There are countless VPNs competing to tell you they're the fastest or have server locations in the most countries. Most of them work basically the same way.

Lantern doesn't. We're a nonprofit that has spent 12 years helping people in China, Iran, and Russia circumvent government censorship. We just released a major update that brings the technology we've refined in heavily censored countries to users everywhere.

Here's what's different.

Smart Routing: Skip the VPN When You Don't Need It

Most VPNs route everything through their servers. Every website, every app, every bit of data. This slows things down, even when you're just checking the weather or streaming Netflix.

Why do they do this? Often, because their marketing depends on it. You've seen the ads: "Hackers on public WiFi will steal your passwords!" In reality, nearly all modern websites use HTTPS encryption. Your passwords and credit card numbers are already protected, even on sketchy coffee shop WiFi. The threat they're selling you on was solved years ago.

Lantern's Smart Routing works differently:

Direct connection for safe sites: If a website is unblocked and uses HTTPS, Lantern connects directly. You get full-speed access to streaming, downloads, whatever.

Automatic tunneling for blocked or insecure sites: If a site is censored or doesn't use HTTPS, Lantern routes traffic through our encrypted network instantly.

Full tunnel when you want it: Prefer the traditional all-traffic-through-VPN approach? One click switches you to Full Tunnel mode. Useful if you want to completely mask your location.

Split tunneling for exceptions: On top of either routing mode, you can specify individual apps or websites that should bypass the VPN. Useful if your bank blocks VPN connections and you're running full tunnel, or if you need specific exceptions to smart routing's automatic logic.

Run Your Own Server

The new version lets you spin up your own private server and route all your Lantern traffic through it.

Instead of sharing an IP address with thousands of other users (which can get you flagged or blacklisted), you get your own infrastructure. Connect your DigitalOcean account, pick a location, done. You still get Lantern's software, encryption, and protocol management, just running on a server you control.

Protocols Built to Beat Censorship

Standard VPN protocols like OpenVPN and WireGuard are easily fingerprinted by state-level actors. We use the same obfuscated protocols that actually work in China and Iran:

• Hysteria2 & TUIC: Next-gen protocols built on QUIC, optimized for unreliable connections and high-latency networks
• VLESS, VMess, & Trojan: Standard-bearers of modern censorship circumvention
• TLS Record Fragmentation: Splits the initial handshake packets into smaller pieces, scrambling the specific fingerprint that censors use to identify and block VPN connections
• WATER (WebAssembly Transport Executables Runtime): Allows us to deploy new transport protocols dynamically without requiring a full app update, staying ahead of censorship technology
• Unbounded, AnyTLS, ShadowTLS, & Kindling: Specialized obfuscation layers that make VPN traffic look like ordinary web browsing to Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) systems

These aren't theoretical. They're what's kept Lantern working in the world's most censored countries for over a decade.

Radical Transparency & Non-Profit Trust

We're a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Our code is open source. We've been independently audited four times. You can verify what we're claiming instead of taking our word for it.

This matters in an industry where "no-log VPNs" are often shell companies registered in tax havens.

Help Users in Censored Countries Get Online

You can turn Lantern into a bridge for people in censored countries. One toggle, and your uncensored internet connection helps route traffic for someone in Tehran or Moscow trying to access blocked sites.

Why this matters: Censors have an easy time blocking traffic from known VPN server IPs and data centers. Your residential IP address is much harder to block without causing collateral damage to regular internet users. By running as a proxy, you're providing access through an IP that censors can't easily blacklist.

Your Subscription Funds Freedom

Most Lantern users are in Iran, China, Russia—places where buying a VPN subscription is difficult, dangerous, or impossible. When you pay for Lantern Pro, you're directly funding the bandwidth and servers that keep it free for millions of people who need it to access news, communicate with family, or organize.

The Point

The new Lantern gives you smart routing, your own server option, and protocols that actually work against state-level censorship. But more than that, it turns your VPN subscription into something that helps people in authoritarian countries access the open internet.

Download it here.