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.

What's new in V3 (since v2.7)

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 8 languages (English, German, French, Chinese, Russian, Persian, Azerbaijani, and Sorani Kurdish).
• 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 with native bridge/PT config), and ArtiHop (shortened 2-hop Guard→Exit circuits for lower latency).
• 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, Linux and macOS packages are built by CI.
• 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.

Download

Grab the latest build for your platform from Releases:

The macOS .dmg is published from the dedicated, code-signing rana-gmbh/onionhopMac repository.

Getting started

1. Install the build for your OS (above). The Windows installer and the macOS/Linux bundles are self-contained — the .NET 9 runtime is bundled.

2. 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).

3. 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

• .onion sites require a Tor-aware client (Tor Browser recommended) or SOCKS remote DNS (e.g., Firefox "Proxy DNS when using SOCKS v5").
• Country/relay pinning and control-port New Identity require the Classic engine. Arti and ArtiHop support OnionHop bridge/PT configuration, but Classic remains the most complete choice for manual circuit control.

Tor engines

Use Classic when you need country pinning, relay pinning, or control-port New Identity. Use Arti or ArtiHop when you want the Rust runtime and do not need those Classic-only controls.

Modes explained

Proxy Mode (recommended)

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.

TUN/VPN Mode (admin)

Runs Tor + sing-box and routes traffic at the OS level (Wintun on Windows, system TUN on macOS/Linux). Requires Administrator. Most leak-resistant.

Hybrid (split tunneling)

Only in TUN/VPN Mode — route selected apps through Tor while others stay direct.

Permissions

• 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).

Building (Dev)

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

# Linux
./download-deps.sh

Build & 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 Release

The ArtiHop 2-hop engine is built from its own public repo, center2055/ArtiHop — only the compiled binary is bundled; its source is not vendored.