Here, you’ll find the best dark web search engines for 2025. These will let you search for hidden(.onion) websites on the dark net/deep web.
By hidden websites, I mean websites on the .onion network. These .onion websites are not indexed by Google Chrome, Firefox or other clearnet browsers.
While majority of these websites may be illegal, quite a number of legal sites exist as well. E.g. some sharing conspiracy theories, personal projects/diaries, or even anonymous social networks.
Also, the websites listed below are extremely anonymous. They do not trace/track or fingerprint you. Your searches too aren’t stored like they are on the clearnet.
All you have to do is, access any of these deep web search engines, and enter your keyword; e.g. anonymous email service. You’ll get tons of dark web, more privacy-friendly services and tools that you can’t find on the clearnet.
Let’s get started then?
Table of Contents
Secure yourselves before searching the dark web
Did you know that even simply browsing some websites is a crime? On the dark web, you never know where the next URL will take you, as they are often random alphabet and numbers!
Moreover, when accessing the dark web, you’re probably already looking for things which are either illegal, or restricted by the govt.
Even when not, the dark web is a real scary place! You do not want to leave your footprints there.
Now, unfortunately, just using TOR isn’t enough. TOR can be hacked easier than we’d like or can imagine. In fact, the FBI already did it in the past.
That is the reason why I recommend using a VPN in addition to TOR when accessing any of these search engines.
Now, I’d recommend NordVPN and I’ll give you my reasons. It’s based in Panama, a non-member of the Five-Eyes group. Then, it has a specialized “onion over VPN” feature for dark web browsing. And, it even has verified its “no log” policy via an independent, third-party audit! Heck, it costs less than $3.50/month!
Disclaimer
This article and list of dark web search engines is purely and solely meant for educational purposes. Any and all of your actions, on and forward any of these search engines/websites, is 100% your own responsibility.
Any search engine mentioned here is not to be taken as an endorsement. The content on these search-engines is beyond our control.
Also, it’s recommended you do your own research before purchasing items or making trades. This website can not be held responsible for your financial losses.
This website does not vouch for the legitimacy or authenticity of the products, vendors, advertisements, links, or anything else on any of these search engines.
Best Dark Web Search Engines In 2025
1. OnionLand Search
Tor URL: http://3bbad7fauom4d6sgppalyqddsqbf5u5p56b5k5uk2zxsy3d6ey2jobad.onion/
Best for: A few Google-like features
OnionLand Search brings with itself a few features which most other dark web search engines miss. Surprisingly, most of these features are practically helpful and not just gimmicks.
For starters, it has that “I’m feeling lucky” button that Google has. Clicking on it will show you searches for one random keyword. These keywords are generally chosen from popular searches on OnionLand and hence are mostly not boring or useless.
As far as the manual searches go, it does resemble Google’s interface and colour-scheme again. Just like Google, it shows “sponsored links” in the first 3 results for most searches. They’re marked as “ad” just so you know. Do note that unlike Google, the ads may not always match your keywords.
I also love its result-skipping feature! In other words, when it sees similar results from the same primary domain, it doesn’t show those duplicate URLs. Rather, it shows a [X similar results skipped] message below that URL.
Another feature you may like is its cached webpage feature. For every single URL, it has the capability to show you a cached result from the past rather than showing a live version. This is super impressive as it helps you visit sites even when they’re down!
The database is very impressive as well. Despite it skipping similar results, it showed nearly 6000 results for “Drugs”!
Finally, you can also use its “explore” link at the bottom to find the “most popular” searches on OnionLand. They’re categorized alphabetically to make things easier.
2. Torch
Tor URL: http://xmh57jrknzkhv6y3ls3ubitzfqnkrwxhopf5aygthi7d6rplyvk3noyd.onion
Best for: Database-rich searches
Torch is one of the most well established and dark web search engines. Its primary suit is its database, which claims having over 898,385 documents indexed.
The homepage displays ads, dozens of them. They aren’t intrusive or hidden so can easily be ignored though.
Its “word match” feature is pretty unique and desirable. It offers two choices, first being “matching any word”. When this is selected, Torch will show results when they match any word from your keyword string.
The other option is “matching all words”. When this is selected, only exact matches are shown. Meaning, if you search for “credit card shop from Netherlands”, only those sites which contain all of these words will be shown.
Now, the result page is pretty informative as well. First, it shows how many times each individual keyword from your search, has appeared in the results. Then it also shows the page size.
