Products · Product
Tor
Raised as a usability problem by 73 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 66 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Browsing with Tor is so slow it's unusable dailyUnreviewed
20092026- Tor network is too slow for casual browsing2024-12-08
- Tor feels slow to browse with every time the commenter tries it2023-07-28
- Pages load noticeably slower in Tor Browser than in Firefox2023-07-28
Many sites block, slow or repeatedly captcha Tor usersUnreviewed
20092026- Major sites block Tor or show many CAPTCHAs, making browsing unusable2024-09-10
- Triggers so many CAPTCHAs it becomes practically unusable2023-12-17
- Tor is very slow and throws endless captchas, making it hard to use2022-07-30
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Onion domain names are practically impossible to recognize, trust, or tell others about2026-09-28
- Visitors must install a special browser and type long random addresses to reach the site2026-07-19
- Changing exit node region requires editing config files and restarting the service2025-12-29
- Tor network is too slow for casual browsing2024-12-08
- Major sites block Tor or show many CAPTCHAs, making browsing unusable2024-09-10
- Triggers so many CAPTCHAs it becomes practically unusable2023-12-17
- Tor feels slow to browse with every time the commenter tries it2023-07-28
- Pages load noticeably slower in Tor Browser than in Firefox2023-07-28
- Hard to use and very slow to interact with2023-07-28
- Zoom level for a site resets on every page load instead of being remembered2023-03-21
- Tor has too much latency to browse comfortably2022-12-07
- Tor makes non-onion sites unusable because they block its exit nodes2022-09-20
- Tor is very slow and throws endless captchas, making it hard to use2022-07-30
- Tor is mostly unusable for ordinary clearnet browsing right now2022-06-24
- Can't find the list of regions in the knowledge base2022-01-29
- Websites show times that are confusing, since it's unclear whether they show local or visitor time2022-01-29
- Can't find daemon docs from the redesigned site; old docs hard to search for2022-01-29
- Can't find the onion service config option documentation on the website2022-01-14
- After update, icons and text are missing, forcing user to delete profile2021-11-10
- Hard to find NoScript, and its confusing options are unclear about what they do2021-10-26
- Tor is blocked or very difficult to use for many sites2021-09-24
- Can't download images from sites that use cookies, and Cloudflare captchas are required on most sites2021-09-23
- Tor is clunky and slow, and some sites are hard to access2021-06-05
- Clunky experience with broken links and a steep learning curve2021-05-08
- Endless CAPTCHA loops block access and waste slow, paid internet time2020-07-12
- Setup docs are confusing, skip key steps, and leave the user lost2020-07-09
- Tor's .onion addressing is practically unusable for nearly everyone2020-04-18
- Web browsing over Tor was painfully slow, like dialup, years ago2020-02-07
- TorifyHOWTO guide is harder to find after the redesign2020-02-03
- Tor browsing is slow and gives a worse browsing experience2020-01-02
- Browsing over Tor is slow, with severe bandwidth limits2019-07-06
- Tor is so slow it is hard to use for general browsing2019-06-27
- Browsing is slow and some pages render oddly without JavaScript2019-04-13
- Pages on media-heavy sites like Facebook and YouTube load slowly over Tor2019-02-21
- Can never find anything worthwhile to browse2019-02-17
- Tor is too slow for everyday browsing, so users avoid it2018-12-10
- Casual users must rediscover the cryptic interface each time they use it2018-09-06
- Sites behind Cloudflare are painful to use through Tor Browser2018-06-22
- Browsing over Tor is slow and frustrating to use2018-06-14
- Websites block or slow Tor users with captchas, and non-technical users can't understand workarounds2018-06-01
- Many websites block, slow down, or repeatedly captcha Tor users, making browsing frustrating2018-05-31
- Onion addresses are unpronounceable and hard to remember or share2018-04-19
- Must install a special browser, and connections are slow2018-04-13
- Manually copying long onion addresses from a text file every visit is tedious2017-04-05
- Tor is too slow for most people's everyday use2017-02-08
- Tricky for non-technical users to set up and disrupts their workflow2016-11-30
- Forced default window size is awkward, and easy to change accidentally.2016-11-30
- Hard to find the standalone Tor download on the website2016-09-04
- Hard to find open tickets worth working on in the Trac2016-08-17
- Too slow on phone; redirect links fail to load, forcing user to turn it off2016-08-07