other individuals who are not involved in illegal activity but need to protect their communications and identities. Through the dark web, users in places of high censorship can also access information and news. TorLinks serves as a backup or secondary directory site to the popular Hidden Wiki. It’s divided into commercial links (from crypto services to gambling sites) and non-commercial links (like social media). As always, use Tor Links with care, as it includes onion links to dubious or illegal activity.
Dark Web Sites Offering Educational resources
Pitch is a dark web-based Twitter/X alternative, providing a secure platform for anonymous discussions and information sharing. Unlike many dark web platforms, it maintains strict content guidelines while protecting user privacy. When you use the Tor network, your traffic is layered in encryption and routed via a random relay, where it’s wrapped in another layer of encryption. Keybase is an exciting identity service that aims to make it easy for you to link the presence of your online identities together in a cryptographic way. You can upload your PGP key or have the site create one for you, and use it to cryptographically link your Twitter profile, Github account, or Bitcoin address together. One of the most popular ways to get around the dark web is not to use a search engine at all.
- Knowledge of .onion site uptime is important to many cybersecurity researchers.
- Security researchers and dark web analysts usually keep an eye on forums like Dread and other smaller online groups.
- This is a superb resource where people can anonymously and privately ask questions.
- The site is designed to be used with the Tor browser, which allows users to browse the internet anonymously.
- The Tor network (“The Onion Router”) gives access to the Dark Web.
- This means that using the dark web may attract attention from your ISP or even law enforcement.
- The Mail Plus plan adds up to 15 GB of storage, unlimited messages, and 10 email addresses, plus advanced email settings (like automatic forwarding).
Another sensible general rule to follow on the dark web is to not buy anything there. There are simply too many risks, such as honeypot sites set up by governments waiting for you to submit your info and fake marketplaces and scam sellers who won’t actually send you the items you buy. One of the most critical aspects of safe darknet navigation is maintaining consistent security practices. Never become complacent with your security measures, as this is when mistakes are most likely to occur.
It offers reliable news coverage without exposing readers to harmful or illegal material. We also discuss more reasons why you should use a VPN when connecting to Tor in the Tor Won’t Keep you Safe on Onion Sites section.Thank you & stay safe. Now that you have a better idea of what .onion sites are, you might be wondering how to access them.
It served as a great place to learn more about it for people new to the dark web. However, the owner shut it down when the TOR network moved to v3 URLs (allegedly for personal reasons as per some Reddit user comments). It hosted over 7,000 .onion categorized links to make surfing the web easier. One of Daniel’s impressive features was the built-in functionality that showed whether a particular dark website is online. After more than a year of no updates, the site admin shut it down, reasoning that he couldn’t keep the list of onion links up-to-date.
The “surface web,” on the other hand, is the publicly available part of the internet that search engines index. If you connect to your VPN and fire up Tor Browser, you’re using Tor over VPN. All your device’s internet traffic first goes to the VPN server, then bounces through the Tor Network before ending up at its final destination.
Many of those sites are listed because their devs have submitted the site directly to the search engine for indexing. In addition, it is worth noting that users should not blindly trust links on the Hidden Wiki because this is a community resource that anybody can update, and some of the links are malicious. As a result, it is probably a good idea to double-check and verify any onion links you find using a secondary source such as Onion Links or DarkWebPug.
Hence, if you participate in them, whether knowingly or unknowingly, you can end up putting criminal charges on yourself, and in some extreme cases, even imprisonment. The website has an advanced search filter and an easy-to-use darknet markets 2026 interface, which makes it easy to find what someone is looking for. If you know the right websites, you can easily access a tremendous amount of information, including research articles, news stories, and more.
It doesn’t censor out any content, so you’ll have free access to more than 400,000 indexed pages. I like that you can ask the search engine to match all of your search words for exact results, or only some of them for broader search results. The Hidden Wiki is a version of Wikipedia that is on the dark web. In addition to the regular Wiki information, it holds a massive resource of .onion sites which makes it a great place for finding deep web resources.
That means you may violate copyright laws while downloading books, so use a VPN to protect yourself from any legal repercussions if you have a dire need to use it. Sci-Hub is a helpful dark web platform for those looking to access important research blocked by a paywall. You can access almost any published paper that would have otherwise been hidden behind a paywall. The best thing about this search engine is that it updates index daily. Therefore, you will always find updated search results while using this service. To send a message or image via ZeroBin, you just need to copy the desired content and paste it into ZeroBin’s editor.
Adamant offers blockchain-based secure messaging without needing phone numbers or email addresses. The platform stood out during my testing for its commitment to anonymity — all messages are fully encrypted and stored on a decentralized network. It’s particularly useful for sensitive communications that need to remain private. Indeed, Facebook, The New York Times and now even the CIA have sites on the dark web, hosting “onion” versions of their pages that can be accessed via the Tor browser. The spy agency is hoping to securely and anonymously collect tips, though its entire website, including job listings, are available on the onion service. A favorite of journalists and their anonymous sources, SecureDrop makes it easy to share confidential information without revealing your identity.
It has a range of settings you can configure to help with security and privacy. Disabling JavaScript, ActiveX, and Flash plugins, for example, will help to strengthen your privacy, though this may also cause some sites to run poorly. Before we look at how to access the dark web, it’s important to have a thorough understanding of what it is, as there are many misconceptions about it.
Security researcher Juha Nurmi founded the search engine to help people access those sites without facing monitoring. The dark web is a privacy-focused part of the internet, accessible only through specialized software, such as the Tor Browser. It runs on an encrypted, decentralized network that standard browsers can’t access. Hopefully you have trusted antivirus software like Avira Free Security. It’s also advisable to change your passwords as hackers may have accessed your credentials and could be making their way into your online bank account as we speak. Some online security software, like Avira Password Manager Pro, includes account checks, to inform you if your online account may have been compromised in a security breach.
This means that the sites can usually only be accessed directly (peer-to-peer) and if the exact URL is known. Sites on the dark web tend to appear and disappear quickly so the links don’t always work—and they can be unsafe. One of its best features is Anonymous View, which is a free proxy that masks your identity while you’re browsing sites. It also always uses a secure HTTPS connection, so you’re safer on public Wi-Fi networks too.