Mullvad vs ProtonVPN: The Privacy Showdown

Two privacy-first VPNs compared

When evaluating VPN services for privacy-conscious users, two names consistently emerge at the top tier: Mullvad and ProtonVPN. Both services have built reputations on transparency, no-logs policies, and open-source principles—but they approach privacy differently, and understanding those differences matters before you commit.

Mullvad takes an almost anarchist stance on anonymity. The service rejects the concept of user accounts entirely, instead generating random account numbers for each connection. You can use Mullvad without providing an email address, name, phone number, or payment method that ties to your identity. They accept cash by mail, Bitcoin, Monero, and other privacy-preserving payment methods. When you uninstall, there's no recovery process because there's nothing to recover—your account doesn't exist in a traditional sense.

ProtonVPN, by contrast, operates within a more conventional framework. You create an account with an email address, maintain a subscription, and can recover access if needed. ProtonVPN is owned by Proton AG, the same company behind ProtonMail, and benefits from that ecosystem integration. Your VPN subscription can bundle with encrypted email, calendar, and drive services. The company has been more publicly aggressive about user advocacy, publishing transparency reports and regularly commissioning security audits.

The philosophical difference is crucial: Mullvad asks "how do we minimize data collection altogether?" while ProtonVPN asks "how do we encrypt and protect the data we do collect?" Both are valid privacy frameworks, but they suit different threat models.

For journalists, activists, and users in oppressive regimes, Mullvad's ephemeral account model removes friction from anonymity. For remote workers, small business owners, and everyday privacy advocates who want encrypted email alongside VPN protection, ProtonVPN's ecosystem offers integrated convenience.

This comparison examines both services across account security, jurisdiction, audit history, performance, and pricing to help you decide which aligns with your privacy needs. We'll look beyond marketing claims to practical implementation details that actually affect your security.

Account model

Mullvad's account structure is genuinely unusual in the VPN market. When you launch the application, it generates a random 44-bit account number (displayed as a string like 1234567890123456). This number is your entire account—not tied to email, not tied to identity, not recoverable. Every session you use that number until you choose to generate a new one. If you delete your account number, you delete your account. There's no password reset, no account recovery, no forgotten-credentials support—because the account never existed in a personal sense.

This design has profound implications. Mullvad's servers don't know who you are. They don't store emails, payment histories indexed to accounts, connection logs, or recovery information. When you pay for service, Mullvad accepts Bitcoin (to legacy and Taproot addresses), Monero, cash by mail, and bank transfers. The company explicitly states they cannot identify which payment corresponds to which account number, because payments are deliberately separated from account records.

ProtonVPN uses a conventional account model. You register with an email address, create a password, and link payment information. This creates a persistent, recoverable account. If you forget your password, you can reset it. If you lose access, Proton can verify your identity and restore your account. The company stores email addresses, payment records, and account creation/access logs—though they claim these are encrypted or stored in ways that minimize their utility to law enforcement.

The trade-off is clear: Mullvad's approach provides stronger resistance against compelled disclosure. If law enforcement subpoenas Mullvad with an IP address, the company cannot identify which user connected to that IP because that information was never stored in linkable form. ProtonVPN could theoretically be compelled to provide the email address associated with a VPN account, though they would resist such requests.

ProtonVPN counters this with transparency. They publish canary statements and publicly commit to fighting legal requests. Their Swiss jurisdiction (more on that later) makes US warrants harder to enforce. But the structural reality remains: ProtonVPN maintains records that could theoretically be obtained; Mullvad maintains far fewer.

For payment, ProtonVPN accepts credit cards, PayPal, and cryptocurrency (Bitcoin). Their tiered pricing structure includes paid plans at various levels, so payment amounts vary. Mullvad's flat €5/month rate means all payment transactions look similar, further obscuring which payment corresponds to which usage period.

If your threat model includes sophisticated adversaries with legal authority, Mullvad's ephemeral model provides stronger protection. If your concerns center on commercial data harvesting and general privacy (with trust in jurisdictional protections), ProtonVPN's integrated ecosystem and account recovery options may be preferable.

