The review
We earn nothing from Mullvad. They ban affiliate marketing outright, publish that policy, and state that they do not even pay for links. It is on this page anyway, because for some of you it is the right answer and a page that only lists what pays is not worth reading.
What it does better than anything else here is prove its claims. In April 2023 the Swedish police arrived at Mullvad’s office with a search warrant seeking customer data. They demonstrated how the service works, the prosecutor was consulted, and the officers left without taking anything, because the data being sought did not exist. Servers run from RAM with no persistent storage. You sign up with a randomly generated account number — no email, no username, no password — and you can post them cash if you want. Five euros a month, the same rate since 2009.
The reasons not to buy it are all practical. Five devices rather than ten. Fifty countries rather than a hundred and forty, so your home country may simply not be there. No dedicated IP as a matter of principle, which will break some employer setups. Measured speeds well behind the others on UK and US routes. Streaming mostly blocked. If those matter more to you than the privacy, buy Proton instead — and that is a perfectly reasonable choice.
What works
- One flat price, no terms, no discounts, no renewal rise
- Police served a warrant in 2023 and left with nothing
- No email address needed; you can pay in cash by post
- Servers run from RAM, so a seizure gets nothing
- Names China, Iran, Russia, Turkey and the UAE in its anti-censorship guide
What does not
- No dedicated IP, ever, so employer allowlists may fail
- Five devices, and only 50 countries against Proton's 140+
- Slower than the rest, and weak on UK and New York routes
- Streaming is routinely blocked, and OpenVPN was dropped in 2026