Guide / Access

Access

Choose VPN / Tor for your situation

VPNs and Tor do different jobs. Pick the right one for the risk you are facing.

Goal

Hide your browsing from your network provider or bypass censorship safely.

Best first move

Decide whether you need speed and convenience (VPN) or stronger anonymity (Tor).

Recommended path

Best first move: Decide whether you need speed and convenience (VPN) or stronger anonymity (Tor).

1
Define your adversary
Are you hiding from a local network, your ISP, a website, or a state actor?
2
VPN if you trust the provider
A good VPN hides traffic from your ISP but not from the VPN company.
3
Tor for stronger anonymity
Tor hides your origin from websites and the entry node does not know both ends.
4
Combine carefully
Tor over VPN is sometimes useful; VPN over Tor can reduce anonymity. Research your setup.

Best tools for this

Tor Browser

easy

Anonymous browsing and bypassing censorship.

Routes traffic through three volunteer relays; hides origin.

Mullvad VPN

easy

Privacy-first VPN that avoids accounts.

Anonymous account numbers, no logs, audits, cash/crypto payments.

IVPN

easy

Audit-friendly VPN with anti-tracking.

No logs, open source apps, strong ethics.

Proton VPN

easy

Trusted Swiss VPN with free tier.

No logs, Secure Core, open source.

Orbot

easy

Tor proxy for Android apps.

Routes any app traffic through Tor on mobile.

Warnings

Free VPNs can sell data

If the product is free, your browsing habits may be the product.

Tor is not invincible

Downloading large files, logging in, or opening downloads can break anonymity.

Limitations

Both can be blocked

Some networks block VPN ports and Tor entry nodes. Bridges and obfuscation help.

VPNs do not anonymize accounts

Logging into Google or bank over a VPN still identifies you to those services.

Related use cases

Access

Access blocked websites safely

Publish a video safely

Protect

Prepare your phone for a protest

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Web3Privacy Explorer

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