The Best Dark Web Search Engines for 2023 (2023)

Here you will find the best dark web search engines for 2021. With it, you can search hidden websites (.onion) on the dark net/deep web.

By hidden sites, I mean sites on the .onion network. It is.onion-Websitesare not indexed by Google Chrome, Firefox or other clearnet browsers.

While most of these sites may be illegal, there are some legal ones as well. For example, some share conspiracy theories, personal projects/diaries, or even anonymous social media.

Additionally, the sites listed below are extremely anonymous. They do not track/trace or print your fingerprints. Also, your search queries are not saved because they are on clearnet.

All you have to do is go to any of these deep web search engines and type in your keyword. for example, anonymous email service. You get a bunch of dark web, more privacy friendly services and tools that you can't find on the clearnet.

So let's start?

Best Search Engines on the Dark Web in 2023

These are the best Tor search engines in 2023:

• phobos
• kilo
• OnionLand Research
• Throw away
• torch
• GDunkel
• TORMAX
• lighter
• Onion Search Engine (OSE)
• porn
• grama

Protect yourself before searching the dark web

Did you know that even easyBrowsing some websites is a crime? On the dark web, you never know where the next URL will take you, as it's usually random letters and numbers!

also whendark web access, you are probably already looking for things that are illegal or restricted by the government.

Even if you don't, the Dark Web is a really scary place! You don't want to leave footprints there.

Unfortunately, just using TOR is not enough.TOR can be hackedeasier than we would like or can imagine. In fact, the FBI has done this in the past.

That's why I recommend using it.a VPNbeyond TOR when accessing one of these search engines.

well i would recommendNordVPNAnd I'll tell you my reasons It's headquartered in Panama, not belonging to the Five Eyes group. So there's aOnion over VPN” feature to browse the dark web. And they even verified their no-logs policy through an independent third-party audit! Hell, it's less than $3.50/month!

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disclaimer

This article and the list of dark web search engines are for educational purposes only. All your actions on these search engines/sites and your redirection are 100% your responsibility.

Any search engine mentioned herein should not be considered an endorsement. The content of these search engines is beyond our control.

It is also recommended that you do your own research before purchasing or trading any items. This site cannot be held responsible for your financial loss.

This site does not guarantee the legitimacy or authenticity of the products, suppliers, advertisements, links or anything else on these search engines.

1. Phobos

Tor-URL:http://phobosxilamwcg75xt22id7aywkzol6q6rfl2flipcqoc4e4ahima5id.onion/

Best for: Ad-free .onion search

I love Phobos for three basic but rare traits. First, its extremely simple and ad-free interface. If you've ever used other deep web search engines, you know how rare and unusual this is.

Second, your database. I can't say it has the biggest database, but it's big enough to serve most of your searches.

Just for reference, if you search for "drugs" it will bring up over 8,000 darkweb indexed links. If you continue here, you'll see that other search engines show far fewer results for the same keyword.

And third, no duplicate links will be shown! Again, this is not common in the industry. Most other search engines search and display the same top domain multiple times for the same keyword. Phobos doesn't do that.

As for the results page, it's almost like a Google clone (in terms of appearance).You get website names in dark blue, URLs in green, and a meta description.

It also has "quick links". Thus, the displayed results are "quick links" extracted from the web page, allowing you to go directly to different sections of the web page instead of having to search them all the way through.

In case you are curious, there is also a clearnet alternative – Phobossearch.com. Note that it's just a redirect, you can only access it on the Tor network and it redirects to the .onion address.

2. Kilo

Tor-URL:http://dnmugu4755642434.onion/

Best for: Drug research and drug markets

The reason I listed Kilos as number 2 on this list of the best dark web search engines? Well, it is super geared to be an illegal dark web search engine.

For starters, it can only be used to search for "drugs". This is clearly a dark web product, isn't it?

What makes it special is that it displays “drug lists and drug providers”. Like drugs that can be bought from different vendors on different Darknet markets.

So your database is super impressive. To date, it has indexed over 122,811 entries and 7,782 suppliers in its database.

Its search filters are probably some of the most advanced on the entire list! You can enter a keyword, select a minimum/maximum price range, select the cryptocurrencies you want to pay with,

You can even choose to purchase a physical or digital listing (E-Books/Ratgeber etc.).

When results are shown, they even include ratings and an "average score" for each vendor!

What's more, you can even choose the exact market you want to search instead of just all of them.

In other words, Kilos is a search engine that allows you to search dark web markets without logging in/registering to them. Considering "drugs" are literally "the" most traded commodity on the dark web, Kilos absolutely deserves that spot, don't you?

3. OnionLand Search

Tor-URL:http://3bbad7fauom4d6sgppalyqddsqbf5u5p56b5k5uk2zxsy3d6ey2jobad.onion/

Best for: Some Google-like features

OnionLand Search brings some features that most other dark web search engines lack. Surprisingly, most of these features are practically useful and not just gimmicks.

