Hyphanet, formerly Freenet, is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant, anonymous communication. It uses a decentralized distributed data store to keep and deliver information, and has a suite of free software for publishing and communicating on the Web without fear of censorship.
Official website hyphanet.org
Our take
Now called Hyphanet, this is a censorship-resistant distributed datastore, which is a very specific thing: you publish content into the network and it persists and stays reachable even under pressure. The trade is that it’s slow, unusual to operate, and nothing like a normal browsing experience, so the learning investment is real. It earns its place for resilient publishing where takedowns are the threat. Don’t approach it expecting a faster or friendlier Tor.
GitHub at a glance
hyphanet/fred
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Last commit
1mo ago
healthy
License
GPL-2.0
Latest release
build01506
4mo ago
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Hyphanet alternatives
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Orbot Free, open-source Tor VPN app for Android and iOS that routes device traffic through the Tor network. Supports per-app Tor routing and access to .onion services on Android.
Lokinet Uses Oxen Service Nodes (also used by Session ) as routers to safeguard user privacy and anonymity.
I2P The Invisible Internet Project (I2P) is an anonymous network layer that allows for censorship-resistant, peer-to-peer communication. Anonymous connections are achieved by…
Retroshare Peer-to-peer communication and file sharing app based on a friend-to-friend network built on GNU Privacy Guard (GPG). Optionally, peers may communicate certificates and IP…
IPFS The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a protocol and peer-to-peer network for storing and sharing data in a distributed file system. IPFS uses content-addressing to uniquely…
Hyphanet license, in plain English
GPL-2.0 Strong copyleft
Free to use and modify, but anything you distribute that is built on it must also be open under the same license.
Permits
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Private use
Requires
- Disclose source
- Same license
- State changes
- License and copyright notice
Does not provide
- Liability cover
- Warranty
Why it matters: Strong copyleft keeps every distributed version open. A vendor cannot fold this into a closed product and ship it without releasing their changes.
Plain-language summary of the project's license, not legal advice. Read the full text for the exact terms.