Mullvad VPN review: The ultimate privacy-first VPN

Sweden-based Mullvad is like the Swiss Bank account of VPNs—it doesn’t ask questions and gives you the best privacy and security possible. 

When I say that Mullvad takes your privacy seriously, I mean it. Unlike other VPNs, Mullvad goes so far as to disconnect your account from an email by auto-generating an account number for you. They will even let you pay in cash. And this level of anonymity goes well beyond just registration, permeating everything you do with the app.

Since our last review the service has undergone another independent audit and adopted post-quantum encryption on all platforms, further cementing its place as one of the most secure and trustworthy VPNs on the market.

Read on to learn more, and then see our roundup of the best VPNs for comparison.

Mullvad VPN in brief:

• P2P allowed: Yes
• Device connections: 5 simultaneous connections
• Business location: Sweden
• Number of servers: 650+
• Number of country locations: 44
• Cost: $5.16 per month

What are Mullvad VPN’s features and services?

When you open Mullvad’s Windows app it strikes one as modern and clean. It starts with a non-interactive map in the primary section of the window and a red banner up top to indicate you’re not currently connected, with the device name and remaining time left on your account listed.

Towards the bottom of the app screen you’ll find a button showing your currently selected VPN server and below that a Connect button which you can click to connect to the chosen server.

When connected, you’ll see a Switch location and Disconnect button at the bottom of the window. The top of the screen, meanwhile, becomes a green banner with the Mullvad VPN logo indicating you’re now connected to the VPN.

If you jump into the country listings, you can either select a country, select a specific location within the country if more than one is available, and even drill down to individual servers. The app doesn’t show any specific metrics about each server such as ping times or load, but if there’s a red circle next to a server, that means it’s not available for use. Green, meanwhile, means it’s working.

With over 650 total servers, Mullvad VPN’s server network is rather small compared to some of its competitors. Services such as CyberGhost VPN and Private Internet Access boast server networks of over 10,000. Still, I never felt that I was limited in my options while using the service.

The app itself is very easy to read and understand both in the Windows and Android versions. The default Windows’ app panel is automatically fixed to the bottom-right corner of the screen, but you can change this under settings if you wish.

Mullvad traditionally hasn’t been big on extra features or services compared to other VPNs. It doesn’t promise to get past Netflix VPN restrictions (though sometimes it does), there aren’t any double-hop connections, or smart DNS; however, that doesn’t mean it’s a barebones VPN by any stretch.

Mullvad recently did away with automatic-renewals on its subscription plans in order to minimize the private information it stores.

The service still provides the most important and frequently used features such as a kill-switch, split-tunneling, and ad-/tracker-blocking. It even takes its kill-switch one step further with a feature called Lockdown mode that will only allow your device to connect to the internet when it’s connected to a Mullvad VPN server. All of these features can be found by clicking the gear icon on the homescreen to access the settings menu.

Go to Settings > VPN settings, and you can enable Mullvad’s IPv6 option, as well as manually choose between using OpenVPN or WireGuard. Mullvad was one of the earliest VPN services to implement WireGuard. Its multi-hop feature for WireGuard is also available here as well. 

Since 2024, all WireGuard connections through Mullvad come with default “quantum-resistant” encryption technology. Mullvad once again places itself at the forefront of security innovations by fully adopting this standard.

Another nice tool to use with the VPN is Mullvad’s connection check webpage. It lets you know if the app is working and currently connected to Mullvad. It also checks to see if you are leaking DNS requests, suffering from a WebRTC leak, or using a blacklisted IP address.

Mullvad has apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android, all of which are open-source.

How much does Mullvad VPN cost?

Mullvad’s pricing is pretty cut and dry. For one month you’ll pay €5, or about $5.16 at the time of writing. It also offers subscription options for one year and a staggeringly long one decade. That’s practically a lifetime in the VPN market and just goes to show you how confident it is in the future of its service.

Despite these long-term subscription options, the price still remains the same €5 every month. To compare, other VPN services typically offer their monthly subscription for around $10 per month and longer-term subscriptions average out to around $3 or $4 per month. That makes Mullvad VPN an extremely affordable short-term month-to-month VPN, but a more expensive long-term option.

It’s also worth noting that Mullvad recently did away with automatic-renewals on its subscription plans. According to the company, this was “in order to store less data” such as on-file credit cards and other private information. As a result, you will need to manually re-up each month, or year, or decade, in order to keep using the service. A bit tedious, but that’s the price you pay for ultimate privacy.

How is Mullvad VPN’s performance?

In order to test Mullvad VPN’s speeds I measured connection rates across servers in different countries around the world for multiple days and then compared them to my baseline internet speed. I did this using both the OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols.