For starters, it has that "I feel happy" button that Google has. If you click on it, you will be presented with the search for a random keyword. These keywords are usually chosen from popular searches on OnionLand, so most of the time they are not boring or useless.

As for manual search, it again resembles Google's interface and color scheme. Just like Google, it shows “sponsored links” in the top 3 results for most searches. They are marked "promotional" just so you know. Please note that, unlike Google, your ads may not always match your keywords.

I also love the skip results feature! In other words, if similar results are displayed on the same main domain, these duplicate URLs will not be displayed. Instead, the message [X similar results ignored] is displayed at this URL.

Another feature you might like is the cached webpages feature. For each individual URL, it has the option to show a cached result from the past instead of showing a live version. This is super awesome as it helps you visit websites even when they are down!

The database is also very impressive. While similar results were ignored, nearly 6,000 results were returned for "drugs"!

Finally, you can also use the "Explore" link below to find the "Most Popular" searches on OnionLand. They are categorized alphabetically to make things easier.

4. devour

Tor-URL:http://msydqstlz2kzerdg.onion/

Best for: Safer darknet searches on the clearnet.

Ahmia is one of the oldest dark web search engines. It has two distinguishing features. The first is that it is also fully accessible on the clearnet.

You can access this search engine with traditional browsers like Google Chrome/Firefox etc.

Even on the clearnet, the results you'll see are for .onion domains. This is not very common in the industry. Most other clearnet domains for similar services just redirect or share their own onion alternative.

The second unique feature is the exclusion of illegal pornography. This is really helpful as this content is very common on dark web search engines. Even browsing these sites can be illegal. (That's why you have touse aVPN, just to be safe).Therefore, using Ahmia would provide you with moral and legal security.

As for the database, my search for "drugs" returned 644 hits. That's not very impressive, but I'd say it's passable and at least not a disappointment.

Ahmia also has a feature that allows any user to add websites to its database. It's a one click process, enter any .onion domain and hit submit, done!

In addition to being one of the best onion search engines, Ahmia is also a search engine for the I2P network if you use that or know what it is.

5. Flashlight

Tor-URL:http://xmh57jrknzkhv6y3ls3ubitzfqnkrwxhopf5aygthi7d6rplyvk3noyd.onion

Best for: Database-rich queries

Torch is one of the most established and well-known dark web search engines. Its main attraction is its database, which claims to have indexed over 898,385 documents.

The homepage shows advertisements, dozens of them. They are not intrusive or hidden, but can be easily ignored.

The Word Match feature is unique and desirable. It gives you two options, first "Match any word". When this option is selected, Torch will display results when they match any word in your keyword string.

The other option is Find All Words. When this is selected, only exact matches are shown. This means that if you search for "Netherlands credit card company" you will only see pages that contain all of those words.

Now, the results page is quite informative as well. First, it shows you how many times each individual keyword in your search appeared in the results. It then also shows the page size.

For each URL/site displayed, Torch also shows which keywords caused that specific URL to appear for your search.

The only aspect I don't like about Torch is the dual results. That's also one reason why I didn't put it at the top of this list. Most of the time, out of the 10 sites that appear on the first page of each search, there are only 2-3 unique sites.

6. GDunkel

Tor-URL:http://gdarku42fzpyrfra.onion

Best for: Basic dark web searches

When you access the home page for the first time, you will see the most common form of dark web search engines. By that, I mean a homepage full of ads.

Just to clarify, you know that most of these ads are probably scams. Even search engines do not confirm its "legitimacy". You only get paid to display a banner. So be careful before picking up your bags.

Anyway, as a dark web search engine (that's literally GDark's tagline), is quite active. It sees an average of over 5000 visitors a day.

Also, I love the fact that it merges duplicate links. That is, instead of showing multiple links from the same main domain as individual results, they are numbered and grouped together. This will help you skip or just identify duplicate links much faster.

It also has a "More results from [name of site]" link with each duplicated group. This means that if you want to see more results for your keyword but from that specific site, you can too.

The database is as good as Ahmia, so it deserves a mention.

The user interface is impressive, albeit messy and grimy. That's because at least GDark didn't copy Google's traditional interface. It shows the site names in red (ish)Color followed by black descriptions and the traditional blue color for URLs.

Each URL also shows the page size. Not much changes for us as users, but hey, maybe you can avoid loading too heavy pages?

7. TORMAX

Tor-URL:http://wygw2dhnah3on4huiai52b3vvecqyzwhjhvz7w4e5fd6cokxyzeq5zqd.onion/

Specialty: Modern/minimalist interface

To be honest, I didn't find anything special, unique or rare about TORMAX. However, as long as you only want to find dark web links through a search engine, you can do that with TORMAX.

It has a very modern and minimalist design. Just enter your keyword and click search. No other features/distractions are available.

The interface is definitely a little different from the others. For starters, it didn't copy Google. It uses a dark red color and font for both the site name and the URL.

