Mullvad VPN Review 2024

Mullvad VPN isn’t afraid to go against conventions in the VPN industry. With an account creation method like none other, you can be certain that this provider will do everything to make sure that none of your personally identifiable information is available to them. At the same time, they are very transparent about how they operate.

Some could argue that Sweden, which is a member of the Fourteen Eyes alliance and the home country of this VPN service, is not a particularly pleasant place for privacy preachers. Yet they assure us of their strict no-logs policy.

To achieve their goal, Mullvad VPN has focused greatly on top-notch security, no limitations on torrenting, fast and stable servers, military-grade AES-256 encryption – all for a fair price of $5.47/month no matter how long your subscription. The only thing this VPN doesn’t do well is unblocking Netflix and other streaming platforms.

Despite the latter caveat, this VPN is one of the best options for users who really value their anonymity, privacy, and security. But first, let’s see how their servers hold up against our speed tests.

Mullvad Overview

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Mullvad speed and servers

Mullvad has servers with either OpenVPN or WireGuard protocols, so it only seemed fair to test out the WireGuard servers to push the speed results to their limits. I used the results from our very own speed testing tool to see the download and upload speed for various countries. The tool checked the speeds multiple times every day for a whole week and gave me an average.

As we took a deeper look, the results were quite impressive. Throughout the whole week, the download speed retention never dropped below 93%, which was an honest surprise. It is great to see that security and anonymity do not come at the cost of connection speeds. These numbers are adequate enough to put Mullvad in our top 10 fastest VPNs list.

Server coverage

Mullvad VPN operates around 340+ OpenVPN, 380+ WireGuard, and 30+ Bridge servers globally, bringing its server network up to 858+ servers in 39+ countries.

Most servers that we connected to (with Asia being the notable exception) were fast enough for general everyday use. Of course, there are differences based on the region but the overall speed is good, especially in Europe and the US.

Mullvad takes pride in the fact that they own a large portion of the servers. In fact, you can see a detailed breakdown of their servers’ status on their website. And the servers that they do rent are dedicated – meaning they are used for one purpose only.

Pricing

The pricing scheme for this VPN is about as simple as it gets. There’s one subscription type and one price for everyone, all the time.

The monthly subscription price is approximately $5.47 – that’s because the price is in euros.

Most VPNs will offer significant discounts for yearly or multi-yearly plans, but you won’t find that here. Instead, to get a 10% discount you will have to pay using crypto.

Available payment options are:

• Cash (in the mail)
• Cryptocurrencies
• PayPal
• Credit card
• Swish
• Bank transfer

There is no Mullvad free trial period, but there is a 30-day money-back guarantee for most of the payment options, except for cash payments.

With all that said, $5 and a few cents a month is not a bad price, especially when you get five simultaneous connections per account. Most top services ask for similar amounts with much longer subscriptions.

Mullvad security and privacy

Many consider Mullvad to be among the safest VPN providers available. Let’s see what they have to offer, security-wise:

• Completely anonymous sign-up and user accounts
• Meets the privacytools.io criteria
• AES-256 encryption
• OpenVPN and WireGuard tunneling protocols
• No identifiable logs
• DNS leak protection
• IPv6 leak protection
• Kill switch
• Shadowsocks, SSH, and split tunneling

Tunneling protocols

For now, Mullvad VPN lets you switch between two open-source tunneling protocols – OpenVPN and WireGuard. OpenVPN is the de facto standard among most VPN providers because it’s time-tested, secure, and offers decent connection speeds. WireGuard on the other hand is a fairly new protocol that has a simpler implementation and is well known for providing ludicrous speed.

It appears that they are embracing WireGuard more and more because they have more servers with that protocol and on the mobile apps WireGuard is the only protocol option.

Internet kill-switch

Mullvad, like any other respectable VPN, has the option to enable an internet kill-switch. It should be noted that this feature is only available on desktop. For an added layer of security, you can also enable the VPN to connect on start-up.

