Based on data from the Tor Project, only about 5,000 to 15,000 users per day actively verify the Tor Browser signature after downloading, while overall daily downloads hover around 100,000. This implies roughly 85-95% of users on average do not verify their Tor Browser downloads, a figure that likely persists across all platforms including macOS since no platform-specific data is available.
The Tor Browser is a marvel of privacy engineering, respected by security professionals for protecting anonymity and circumventing censorship. Its concept is brilliant; its underlying technology is robust and open source. Yet for many macOS users, the experience around verifying the authenticity of the Tor Browser download is, honestly, a frustrating mess.
When brilliant minds fail to understand users
Take Tails, for example, the privacy-focused live OS from the same ecosystem. Not only is it powerful, but it is also designed by people who clearly understand the frustration of users with complex verification processes. They deliver a simple, elegant, in-browser verification system that lets users confirm their download’s authenticity in one click, with zero external tools, zero cryptic commands.
Contrast this with the Tor Browser’s current macOS experience. Users must:
- Download a
.dmgfile. - Manually locate and download a
.ascsignature file hidden behind an easy to overlook “Signature” link. - Understand and install third-party software like GPG to verify the signature.
- Wrestle with terminal commands or confusing key imports and signature checks.
Verifying the Tor Browser on macOS requires using a verification tool like GPG. However, to get GPG you must download another installer, which itself cannot be easily verified beforehand, since it is the very tool needed for verification.
This circular dependency creates a frustrating catch-22 that severely complicates the verification process and deters most users from completing it.
Why is this a problem? Because users matter.
Let’s acknowledge some of the brilliant software engineers in the space who get this right. Consider:
- Chris Titus
A master of making Linux and Windows optimization accessible and usable for real people. - The UTM team
Delivering one of the best virtualization experiences for Apple Silicon Macs with straightforward interfaces and real-world practical solutions. - LocalWP
An intuitive web development app that works out of the box with zero headache.
These people design software with users in mind, not as an afterthought.
The Tor Browser team, by contrast, seems trapped in a mindset that cryptographic purity is everything. And usability is secondary, even when usability issues practically mean fewer users verify their downloads, paradoxically reducing security for the project’s community at large.
A practical, user-friendly alternative: Leveraging UTM & Debian
If you are a macOS user who just wants to spin up Tor Browser and OnionShare without jumping through these hoops or risking your system clutter, the best workaround emerges from a clever community that does understand usability:
Use UTM, the macOS virtualization solution built for Apple Silicon, to install a minimal Debian Trixie VM (which needs less than 5GB). Inside this VM, you can:
- Install and run Tor Browser and OnionShare in isolation.
- Avoid cluttering your main macOS environment.
- Keep Tor-related activity sandboxed and manageable.
- Save hosting costs and network complexity with OnionShare’s onion service hosting from this contained instance.
This approach turns software complexity into manageable layers and is much more user-friendly overall.
Closing thoughts
Tor Browser is a much-needed product with undeniable potential. But ignoring user experience in favor of protocol pedantry on verification is a grave mistake. Until official Tor releases a seamless, web-based verification process akin to Tails, many users will remain frustrated, skip verification, and mistrust what should be secure software.
The tech community has shown through developers like Chris Titus and teams behind UTM and LocalWP that security and usability don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Tor can only benefit by embracing this reality.
If you sympathize with the user caught in this Kafkaesque verification nightmare, it’s okay to speak up: “This is not OK! You’re making it harder, not easier, for those of us who want to support your project responsibly.”
In the end, I vote with my wallet. Only software that is well made and user friendly gets my support. The Tor Browser verification process is anything but user friendly.