Onion Browser 3.X: Tor for iPhone and iPad, and What the Repo Actually Ships

The problem Onion Browser solves on iOS

iOS gives users no way to install Tor Browser. Apple's App Store rules and the platform's WebKit requirement mean the desktop Tor Browser bundle has no iOS counterpart, so anyone who wants their Safari replacement to speak Tor has to find an app that wraps the network client. Onion Browser is that wrapper. It is a free browser for iPhone and iPad that, in the README's words, "encrypts and tunnels web traffic through the Tor network with the help of Orbot iOS." The repository is the 3.X branch, maintained by Tigas Ventures, with older 2.X and 1.X lines still available in separate branches. The audience is narrow and specific: iOS users who want circuit-based anonymity on a phone or tablet and are willing to accept a companion app. It is not a desktop Tor Browser port, and the repository contains no Android or Windows target.

How the 3.X branch routes traffic through Orbot iOS

The dependency on Orbot iOS is the central architectural fact. Onion Browser does not embed a Tor client; the README says it tunnels traffic "with the help of Orbot iOS," and the notable-features list frames most of the 3.X work as "mostly by leveraging Orbot iOS." That means the Tor process, the circuit building and the SOCKS proxy live in a separate app, and Onion Browser hands its traffic to it. The 3.X branch also moved to WKWebView, which the README describes as a "newer, more secure, faster rendering engine." That switch is what makes the rest of the feature list possible: all traffic including audio and video streams is tunneled, everything downloadable is routed through Tor, in-page search works from iOS 16 and up, and iPad gets multiple windows. The trade-off is visible in the same sentence. WKWebView is Apple's engine and Apple controls it, so the browser inherits whatever WebKit does with fingerprints, and the project can only mitigate at the edges.

Building Onion Browser yourself with Xcode and CocoaPods

The README does not give install commands. It points to BUILD.md, and the repository layout shows the shape of the build: OnionBrowser.xcodeproj, a Podfile and Podfile.lock for CocoaPods, Config.xcconfig for configuration, and fastlane plus build-util directories for automation. That means the supported path is a macOS machine with Xcode and CocoaPods, not a package manager install. The first step is to fetch the source from the 3.X branch, since the default branch is 3.X and the README warns that older versions live elsewhere:

git clone --branch 3.X https://github.com/OnionBrowser/OnionBrowser.git
cd OnionBrowser

With the checkout in place, dependencies come from the Podfile. The lock file pins the resolved versions, so running the install without updating is the conservative choice:

pod install

After that, open the workspace rather than the project file, because CocoaPods generates a workspace. The exact scheme and signing settings are not documented in the README; BUILD.md is where the project says build instructions live, and it is the file to read before touching Config.xcconfig. A first real use is not a terminal command. It is launching the built app, confirming Orbot iOS is installed and running, and loading a page to see whether traffic leaves through the Tor circuit rather than the device's own connection.

Where Onion Browser is the wrong tool

The clearest limitation is platform. The repository is an iOS app. There is no Android build, no Windows build and no Linux build in the tree, so anyone searching for Onion Browser on those platforms will not find it here. The second limitation is the Orbot iOS dependency. If Orbot is not installed, running or reachable, the browser has no Tor client to talk to, and the README does not describe a fallback mode. That is a real failure path for a user who installs Onion Browser alone. The third is the rendering engine. Because 3.X uses WKWebView, the browser cannot ship the anti-fingerprinting and circuit-isolation behaviour that the desktop Tor Browser implements in its own patched Gecko. The README lists no such features. A user whose threat model requires Tor Browser's specific hardening should treat Onion Browser as a different product with a different engine, not a smaller version of the same thing.

How Onion Browser differs from the desktop Tor Browser

The obvious alternative is Tor Browser itself, and the difference is not cosmetic. Tor Browser ships its own patched Firefox engine, its own bundled Tor daemon and its own circuit isolation and fingerprinting defences, all in one package. Onion Browser instead delegates the network layer to Orbot iOS and renders with Apple's WKWebView. One consequence is that Onion Browser's anonymity properties partly depend on a second app's configuration and on Apple's engine, while Tor Browser's depend on code the Tor Project controls end to end. The other consequence is availability: Tor Browser does not run on iOS, so for an iPhone or iPad the comparison is not really a choice between two equals. If you are on iOS, Onion Browser is the shape the option takes. If you are on desktop, Tor Browser is the tool the Onion Browser README itself links to when it points at the Tor Project.

Maintenance, licence and upgrade cost

The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-22, which is recent. Release history shows a steady cadence: v3.4.1 on 2026-08-11, v3.4.0 on 2026-06-24 and v3.3.10 on 2026-06-05, with a CHANGELOG.md in the tree for each. Upgrading means tracking the 3.X branch and re-running `pod install` when the Podfile.lock changes, because the pinned dependency versions are part of the build. The licence is the awkward part. The repository's licence identifier is NOASSERTION, which means GitHub could not classify the LICENSE file automatically, and the README defers entirely: "Please see the LICENSE file for usage and redistribution terms." The topics list mentions MPL, but that is a tag, not a verified licence statement. Anyone planning to redistribute a build, or to ship a modified version, needs to read LICENSE directly rather than infer terms from the topic list. This is not legal advice, and the file is the only authority here.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt Onion Browser if you need a Tor-routed browser on iPhone or iPad and accept the Orbot iOS dependency; skip it if you need Android or desktop Tor browsing, since the repository ships only an iOS app. Before trusting it, read BUILD.md and SECURITY.md, then check the CHANGELOG.md entry for 3.4.1 against the code you build.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. OnionBrowser/OnionBrowser on GitHub
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases