Tor + aaPanel — host a .onion site with a control panel

One command installs Tor, generates a v3 .onion hidden service, installs aaPanel (a free web hosting control panel), and adds two free Impreza Host plugins so you create, manage and protect your hidden service from the panel UI — no SSH after setup.

Maintained by Impreza Host · 📚 Docs · 📖 Tutorial: run a .onion site

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What you get

🧅 Tor + a v3 .onion	Installed, enabled, with a hidden service ready on port 80
🎛️ aaPanel	Free control panel — websites, PHP, databases, FTP, phpMyAdmin
🧩 Tor Manager	Create/manage .onion services, edit torrc, generate vanity addresses — from the panel
🛡️ Onion Guard	Proof-of-Work + firewall + reverse proxy that shields your .onion from bots & DDoS

Tested on Ubuntu 20.04 / 22.04 / 24.04 and Debian 11 / 12.

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Quick start

SSH into a fresh server as root and run:

git clone https://github.com/imprezahost/aapanel-tor-network.git
cd aapanel-tor-network
bash tor.sh

No git? Run apt install -y git first.

When it finishes you'll see your aaPanel login details and your .onion address — keep them safe. Both plugins are waiting under App Store → Installed.

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The plugins — what makes this pleasant

Both are free and open source, installed automatically by the script (or add them to any existing aaPanel — see each repo). Because they read /etc/tor/torrc, the hidden service the script creates is picked up by both with zero extra config.

🧩 Tor Manager — provision

Install Tor, create and manage .onion hidden services, and edit the full torrc, all from aaPanel:

• Create / list / remove hidden services; map ports to local backends
• One-click vanity .onion generator (mkp224o)
• Categorised torrc editor with tor --verify-config validation before save
• Add to aaPanel — register a hidden service as a website in one click
• Back up your hidden-service keys as a zip · live Tor logs

🛡️ Onion Guard — protect

Keep bots, scrapers and DDoS off your hidden service — no third-party CAPTCHAs, never leaving Tor:

• Browser Proof-of-Work challenge (SHA-256), adaptive difficulty under load
• No-JavaScript fallback (server-rendered CAPTCHA) for hardened Tor Browser
• Per-path & per-User-Agent firewall + per-IP rate limiting
• Auto-discovers your hidden services and reverse-proxies them (nginx/Apache)
• Custom branding on the challenge page

Tor Manager  →  creates & configures hidden services in torrc
                     │
                     ▼
Onion Guard  →  auto-discovers them, applies PoW + firewall + proxy
                     │
                     ▼
                  your app (WordPress, a forum, your own code …)

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After the install

1. Log in to aaPanel with the details the script printed.
2. Install a web stack (nginx/Apache + PHP + a database) from the software store — or skip it if you serve something else.
3. Open Tor Manager → your .onion is already listed; create more, or a vanity one.
4. Open Onion Guard → turn on Proof-of-Work + firewall for your .onion.
5. Under Website, add your .onion domain → you're live on Tor.

📖 Step-by-step walkthrough: https://community.imprezahost.com/d/114-run-a-onion-site-on-your-impreza-vps

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Run any app — with a .onion mirror

aaPanel hosts whatever you want. You can serve the same site on both the clear web and Tor:

1. Create your site on a normal domain (.com, etc.) under Website.
2. Create a second site for your .onion and point its Website Path at the same directory.

Same content, two front doors — one indexed on the surface web, one private over Tor.

Impreza Host's one-click app catalog — WordPress, Nextcloud, Gitea, n8n, Vaultwarden, Matrix and more — can deploy with a .onion mirror built in.

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Don't want to self-manage?

Impreza Host provisions Tor + aaPanel + Tor Manager + Onion Guard for you automatically. Pick Tor Hosting at checkout and your panel and .onion tooling are ready in minutes — we run the server, you click.

→ impreza.host

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Security notes

• After install, change the aaPanel username, password and port (Panel → Settings).
• Do not install SSL / Let's Encrypt on a .onion — Let's Encrypt doesn't issue for .onion, and Tor already encrypts the connection end to end. Need HTTPS on a .onion anyway? Talk to us.
• Back up your keys. Losing /var/lib/tor/<service>/hs_ed25519_secret_key means losing your address forever — Tor Manager has a one-click key backup.

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Links

🌐 Home	https://impreza.host
📚 Docs	https://docs.imprezahost.com
📖 Tutorial	https://community.imprezahost.com/d/114-run-a-onion-site-on-your-impreza-vps
🧩 Tor Manager	https://github.com/imprezahost/tor-manager
🛡️ Onion Guard	https://github.com/imprezahost/onion-guard
💬 Community	https://community.imprezahost.com

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Maintained by Impreza Host — managed .onion hosting, the easy way. Issues and pull requests welcome.