Tor Project

What Tor Project does

Tor Project, Inc. is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2006 (with onion routing research originating in the late 1990s at the US Naval Research Lab) that develops and maintains free, open-source anonymity and privacy software. Its core offering is Tor Browser — a Firefox-based browser available on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android — that routes user traffic through a volunteer-operated overlay network of relays using multi-layered encryption to provide anonymity, censorship circumvention, and tracker/fingerprinting resistance. The portfolio also includes Tor VPN for Android, Arti (a Rust-based reimplementation of the Tor client), Snowflake and BridgeDB (anti-censorship transports), OONI (a censorship-measurement research tool), and Onion Browser for iOS. Co-founders Roger Dingledine and Nick Mathewson remain active, and the organization is led by Executive Director Isabela Bagueros.

The technology stack centers on onion routing — traffic is encrypted three times and passed through three relays — and is being modernized through Counter Galois Onion (CGO) wide-block encryption (launched November 2025), the Arti Rust client, and seizure-resistant RAM-only relay servers (in development with Osservatorio Nessuno, 2026). The Tor network relies on thousands of volunteer-run relays worldwide, and Tor's anti-fingerprinting technology is licensed into downstream products including Mullvad Browser (co-developed with Mullvad VPN).

Tor has no paying end-user customers and distributes its software free of charge via direct download, Google Play Store, and F-Droid. Revenue (in the form of grants and donations) comes from a diversified base of institutional funders including the US Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, the Open Technology Fund, Ford Foundation, Sida, Heising-Simons Foundation, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Zcash Community Grants, the Ethereum Foundation, OpenSats, and #StartSmall, supplemented by individual donations (including through the PrivChat event series) and a 2026 Web3/quadratic-funding campaign with Funding the Commons. The user base spans privacy-conscious consumers, journalists and whistleblowers, human-rights activists, and populations in censored regions such as Iran, Russia, and China.

Name

Tor Project

Legal name

The Tor Project, Inc.

Website

https://torproject.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Tor Project is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit that develops free, open-source anonymity and censorship-circumvention software, including Tor Browser, Tor VPN, Arti, Snowflake, and OONI, serving privacy-conscious individuals, journalists, activists, and users in censored regions worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Privacy & Anonymity Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132), Security Systems Services (except Locksmiths) (561621)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

Browser & Web Isolation Security (HDADAEAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Network Security Services (Firewall/VPN/ZTNA/SASE Integration) (BPAEAEAG), VPN Gateways & Concentrators (IPsec/SSL) (HDAFAFAC)

Keywords

• Anonymous web browsing
• Onion routing network
• Internet censorship circumvention
• Open source privacy software
• Anti-surveillance tooling

Headquarters

HQ city

Cambridge

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations from individuals: Individual donors contribute monthly or one-time donations to support Tor's operations. The PrivChat event series is used as a fundraising mechanism.
2. Institutional grants and funding: Tor receives grants from foundations and government agencies including Open Technology Fund, U.S. Department of State, Ford Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, Sida, and others. This represents the primary funding model for the nonprofit.
3. Web3/Cryptocurrency crowdfunding: Tor Project launched a Web3 crowdfunding campaign in partnership with Funding the Commons, accepting crypto contributions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, Monero, and Golem, with matching pools from partners.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

The Tor Project develops and distributes free, open-source anonymity and privacy software, centered on Tor Browser — a privacy-hardened Mozilla Firefox derivative that routes traffic through a volunteer-run onion-routing network with three-layer encryption. The portfolio also includes Tor VPN for Android, the Arti Rust-based Tor client, Snowflake and BridgeDB censorship-circumvention tools, the OONI censorship-measurement platform, and collaborative products such as Mullvad Browser. All offerings are free of charge and source-available, with no commercial subscription tiers.

Product overview

The Tor Project develops a suite of free and open-source privacy and anonymity technologies centered around the Tor network and Tor Browser. The core offering is Tor Browser, available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android, which routes traffic through the Tor network using multi-layered encryption to protect user privacy and bypass censorship. Tor VPN extends this protection to all device applications. The project also includes Arti (a modern Rust-based Tor implementation), Snowflake and BridgeDB (anti-censorship tools), and OONI (censorship measurement research). Through collaboration, Tor's anti-fingerprinting technology powers Mullvad Browser, while Onion Browser brings Tor routing to iOS users. The ecosystem is supported by the Tor Expert Bundle for developers integrating Tor into applications.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Tor Browser: The organization's flagship private web browser that routes traffic through the Tor network for anonymity and censorship circumvention, available for desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux) and Android.
• Arti
• Tor VPN
• OONI

