Both tools hide your IP address from the websites you visit, which is why people compare them. They do it in different ways, and the difference decides who you have to trust.
With a VPN, you trust one company. With Tor, you trust that the three relays carrying your connection, run by three unrelated volunteers, are not working together. Most of the practical differences in speed, cost and anonymity follow from that.
How a VPN works
A VPN app on your phone or computer opens an encrypted tunnel to a server run by the VPN company. Everything your device sends goes through that tunnel first, including your browser, your email app and your games. The VPN server then passes your traffic on to the open internet using its own IP address.
That gives you two protections. Your internet provider, your employer's network or the café Wi-Fi can see that you are connected to a VPN, but not which sites you visit. And the sites you visit see the VPN server's address and location instead of yours.
The VPN company sits in the middle and can see both ends: your real IP address and where your traffic goes. Its no-logs policy is a promise about what it does with that view. Some providers pay outside firms to audit those promises, and that report is worth reading before you pay. Most good VPNs charge a monthly or yearly fee; a few, such as Proton VPN, also have a free plan with limits on devices and server locations.
How Tor works
Tor is free, open-source software from the Tor Project, a US nonprofit that became a 501(c)(3) in 2006. The idea of onion routing came from the US Naval Research Lab in 1995, and the Tor network itself went live in October 2002.
When you open Tor Browser, it builds a path through three relays. The first relay, called the guard, knows your IP address but not where you are going. The middle relay knows only the relays on either side of it. The exit relay sends your request to the website and knows the destination, but not who asked. Your browser wraps the data in three layers of encryption, one for each relay, which is where the onion in the name comes from.
Volunteers run those relays. On November 1, 2026, the Tor Project's metrics counted about 9,460 relays, of which about 2,770 could act as exits, plus around 2,490 bridges for people on networks that block Tor.
Tor Browser also does work a VPN does not do. It isolates each site you visit so trackers can't follow you between them, clears cookies and history when you close it, and resists fingerprinting, so sites that profile your browser and screen settings have a harder time telling Tor Browser users apart.
What each one hides, side by side
| VPN | Tor Browser | |
|---|---|---|
| Who carries your traffic | One company's servers | Three relays run by different volunteers |
| What it covers | Every app on the device | The browser only (Tor VPN beta on Android covers chosen apps) |
| What your network sees | A connection to the VPN | A connection to Tor |
| What the website sees | The VPN server's address | A Tor exit relay's address |
| Who sees both your address and the site | The VPN company | No single relay |
| Cost | Usually a monthly or yearly fee | Free |
| Speed | Usually a small slowdown on a nearby server | Noticeably slower |
| Streaming and banking | Usually works, though some services block VPN servers | Often blocked or flagged |
One point applies to both. Neither tool encrypts your traffic between the last server and the website. On an HTTPS site, the exit relay or VPN server learns only which site you are visiting. On a plain HTTP site, it can read what you send.
Speed and everyday use
A VPN adds one extra hop, so on a nearby server you may not notice it at all. That makes a VPN easy to leave switched on all day for browsing, video calls and streaming.
Tor is slower by design. Your traffic travels through three volunteer servers that may be on different continents, and busy relays add delay. The Tor Project says the network is much faster than it used to be, but large downloads and video still suffer. The Tor Project also asks people not to use Tor for torrenting.
Sites react differently, too. The list of Tor exit relays is public, so any site can tell that a visitor is using Tor. Some sites show extra captchas, and banks may lock an account that suddenly signs in from an exit relay in another country. VPN servers get blocked as well, most often by streaming services.
Privacy and trust
If your goal is to keep your internet provider and the local network out of your business, both tools work. If your goal is to stop anyone at all from linking you to what you read, Tor is the stronger choice, because no relay sees the whole picture and the browser itself resists tracking.
A VPN can't make you anonymous to the VPN company. If you sign in to the VPN with your email address and pay with your card, the company knows who you are and, in principle, where you went. Choosing a provider with an audited no-logs policy and a clear record reduces that risk without removing it.
Tor has limits of its own. Signing in to your own accounts over Tor tells the site who you are. Browser add-ons and extra plugins can leak information, which is why the Tor Project tells users not to install them. Someone able to watch both ends of a connection can still try to match the traffic.
Is Tor legal?
Using Tor is legal in the United States. A legal FAQ from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, published on the Tor Project's community site, says that even running a Tor relay is legal under US law. Laws differ between countries, so check your own, and some governments block the Tor network. Where it is blocked, Tor Browser can connect through bridges or Snowflake, a built-in option that uses volunteer proxies. What you do over Tor is still subject to the law, exactly as it is on any other connection.
Can you use a VPN and Tor together?
You can, but the Tor Project advises against it for most people. Its support pages say that adding a VPN can reduce your anonymity or break Tor's protections if it is not set up correctly, and recommend it only for advanced users who know how to configure both.
Some VPNs offer a shortcut. Proton VPN, for example, has Tor servers on its paid plans that pass your VPN connection into the Tor network, so you can open .onion sites in an ordinary browser. That is convenient, but you give up Tor Browser's tracking and fingerprinting protections, and the VPN company can still see your real address.
Which one to use
Pick a VPN when you want to:
- Use public Wi-Fi in a hotel, airport or café without the network seeing what you do.
- Stop your internet provider from logging the sites you visit.
- Watch streaming services or use apps that expect a normal connection.
- Protect every app on your phone or laptop, not only the browser.
Pick Tor Browser when you want to:
- Read or publish without any single company knowing who you are.
- Research a sensitive subject, such as a health condition or a legal problem, without it being tied to you.
- Reach a site your network or government blocks, using bridges if Tor itself is blocked.
- Visit .onion sites.
Many people use both, for different jobs: a VPN switched on for everyday browsing, and Tor Browser opened separately for the few things that need anonymity.
Getting set up
Tor Browser 16.0 is the current stable version for Windows, macOS and Linux, and there is an official Tor Browser for Android. On iPhone and iPad, the Tor Project points people to Onion Browser, a separate app from the Guardian Project. Tor VPN, the Tor Project's app for routing other apps through Tor, is in beta on Android, and the project warns not to rely on it for anything sensitive. Download all of these from torproject.org or the app's own site, never from a mirror you found in search results.
For a VPN, start with our guide to the best VPN software, which compares Proton VPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, Mullvad and others on price, devices and privacy. If you live somewhere that restricts the internet, our guides for China and Russia cover which services still connect there.