The fact that it doesn't show duplicate URLs really impressed me. The database wouldn't impress you though, it probably only has a few hundred or a few thousand sites indexed at the moment.

The homepage has about a dozen banners. The search page also shows ads, but in a more subtle text form in the right sidebar. Header and footer ad banners are also available. They cost around $50.00/month in case you're in the game.

It allows anyone to add their own site to the index. You must enter a site name, description and address. The description works like a meta description and is used to show the site for relevant searches. It's free and doesn't cost money.

8. Lighter

Tor-URL:https://lighterhrphu4lpb.onion

Specialty: Professional Interface

Lighter probably has “the” most professional user interface on the entire list of dark web search engines. Of course, this isn't the only metric we're looking for, so it's placed at the bottom of the list.

So it has a slogan that says “No tracking, no profiling, no data mining”. Good news, isn't it? Although the UI looks good, it's not very transparent.

I say this because you would see 3-4 paid results on almost every search. What's worse is that these paid results don't change based on what you're looking for. They remain the same for all keywords!

Please note that this will not affect your actual search results. You will still receive relevant and useful links. That's why I listed the engine here, right? However, paid advertisements sure are painful.

Also, there is no hint or tag stating that top results are paid or sponsored. They look like the organic results.

As far as these organic results are concerned, they use Google's default interface and color scheme.

The homepage contains links to a bitcoin mixer, a bitcoin wallet, its announcements page, and other company endeavors.

The right sidebar of a search page provides bitcoin prices, top markets, anonymous email services, dark web forums, etc. Not sure if they are paid or just handpicked by the admin/staff.

9. Onion Search Engine (OSE)

TOR-URL:http://5u56fjmxu63xcmbk.onion/

Specialty: text search + image/video

Yes, the name says a lot, doesn't it? OSE is one of the most feature-rich hidden web search engines on this list.

For starters, you can choose between “onion network” or “default web” when searching. The latter shows clearnet results. OSE's commitment to "no cookies, no javascript, no traces" makes this a great alternative to Google if you need privacy.

Of course, you can select "onion network" if you want to search the dark web. Now the search page is very informative. It not only shows the websites but also tells you if the URL is currently online or offline. This is extremely useful as .onion domains go down quite often.

It then also shows the “last updated” date for each URL!

The database is also impressive. It showed me thousands of results for almost all of my searches.

But the most impressive aspect is OSE's ability to search Darkweb images and videos for your keywords! You can also search for news and maps, but these results are from clearnet.

What finally struck me was the placement of the ad. It safely shows sponsored advertisements in search results. But instead of being placed at the top, they are placed at the bottom of each page! It is the only one among all other dark web search engines that seems to do this!

10. Really Porn

Tor-URL:http://pornsamewawahbwoh2mrlfiz63yihswur55jtzeo5ghazoz3pfdrydid.onion

Specialty: Double Porn

This is probably the most unique, unconventional, unconventional, and perhaps even the most controversial dark web search engine on this list.

Therefore, the site will certainly be a search engine and will certainly be on the dark web. However, no results are displayed for "Keywords".

Instead, you can upload photos. Whichever photo you upload, the search engine will find a similar porn star using its AI reverse image search.

At first I didn't think it would work. And if so, I figured it would hide the results behind a paywall.

To my surprise, it's 100% free and fully functional! In fact, it's scary. The results I found were almost like they were from the same person!

Now the pictures are not just "from the pornstar". Rather, they are often spotted for them. I even found some personal photos of random people that looked exactly like the photo I uploaded!

Please note that the photos are not "transformed" or "edited". The results shown are real, real photos that look amazingly like the person you are sending.

11. Honorable Mention - Grams

Tor-URL:http://grams7enqfy4nieo.onion/

Best for: market research

Grams was actually the first dark web search engine I ever used. It's still the most professional search engine, but it seems lost now.

Grams is unique in the sense that you can browse "markets". This means that when you search for something, your search will show results found in marketplaces rather than the dark web as a whole.

The problem is that most markets indexed by Grams (Empire / Alphabay / Dream)have all been deceived or turned off. As a result, most of your results would not be fruitful.

You may still find some useful URLs for your search. Each search also shows 2 paid advertisements at the top, so they can be useful too.

It also shows market status and alerts if there is an alert. Hey, it's not one of the best search engines on the dark web right now, but it's still not entirely useless and it's held the crown.

Final Words on Dark Web Search Engines

As the name suggests, this article was all about the best dark web search engines of 2023. Well, there is no outright winner.

If you've gone through this list, then you'll agree that each of them can be considered the best deep web search engine in one way or another.

For example, using something like Phobos has the benefit of an ad-free experience. On the other hand, Kilos allows you to search half a dozen marketplaces right from the search engine!

So I would just subscribe to this list of the best dark web search engines and say that they are all worth it. Just make sure you know what you're looking for, make sure you use a VPN, and stay away from outright illegal content.