Mullvad is a privacy-first VPN with a strict no-logs policy and strong encryption. Based in Sweden, it doesn’t require personal details for sign-up, making it one of the most anonymous VPNs available. It has 600+ servers in 40+ countries, offering reliable speeds for browsing and torrenting. However, it’s not the best for streaming, as it struggles with platforms like Netflix. Priced at €5 per month, it’s a great option for privacy-focused users who value simplicity and security over extra features.
Mullvad
Mullvad was developed by Amagicom AB, a Swedish company dedicated to online privacy. The VPN service does not require any personal information for account creation—users receive a randomly generated account number, eliminating the need for email or passwords. Mullvad operates 600+ servers in 40+ countries, ensuring fast and stable connections. It is ideal for users who prioritize privacy, secure browsing, and censorship circumvention rather than those seeking a VPN primarily for streaming services.
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Top 10 Features of Mullvad VPN
1. Strict No-Logs Policy
- Mullvad does not collect or store any user activity, ensuring total privacy.
- The company has undergone independent audits to verify its log-free operations.
2. Anonymous Account Creation
- Users receive a random account number instead of signing up with an email or password.
- No personal details are required, maintaining complete anonymity.
3. AES-256 Encryption for Strong Security
- Uses military-grade encryption to protect user data from cyber threats.
- Ensures secure browsing even on public Wi-Fi networks.
4. WireGuard and OpenVPN Protocols
- Supports WireGuard, the most efficient and secure VPN protocol available.
- Offers OpenVPN for users who prefer a more traditional encryption method.
5. Kill Switch for Leak Protection
- Ensures that if the VPN connection drops, all internet traffic is blocked.
- Prevents IP leaks and DNS leaks to maintain user privacy.
6. Multi-Platform Compatibility
- Works on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.
- Offers router compatibility for whole-network protection.
7. No Third-Party Trackers or Analytics
- Unlike many VPNs, Mullvad does not use third-party analytics, ensuring no data tracking.
- A fully open-source VPN client, allowing security audits.
8. Flat-Rate Pricing Model
- No pricing tiers or hidden fees—Mullvad charges a flat €5 per month.
- Users can pay anonymously with cash, Bitcoin, or Monero.
9. 600+ Servers in 40+ Countries
- Offers a globally distributed network for secure and stable connections.
- No virtual servers—all servers are physically owned and operated by Mullvad.
10. Port Forwarding & IPv6 Support
- Supports port forwarding, which is useful for P2P sharing and gaming.
- IPv6 compatibility ensures better security and future-proof connectivity.
Mullvad Pricing
Pricing is extremely simple at €5 ($5.39) a month, and, well, that’s it. No discounts for long-term contracts, no doubling of the price at the end of the first term; it’s just €5 a month. That’s half the price you’ll pay for monthly billing with some providers, and cheaper than many annual plans. Even better, Mullvad offers a 10% discount if you pay by cryptocurrency.
If you’re happy to sign up for longer, though, there’s a lot of money to be saved elsewhere. Private Internet Access is only $2.03 a month for the first term of its three-year plan, for instance, a fraction of the price.
Mullvad scores a plus for its refund procedure, though. Not only is there a 30-day money-back guarantee, but it can also refund Bitcoin payment in some situations. There are potential complications (the refund help page has more), but it’s still better than the blanket ‘no Bitcoin refunds’ we see with most providers.
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Speed: One of the fastest VPNs we tested
- 13.5% speed loss in spring 2024 tests
- Number of servers: 690
- Number of countries: 47
Mullvad is one of the fastest VPNs we’ve tested, registering an average speed loss of just 13.5% — slightly slower than NordVPN’s best-in-class 11% speed loss and faster than Surfshark’s 17% speed loss. With many VPNs, you can expect to lose about half of your base internet speeds, so if your VPN cuts your regular speeds by 25% or less, you’ve got a fast VPN. With a fast VPN, you can stream videos without buffering, enjoy smooth video calls, torrent quickly and game without lag.
Despite having a relatively small network of servers, Mullvad delivered fantastic speeds via both OpenVPN and WireGuard throughout the 252 speed tests I ran in May 2024. Having more servers in more countries can help ease the load on a server network while offering more nearby servers to more people, which can translate to faster overall speeds. Mullvad’s network consists of just 690 servers spread across 47 countries. By comparison, other top VPNs like NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Surfshark have thousands of servers in 100 countries or more, which makes them excellent VPNs for travel.
Some VPNs’ speed performance can be inconsistent depending on the platform, protocol or even individual speed test. But Mullvad’s speeds were stable across the board, and I saw no significant speed fluctuations regardless of what device or protocol I used. Mullvad’s speeds were also consistent with what I would expect in relation to the distance between my physical location and the VPN servers through which I connected (generally, the further you are physically located from the VPN server, the slower your connection speeds will be). On my 370 Mbps internet connection in Ohio, my speeds to New York hovered around 350 Mbps — a minimal dip. And to relatively distant VPN servers in Australia and Singapore, I saw speeds of around 280 to 290 Mbps. To the UK and Europe, I got speeds in the low- to mid-300s with Mullvad.
