Mullvad VPN AB
anonymous, open-source, audited no-logs VPN (Sweden)
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Company | Mullvad VPN AB |
| URL | mullvad.net |
| Pricing | recurring/mo— Flat EUR 5 / month, no tiers and no discounts for longer commitments. Pay with a card,
PayPal, bank transfer, cash mailed in an envelope, or cryptocurrency (incl. Monero). |
| License | open |
| Hosting | cloud |
Privacy-first WireGuard/OpenVPN provider run from Sweden. No email or personal details at signup -- you get a random account number instead of a username/password. Owned by Mullvad VPN AB (also behind the Mullvad Browser, built with the Tor Project).
Usage Notes
Why it's our top hosted pick: fully open-source apps with reproducible builds (Android 2025.2+), so you can verify the binary matches the published source. Repeated independent audits (Cure53 in 2018/2020/2022/2024, Assured AB in 2025-2026) found no significant issues. Most importantly, the no-logs claim was tested for real: when Swedish police executed a search warrant in 2023, there was nothing on the servers to seize. Anonymous account numbers plus cash-by-mail payment mean you never have to identify yourself.
Tradeoffs: no free tier; a smaller server network and weaker streaming-unblocking than the big marketing-driven brands; Sweden is outside Five Eyes but inside the 14 Eyes bloc -- largely moot here because there is no data to share. Audits are a snapshot in time, not a permanent guarantee.
Best fit: anyone who wants strong, verifiable privacy without running their own server. If you can run infrastructure, prefer WireGuard.
Rejected Alternatives
ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, PIA, and ZenMate are all owned by the British-Israeli Kape Technologies (now a delisted black box); Hola VPN is Israeli and resold user bandwidth. See Category:VPN for the full ownership picture.