Products and services

• Tor Browser A free, open-source web browser based on Mozilla Firefox that routes internet traffic through the Tor network to provide anonymity, censorship circumvention, protection against third-party trackers and ads, anti-fingerprinting, automatic cookie and browsing-history clearing, and per-website isolation. Available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and (via Onion Browser) iOS.
• Tor VPN A free VPN application for Android that routes a device's traffic through the Tor network, providing per-app routing and local-only session statistics for users who want Tor-level protection across all their apps.
• Onion Browser An open-source iOS browser that routes traffic through the Tor network, allowing iPhone and iPad users to access .onion services and browse anonymously. Distributed via Apple's App Store and developed by a contributor working closely with the Tor Project.
• Tor Expert Bundle A free download package containing the Tor daemon along with pluggable transports, bridge strings, and geoip data. Used by developers who need to integrate Tor routing into their own applications.
• Arti A modern implementation of the Tor client written in Rust, designed to replace the legacy C codebase and make Tor more reliable, more secure, and easier for third-party developers to embed into their own applications.
• OONI (Open Observatory of Network Interference) A free software project maintained by the Tor Project that measures internet censorship, traffic manipulation, and connectivity issues around the world. Used by researchers, journalists, and advocates to detect and document network interference.
• Mullvad Browser A free privacy-focused web browser developed by Swedish VPN provider Mullvad in collaboration with the Tor Project, built on Firefox with Tor's anti-fingerprinting technology and default privacy settings.
• Snowflake A standalone censorship-circumvention pluggable transport tool hosted at snowflake.torproject.org that lets users in heavily censored regions reach the Tor network by leveraging temporary volunteer-run browser-based proxies.
• BridgeDB A standalone bridge distribution system that supplies Tor bridge addresses to users who cannot connect to the Tor network directly because their network blocks direct Tor access.

Quantifiable outcome

• Usage surge from 7.5 million to 25 million users during Iran protests (January 2026)
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Funding the CommonscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 May 2026Tor Project and Funding the Commons launched a Web3 crowdfunding campaign to support 10 nonprofit projects working on privacy, censorship circumvention, and digital infrastructure.
• FastlycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFastly's global edge cloud platform hosts Tor Browser update downloads that can be fetched anonymously, providing critical infrastructure support.
• Mullvad VPNcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMullvad collaborated with Tor Project to develop Mullvad Browser, built on Firefox with Tor's anti-fingerprinting protections. Mullvad provides ongoing financial support.
• Osservatorio NessunominorStrategic or Co-development PartnerItalian digital rights non-profit leading the development of stateless, RAM-only relay servers for Tor that wipe data on reboot to protect against hardware seizures.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Mozilla (Firefox): Underlying engine of Tor Browser and partner in Tor's anti-fingerprinting work. Mozilla is a broad incumbent whose Firefox product competes for privacy-conscious users and supplies core technology Tor depends on.
• Brave: Privacy-focused web browser with built-in tracker blocking, fingerprinting resistance, and a VPN. Competes with Tor Browser for the same privacy-conscious consumer segment and ships its own ad-supported crypto model.
• ExpressVPN: Major commercial VPN provider targeting privacy and censorship-circumvention users globally. Competes with Tor VPN for mainstream users who want an easier-to-use alternative to Tor Browser.

Direct peers

• Proton: Swiss privacy company offering ProtonVPN, Proton Mail, and related encrypted tools. Directly comparable to Tor in target customer (privacy and human-rights users) and core value proposition (anonymity/encryption), with a more commercial, freemium business model.
• Mullvad VPN: Swedish commercial VPN provider and direct collaborator with Tor Project on Mullvad Browser. Mullvad is the closest privacy-tool peer: same target user (privacy-conscious, censorship-affected users), overlapping anti-fingerprinting technology, and a mutual partnership with Tor.
• DuckDuckGo: Privacy-focused search engine and browser offering tracker blocking and anti-fingerprinting. Targets the same mainstream privacy-conscious user as Tor Browser and is listed as a corporate sponsor of Tor Project.
• Signal: End-to-end encrypted messaging app serving the same journalists/activists/human rights defender segment that Tor targets. Comparable privacy-first nonprofit funding model and overlapping user base.
• Psiphon: Anti-censorship tool widely used in Iran, China, and other censored regions. Directly comparable to Tor/Snowflake on the circumvention use case and overlapping user base of censored-region users.

Emerging players

• I2P (Invisible Internet Project): Open-source anonymous network similar in architecture to Tor's onion routing. Competes for technically sophisticated users seeking anonymity but with a smaller relay footprint and developer community.

Others

• Tails: Privacy-focused live operating system (and Tor Project subsidiary per the source data) that routes all traffic through Tor. Treated as a peer/adjacent for completeness given its product overlap and operational linkage to Tor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/torproject
• GitHubgithub.com/torproject
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/TheTorProject
• Facebookfacebook.com/TorProject
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/tor-project
• Instagraminstagram.com/torproject

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles13 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Tor Project