Jurisdiction

Sweden hosts Mullvad, while ProtonVPN operates from Switzerland. Both countries have strong privacy protections, but they're vulnerable to different pressure vectors.

Sweden is a 14 Eyes intelligence alliance member, alongside the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and others. The 14 Eyes agreement enables extensive signal intelligence sharing between allied nations. On paper, this looks worse than Switzerland's non-alliance status. However, Sweden's actual data protection law—particularly the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Sweden's own constitutional protections—are mature and legally rigorous. Swedish courts have a strong track record of resisting overreach. Mullvad has operated transparently in Sweden for years without server seizures or forced compliance with requests that would compromise user privacy.

The 14 Eyes membership matters more for signals intelligence (bulk data collection of communications traffic) than for targeted VPN subpoenas. Mullvad's architecture limits what could be collected anyway: they don't log traffic, and they don't maintain user-account linkages. Swedish law enforcement would need to serve Mullvad with requests backed by Swedish law, which requires judicial authorization. The company has consistently declined requests that would compromise privacy.

Switzerland operates outside the EU, which provides some insulation from GDPR compliance requirements that could create legal liability forcing disclosure. Switzerland has strict banking secrecy traditions and privacy-forward data protection law. However, Switzerland is not part of the intelligence alliance, meaning intelligence sharing happens through different legal frameworks—primarily mutual legal assistance treaties (MLATs). These require more formal legal processes than intelligence alliance agreements.

The practical difference: Swedish jurisdiction exposes Mullvad to EU-level legal frameworks and potential intelligence sharing with Five/Nine/Fourteen Eyes partners. Swiss jurisdiction exposes ProtonVPN to international treaty processes and potential US pressure through mutual legal assistance, though Switzerland has shown willingness to resist such requests.

In practice, both countries' courts prioritize privacy protections for legitimate users. Neither Sweden nor Switzerland facilitates mass surveillance infrastructure like some countries do. The real difference emerges when considering mass surveillance frameworks: Sweden's EU membership and intelligence alliances create vectors for bulk collection at the network level. Switzerland's independence provides more insulation.

For most users, both jurisdictions are trustworthy. For users specifically concerned about Five/Nine/Fourteen Eyes intelligence sharing, Switzerland's non-aligned status is technically preferable—but only if you also trust ProtonVPN's claimed no-logs architecture, since Switzerland can't provide technical protection against logging that the company chooses to perform.

No-logs claims and audits

Both Mullvad and ProtonVPN claim to operate no-logs VPN services. Both have undergone third-party security audits. The details matter.

Mullvad publishes comprehensive technical documentation explaining their infrastructure. They've been audited by reputable firms including Cure53, which conducted a full security assessment and published results showing no critical vulnerabilities related to logging. Mullvad's code is open-source, meaning independent researchers can verify claims without relying on the company's assertions. They've been audited multiple times over years, not as a one-time marketing exercise.

Crucially, Mullvad's architecture makes logging technically difficult. The application doesn't maintain persistent session data, account records don't link to users, and server infrastructure doesn't include functionality that would capture per-user traffic. This is design-level enforcement of the no-logs claim, not policy-level assertion.

ProtonVPN has also been audited, most notably by SEC Consult and Cure53 (the same firm that audited Mullvad). These audits found no evidence of logging and confirmed encryption implementations are sound. ProtonVPN publishes these audit reports and regular transparency reports about legal requests received.

However, ProtonVPN's architecture doesn't enforce no-logs at the design level in the same way. The company could theoretically implement logging without violating any technical principle—they simply claim not to. This is the difference between "cannot log" (Mullvad) and "claims not to log" (ProtonVPN). Both have audit support, but Mullvad's design makes deception technically implausible, while ProtonVPN relies on company integrity and jurisdiction-level protections.

Mullvad publishes audits more frequently and treats them as ongoing verification. They've commissioned multiple independent audits without being prompted by specific incidents. This suggests confidence in their actual practices.

ProtonVPN publishes audits reactively, as marketing material accompanying service announcements. Both approaches are legitimate, but Mullvad's proactive audit strategy demonstrates greater emphasis on external verification.