As expected, I measured the fastest speed performance through WireGuard on MacOS, where I calculated a 10% average speed loss. OpenVPN speeds through MacOS were only slightly slower, at a 12% speed loss. Mullvad’s speed performance on my Windows machine was somewhat surprising because OpenVPN speeds were faster (15% speed loss) than WireGuard (17% speed loss). You’ll typically get faster speeds through WireGuard than through OpenVPN because it’s a lighter-weight protocol optimized for speed, whereas OpenVPN has a much bulkier codebase that’s built for security.
I was happy with Mullvad’s speed performance overall, but I was especially impressed by the VPN’s speeds through OpenVPN. Mullvad provides some of the best OpenVPN speed performance I’ve seen from a VPN, with 12% and 15% speed loss through OpenVPN on MacOS and Windows, respectively. By comparison, I lost 58% of my speed on MacOS and 67% on Windows through OpenVPN with IPVanish.
Key takeaway: Despite its relatively minuscule server network compared with many VPN rivals, you can expect excellent speeds with Mullvad. It’s currently the second-fastest VPN we tested based on our most recent speed benchmarking, and it’ll give you enough velocity for anything you’d want to do online, including data-heavy activities like gaming, streaming, torrenting and video conferencing.
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Privacy and security: Forward-thinking privacy, open-source and transparent
- Jurisdiction: Sweden
- Encryption: AES 256-bit (OpenVPN), ChaCha20 (WireGuard)
- Protocols available: OpenVPN, WireGuard
- Latest tests: No leaks detected
If you appreciate VPNs that emphasize privacy above all else — and actually deliver in that regard — then Mullvad could be the VPN for you. Like two of CNET’s other top VPNs, PIA and Proton VPN, Mullvad’s apps are fully open-source, meaning that the source code is freely available to the public for scrutiny. This helps build trust by allowing anyone to inspect the code to check for potential vulnerabilities and ensure that the VPN is doing what it says it does to protect users’ privacy.
Mullvad boasts a strict no-logs policy that’s been audited
If you’re not into inspecting source code, then you’ll be happy to know that Mullvad has been independently audited by security professionals on multiple occasions. The latest security audit was conducted by German-based cybersecurity firm Cure53 in June 2024 — the company’s fourth audit completed by Cure53 and 11th independent audit overall. The June 2024 infrastructure audit focused on the security of Mullvad’s OpenVPN and WireGuard implementations. Auditors “attempted to identify any potential methods by which a user’s VPN traffic anonymity or integrity could be compromised,” Cure53’s report concluded. “No such issues were found, and no vulnerabilities affecting the core product were detected. Therefore, it can be concluded that the examined VPN product maintains its promised security guarantees for its users.”
An August 2023 audit conducted by Radically Open Security assessed the security of Mullvad’s server infrastructure and its no-logging policy, finding that “significant effort had been put into preserving VPN clients privacy” and “found no logging of user activity data” during the audit. Mullvad promises to “log nothing whatsoever that can be connected to a numbered account’s activity,” including user traffic, DNS requests, IP addresses and connection timestamps. Though a VPN provider’s no-logs claims are impossible to verify completely, independent audits provide another important trust signal that the VPN really isn’t tracking what you’re doing while connected to its network.
I appreciate that Mullvad has made the full audit report available to the general public, which starkly contrasts with how some others like IPVanish make their audit reports available only to paying customers, requiring them to provide personal information for the privilege. I also appreciate that Mullvad outlines any issues flagged by auditors and explains how engineers addressed each issue in its audit report summaries — something most VPNs’ audit summaries don’t highlight. During my conversations with Mullvad representatives in preparation for the original publication of this review in the spring of 2024, they told me that the company will undergo an external security audit every two years. Mullvad representatives didn’t mention at the time that an audit would be forthcoming in the summer of 2024, so I reported that the biannual audit cadence is a bit less frequent than the annual cadence that we would ideally like to see from a VPN provider. However, it appears that Mullvad is now on an annual cadence, with another infrastructure audit scheduled for 2025, according to Mullvad’s latest audit summary.
Perhaps more impressive is Mullvad’s long-term goal of making its VPN servers completely transparent and auditable by any user in real-time through its System Transparency initiative in collaboration with 9elements Cyber Security. “We are continuously striving to strengthen the trustworthiness of all aspects of our service. This is why our VPN apps have been open source since we started over 12 years ago,” Mullvad says on its website. “Achieving transparency on the server side is a very different challenge, as merely open sourcing our server software is not enough. We want our users to be able to verify and audit what is currently running on the VPN server they are connected to.” This will open up Mullvad’s servers to continuous scrutiny and has the potential of going above and beyond even an annual audit.
Conclusion
Mullvad VPN is a privacy-focused, no-logs VPN that offers exceptional anonymity, strong security features, and a transparent pricing model. Unlike many competitors, Mullvad prioritizes user privacy by eliminating personal account sign-ups, blocking third-party trackers, and maintaining a strict no-logs policy. While it lacks optimized servers for streaming, it excels in secure browsing, bypassing censorship, and maintaining user anonymity. If privacy and security are your top priorities, Mullvad VPN is one of the best choices available today.
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