Anonymity network ratings
Networks that hide who is talking to whom.
6 anonymity networks are rated against 4 public criteria, and 6 have enough evidence for a letter grade. Of the 3 with a known jurisdiction, 2 are based in a Five Eyes country, and 2 in the wider Fourteen Eyes.
Open-source anonymity networks only · Criteria for this category · Suggest an addition · Markdown
| Name | Grade | Score | Data | Jurisdiction | Open source | No trackers or telemetry | No ads or data sales | Independent audit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Anonymity network that routes traffic through three volunteer-run relays with layered encryption, used through Tor Browser and other apps to hide location, resist tracking and bypass censorship. |
Grade A | 100 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Decentralized mixnet that routes packets through layers of mix nodes with timing delays and cover traffic to hide metadata, used mainly through the NymVPN app. |
Grade B | 85 | 100% | Switzerland Outside Eyes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes |
Peer-to-peer network for censorship-resistant publishing and communication, formerly called Freenet, with a distributed data store and an optional friend-to-friend mode. The Freenet name now belongs to a separate project. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Anonymous overlay network that routes traffic through encrypted, unidirectional tunnels between peers, used mainly for hidden services, messaging and file sharing inside the network. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Onion-routed anonymity network that runs over a decentralized set of staked service nodes, tunneling any IP traffic and hosting private .loki services. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | Australia Five Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Experimental decentralized mesh network that gives each node an IPv6 address and routes end-to-end encrypted traffic between peers; the project states it does not aim to provide anonymity. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Questions
What is the most private option among anonymity networks?
No pick has been made yet. The table above is sorted by score, based on public evidence.
How are anonymity networks rated?
Each entry answers 4 questions: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales and independent audit. Answers need links to evidence. See the full criteria.
Does jurisdiction matter?
Jurisdiction decides which laws can compel a provider to hand over data. Each entry shows its country and whether it is in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes. The data a provider can hand over depends mostly on what it stores and who holds the keys. Read about jurisdictions and the CLOUD Act.