OnionHop Review: Route All Your Traffic Through Tor (Free & Open Source) | Free Download

OnionHop connected in TUN/VPN mode, whatismyipaddress.com confirms Tor exit IP

Why would you route everything through Tor?

Most people access Tor through the Tor browser, and that’s fine – until you realize that only the browser is secure. Your email client, your chat apps, that random Electron app you phone home – it all still travels over your regular connection with your real IP imprinted on every packet.
OnionHop bridges that gap. Instead of anonymizing a single browser tab, it can wrap your entire machine in Tor’s three-hop relay routing. Your ISP sees encrypted Tor traffic and nothing else. Websites see a Tor exit node in any country you choose. And unlike a commercial VPN, there’s no company logging your sessions on the other end – Tor’s entire design avoids a single point of trust.
The problem with system-wide Tor has always been setup: config files, TorRC editing, firewall rules. OnionHop’s pitch is simple – it does all this behind a clean dashboard with a single connect button. During my time with him, that pitch persisted.

Proxy Mode vs. TUN/VPN Mode: Choose Your Poison

The home screen opens with the Mode dropdown showing the exit country list in addition to Proxy Mode and TUN/VPN Mode

Proxy Mode – Everyday Option

This is the recommended starting point, and honestly what most people should use. OnionHop starts Tor locally and points your system proxy to a SOCKS5 endpoint 127.0.0.1:9050. No administrator rights, no drivers, nothing invasive. Any proxy-aware app – including browsers – immediately rides the Tor network. In my testing, a new connection came up in about 12 seconds and IP Checker immediately confirmed the exit from Tor.

Connected in proxy mode – apps use SOCKS port directly while Tor is running

TUN/VPN Mode – Strict Option

Flip to TUN/VPN mode and OnionHop creates a true system-wide tunnel using the sing-box (with the Wintun driver on Windows). Every application is routed through Tor at the operating-system level, whether it respects proxy settings or not. This mode requires administrator rights, but it gives you something that proxy mode can’t guarantee: DNS lookups stay inside the tunnel, so your ISP never sees which domain you’re resolving. If DNS leaks keep you up at night, this is your solution.

Hybrid – split tunnel for the finicky

There is a third way worth knowing. In TUN/VPN mode you can enable hybrid routing, which is per-app split tunneling: send your browser through Tor while your game launcher connects directly. This is a sensible compromise when full-system Tor slows things down or breaks select applications.
A quick word on speed: this is Tor, not a paid VPN. Expect throughput suitable for browsing, reading and messaging – not for 4K streaming. This is the business of real anonymity, and Onionhop is clear about it.

Blocked network? the bridge is your back

Network Settings tab showing the Tor Bridge toggle, Bridge Type dropdown (OBFS4) and Bridge Source options

This is where Onionhop surpasses the simple Tor front-end. If your ISP or country blocks direct Tor connections, the app has a full toolbox of pluggable transports: OBFS4, Snowflake, Webtunnel, Conjure, Meek, and DNST. These disguise Tor traffic as normal web traffic so filters bypass it.
Even better, you won’t have to look for hand bridges. A built-in scanner tests bridges to your own network and reports which bridges actually connect. It also has a smart connect toggle that automatically runs through strategies and picks whatever works for your location – really useful if you don’t know if or how your network blocks Tor. And if you already have private bridge lines from bridges.torproject.org, paste them and OnionHop will use them instead.
Secure DNS combined with SNI-based fronting completes the sensor-network story, making this one of the more complete perimeter setups I’ve seen in a free desktop tool.

Control Freaks Welcome: Advanced Tab

Advanced settings showing entry node, exit location and manual guard/middle/exit fingerprint fields

Casual users can ignore this tab completely, but tinkerers will appreciate what’s here. You can pin your exits to a specific country (the list shows live relay counts per nation – there were 235 in Austria when I checked), set up an ingress node, or go full control-freak and specify the exact relay fingerprint for the guard, middle and exit positions, with a strict toggle that fails the connection instead of failing the connection if your chosen relay is unavailable.
The app appropriately warns you that manual circuit shaping can harm both anonymity and reliability – which it may – but it’s a nice treat to have the option in the GUI rather than in a TorRC file. You can also choose between the classic Tor Engine and the Tor Project’s new Rust-based runtime Arti from the dropdown.
Rounding things out: a kill switch (strict TUN mode only) that immediately blocks outbound traffic if Tor goes down, a new identify button for a fresh circuit, per-session statistics for transferred data and created circuits, theme and accent-color options, and a companion command-line client that runs the same engine headlessly for servers and scripts.

The General Settings tab shows auto-connect, tray behavior, theme, and accent color options on launch.

things to keep in mind

Some honest warnings. First of all, OnionHop is an independent project – it is not created or supported by the Tor Project, even though it uses the official Tor engine detailed below. Second, .onion Sites still require Tor-aware clients; The developer recommends the Tor browser for those on the go (on Android, the Tor Project’s own Tor VPN beta covers similar ground). Third, the kill switch only works in strict TUN mode with administrator rights, so proxy mode users should not have leak-proof behavior.
If Tor’s speeds don’t suit your use case, a traditional service like Windscribe’s free VPN tier trades some anonymity for a lot more bandwidth. And if you’re curious about Tor alternatives at all, our look at I2P for anonymous browsing is a good next article. Desktop privacy fans may want to pair Onionhop with a telemetry blocker like O&O Shutup10++ for protection on a local level as well.

How to Get Started (2 minutes, top)

OnionHop’s home screen before connecting – choose a mode, exit location, and bridge source, then hit Connect

⬇ Download Onionhop (Free)

Frequently Asked Questions

Have you tried rooting your entire system via Tor? Let us know in the comments how OnionHop worked on your network – especially if you’re behind a restrictive connection and bridges have saved the day.