The average download speeds across both protocols were rather impressive, clocking in at 53 percent of base speeds. The upload speeds were similar, maintaining an average of 49 percent of the baseline. That makes Mullvad a contender for one of the fastest VPNs, but still a ways behind speed demons such as Hotspot Shield and ProtonVPN.

While testing speeds using different protocols I didn’t notice too much of a difference. WireGuard, as expected, had slightly faster averages than OpenVPN but the margins were so slim in my testing that I would be hard pressed to recommend one over the other for speed.

The bottom line is that, overall, Mullvad’s speeds are more than enough for everyday internet activities, with the usual caveat that your experience may vary depending on your location in the world, equipment, and ISP.

In recent years Mullvad started renting servers in addition to those it owns itself. Despite this change, there are no apparent speed decreases and from what I could tell, virtually no differences between the servers it owns and those it rents. If you’re interested, you can see which servers are owned and rented on its servers page.

While Mullvad has a lot going for it, one area where it doesn’t impress is in unblocking streaming services. In my previous testing I found that the ability to access services such as Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max while connected was extremely hit or miss. Some servers had no issues while others detected the VPN and blocked access.

This time around I found a slight improvement to the services I could access though. While Mullvad is certainly not the best VPN for streaming, it does okay at unblocking content. The good news is that once you’re able to find a connection that isn’t blocked, the speeds are fast enough to provide a seamless viewing experience with no buffering.

How is Mullvad VPN’s security and privacy?

The short answer is: excellent. Mullvad prides itself on user privacy, anonymity, and security. And it shows, too. Even from the time that you first pay for the service, it takes this seriously. 

You have multiple options to pay for the VPN including by cash—unique among all other VPNs to my knowledge. Should you choose this method, Mullvad says it will take the cash, add credits to the account number included in the envelope, and then shred the envelope and the note. If you choose to use credit cards or PayPal, however, your usage of the service will be identifiable through those payment services—but it won’t be connected to any of your online activity.

My DNS leak tests for both the Windows and Android apps came up clean with no leaks detected. This means you can trust Mullvad to keep your true IP address hidden while connected to its servers. By default, its DNS leak protection is always-on and can’t be disabled.

Mullvad provides an additional feature called DAITA, or Defence Against AI-guided Traffic Analysis, which you can turn on under the settings menu. This will add network noise and make all network packets the same size. 

It’s a way to further obfuscate your VPN traffic from sophisticated AI which may be able to distinguish your individual traffic patterns. Very few VPNs currently offer this advanced level of obfuscation, making it one reason Mullvad is a great option for privacy-conscious users.

In regards to VPN protocols, Mullvad keeps it simple by only offering the choice between OpenVPN and WireGuard. These are the two most secure protocols currently available and probably the best options anyways. 

You also have the option to tweak and configure each connection to your own needs by choosing Ports, Obfuscation, and whether you want to use a Quantum-resistant tunnel. In the last year, Mullvad made all WireGuard connections quantum-resistant by default. While that might be a bit unnecessary now, we’ll all probably be thankful for this feature when quantum computers become more widely used in the future.

Moving onto its privacy policy, Mullvad’s policy has exactly what you’re looking for in a VPN. Though it has now been split into two different documents: the general privacy policy and the “no-logging of user activity policy.” In those two documents the company says it does not “store any activity logs or metadata.” There’s no logging of your online traffic, DNS requests, connections, timestamps, IP addresses, bandwidth, nothing. 

The only data Mullvad saves are the total number of current connections of all users on its network, the CPU load per core on its servers, and the total bandwidth used per server. It also logs the real-time number of connections per account as the service allows five simultaneous for each account.

In 2023, Mullvad completed migration of its servers to RAM-only diskless servers meaning data does not persist on its servers nor can it be confiscated should the servers be physically removed—this goes for both the servers it owns and those it rents.

Another welcomed development since our last review is that Mullvad underwent two new independent security audits by Cure53 and X41 D-Sec. Independent audits are always a good sign that a VPN is sticking to its no-log policy and maintaining strong security. They go a long way towards building user trust.

Mullvad is owned and operated by Amagicom AB and based in Sweden. This means that it could be subject to mandatory government data sharing regulations since Sweden is a member of the 14 Eyes signals intelligence sharing alliance. 

It’s not a huge deal as Mullvad does not log user data, but it’s good to be aware of, especially for the ultra-privacy conscious. Notably, Mullvad does seem to publish a notice on its blog whenever it’s subject to a search warrant.

Is Mullvad VPN worth it?

Mullvad VPN promises privacy and security and delivers both in droves. It might not have all of the flashy extraneous features of some other VPNs, nor does it excel at unblocking Netflix, but in practically every other area it shines.

Its dedication to protecting user anonymity has never been in question and the latest independent security audits further prove this point. With this level of commitment to privacy as well as performance, Mullvad continues to be one of our top recommendations.

Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article.