Tor and Freenet are both anonymous networks that provide security and are used to access or browse .onion site links. But it must have actually crossed your mind about what differentiates Tor from Freenet. Basically Freenet is an “anonymous distributed database” which actually means that you do not need your servers to be the content provider. When you join the Freenet anonymous browser, you can upfront disclose the amount of disk space that you want to donate to the network. The disk space is used by the freenet to download files that are being requested by your peers. As you are not only the one providing service, you must store encrypted files as you do not know what data your node is storing. Freenet is a popular way by which one can browse the various dark web websites. The main disadvantage of using Freenet is that the stored file contents sometimes get expired.
Freenet actually runs on two different modes. The modes are “opennet” and “darknet”. In the former case you do not have to specify the name of the peer to which you want to connect. In the “darknet mode” you have to mention the name of the peers with whom you want to connect. Darknet mode is preferred because you are connected with known people but in opennet most of the nodes are not secure as you do not know who other is using the node and they may view all your files and data.
Tor is also known as an onion router but it does not provide any storage facility. The basic fundamental logic behind Tor is that it breaks your packets of data into multiple fragments and encrypts it. While the packets move from one node to another, the layer of encryption increases and is only decrypted at the other end by the receiver. These are the basic differences between the Freenet and Tor which are quite popular among dark web users who use the platform.
