I am using Aqua wallet for smaller amounts. Liquid is a side chain using a federation model with a 11 of 15 multisig. You can swap BTC in for Liquid BTC. Once there you can send either via the liquid network or via lightning. It’s not self custody but having a 11 of 15 multisig makes it safer than trusting just one entity. I think of the “easy” options for using lightning it’s a reasonable one. I also use Strike, however, I am trusting my BTC with just one entity. Of these options I would not leave more than a smaller amount of BTC on them. Running a node and managing your own channels is the best way but may be too technical for mass adoption. I run my own node and opened my own channel. I use Zeus as a wallet option. It wasn’t an easy task setting it all up.

Liquid uses a separate blockchain and bitcoin is locked when it is swapped into a liquid token which uses a two way peg to maintaib parity. Transactions take place using liquid's...'alt'...coin environment. When you cash out to on chain, the liquid network unlocks the coin to the address you specify, doing away with the token. The whole network is managed by a trusted Federation with a high degree of centralization. It does also work with things other than Bitcoin.

Lightning involves channels. Btc is locked in a channel with a ywo of two multisig wallet. The nodes on this channel have channels with other nodes. They transact across these interconmected channels. When the channel is closed, they net out the total transactions and do a single on chain transaction, instead of one for each transaction done on the lightning network.