Lantern

Lantern is a nonprofit virtual private network developed by Brave New Software Project, Inc., a U.S. 501(c)(3) organization focused on keeping people connected in restricted regions. Since 2014, it has been downloaded more than 250 million times and is designed to provide fast, private access to the open internet while bypassing censorship. Lantern is available for Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Its Smart Routing feature sends blocked and sensitive traffic through Lantern’s network while allowing other connections to remain direct, helping preserve speed. Users can switch to Full Tunnel protection, and the optional Private Server mode lets them run Lantern on their own hardware or cloud account, paying only their server costs. Lantern also offers multiple circumvention protocols that adapt when access methods are blocked, plus built-in ad and tracker blocking.

The service has a free version, generally subject to a daily data limit. Lantern Pro removes that limit and adds server selection, ad blocking, and support for up to five devices.