For no-logs verification, both services meet a high standard. Mullvad edges ahead through architectural design and audit frequency, while ProtonVPN's model relies more on jurisdictional protection and company reputation. If you're evaluating based on no-logs claims alone, both are credible—but Mullvad's approach is technically more robust.

Speed and reliability

VPN speed depends on server location, protocol selection, encryption overhead, and connection stability. Both Mullvad and ProtonVPN use WireGuard, the modern protocol offering better performance than older OpenVPN implementations.

Mullvad operates approximately 400+ servers across 40+ countries. ProtonVPN operates 3000+ servers across 60+ countries. More servers generally means more connection options and shorter geographic distances to endpoints, which improves speed. However, ProtonVPN's larger network also means more management complexity.

In real-world testing, Mullvad's servers consistently achieve 80-95% of baseline connection speed (the speed you'd get without VPN). This is excellent performance. ProtonVPN achieves similar results on their faster server tiers, though lower-tier plans may route through more congested servers. The difference in practice is negligible for most users—both services are fast enough for 4K streaming and video conferencing.

Reliability—meaning uptime and stable connections—favors ProtonVPN's larger infrastructure slightly. With more servers and redundancy, they have more capacity to handle traffic surges. Mullvad's smaller network occasionally shows congestion during peak hours in popular regions, though this is relatively rare.

Mullvad's split-tunneling feature allows you to route some traffic through VPN while keeping other traffic direct—useful for productivity when you need local network access while maintaining anonymity for other activities. ProtonVPN offers similar functionality on paid plans.

For privacy-specific performance metrics, both services matter equally. Mullvad's smaller network might theoretically make it easier to correlate VPN exit IPs with geographic regions where specific users operate, but this is speculative and assumes sophisticated passive adversaries. ProtonVPN's larger network provides more cover, but also means higher server loads.

If raw speed is your priority, both services deliver. If reliability during peak hours matters more, ProtonVPN's infrastructure has a slight edge. For privacy purposes, the differences are immaterial—both are fast enough that adversaries can't reasonably infer your location from VPN performance characteristics.

Pricing

Mullvad charges a flat €5 per month (approximately $5.50 USD), with no subscription required. You can pay for access to any account number and can choose to let the payment lapse. There's no contract, no commitment, no tiered pricing. Every user pays the same rate regardless of server tier, feature access, or subscription length.

ProtonVPN offers tiered pricing:

• Free plan: Limited servers, slower speeds, no streaming support (approximately 0 to 100 GB monthly bandwidth)
• Basic/Plus: €10/month (approximately $11 USD) for full-speed VPN access across all servers
• Visionary/Bundle: €30/month including VPN, ProtonMail, ProtonDrive, ProtonCalendar, and other services

ProtonVPN accepts monthly, annual, and two-year billing cycles, with discounts for longer commitments (annual plans cost roughly 35% less per month; two-year plans cost roughly 50% less per month). The free plan provides decent value for casual users but with speed limitations and server restrictions.

For payment methods:

Payment Method	Mullvad	ProtonVPN
Credit/Debit Card	No	Yes
PayPal	No	Yes
Bitcoin	Yes	Yes
Monero	Yes	No
Apple Pay/Google Pay	No	Yes
Bank Transfer	Yes	Yes
Cash by Mail	Yes	No

Mullvad's payment anonymity is superior—you can pay with Monero or cash without identifying yourself. ProtonVPN's credit card and PayPal options are more convenient for mainstream users. Bitcoin support on both means crypto-friendly users can pay in privacy-preserving currency.

If you're buying purely on price, Mullvad is cheapest at €5/month with no contracts. However, ProtonVPN's bundled plans offer value if you're already considering encrypted email or cloud storage. ProtonVPN's annual plans (roughly €4/month when paid annually) undercut Mullvad's monthly rate, though the commitment is required.

For users prioritizing anonymity alongside cost, Mullvad's lack of required subscription and cash payment option is valuable. For users wanting integration with encrypted email and productivity tools, ProtonVPN's ecosystem justifies the higher cost.

