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Tor Browser Review: Features, Usage, and Competition
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Created by the Tor Project in 2008, the Tor Browser is a rather unique browser that was established with the intent to help people use the internet anonymously. This is quite evident through its features that resemble VPNs.
Tor, an acronym for The Onion Router, is a software that allows you to browse the web anonymously. Its goal is to prevent people from learning your location or tracking your browsing behavior.
From IP masking to triple-layer encryption, Tor will keep your online business private and lock out nosy intruders such as trackers and malware.
The Tor Browser rolls the benefits of Tor into a web browser. Our review today covers every detail of the browser, including its features, ease of use, privacy, and much more. Read on to know more about its top competitors and how different Tor is from them so that you can make the right choice.
Tor Browser: Features
The Tor Browser is available for all popular desktop operating systems including Windows, Linux, and macOS. You can also use it on your Android device, but not on iOS.
Under normal circumstances, when you visit a website, your computer establishes a direct connection between your computer and the website. The website knows your IP address and where you are coming from and your ISP (or malicious entities) knows which websites you are visiting.
Tor thwarts their surveillance by creating a network of relay nodes across the internet. When you visit a website using Tor, the data to and from your computer is bounced around these nodes before ending up at the intended website. This masks your origins from the website and no one knows where the network traffic from your computer is headed.
By default, the Tor Browser protects your security by encrypting your browsing data three times as it passes over the Tor network. You can also use the browser to disable certain web features, such as JavaScript, that nefarious users can exploit to compromise your security and anonymity.
On top of that, the Tor Browser isolates each website you visit so third-party trackers and ads can’t follow you. It also thwarts any attempts to fingerprint you by making all its users look the same. The browser will also delete any cookies and your browsing history automatically when you’re done browsing.
Apart from Tor, no other browser gives you access to locked or geo-restricted content, straight out of the box. This feature works a lot like VPNs. Since using the browser masks your location and IP, the target website cannot recognize that your request is coming from a banned location, and you get to access their content. On the flip side, if the ban is imposed by your home network, Tor will help you bypass that as well and access whatever content you need.
Tor Browser: Privacy
The Tor browser uses three security levels to safeguard your privacy.
It is safe to use on most device types, such as Androids and macOS, and in most cases, it does fairly well in terms of privacy.
For starters, it passes your web traffic through three layers of encryption so that no online tracker can monitor your activity or collect your data. On top of that, it’s also one of the few browsers that hide your IP address by default, making it harder for spammers to target you.
The browser enables the NoScript extension by default, which blocks active content, like WebGL, Flash, Java applets, and such) for all websites until you explicitly allow it from trusted sites.
It’ll also thwart any fingerprinting attempts, and will also zap cookies automatically when you close the browser. And unlike many of its peers, it uses the privacy-respecting DuckDuckGo search engine by default.
Tor Browser: Ease of use
Tor browser is relatively easy to use. On launch, you’ll first have to ask the browser to connect to the Tor network. You can do this manually, or toggle the option on the main page to do this automatically every time you launch the browser.
The interface is quite simple, with a minimal menu and options, so you don’t have to spend too much time figuring out the setup.
The layout is quite standard with no fancy dashboard. You get the address bar and tabs on the top margin of the screen. On the left side of the address bar, you’ll find the options to control navigation, where you can choose whether to load a page or go back to the previous one.
On the right side of the address bar, you’ll get buttons to switch the security level, and to get a new identity. When you click the New Identity button, the browser will restart and establish new Tor circuits for all connections. This helps ensure that subsequent browsing activity cannot be linked to what you were doing before.
Tor Browser: Competitors
Tor is unique in what it does and how it does it. While you could use the Incognito mode that’s available in Google Chrome, the Private Browsing in Mozilla Firefox or the InPrivate mode in Microsoft Edge, to stop other people who share your computer from seeing your browsing history, they won’t prevent your ISP from monitoring the sites you’re visiting.
Its closest competitors are free VPN equipped browsers like Opera and Edge.
While Chrome has the biggest market share in the industry, it cannot beat Tor in security and user privacy.
In fact, Chrome’s quite infamous for its poor user privacy measure. The browser has also been involved in many consumer privacy rights lawsuits and is known to sell user data.
Tor, on the other hand, goes out of its way to keep all your online sessions secure and even brought in VPN-like features to keep away hackers, trackers, and malware. For example, it helps you hide your location and contact details so that any unauthorized party can neither spam you nor impersonate you.
The only downside to using Tor is that websites load slower than usual as the data to and from the website passes through so many relay nodes in the middle.
Tor Browser: Final verdict
Tor is a great browser for those who take web security and data privacy very seriously. It’s one of the few well-known browsers to use multiple encryption levels to filter your online traffic and prevent trackers and malware from reaching your system.
It’s also quite simple to use, lightweight, and goes easy on your battery. What’s more, it helps you bypass the site blocks imposed by your home network so that you can freely browse any content you want. In short, it’s the finest example of simplicity meeting power — check it out for a taste of its full potential.
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