Deep Search is an open-source dark web search engine designed to index and explore onion space, the hidden services within the Tor network. Known for its accuracy, Deep Search stands out by delivering precise and useful results, avoiding the spammy links commonly found on similar platforms. Torch is one of the oldest dark web search engines, having served the darknet community for years. It boasts a vast archive of over 400,000 pages, providing comprehensive coverage of .onion sites, including forums, blogs, and marketplaces. Another main upside to this site is that it lets you view the number of .onion links and users on the Tor browser network. Data like this can also help estimate how many people actively access the dark web and how many hidden websites truly exist—you can even tell where the users are accessing from.
BBC News (and Other Leading News Sites)
While Tordex aims to provide unrestricted access to dark web content, you should exercise caution as the lack of censorship may lead to exposure to sensitive or illegal material. To find .onion links for dark web sites, you’ll need to use a dark web search engine. Many of them are safe for beginners to use since they filter out dangerous/illegal content to only provide safe .onion links. My favorites are DuckDuckGo (usually the Tor browser’s default search engine), The Hidden Wiki, and Ahmia.

Testimonials From Dark Web Explorers

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. Ahmia is a safe alternative search engine for users who prefer the dark web. It also provides insights, helpful statistics, and updates regarding the Tor network. Few countries operate with strict censorship on citizens’ internet access, preventing them from getting information in or out. BBC is the most popular news source and is the best example of restrictions on International media. It is important to note that the people or journalists who use ProPublica to spread their truth recognize the risk of doing so.
Forums And Communities
Radar Rundown Ad blockers are the best protection against disruptive ads. While they might sound the same, these websites are fundamentally different. Still, while the latter has a large digital collection of comic books, the Imperial Library has a large collection of books. In addition, its technology is open-source, and it doesn’t keep your data, which proves it is safe to use.
I Legal And Ethical Considerations
Privacy and anonymity are the dark web’s hallmarks, thanks to a network of servers that hide users’ identities and locations. If you’ve ever checked your medical results online through a portal that required a login, you were navigating the deep web. It’s huge, making up about 90% of the internet, but it’s mostly mundane, hidden behind login screens for privacy and security. Phishing is when someone contacts you pretending to be someone else to gain access to your personal information, which often results in identity theft. Some fake sellers take your crypto and never ship what you ordered, or phishing sites that look like real marketplaces but steal your login info.
Dark Web Tools And Services
It’s an easy and simple way to de-couple your internet usage from Google’s monopoly over the web. ZeroBin is another great Tor service that helps maintain anonymity and privacy by offering an encrypted pastebin service. Pastebins are text sharing services, usually for sending and sharing text snippets. ZeroBin encrypts and decrypts text in the browser, so their servers have no way of knowing what’s happening on the browser side. One of the most straightforward ways to access to dark web safely is via Tor, so we’ve kept that in mind when compiling our list.
- You can tell you’re on the dark web if you’re accessing websites with .onion addresses on the Tor Browser or a similar anonymity network.
- This combination helps to encrypt your data and mask your IP address, providing an extra layer of security.
- Here are some of the now-defunct dark web markets that were notorious for cybercrime.
- Onion sites use The Onion Router (Tor) software to encrypt their connections and enable anonymous communication.
- When you use it, all the web traffic automatically routes through Tor.
How To Find Dark Web Websites
It’s one of the few darknet sites you can use to gather reliable resources. Like any other crypto wallet, you can trade Bitcoin using Hidden Wallet. But unlike other wallets, you don’t have to worry about your personal information being leaked since it’s hosted on the Tor network. Hidden Wallet promises bank-grade security for your Bitcoins and claims that it can never access your keys or crypto funds.
- Cybersecurity has to also cover everything physically on your computer too—which law enforcement or government authorities might have the right to seize if they come calling.
- I especially like how TorLinks categorizes links based on their type, letting you easily find what you need.
- For example, randomly clicking a link can land you in extreme content, such as child pornography, which is a serious criminal offense to access.
- If your Social Security number is found on the dark web, take immediate action to protect yourself.
- While a website can’t identify you or an ISP can’t decrypt your internet traffic; still, they can still see you using Tor, which can draw some unwanted attention and raise suspicions.
The most common way to explore the dark web is through the Tor browser, which anonymizes users by routing their connection through multiple servers before reaching the intended site. The dark web is a hidden part of the internet where users are anonymous and can access illegal marketplaces and hacking forums and partake in illicit activities. In some cases, it’s also used for private messaging, cybersecurity training, whistleblowing, and other legitimate uses. Using a reliable VPN provider helps keep you safe when you access marketplaces on the dark web. A VPN encrypts the data traffic and keeps your activities private on the dark web. It also masks your IP address, making it difficult for government agencies to monitor or track your activities.
Hacking Groups And Services

For example, it maintains your privacy and enables you to access untraceable content and services. Lastly, the dark web is the portion of the deep web that is generally inaccessible and is much larger than the surface web. It relies on P2P connections and requires specialized tools and software. Tor and I2P are the two commonly used tools for accessing the dark web to provide anonymity. The anonymity provided by onion routing comes at the cost of slowing your internet considerably. As such, we do not recommend using Tor if you want to do data-intensive activities like streaming in HD, gaming, torrenting, or making video calls.
To access .onion websites securely, you’ll need the Tor Browser, a privacy-focused tool designed specifically for anonymous browsing. Here’s a straightforward guide to help beginners get started safely and efficiently. Navigating .onion sites requires the Tor Browser, specifically designed for privacy and accessing the dark web. Follow these straightforward steps to set up Tor and begin searching safely.
It offers outstanding privacy features and is currently available at a discounted rate. This information can be used to target ads and monitor your internet usage. Despite these privacy concerns, Facebook has become a critical place for communicating and expressing opinions. You can head over to Archive Today to look at snapshots taken by other users.
While its .onion address doesn’t make it much easier to maintain an anonymous account, it does make Facebook more accessible in places where it’s censored. One of the most popular ways to get around the dark web is not to use a search engine at all. Just like in the old days of the internet, the dark web maintains numerous indexes of sites, like The Hidden Wiki.
Launched in September 2022, Torzon Market operates on the Tor network and features over 11,600 illegal products, including drugs and hacking tools. It enhances buyer transparency by importing vendor feedback with PGP proof. Torzon offers a premium account option for additional benefits and is valued at approximately $15 million, accepting payments in Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR). WeTheNorth is a Canadian market established in 2021 that also serves international users.
Other major news sources blocked in some countries, like the BBC, also have dark web versions. Facebook’s onion mirror allows people to access it in countries that block the platform, allowing people to connect across digital borders. That said, the social network’s data collection and tracking practices may seem at odds with many of the principles motivating dark web users.

It’s particularly useful for sensitive communications that need to remain private. The deep web is the part of the internet you can’t access through search engines like Google and Bing. Also referred to as “non-indexed” content, it’s any content hidden behind some kind of access control such as a log-in or code word. It contains 7,500 terabytes of information, compared with only 19 terabytes of information in the “surface” web. To look at it in a different way, it makes up between 90% and 95% of the internet. By exploring these categories of resources, users can discover that the dark web’s landscape is more nuanced than popular portrayals suggest.