I'm not a server administrator. I'm a writer who wanted to publish work on Tor - outside of any clearnet platform's terms of service, with no account linking anything back to me. The standard advice is "just run your own hidden service." I looked into it. Nginx config, Tor daemon setup, key management, port forwarding if you're not on a VPS. I decided there had to be a better way, and that's how I ended up testing BRO HOSTING for three months.
The Setup Process
I registered at bro-hosting.xyz, which took under two minutes. Username and password, nothing else. The dashboard appeared immediately.
Creating a site is a short form: site name, site type, and an optional vanity prefix for your .onion address. I chose "static HTML" since I was publishing a simple content site. The optional vanity prefix (up to 4 characters, generated using mkp224o in the background) is a nice touch - I used it to get an address starting with "sha" for "shade-notes."
From clicking "Create Site" to having a live .onion address took about 4 minutes. The service set up the Tor hidden service, configured nginx routing for my site, and presented me with the address. I then uploaded my HTML files through the built-in file manager.
The File Manager
This is the part I was most skeptical about. Browser-based file managers for web hosting tend to be clunky, limited, or both. BRO HOSTING's is actually functional.
Supported operations: upload files (up to the plan disk limit), create directories, rename, delete, and edit text files directly in the browser. The text editor is basic - think a simple textarea - but for editing HTML and CSS it works fine. You can download individual files too.
I uploaded about 40 HTML files, a CSS file, and some images over the course of my first week. No issues, no timeouts. The upload interface gives clear feedback on what's happening.
One limitation: the file editor has a 512KB size limit. For text files and HTML this is not an issue. For large scripts or data files, you'd need to split and upload directly.
Site Types Available
BRO HOSTING isn't just for static sites. During my testing I explored the options:
| Site Type | Notes |
|---|---|
| Static HTML | Served directly by nginx. Fast, simple, ideal for content sites |
| PHP | PHP-FPM + optional MySQL database. For dynamic sites without Python |
| Python (WSGI) | Run Flask or Django apps. Gunicorn underneath |
| WordPress | Pre-configured WordPress install on PHP+MySQL stack |
| DokuWiki | Ready-to-run wiki. Useful for documentation or community wikis |
The fact that Python WSGI is available is significant - it means you can run real web applications, not just static content. That opens up a lot of use cases.
Plan Pricing and Disk Limits
| Plan | Sites | Disk | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 1 | Limited | Free |
| Basic | 5 | Standard | Small BTC fee |
| Pro | 20 | Large | Higher BTC fee |
Pricing is in Bitcoin and paid through BRO PAY. For a single static site, the free plan was sufficient for my use case.
Performance and Uptime
Over three months, my site was down for a total of maybe 2-3 hours. One scheduled maintenance, one unexpected restart that resolved quickly. For a $0/month static site on Tor, this is genuinely good.
Speed within Tor is acceptable. Page load times depend more on the user's Tor circuit than on the hosting, which is normal. My HTML-only pages load in 2-4 seconds on a typical Tor connection.
Enable / Disable Toggle
One feature I found unexpectedly useful: you can toggle each site on or off from the dashboard. When a site is off, it's removed from the Tor circuit and nginx config temporarily. You can bring it back with one click. This is useful during maintenance or if you want to take content offline quickly without deleting it.
Vanity .onion Prefixes
The built-in vanity prefix option (4 characters) uses mkp224o to generate a custom .onion address. For free. This would otherwise require running generation software on your own hardware. It's a small feature that makes a noticeable difference in how shareable your address is.
If you need longer prefixes (5-8 characters), BRO GENERATOR handles that as a separate paid service. The two integrate well.
What I Wish Were Different
- No FTP or SFTP access - browser upload only, which is fine for small sites but cumbersome for large deployments
- No custom domain support - you're getting an .onion address, not a clearnet domain
- The file editor could use syntax highlighting for HTML/CSS/JS
- Bandwidth/traffic statistics would be useful to see how many visitors your site is getting
Final Verdict
BRO HOSTING makes .onion site deployment accessible to people who aren't server administrators. The free tier is genuinely useful, the site types cover real use cases beyond just static HTML, and the vanity prefix feature removes a friction point that would otherwise require separate tooling. The limitations (browser-only file management, no traffic stats) are real but expected for a service at this price point. If you want your content on Tor without managing your own infrastructure, this is currently the most frictionless way to do it.
Three months in, my site is still up, still getting visitors through Tor, and I've never had to touch a config file. That's exactly what I was looking for.
BRO HOSTING is at bro-hosting.xyz and accessible through Tor.
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