Why is Tor button for Chrome so much faster than the official Tor browser?

Question

I use regular Chrome, Chrome Canary with Tor button (connected to tor from MacPorts) and Tor browser on the same computer. Obviously regular Chrome is the fastest but Canary/Tor button is just slightly slower (like you would be using an average mobile broadband connection rather than 100 Mbit fiber). However, Tor browser is significantly slower. Why is that?

I don't "push" Canary nor Tor browser by having tens of windows and hundreds of tabs open, instead I use one window in either browser, always with less than 5 tabs.

Furthermore, Tor browser regularly hangs. You just can't open a new window or tab, clicking links or other common tasks. It is currently in this state and the only (?) thing that works are the menus - they work as expected but when you select a commando there, nothing happens. My copy of Tor browser also frequently use a lot of CPU and the only way to fix this is to kill the daughter process.

Why this big difference in general speed between Canary/Tor button and Tor browser? And more generally, is Tor browser unstable? I use Firefox occasionally and it never shows the instability I experience with Tor browser.

Answer 1

I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble with the Tor Browser Bundle. Tor Browser 8, which is based on Firefox Quantum, is planned for release early September and may fix some of the render slowness you see in Tor Browser 7.

I recommend being extremely cautious using a third party browser extension claiming to route your connection through Tor. It has not been audited by the Tor Project and such cannot assure you your safety as you use it.

In the meanwhile I have the following suggestions:

1) Consider downloading a fresh copy of the tor browser bundle and delete the old copy. It's possible some data got corrupted at some point. If reinstalling, do not just overwrite your previous Tor Browser files ensure they are fully deleted beforehand. While you are at this, maybe try Tor Browser Alpha and see if you have better results with it than Tor Browser Stable. The more information you provide, the better we can help you.

2) Make sure that any antivirus program you have installed is not preventing Tor from running.

3) Make sure your system clock is properly set. Tor Browser is very particular about having the correct time and date.

Let us know if any of the suggestions fixed your issue :)