OnionHop V3 is a modern, cross-platform desktop app (Windows, macOS and Linux) that routes your traffic through Tor. It can run Tor as a local SOCKS proxy or as a system-wide tunnel, automatically pick a working connection strategy for your network with Smart Connect, scan and apply working bridges for censored networks across every transport, and even let you volunteer as a Snowflake proxy.
Disclaimer OnionHop is provided "as-is". Tor usage can be illegal or restricted in some jurisdictions. You are responsible for complying with local laws and regulations.
V3 is a ground-up rebuild on a new cross-platform UI stack, with a much smarter connection engine and a far wider set of censorship-resistant transports.
- Now cross-platform — native desktop builds for Windows, macOS (signed & notarized universal app) and Linux (AppImage). Same app, native look on each OS.
- Redesigned UI — Fluent/native look (FluentAvalonia), light/dark/follow-system themes, an accent picker, an integrated chromeless title bar on Windows and native window chrome on macOS, and 5 languages (English, German, French, Chinese, Russian).
- Smart Connect — an offline censorship "brain" that auto-picks the best connection strategy for your network and country: it knows where Tor is blocked, prefers transports that survive there, pre-tests bridge reachability, races strategies in parallel, fails fast off dead paths, and remembers what worked on each network so the next connect is instant.
- Three Tor engines — Classic (
tor.exe, full control: bridges, country/entry/exit pinning, control-port New Identity), Arti (the Rust Tor implementation), and ArtiHop (shortened 2-hop Guard→Exit circuits for lower latency, with live New Identity). - More censorship-resistant transports — obfs4, snowflake (with optional AMP-cache fronting), webtunnel, conjure, meek, and dnstt (a DNS tunnel that gets Tor through when only DNS is allowed).
- Bridge Scanner — fetch and reachability-test bridges of every transport, see color-coded latency, and one-click apply the ones that actually work on your network.
- More bridge sources — the official Tor bridge service, the censorship-resistant OnionHop Bridges Collector (derived from Delta-Kronecker/Tor-Bridges-Collector), built-in community bridges, and a thin-set top-up so a tiny live fetch is automatically backed by bundled bridges.
- Relays browser — search the live Tor relay list by nickname, country, role, flags and bandwidth, and pin a preferred entry/middle/exit.
- Command-line interface — a full-featured TUI (
OnionHopV3.Cli) with a live status dashboard, connect/scan/bridges/snowflake/relays commands and settings persistence. (Windows now; Linux & macOS CLI coming soon.) - Stronger leak protection — optional full DNS-over-Tor, a kill switch, UDP blocking in TUN mode, and an in-app WebRTC/UDP privacy notice.
- Volunteer as a Snowflake proxy — help censored users reach Tor, straight from Settings.
- Quality-of-life — decoupled system-proxy toggle (turn it off while Tor stays connected), an opt-in persistent admin helper to skip repeat UAC prompts in TUN mode (off by default), an in-app changelog, and Bitcoin donations.
Grab the latest build for your platform from Releases:
| Platform | File | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | OnionHop-Setup-v3.exe |
Installer (self-contained, .NET runtime bundled) |
| Windows | OnionHopV3-Portable-…win-x64.zip |
Portable, no install |
| Linux | OnionHop-x86_64.AppImage |
chmod +x and run |
| macOS | OnionHop-3.1.0-macOS.dmg |
Signed & notarized; universal (Apple Silicon + Intel) — from the macOS repo |
| Windows CLI | OnionHop-CLI-Setup-3.1.0.exe / …Portable…zip |
Terminal interface |
The macOS
.dmgis published from the dedicated, code-signing rana-gmbh/onionhopMac repository.
-
Install the build for your OS (above). The Windows installer and the macOS/Linux bundles are self-contained — the .NET 9 runtime is bundled.
-
Choose a mode
- Proxy Mode (recommended, no admin): runs Tor locally and points the OS system proxy at Tor's local SOCKS5 endpoint. Best compatibility for proxy-aware apps.
- TUN/VPN Mode (admin): system-wide routing via sing-box (Wintun on Windows, the system TUN on macOS/Linux); needed for apps that ignore proxy settings. Leak-resistant (DNS through Tor, UDP blocked).
-
Connect
- Leave Smart Connect on to let OnionHop pick the best strategy automatically, or pick a Tor engine / Exit Location / Bridges yourself.
- In a censored network, enable Bridges or open the Scanner to find bridges that work in your region.
- Click Connect.
Notes
.onionsites require a Tor-aware client (Tor Browser recommended) or SOCKS remote DNS (e.g., Firefox "Proxy DNS when using SOCKS v5").- Bridges, country/relay pinning and control-port New Identity require the Classic engine today — the Arti/ArtiHop engines run bridgeless in OnionHop for now (native bridge support is planned; upstream Arti itself supports bridges).
| Engine | Hops | Admin | Bridges / pinning / NEWNYM | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Classic (tor.exe) |
3 | no (Proxy) | yes | Most features; recommended for censorship + control |
| Arti | 3 | no | not yet in OnionHop | Rust Tor implementation (SOCKS runtime) |
| ArtiHop | 2 (Guard→Exit) | no | New Identity only | Lower latency, weaker anonymity |
Upstream Arti supports bridges and pluggable transports, but OnionHop currently runs its Arti and ArtiHop engines as a plain SOCKS runtime without bridge/PT config — so use the Classic engine for bridged/censored networks. Native bridge support for the Arti engines is planned for a future release.
Runs Tor locally and sets the OS proxy to Tor's SOCKS5 endpoint. No admin required. You can toggle the system proxy off without disconnecting Tor.
Runs Tor + sing-box and routes traffic at the OS level (Wintun on Windows, system TUN on macOS/Linux). Requires Administrator. Most leak-resistant.
Only in TUN/VPN Mode — route selected apps through Tor while others stay direct.
- Network access — IP checks, Onionoo relay/country data, GitHub release metadata, bridge sources, and dependency downloads.
- Administrator / root — only for features that change system networking: TUN/VPN mode, kill switch, or system DNS/proxy changes.
- Folder access — store settings, logs, runtime data, downloaded Tor/transport binaries, the bridge cache, and any log export location you choose.
Settings and runtime data live in the OS application-data folders, e.g. %AppData%\OnionHop\settings.json (Windows) or ~/Library/Application Support/OnionHop/ (macOS).
Prerequisites:
- .NET SDK 9
- Inno Setup 6 (Windows installer)
- (optional) Rust toolchain to build the ArtiHop engine, and Go to build the Snowflake proxy / webtunnel / dnstt clients — these are fetched/built by the dependency scripts; if a toolchain is missing, that engine/feature is simply skipped.
Fetch runtime dependencies (Tor, pluggable transports, sing-box, Wintun, ArtiHop, Snowflake proxy):
# Windows
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File download-deps.ps1# macOS / Linux
./download-deps.shBuild & run:
# Windows installer (self-contained, x64) -> installer/output/OnionHop-Setup-v3.exe
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File installer/build-installer-v3.ps1
# Run from source
dotnet run --project OnionHop/src/OnionHopV3.App -c ReleaseThe ArtiHop 2-hop engine is built from its own public repo, center2055/ArtiHop — only the compiled binary is bundled; its source is not vendored.