How To Host An Onionsite

2025-05-16

Host an Onionsite (Tor Hidden Service)

Prerequisites

Pre-requisites:

A web page (a simple index.html works for testing)
A web server, such as nginx

Steps

Install tor and start the service

Debian/Ubuntu

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install tor
  sudo systemctl start tor

Arch

  sudo pacman -Syu
  sudo pacman -S tor
  sudo systemctl start tor

Configure tor Uncomment the following lines in /etc/tor/torrc, rename the directory if you like (remember this for the next step):

  HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/onion/
  HiddenServicePort 80 unix:/var/run/tor/onion.sock

Configure web server (nginx example). Place all the contents of your vanity address directory (created in the last guide) into /var/lib/tor/onion/ (or whatever you called it). Add your vanity address and socket info to your nginx config (/etc/nginx/conf.d/onion.conf in this example). Make sure you get your directories correct.

  server {
        listen unix:/var/run/tor/onion.sock;
        server_name yourVanityOnionAddressxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.onion;

        index index.html
        root /var/www/onion/myOnionSite;

        location / {
                root /var/www/onion/myOnionSite;
                index index.html index.htm;
        }

Place your website into your web root directory (/var/www/onion/myOnionSite) and restart tor

  sudo systemctl restart tor

Troubleshooting

Check Tor logs for errors
```
  sudo journalctl -u tor.service -efa
```
Restart tor
```
  sudo systemctl restart tor
```

Resources

Tor Project Community