Other security features

You can start using a Shadowsocks proxy by enabling bridge mode on the desktop version of the app. Bridge mode is not available on mobile so you’ll have to enable Shadowsocks using a third-party app. You can find a detailed guide on how to do this with Mullvad at their help center.

Split tunneling is available on Android and Linux devices. Mac users can use this feature via Tunnelblick. The Windows version is currently in development, but there is no news on implementing split tunneling in the iOS client.

IP and DNS leak tests

No VPN review is complete without a DNS leak test and so I connected to the home country of this VPN to see how they hold up. At this point, no one should be surprised that they passed the tests without a hitch.

Online censorship in China and elsewhere

Using a VPN in China is a touchy subject as The Great Firewall is actively combating VPNs and providers can’t always verify the effectiveness of their products. Mullvad in particular does not market itself as an effective tool against China.

However, their bridge servers, in combination with Shadowsocks, might be a secure enough option. Sadly there aren’t that many bridge servers available so you may experience subpar speeds on the off-chance that you manage to connect.

Where OpenVPN is concerned, the Chinese government is very good at blocking it. What that means is that users may find out that their shiny new VPN doesn’t work in China.

This makes Mullvad VPN not a great choice for users both in China and other censorship-heavy countries. You’ll have better luck with something from our list of best VPNs for China.

Does Mullvad VPN log your data?

Short answer: no.

Mullvad is one of the very few VPNs that do not ask for any personally identifiable information when you sign up for the service. All they know about you is a randomly generated account number. If you also use an anonymous payment method to pay for your subscription, there’s almost no way to figure out who you are.

On top of that, they have one of the strictest no-logging policies in the industry. Apart from several essential cookies to ensure the operation of their website (most of which expire as soon as you close your browser window), there’s nothing to identify you or your session with Mullvad.

This means that your activities when using this VPN will remain as private as they can get.

Ease of use and software compatibility

For all the most common desktop environments, there’s an app available. Custom clients are available for the following platforms:

• Windows
• macOS
• Linux (Debian & Fedora)
• Android (beta)
• iOS

For other devices, Mullvad provides you with OpenVPN and WireGuard configuration files that can be used to set up a secure connection through third-party applications. It’s also possible to set up your router with this VPN. However, there are no browser extensions currently available.

Desktop apps

Downloading and setting up Mullvad VPN is as easy as you would expect it to be. To create a user account, select Generate account number.

The next step is to pay five euros (roughly five dollars) for one month of service using one of the many payment methods available. One thing to keep in mind while creating an account is that for true anonymity, users must use an anonymous method of payment, such as Bitcoin or a prepaid cash card.

Fittingly, using Mullvad VPN is just as easy as creating an account and installing the app on your device. Once in, all the complex settings that make the VPN magic happen occur in the background. This leaves you with just a few of the most commonly sought-after options, such as server or protocol choice, port selection, and a few others.

Although this VPN service boasts some of the best security available, they also do a great job of offering a user-friendly experience. The app interfaces are easy to use and configurations are simple yet powerful. Unfortunately, split tunneling is available on Linux only.

Mobile apps

The mobile apps of Mullvad VPN will be very familiar to desktop users because they look almost exactly the same. The iOS version has been fully released and has all the necessary features. But the Android app is still labeled as a beta version and as such does not contain a lot of features. For starters, it does not have a kill-switch. However, you can toggle a setting that would immediately connect you to a server once you launch the app.

Secondly, the mobile apps only support the WireGuard protocol. But this should not be seen as some limitation of the app as you will barely notice that it’s even on with the great speed that you’ll be getting.

The apps also have the option to toggle local network sharing, which allows you to see (and be seen by) other devices on your local network.

Finally, the Android app has a split tunneling feature that allows you to exclude apps from the VPN tunnel. This is a neat feature if you have apps that don’t get along well with VPNs. Or perhaps you want a VPN for a particular set of apps. One such category will be discussed further below.

Mullvad for streaming

Mullvad can’t unblock Netflix.

One of the cool things about Mullvad is the control they have over their servers – they own most of them, unlike most other VPN services that rent out server space for their services. This allows them to provide high levels of predictability when it comes to stability, speed, and security.