Beneath each displayed URL/site, Torch also shows which keyword(s) triggered that particular URL to be shown for your search.
The one aspect I don’t like with Torch is its duplicate results. This is also a reason why I didn’t place it higher up on this list. Out of the 10 sites shown on the first page for each search, there mostly are only 2-3 unique websites.
3. Ahmia
Tor URL: http://juhanurmihxlp77nkq76byazcldy2hlmovfu2epvl5ankdibsot4csyd.onion/
Best for: Safer darknet searching on the clearnet.
Ahmia is one of the oldest dark web search engines. It has two special features. The first being, it’s totally accessible on the clearnet as well.
You can access this search engine using traditional browsers like Google chrome/ Firefox etc.
Even on the clearnet, the results you’ll see are that of .onion domains. This isn’t very common in the industry. Most other clearnet domains for similar services either just redirect, or share their own onion alternative.
The second somewhat unique feature is its exclusion of illegal porn. This actually is helpful because such content very frequently pops up on darknet search engines. Even browsing such sites may be illegal. (This is why you must use a VPN, just to be safe). Hence, using Ahmia would ensure you some moral as well as legal safety.
As far as database goes, my search for “drugs” gave me 644 matches. This isn’t very impressive but I’d say it’s acceptable and isn’t a disappointment at the least.
Ahmia also has a feature which allows any user to add sites to its database. It’s a one-click process, enter any .onion domain and click submit, done!
In addition to being one of the best onion search engine, Ahmia also is a search engine for the I2P network if you use or know what that is.
4. GDark
Tor URL: http://zb2jtkhnbvhkya3d46twv3g7lkobi4s62tjffqmafjibixk6pmq75did.onion/gdark/search.php
Best for: Basic darknet searches
When you first land on the homepage, what you’re seeing is the most common form of darknet search engines. By that, I mean a homepage spammed with ads.
Just to be clear, know that most of these ads are probably scams. Even the search engines aren’t endorsing their “legitimacy”. They just get paid to display a banner. Hence, be careful before you reach for your pockets.
Anyway, as a darknet search engines (this is quite literally GDark’s tagline), it’s pretty active. It sees over 5000 visitors a day on an average.
Moreover, I love that it clubs duplicate links together. Meaning, instead of showing multiple links from the same primary domain as individual results, it numbers and groups them. This helps you skip through or just identify duplicate links much faster.
It also has a “more results from [site name]” link with each duplicate group. Meaning, if you wish to see more results for your keyword but from that specific website, it’s possible as well.
The database is just as good as Ahmia and hence deserves a mention.
The interface is impressive despite being cluttered and unclean. That’s because GDark at least didn’t copy the traditional Google interface. It shows the site names in a red(ish) colour, followed by black descriptions and the traditional blue colour for URLs.
With each URL, it also shows the size of the page. It doesn’t change much for us as users but hey, you can avoid loading very heavy pages maybe?
5. The Deep Searches
Tor URL: http://searchgf7gdtauh7bhnbyed4ivxqmuoat3nm6zfrg3ymkq6mtnpye3ad.onion/
Best for: Advanced Searches Feature or More Specific Search Results
The Deep Searches offers a neat-clean search engine to find what you are looking. It does have sponsored listing at search result page like other search engines but it brings a ads-free homepage to you. Additionally, It offers direct navigation to most popular searches which you will find at bottom.
Its advanced search feature makes it one of the best darknet search engines. You can use advanced search feature to customize the searches to narrow down the search as per your need. It is very rare feature in darknet search engines.
Let’s talk about its search results, it provides enough results with three sponsored listing at top. Also, its search results include links of other search engines results like clicking on a few links you can land on OnionLand Search.
However, it does not eliminate duplicates results. For example, if a site has 5 mirror links, it will display all 5 links. Hence visiting each, you will land on the same site. Although, you can differentiate that by website name or title in searches. For the best search experience, search with advanced search feature.
At the end, it suggests related search query like Google.
6. Tor66
Tor URL: http://tor66sewebgixwhcqfnp5inzp5x5uohhdy3kvtnyfxc2e5mxiuh34iid.onion/
Tor66 has quick links for Fresh onions and Top Onions at top of homepage. Although, Fresh onions link is not working as of now. Top onions list gives you info about 100 most popular onion sites.
