Cwtch is a decentralized messenger built by the non-profit Open Privacy Research Society, with every conversation end-to-end encrypted and routed over Tor v3 onion services. Its standout feature is metadata resistance: there are no phone numbers, no email addresses, and no central servers that can log who is talking to whom. Accounts are just cryptographic keys and group messaging works through untrusted relay servers that never see plaintext or contact graphs. Setup can feel slow because connections bootstrap through Tor and there is no iOS build yet. It is free, fully open source, and reproducible-friendly, making it a strong pick for anyone whose threat model includes network-level surveillance.
Cwtch
Metadata-resistant messenger over Tor
cwtch.im
FreeOpen SourceE2E EncryptedWindowsmacOSLinuxAndroidCanada
Pricing Completely free with no paid tiers; development is funded by donations to the Open Privacy Research Society.
Strengths
- No phone number, email, or personal identifier required to register
- All traffic is end-to-end encrypted and carried over Tor v3 onion services for strong metadata protection
- Fully open source and developed by a transparent non-profit
Considerations
- No iOS client, and no web version
- Tor routing makes connecting and message delivery noticeably slower than mainstream apps
Listed in Messaging
