# I2P

21 Hacker News commenters recommended I2P and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a free anonymity network for private browsing, services and torrents, with an active community behind it. Critics most often say it is hard to set up and slow.

## Why people recommend it

- Works fine and is usable (3 comments): "the Invisible Internet Project exists and works fine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49643966)) "I2P already exists and is usable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48376864)) "I upgraded my OBSD just fine over I2P" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47112962))
- Alternative to Tor (4 comments): "This problem has already been solved with networks like Tor and I2P" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47081681)) "Look into i2p or other protocol that’s really anonymous." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47621700)) "Tor and I2P is a better fit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46498233))
- Stronger privacy and encryption (3 comments): "that even comes with reinforced privacy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48546011)) "the bonus encryption element" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46296400)) "encrypted accesses to Usenet and IRC via I2P and the like will boost the platforms more than ever" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46539858))
- Anonymous torrents support (2 comments): "anonymous torrents in I2P over non-anonymous standard implementation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48696022)) "Consider switching to and thus support torrents in I2P." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50025717))

## What people warn about

- Hard to set up (3 comments): "It requires some technical expertise to set up (particularly I2P). Slow downloads." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48745686)) "i2p requires some proxy config in your browser and you need to run a service in the background explicitly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46498716)) "i2p is harder to use than Tor" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46498968))
- Slow downloads and performance (2 comments): "It requires some technical expertise to set up (particularly I2P). Slow downloads." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48745686)) "the performance was just awful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47624397))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Tor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tor.md): 202 recommend
- [Freenet](https://hackerapproved.com/p/freenet.md): 29 recommend
- [Hyphanet](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hyphanet.md): 7 recommend
- [Arti](https://hackerapproved.com/p/arti.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "I2P", https://hackerapproved.com/p/i2p/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).