Onion Browser goes free for privacy-conscious iOS users, citing ‘recent events’

One less excuse not to protect your browsing online.

Graham Cluley
Graham Cluley
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@gcluley

Free Onion Browser

For over four years mobile app developer and privacy journalist Mike Tigas has been selling his Onion Browser, which encrypts and tunnels users’ web traffic through the Tor network, in the iOS App Store for the princely sum of 99 cents.

Last month, he decided to make it freely available:

Given recent events, many believe it’s more important than ever to exercise and support freedom of speech, privacy rights, and digital security; I think now is as good a time as ever to make Onion Browser more accessible to everyone.

Onion browser ios

Tigas clearly feels passionately in empowering people’s ability to improve their digital security. And that seems to be one of the motivations for no longer charging for the Tor browser he developed for iPhones and iPads:

…selling an app inherently puts up a barrier to user adoption – not for users who simply don’t want to pay for software, but rather for those users who cannot pay for the software. (In many cases, this is due to possessing a grey market iPhone in a country where it’s unusual to have a payment method accepted by the App Store.) For censorship-circumventing software like Tor, barriers to access are a significant human rights issue – especially in the face of escalating digital repression in some parts of the world.

Tigas sensibly warns that versions of his app downloaded from outside the iOS App Store might have been tampered with, and that users should exercise caution if they cannot get their hands on the app through official channels.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that Onion Browser only attempts to protect the online activity which you conduct inside the Onion Browser app. Your non-Onion Browser traffic could still be picked up by others, so make sure you are aware and take additional precautions.

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In lieu of any more sales, Tigas is inviting people to support the project via Patreon or make an anonymous Bitcoin donation.

Hat-tip: @Virusbtn on Twitter


Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "Smashing Security" podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

One comment on “Onion Browser goes free for privacy-conscious iOS users, citing ‘recent events’”

  1. Bob

    Personally I don't trust TOR for privacy-conscious users because of the high number of malicious exit nodes on the network.

    It's far better to use OpenVPN on iOS as this will protect 99% of the traffic on the device.

    You'll still get some leakage even with a VPN because not all apps will allow traffic to go via the VPN unless you mess around with the Apple Configurator (something beyond the capabilities of the average user).

    TOR is a mess at the minute but it's nice to see that the developer is making it free.

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