Comparison

OONI Probe vs OnionShare

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

OONI Probe

This app helps you detect internet censorship and surveillance systems by examining website and app blocking. It also measures your network's speed and performance, providing data that can serve as evidence of interference. All collected data is published openly to promote transparency.

Highlights
  • Examine website and app blocking
  • Measure network speed and performance
  • Detect censorship and surveillance systems
  • Collect evidence of internet censorship
  • Publish open network measurement data
  • Free and open source software
Features
Read full description

Are websites and social media apps blocked? Is your network unusually slow? Run OONI Probe to find out! With this app, you will examine the blocking of websites and instant messaging apps, measure your network's speed and performance, and check whether systems that could be responsible for censorship and surveillance are in your network. OONI Probe is developed by the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), a free software project (under The Tor Project) that aims to uncover internet censorship around the world. Since 2012, OONI’s global community has collected millions of network measurements from more than 200 countries, shedding light on multiple cases of network interference. ▶ Collect evidence of internet censorship You can check whether and how websites and instant messaging apps are blocked. The network measurement data you will collect may serve as evidence of internet censorship. ▶ Detect systems responsible for censorship and surveillance OONI Probe tests are also designed to uncover the presence of systems (middleboxes) that could be responsible for censorship and surveillance. ▶ Measure the speed and performance of your network You can measure the speed and performance of your network by running OONI's implementation of the Network Diagnostic Test (NDT). You can also measure video streaming performance with the Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) test. ▶ Open data OONI publishes network measurement data because open data allows third parties to verify OONI findings, conduct independent studies, and answer other research questions. Openly publishing OONI data also helps increase transparency of internet censorship around the world. You can explore and download OONI data here: https://ooni.io/data/ ▶ Free software All OONI Probe tests (including our NDT and DASH implementations), are based on free and open source software. You can find OONI software projects on GitHub: https://github.com/ooni. Curious to learn how OONI Probe tests work? Learn more: https://ooni.io/nettest/ To receive updates from the OONI-verse, follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenObservatory

About

OnionShare

Securely share files and host websites directly from your device without relying on cloud services. Protects against third-party access, network eavesdropping, and user identity exposure through end-to-end encryption and Tor network integration.

Highlights
  • Direct file sharing
  • Host websites
  • Tor Onion Services integration
  • End-to-end encryption
  • Anonymity protection
  • No third-party servers
Features
Read full description

Ever wanted to share something without also sharing it with Google or Dropbox? Tax documents, medical information, or unpublished research? Share files directly and securely without the middlemen. Your Private Productivity Suite.. In Your Pocket! Share files and host websites right from your phone, all over Tor Onion Services, built by the developers who created Orbot, Briar, Onion Browser and CalyxOS! What OnionShare protects against Third parties don’t have access to anything that happens in OnionShare. Using OnionShare means hosting services directly on your computer. When sharing your files with OnionShare, they are not uploaded to any third-party server. This avoids the traditional model of having to trust the computers of others. Network eavesdroppers can’t spy on anything that happens in OnionShare in transit. The connection between the Tor onion service and Tor Browser is end-to-end encrypted. This means network attackers can’t eavesdrop on anything except encrypted Tor traffic. Even if an eavesdropper is a malicious rendezvous node used to connect the Tor Browser with OnionShare’s onion service, the traffic is encrypted using the onion service’s private key. Anonymity of OnionShare users are protected by Tor. OnionShare and Tor Browser protect the anonymity of the users. As long as the OnionShare user anonymously communicates the OnionShare address with the Tor Browser users, the Tor Browser users and eavesdroppers can’t learn the identity of the OnionShare user. If an attacker learns about the onion service, they still can’t access anything. Prior attacks against the Tor network to enumerate onion services allowed attackers to discover private .onion addresses. To access an OnionShare service from its address, the private key used for client authentication must be guessed (unless the service is already made public by turning off the private key – see Turn Off Private Key).

Screenshots

OONI Probe4 screens
OnionShare4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: OONI Probe at 4.5 against OnionShare's 3.8. OONI Probe also leads on ratings volume (84 vs 5). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

OONI Probe holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: OONI Probe has 84 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 58% of OONI Probe's written reviews are positive against 56% of OnionShare's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

OONI Probe ships an update every 2 months, OnionShare every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
OONI Probe versus OnionShare: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOONI ProbeOnionShare
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (84 ratings) — better3.8 (5 ratings)
Positive reviews58.1% of reviews — better55.6% of reviews
Number of ratings84 — better5
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size138 MB35 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperThe Tor ProjectLockdown Systems

Customer experience

OONI Probe

All ratings84 ratings
Positive85.7%
Neutral7.1%
Negative7.1%
Written reviews31 reviews
Positive58.1%
Neutral12.9%
Negative29.0%

OnionShare

All ratings5 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive55.6%
Neutral22.2%
Negative22.2%

In-app purchases

None

OONI Probe

No in-app purchases

None

OnionShare

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is OONI Probe free?
OONI Probe is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is OnionShare free?
OnionShare is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, OONI Probe or OnionShare?
OONI Probe is rated higher. OONI Probe averages 4.5 out of 5 from 84 ratings, while OnionShare averages 3.8 from 5 ratings.
Do OONI Probe or OnionShare have ads?
Neither OONI Probe nor OnionShare shows ads.
Which is updated more often, OONI Probe or OnionShare?
OONI Probe ships an update every 2 months, and OnionShare every 3 months. Most recently, OONI Probe was updated on September 22, 2026 and OnionShare on September 12, 2026.

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