Alternatives to Psiphon
A censorship-circumvention app that combines several blocking-resilient transports to reach sites blocked in your country. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Psiphon
A censorship-circumvention app that combines several blocking-resilient transports to reach sites blocked in your country.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Psiphon.
Lantern
An open-source censorship-circumvention app that gives access to blocked websites and apps.
Lantern is another open-source circumvention app for censored regions, with apps for all major desktop and mobile platforms including macOS and Linux, relying on its own infrastructure.
VPN Gate
A free academic VPN network of volunteer-run public relay servers from the University of Tsukuba.
VPN Gate is free through volunteer-run relay servers using standard L2TP/IPsec, OpenVPN and SSTP clients, but privacy depends on each operator and connections are logged.
Outline VPN
Self-run VPN server built on Shadowsocks, made for censored networks.
Outline VPN uses Shadowsocks on a server you pay for and run yourself, so traffic no longer passes through servers operated by Psiphon.
AmneziaVPN
Sets up your own VPN server on a machine you rent, then connects to it, with obfuscated protocols for networks that block ordinary VPNs.
AmneziaVPN installs obfuscated protocols such as Cloak, Shadowsocks and AmneziaWG on your own rented server, instead of relying on Psiphon's servers.
Astrill VPN
A commercial VPN service with a proprietary StealthVPN protocol for restrictive networks.
Astrill VPN is a paid commercial service with a proprietary StealthVPN protocol for restrictive networks and apps for Linux, macOS and routers.
VPN.ac
A commercial VPN service with WireGuard, OpenVPN and obfuscated protocols and servers in many countries.
VPN.ac is a paid proprietary service offering WireGuard, OpenVPN and obfuscated protocols across many countries, with a published node status page.
TorGuard
A commercial VPN and proxy service with stealth connection options and client apps, including Android.
TorGuard is a paid VPN and proxy service with stealth connection options for networks that block VPNs, with fewer verifiable details about its protocols.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Psiphon as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Shadowsocks
A fast encrypted tunnel proxy for getting past firewalls, with implementations for most platforms.
Psiphon removes the need to run your own server by combining several blocking-resilient transports on Psiphon's servers, though the free tier shows ads, runs slower and lacks macOS or Linux apps.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
v2rayNG
An Android client for V2Ray and Xray proxy servers, using the Xray or v2fly core.
Hiddify
Multi-platform proxy client for WireGuard, Xray and sing-box servers.
NaiveProxy
A censorship-resistant proxy that uses Chromium's network stack to look like normal HTTPS traffic.
Xray
An open-source proxy core from Project X with the XTLS and REALITY protocols for circumventing censorship.
Hysteria
An open-source proxy built on QUIC, designed for speed and resistance to censorship.
