This page provides answers to common questions about Lantern. Check out our developers FAQ for more technical information.
Lantern is a software application for desktop and mobile that delivers private, fast, reliable and secure access to blocked websites and apps.
Lantern is unique because it uses the fastest geo-optimized servers, and only proxies blocked sites, to maximize your browsing speed, letting you stream HD videos instantaneously. Lantern gives you uninterrupted access to the open internet by utilizing a variety of techniques to bypass censorship and firewalls, quickly shifting to other approaches if those techniques are blocked. The developer team at Lantern is constantly adapting and revising our censorship circumvention techniques depending on the blocking environment. User feedback is integral to Lantern, with new releases incorporating suggestions and addressing concerns.
Lantern Pro gives you all the features of our free version and more:
Faster speeds
Lantern Pro gives you the fastest connection to the open internet by using optimized servers, that are less-crowded than our free servers, to offer you the best speed possible.
Better performance
With servers distributed globally, Lantern Pro’s dynamic server allocation is constantly looking to connect you to the best performing server ensuring a smooth and uninterrupted connection. If one server is not performing, the user is transferred to another, ensuring steady connection. This allows for improved defense against censor interference with your connection. The Lantern dev team works on a 24 hour schedule to be able to identify blocking techniques by censors and respond quickly to ensure that any users experiencing blocking are online as soon as possible.
Unlimited data
Lantern Pro provides you with unlimited data to browse the web, stream videos and download content so that you will always have a fast unblocked connection. You can access all of your online content and information whenever needed.
Three devices
With a Pro account, you can use Lantern Pro on three devices and enjoy the benefits of Lantern Pro on your desktop and mobile devices.
To switch from the free version to Lantern Pro, just download Lantern, click on the upgrade button within the interface, and complete the payment process.
Lantern encrypts all your traffic in transit through our servers to protect your data and privacy.
If you choose to send Lantern diagnostic and usage data, we will never share, sell or lease this data to third parties or use it for any other purpose than making our services better for our users. Lantern collects diagnostic information when users share feedback and other information for debugging purposes, and anonymous usage analytics of our apps and website to offer you a better user experience. The Lantern settings allow you to configure this according to your personal preferences.
Lantern is designed to provide you with fast unfettered access to information online. Lantern is secure and encrypts your connection to blocked sites, but it is not an anonymity tool, so if you need or would like to be anonymous online, please use Tor. Otherwise, Lantern will give you faster access to blocked sites.
The payment feature makes Lantern more blocking resistant because censors cannot infiltrate or block Lantern Pro without paying, giving our Lantern Pro users more stability. We’ve offered Lantern Pro at a competitive price to help us stay around to continue to provide you with the fastest and most blocking resistant way to get online.
You can purchase one year of Pro for $32 (USD), or two years of Pro for $48 (USD).
Every user gets a unique referral code that can be shared with friends. For each friend that signs up for Pro, you get 2 free months of Pro. Start inviting!
As Lantern users continue to grow, costs of maintaining it increase significantly each month. In order to stick around and keep building and innovating for our users, we need to support our operations by charging a small fee for unlimited service.
To keep our free version running, we implemented a bandwidth limitation of 500 MB/ month. When the bandwidth limit is reached, the connection is slowed down and Free users are prompted to upgrade to Lantern Pro.
Once you download and install Lantern, the Lantern icon will appear in the system tray on the lower right of your screen, on Windows, and in the menu bar at the top of your screen on macOS. As long as the icon is is there, it means Lantern is running and that you can access blocked sites in any browser automatically. If you ever wish to stop Lantern, you can do so in the menu that appears when you click on the Lantern icon in the system tray or menu bar.
If you have more questions, please connect with us on Facebook or visit our User Forum.
If you have more technical questions, please see the Developers Q&A section of our developers forum.
