Dark Web

Tor vs I2P vs Freenet

Tor is the famous one, but it is not the only anonymous network. I2P and Freenet — now called Hyphanet — solve different problems with different designs, and comparing them by "which is best" misses the point. Each was built for a different job. This guide compares them honestly, with the 2023 rename corrected.

By Abdul Hannan · Published 14 November 2026 · Updated 14 November 2026

The three networks in one paragraph each

Tor — anonymous browsing, plus hidden services

Tor routes your traffic through three volunteer relays so that no single relay knows both who you are and where you are going. Its main job is anonymous access to the ordinary web, and its second job is hosting onion services — sites that live inside Tor and hide their server's location. It is the largest of the three networks, the best documented, and the easiest to try: Tor Browser is a single download from torproject.org.

I2P — an anonymous network for services inside it

I2P, the Invisible Internet Project, is a peer-to-peer anonymous network layer started in 2003. Its main job is anonymous communication inside the network: websites, email, chat, file sharing and other services that live on I2P itself. Unlike Tor, every I2P user also relays traffic for others, so the network's capacity grows with its users. It uses one-way tunnels — separate inbound and outbound paths — and a technique called garlic routing, which bundles several messages together so they are harder to analyse individually.

Hyphanet, formerly Freenet — publishing that cannot be removed

Hyphanet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant publishing, under continuous development since 2000 and designed by Ian Clarke as a student project at the University of Edinburgh. Its main job is different from both Tor and I2P: content is stored as small encrypted pieces spread across the computers of its users, so a popular document stays available as long as people keep requesting it, without any single server to shut down. It is a distributed store, not a way to browse the ordinary web — you can only reach content that has been published inside Hyphanet.

Side by side

Question	Tor	I2P	Hyphanet (Freenet)
Main job	Anonymous web browsing + onion services	Anonymous services inside the network	Censorship-resistant publishing
Can it reach ordinary websites?	Yes, through exit relays	Only through limited gateways	No — self-contained only
Who relays traffic?	Volunteer relay operators	Every user, automatically	Every user stores pieces of content
Routing	Three-relay circuits, onion encryption	One-way tunnels, garlic routing	Distributed store, requests passed node to node
Started	Public network 2003; project founded 2006	2003	2000; renamed Hyphanet 2023
Easiest way in	Tor Browser from torproject.org	I2P router download from geti2p.net	Hyphanet download from hyphanet.org
Best for a beginner	Yes — most used, best documented	Later, for internal services	Later, for publishing

How the designs differ

Tor: three relays, two directions

Tor builds a circuit of three relays and sends your traffic there and back along the same path. Each relay peels one layer of encryption. The design splits knowledge: the first relay knows who you are but not where you are going, the middle relay knows neither, and the last relay knows the destination but not you. Tor's directory of relays is public and signed, which makes it easy to join — and also makes the relay list visible to anyone who wants to block it.

I2P: one-way tunnels, everyone relays

I2P builds separate inbound and outbound tunnels, so the path a message takes in is different from the path the reply takes out. That makes traffic analysis harder, because an observer watching one direction sees only half the conversation. I2P also has no central directory of the kind Tor uses: routers learn about each other through a distributed database. And because every user relays traffic, the network is harder to enumerate and block — but also slower to start, since a new router needs time to integrate and build its tunnels.

Hyphanet: the content is the network

Hyphanet does not route your browsing at all. It stores content. When you publish something, it is split into encrypted pieces and spread across participating computers. When someone requests it, the pieces are passed from computer to computer until they are reassembled. There is no server hosting the document, so there is no server to seize or block. The trade-off is that only content that has been published inside Hyphanet can be reached, and retrieving it can be slow — the network is optimised for availability, not speed.

Which network for which job

• Reading the ordinary web privately — Tor. It is the only one of the three built for this, with exit relays to the public internet.
• Running a long-lived hidden service — Tor or I2P. Tor onion services are the best known; I2P's design spreads load across all users, which suits services that expect heavy use.
• Anonymous chat, email or file sharing inside a closed network — I2P. Its internal services, known as eepsites, are built for exactly this.
• Publishing a document that must stay available — Hyphanet. Once content is popular enough, it persists without any server of your own.
• Learning how anonymity networks work — Tor first. Its documentation is the most complete, and the concepts transfer to the other two.

What they share — and what none of them promises

All three are free, open-source, volunteer-run, and built on the same insight: spread knowledge and responsibility so widely that no single party can see or control the whole picture. All three are legal tools in most countries. And all three share the same honest limit: none of them guarantees anonymity. Behaviour identifies people — logins, downloads, writing style, operational mistakes — on every network. The choice between them is a choice about which job you are doing, not about which one makes you invisible.

It is also worth saying plainly that all three networks have lawful and unlawful uses, and that each project's community and documentation are oriented toward the lawful ones: journalism, research, censorship resistance, and free communication. None of these guides helps anyone use any network for illegal activity, and none of them should be read as a recommendation to do so.

Sources

• Tor Project — A short introduction to Tor (Tor Specifications, accessed 14 November 2026)
• I2P — The Invisible Internet Project (geti2p.net, accessed 14 November 2026)
• Hyphanet — Help (hyphanet.org, accessed 14 November 2026)
• I2P — Wikipedia (accessed 14 November 2026)

The 2023 Freenet-to-Hyphanet rename is documented on the Hyphanet project pages and in the project's encyclopedia entry. Last checked: 14 November 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Tor, I2P and Freenet?

Tor is built to browse the ordinary web anonymously and to host onion services. I2P is built for anonymous services inside its own network, with every user also relaying traffic. Freenet, renamed Hyphanet in 2023, is a distributed store for publishing content that cannot easily be censored or removed.

Is I2P better than Tor?

It depends on the job. I2P is designed for services inside its own network and spreads the relay load across all users, which suits long-running hidden services. Tor is better for browsing the ordinary web anonymously and has far more users and public documentation. Neither is better at everything.

What happened to Freenet?

It was renamed Hyphanet in mid-2023. Many guides still call it Freenet, and older articles miss the rename entirely. It is the same project, under a new name, still focused on censorship-resistant publishing.

Can I access normal websites with I2P or Hyphanet?

Not directly in the way Tor allows. Tor includes exit relays to the ordinary web. I2P has limited gateways to the outside, but it is mainly an internal network. Hyphanet is self-contained: you can only reach content that has been published inside Hyphanet itself.

Which anonymous network should a beginner learn first?

Tor. It is the most used, the best documented, and the easiest to try, since Tor Browser is a single download from torproject.org. Learn how Tor works first, then the differences of I2P and Hyphanet will make much more sense.