Hyphanet
A peer-to-peer network for censorship-resistant, anonymous publishing and communication, formerly known as Freenet.
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About Hyphanet
Hyphanet is the original Freenet, in development since 1999 and renamed after the name Freenet passed to a separate project. It stores data in a decentralized data store shared among peers, so people can publish and read content without a central server that could censor it.
Plugins add website hosting, microblogging, forums, media sharing and decentralized version tracking. You can join the global Opennet for an easy start, or connect only to friends in a friend-to-friend network for stronger privacy. The Shoeshop plugin can even move data by sneakernet when internet links are cut.
Strengths
- Publishing without a central server or authority
- Friend-to-friend mode invisible to centralized servers
- Plugins for websites, forums, microblogging and media sharing
- Sneakernet support through the Shoeshop plugin
Limitations
- Slower than the regular web because content is routed through peers
- Friend-to-friend mode needs trusted contacts already on the network
- Easily confused with the newer project now called Freenet
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree and open source, developed by volunteers.
- License
- GPL-2.0
- Developer
- The Hyphanet contributors
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Best suited for
- Publishing and reading content anonymously where censorship is a concern
- Categories
- Privacy tools, Social networks
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Facts checked against the developer's own pages and store listings, 1 sources on file.
Alternatives to Hyphanet
Compare allSoftware that can replace Hyphanet for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
I2P
Encrypted overlay network for anonymous sites, messaging and file sharing.
I2P is an encrypted overlay network with built-in anonymous sites, email and torrenting, adds an Android app, and can reach the ordinary internet through outproxies.
GNUnet
A GNU network protocol stack for building secure, decentralised and privacy-preserving peer-to-peer applications.
GNUnet is a research-backed protocol stack for metadata-resistant peer-to-peer apps on Linux, aimed at developers rather than end users.
RetroShare
A decentralized, encrypted friend-to-friend network for chat, mail, forums, channels and file sharing.
RetroShare offers friend-to-friend chat, forums, channels and file sharing with an Android app, but it is useful only once friends join.
Lokinet
Onion-routed network built on staked nodes, routing at the IP layer.
Lokinet routes any application at the IP layer through staked onion nodes with lower latency, rather than focusing on publishing.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
Tribler
An open-source BitTorrent client with built-in search and Tor-inspired onion routing for more private downloading.
Tails
Amnesic live operating system that routes everything through Tor.
Whonix
Two-virtual-machine system that isolates the desktop from the network.
Quiet
A peer-to-peer team chat app that syncs messages between members' devices over Tor, with no server.
Agregore
A minimal web browser that loads sites over peer-to-peer protocols such as IPFS, Hypercore and BitTorrent.
Arti
The Tor Project's rewrite of the Tor client in the Rust programming language.
