Tor vs. VPN: The Battle for Online Anonymity

How Does a VPN Work?

If you want the long version, I have a piece that explains all of the nitty-gritty details. The short version is that a virtual private network (VPN) works by changing the path your data takes to the internet. Normally, your traffic goes directly from your computer or phone to your internet service provider’s (ISP) network. Think of it as a highway with your data speeding along on a straight path to its destination. Your ISP (and other entities like advertisers) can see where you got onto the highway and where you exited. 

Connecting to a VPN acts as a tunnel that routes your data to somewhere else and encrypts it in the process. In keeping with the analogy, it takes your car (your data in this scenario) off the visible highway of traffic and routes it underground through a tunnel that nobody can see. When it comes out the other end and rejoins the highway, the car would appear to have come from a different region entirely and have no trace of your original location. 

The obfuscation provided by a VPN adds a layer of protection to your personal data. It’s a great tool for reclaiming your digital freedom against overreaching laws such as those gaining steam in the United States around adult content. VPNs can also be used to spoof your location to access regional catalogs on streaming services like Netflix. 

Just keep in mind that even the best VPNs have limits. Advertisers can still track you with cookies and store the information you willingly put into forms. These tools won’t keep you safe from the likes of malware, either. You’ll need a good standalone antivirus for that, and I recommend a password manager while you’re at it.

How Does Tor Work?

Tor (also known as The Onion Router) is a free browser that uses a decentralized network run by volunteers. It encrypts your data by routing it between a handful of nodes before it reaches its final destination. Let’s break down each part of that description, since it’s a dense one. First off, the Tor network is decentralized, while a VPN’s network is centralized. This distinction comes down to ownership. A VPN’s network is owned and operated by a single entity, while the Tor network isn’t owned or controlled by a single entity. There’s no central control hub for Tor. 

The service operates through nodes, which are essentially peer-managed servers through which your data travels. Instead of a company running the server, it’s a volunteer user of the Tor network. That may sound incredibly dangerous, but the process is more private than it sounds. Instead of a single tunnel obscuring your traffic, your data moves through at least three tunnels before it pops out the other side. Unlike a VPN, no one party ever handles the entirety of your data at once. 

The entry node will know your IP address but not your data’s final destination. The middle node(s) will know where your data is going next, but nothing else. The final node will know where the data is ending up, but not where it came from. So, anytime you use the Tor browser, your data takes a winding path through multiple layers of obfuscation. This process, on paper, is meant to offer an unparalleled level of security for free. The reality is more complicated.

What Are the Differences Between Tor and a VPN?

Tor is a browser, while a VPN is often a standalone application. The latter service will protect all outgoing traffic on your computer, including from other applications. Tor only secures what you browse in its browser. While that may seem limiting, the purpose of Tor is not only to secure your surface web browsing but also to grant you access to the dark web.

Dark Web Access

Tor allows you to access sites you can’t with mainstream browsers (even if you’re using a VPN). These .onion (vs .com) sites are often shrouded in mystique and fear by many media outlets as exclusively being hubs for violence and crime. Those sites do exist, but the dark web is more than a criminal underground. It is meant to be a place of privacy and freedom of expression (and from constant tracking and surveillance), and there are many interesting resources there, like independent news outlets and free repositories of data. Just be careful where you tread. There are no filters or safeguards on most .onion sites. Research every site you travel to in advance; otherwise, it can be easy to get exposed to offensive content.

Performance

A VPN is going to be faster than Tor in almost all cases. Even when services try to emulate Tor’s routing technology with multi-hop servers, a centralized company has the infrastructure required to give an optimal experience. Tor is slow, and I mean really slow. It’s not for streaming media or doing any tasks that require decent performance. Uploads and downloads will take ages, and your latency will be abysmal. It’s the trade-off of having a decentralized network. You’ll be connecting to a bunch of different servers with essentially random speeds and vastly different physical infrastructure.

Price

Tor is free. You don’t have to pay for a monthly subscription or put in any personal information whatsoever to use it. There are a handful of good free VPNs out there, but most are to be avoided due to sketchy data handling practices. Many free services make money through trading user data, which is exactly what you want to avoid if you’re using a VPN. 

That does beg the question of how Tor sustains itself. The project relies heavily on grants and donations, including hefty backing by government agencies. All of which raises questions about what entities might be able to spy on the platform. This is where things get tricky with Tor. On paper, it is an excellent tool that lets you secure your privacy without the need for an intermediary company like a VPN. In reality, Tor’s security is questionable at best.

Privacy

There’s a risk in using any service such as Tor or a VPN, but it is easier to make an educated decision with a VPN provider than it is with Tor. Consider this: With Tor, you need to place trust in the owner of each node not to breach your privacy—in essence, countless anonymous (and unaccountable) users. With a VPN, you only need to trust one service not to log your data. And you can evaluate a company based on security audits, prior government inquiries, and its privacy policy. These entities are bound by laws and can face penalties for failing to follow them. (Of course, data breaches do happen, and all the regulations and penalties in the world won’t change that.)

The variables involved in a Tor connection are both good and bad. Its multi-step routing process is very secure when it operates as intended, but the network is under heavy surveillance by government agencies such as the FBI and even local police forces. Ever since a vulnerability in the Mozilla-based network was found in 2016, agencies have been able to surveil compromised nodes, sometimes deploying malware into the network in hopes of capturing criminals. They often end up capturing innocents, as well. Browsing the Tor network comes with risks, even if you’re not doing anything illicit. The place is ripe with adware, trackers, and malware of a more nefarious nature than your standard surface web versions. Browse the network at your own risk.

Can You Use a VPN and Tor Together?

Yes. There are two ways to use a VPN with the Tor network. Both methods grant additional security, but the order of operations has significance. I only recommend Tor to advanced users who know how to stay safe online. This warning is doubly important when it comes to mixing and matching Tor with a VPN. It is not a plug-and-play process. It involves trial and error, and you can do more harm than good to your privacy if you misconfigure either service

Tor Over VPN (Onion Over VPN)

In this method, you first connect to a VPN and then use the Tor network. Doing so is going to make the already slow Tor connection even slower, but it does come with some advantages. By routing your traffic to a VPN’s server first, you’re obfuscating the fact that you’re using a Tor node from your ISP. This method also stops the entry node from seeing your original IP address. If someone were to compromise an entry node, your data would be attributed to a different IP address than your own. 

Some services, such as NordVPN, have this feature built into certain servers. Connections can be tricky. Some VPNs don’t play well with Tor, and you could face errors or timeouts when trying to configure the service. 

VPN Over Tor (VPN Over Onion)

VPN over Tor works in the opposite way. You first connect to Tor and then configure your VPN. The benefits of this method are debated. Some users state that it can be good for bypassing sites that may block a Tor user, while others say that this setup is functionally useless since it doesn’t hide your Tor connection from your ISP. Out of the two, I recommend Tor Over VPN. You may run into more blocks on surface websites, but that’s better than compromising your IP address.

Which Is Better: Tor or a VPN?

While both tools may have similar encryption methods and aim to improve user privacy, it really isn’t useful to give a verdict on which one is better. The Tor network and a VPN have completely different use cases. You don’t use Tor to stream Netflix, and you don’t use a VPN to access the dark web. Like any tool, the best one for you is going to be the one you need to accomplish your task.