We've covered detailed pricing comparisons in our best cheap VPN options and ProtonVPN value analysis guides if you want to explore affordability further.

Frequently asked questions

Which VPN should I choose if I'm concerned about government surveillance?

Both services provide strong protection, but Mullvad's ephemeral account model means government requests cannot identify you. ProtonVPN's Swiss jurisdiction and encryption mean they cannot comply with identification requests even if they wanted to—but the structural burden is on their integrity. For maximum protection against state actors, Mullvad's design is technically superior. See our glossary definition of open-source security benefits for more context on transparent architectures.

Can I use these VPNs for torrenting?

Both officially permit P2P traffic. Mullvad's infrastructure is designed to handle torrent loads without throttling. ProtonVPN's paid plans support torrenting, though their free plan does not. Both use WireGuard by default, which handles P2P connections well. Neither maintains traffic logs, so your torrent activity is private from the VPN provider.

How do I verify these services actually don't log?

Mullvad's open-source code and frequent audits are the strongest verification. You can review their source code yourself or trust published third-party audits. ProtonVPN's audits are reliable, but the company's proprietary backend means you must ultimately trust their claim. For maximum verification, Mullvad offers better transparency.

Are these services safe for Tor users?

Both are compatible with Tor. Mullvad has specifically designed features for Tor users (entry point selection, bridge support). ProtonVPN works with Tor but doesn't optimize for it. If your threat model includes Tor usage, Mullvad's approach is more considerate of that use case.

What's the 24-hour refund policy?

ProtonVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on annual plans. Mullvad doesn't technically offer refunds since there's no subscription—you pay as you go, and can simply stop paying. This is a feature, not a limitation: you're never financially committed. See our subscription and license glossary entry for how these models differ.

Can I pay anonymously?

Mullvad accepts Monero and cash by mail—both offer strong anonymity. ProtonVPN accepts Bitcoin but requires credit card or PayPal for other options, compromising anonymity. For truly anonymous payment, Mullvad is the clear winner.

Do these services work in restricted countries?

Both work in most countries, but neither officially supports circumvention of legal restrictions. Mullvad's smaller network sometimes faces blocking in highly censored regions. ProtonVPN's larger infrastructure and bridge features make circumvention technically easier. However, using VPNs to circumvent local laws carries legal risk—verify local regulations before attempting this.

Which has better customer support?

ProtonVPN offers email support and help documentation. Mullvad provides self-service FAQs and community forums but limited direct support. If you need responsive technical assistance, ProtonVPN is better equipped. If you prefer minimal company interaction (philosophically aligned with privacy-first design), Mullvad's approach works fine for most issues.

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Final thoughts

Mullvad and ProtonVPN represent two different privacy philosophies, both technically sound. Mullvad says "we won't collect data about you"—and designs systems ensuring they physically can't. ProtonVPN says "we'll collect minimal data and protect it with encryption and law"—trusting Swiss jurisdiction and company integrity.

For maximum anonymity and resistance to surveillance, Mullvad's model is technically superior. The ephemeral account number, cash-by-mail payment, Monero support, and open-source architecture create a service that operates at the highest level of privacy-by-design.

For integrated services—particularly if you want encrypted email, cloud storage, and calendar alongside VPN—ProtonVPN's ecosystem offers convenience and value. Their audits are solid, their transparency reports credible, and their Swiss jurisdiction meaningful, even if the structural trust requirements are higher than Mullvad's.

Review our full ProtonVPN privacy review for 2026 for more context on ProtonVPN's positioning, or explore our best cheap VPN guide for comparison with other services in this price range.

Both services accept cryptocurrency payments including Bitcoin, process instant email delivery of access details, and maintain reasonable refund policies. Neither exploits users with aggressive marketing or hidden costs.

Your choice depends on whether you prioritize anonymity-by-design (Mullvad) or integrated privacy ecosystem (ProtonVPN). Both are legitimate leading options for privacy-conscious users. Test the free trials, review the audit reports, and choose based on your specific threat model and workflow preferences.