Do note that their search index is huge. For most of search terms, I found over thousands onion sites. And best part? Results are relevant not random unlike the Deep Searches. For every search query, it lists a dozen of promoted sites at top, which are highlighted with green box.
Moreover, it offers search result page in two views: Classic and Gallery. I personally liked Classic view. They kept search result page clean and organized.
7. TorDex
Tor URL: http://tordexu73joywapk2txdr54jed4imqledpcvcuf75qsas2gwdgksvnyd.onion/
Best for: Advertisers who are looking for traffic from search engine.
It is uncensored darknet search engine as they claim. Like other darknet search engines, it has its advertisers’ banner ads at homepage. Also, it offers quick links for popular terms such as: carding, forum, porn, bitcoin, western union, hidden wiki, and dark market.
Furthermore, it offers onion directory. You can add your onion site to their directory by visiting directory page from primary navigation or footer. And clicking “Add Onion to Directory” option.
Directory lists each link with onion URL, logo and short informative description.
TorDex fails to provide relevant search result and for many searches it returned zero result. And for others, it displayed only two results. I think they are sending users to their advertisers only.
When I searched for WetheNorth market link, it didn’t show the link or any result relevant. Even I performed searches for a few more terms, it failed to deliver required results.
As per my experience, they are not even qualifying the term search engine. Better to browse their directory to find some active links of dark web sites.
8. DuckDuckGo
Tor URL: https://duckduckgogg42xjoc72x3sjasowoarfbgcmvfimaftt6twagswzczad.onion/
9. Excavator
Tor URL: http://2fd6cemt4gmccflhm6imvdfvli3nf7zn6rfrwpsy7uhxrgbypvwf5fad.onion/
10. Torgle
Tor URL: http://iy3544gmoeclh5de6gez2256v6pjh4omhpqdh2wpeeppjtvqmjhkfwad.onion/torgle/
11. Submarine
Tor URL: http://no6m4wzdexe3auiupv2zwif7rm6qwxcyhslkcnzisxgeiw6pvjsgafad.onion/
12. MetaGer
Tor URL: http://metagerv65pwclop2rsfzg4jwowpavpwd6grhhlvdgsswvo6ii4akgyd.onion/
13. Tornet Global Search
Tor URL: http://xcprh4cjas33jnxgs3zhakof6mctilfxigwjcsevdfap7vtyj57lmjad.onion/tgs/
14. OSS Onion Search Server
Tor URL: http://3fzh7yuupdfyjhwt3ugzqqof6ulbcl27ecev33knxe3u7goi3vfn2qqd.onion/oss/
15. Haystak
Tor URL: http://haystak5njsmn2hqkewecpaxetahtwhsbsa64jom2k22z5afxhnpxfid.onion/
16. Tornado
Tor URL: http://tornadox5n4g7apkcr23yqyi66eltomazrfgkljy22ccajywd2jsihid.onion/
17. Amnesia
Tor URL: http://amnesia7u5odx5xbwtpnqk3edybgud5bmiagu75bnqx2crntw5kry7ad.onion/
18. Kaizer
Tor URL: http://kaizerwffm7osj37ejkccesc3doja3zstbawi7wcykaogoqx7pcyaoad.onion/
19. Stealth
Tor URL: http://stealth5wfeiuvmtgd2s3m2nx2bb3ywdo2yiklof77xf6emkwjqo53yd.onion/
20. Tornet
Tor URL: http://tornetupfu7gcgidt33ftnungxzyfq2pygui5qdoyss34xbgx2qruzid.onion/
21. Just Onion
Tor URL: http://justdirs5iebdkegiwbp3k6vwgwyr5mce7pztld23hlluy22ox4r3iad.onion/
22. Find Tor
Tor URL: http://findtorroveq5wdnipkaojfpqulxnkhblymc7aramjzajcvpptd4rjqd.onion/
Final words on dark web search engines
As the name indicates, this article was entirely about the best dark web search engines 2025. Now, there’s no one absolute winner.
If you’ve gone through this list, you’d agree that each of these can be termed the best deep web search engine in one or the other way.
E.g. using something like Phobos does have the benefit of an ad-free experience. On the other hand, Kilos lets you search half a dozen marketplaces directly from the search engine!
So, I’d just sign off this list consisting of the best dark web search engines saying they’re all worth it. Just be sure you know what you’re searching for, make sure you use a VPN and stay away from straight up illegal content.