Onion List is an independent educational resource, and this page explains why Onion List exists, how we decide what to cover, and what we deliberately leave out.

About Us

A clear, honest guide to Tor and the legitimate side of onion services

Onion List explains what Tor and .onion services actually are, in plain language, and highlights the legitimate organizations that use them.

There’s a lot of confusion and misinformation about Tor and the “dark web.” Most of what people hear focuses on illegal marketplaces, but Tor was built as a privacy tool, and it’s used every day by journalists, whistleblowers, human rights workers, and ordinary people who simply don’t want their browsing tracked.

This site does not list, link to, or promote marketplaces of any kind. We focus on documenting well-known, legitimate organizations that run onion services, explaining how Tor actually works, and offering practical privacy guidance that doesn’t require any special technical background.

How we choose what to feature

We link to an organization’s onion service only when it’s a widely recognized, mainstream entity (a major news outlet, a privacy or human rights organization, a well-established secure-communication tool) and we always point you to verify the address yourself through that organization’s own official site. If something doesn’t meet that bar, it doesn’t go on this site.

Why Onion List Started

Most existing “dark web” resources mix legitimate privacy tools together with marketplace directories and unverifiable link farms, which makes it hard for a curious reader to tell what’s actually trustworthy. Onion List was built specifically to separate the two: documenting real, verifiable organizations that run onion services for privacy or free-speech reasons, while explaining the reasoning a reader needs to stay safe.

What Onion List Will Never Do

Onion List does not publish raw .onion addresses, does not list or link to marketplaces of any kind, and does not index the network at large. Those are permanent editorial lines, not temporary limitations, because publishing a raw address list creates exactly the verification problem this site exists to solve: readers copying an address from a third party they can’t independently check.

Who Onion List Is For

Onion List is written for people who are curious about Tor and privacy but don’t want to wade through sensationalized “dark web” content to get a straight answer. That includes students researching digital rights, journalists new to source-protection tools, and anyone who’s simply heard the term “onion service” and wants to understand it without downloading anything or taking any risk.

How the Site Stays Accurate

Every organization mentioned on Onion List is one with an independently verifiable public identity: a registered nonprofit, an established newsroom, or a known software project. When we describe how an organization uses Tor, we point back to that organization’s own official channels rather than asking readers to trust our word for it. If something on this site is ever inaccurate or outdated, the contact page is the fastest way to reach us about it.