When it comes to Netflix, however, the fact that Mullvad doesn’t often have new IPs means that it’s not able to bypass Netflix geo-blocking. This should come as no surprise as the developers of this VPN have a different set of priorities. Other streaming services like BBC iPlayer and Hulu did not budge to our tests as well.

For a list of VPNs that are able to unblock Netflix, check out our Best VPN for Netflix list.

Torrenting

Mullvad VPN is one of the better options out there for torrents.

If downloading torrents over VPN is something you find important, Mullvad is definitely worthy of a look or two. This is a service with top-notch security features and decent speeds.

For starters, they don’t block P2P traffic, which is good news in itself, but that news keeps getting better and better the more you learn about their approach to torrenting. Users can download torrents with peace of mind: for one thing, the OpenVPN connection has a 4096 bit RSA Handshake. All traffic running through the servers is encrypted with AES-256 (one of the strongest on the market).

Additionally, Mullvad offers users a free SOCKS5 proxy and split tunneling for Linux and Android.

Customer support

There’s no live chat option, which means you’ll have to be patient if you want to contact a support agent.

Email is the only way to send a query to the Mullvad team at the moment. One thing to remember when sending queries by email is the anonymity focus of this VPN service. If you used an anonymous payment method to create your account, the support agents won’t know anything about you.

To keep your complete anonymity intact, it’s a good idea to use an anonymous email service like ProtonMail or similar to send your help request. If you’re willing to do a bit of reading, however, chances of you even needing to speak with support are fairly slim.

Mullvad VPN has an extensive help center filled with many detailed guides to walk their customers through all the services on offer. Also, there are comprehensive installation instructions for virtually every available OS and device type.

The guides are all smartly categorized into groups, such as:

• Troubleshooting guides
• Account management
• Privacy issues
• WireGuard
• Bridge
• …and much more

Finding the help you need at Mullvad VPN should never be a problem.

Alternatives for Mullvad

NordVPN

If you’re in the need of a VPN that can provide top-notch security and unblock streaming services like Netflix then look no further than NordVPN. With over 7000 servers in 118 countries, AES-256 encryption and a price of only $2.99/month, it’s a real no brainer.

Surfshark

If your budget is especially tight but your security needs are exceptional then have a look at Surfshark VPN. For only $2.19/month, you can connect an unlimited number of devices, utilize WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2 tunneling protocols, 24/7 customer support and much more.

Bottom line

Mullvad VPN is one of the most private VPN services that we have reviewed.

In my opinion, Mullvad VPN is doing a great job of providing a model for other VPNs to follow. Too many VPNs these days require long term subscriptions to be affordable and focus too much on unlocking streaming platforms.

One thing that always comes up in conversations regarding VPN privacy is the question of how safe they are. Most VPNs collect your personally identifying information at signup and for receiving payments. This means that there is some record, somewhere, of your relationship with the VPN service. Even when they say that there are no logs being taken, these VPNs are still subject to government demands.

Mullvad VPN is different. The numbered account approach, along with options to remain completely anonymous makes this VPN unique when it comes to true online anonymity.

The company is located in Sweden, which is one of the Fourteen Eyes countries. That means there are some privacy concerns. However, the fact that they don’t know who their customers are means they are very limited in what they can actually divulge.

Beyond that, this VPN could do with a bit more versatility. Although it’s good for P2P and a decent choice in China, users who just want to bypass geo-blocked platforms like Netflix could find better VPN services out there.

Do you think that more VPNs should be like Mullvad? Voice your opinion by leaving a comment.

FAQ

Is Mullvad VPN good?

Yes, it sure is. Mullvad is exceptional at keeping you anonymous and the connection speeds are pretty impressive.

How much does Mullvad VPN cost?

Mullvad costs 5€ per month – no matter how long your subscription.

Who owns Mullvad?

Mullvad VPN AB is owned by parent company Amagicom AB and they operate in Sweden.

Does Mullvad work with Netflix?

No, Mullvad does not work with Netflix.