Mullvad Review (2026): The No-Logs Claim a Police Search Couldn't Break

A strong privacy score, and a middling overall one

It is worth answering this before anything else, because the two numbers can look contradictory.

Our rubric weighs privacy at 30%, apps at 15% and value at 15%, with speed and streaming currently unscored — we have not measured either for any VPN on this site (see how we test). Mullvad scores 7.8 on privacy, built from a 2024 Assured AB infrastructure audit and the 2023 police search below. Apps score 7.3 — a short, focused platform list rather than a long one. Value scores 3.7, because five devices at a flat €5 compares poorly on paper with VPNs offering unlimited devices for less on a long plan.

That value score, not the privacy one, is what holds the overall number down. It is not a comment on how private the service is — it is a comment on how much VPN you get for the money, and Mullvad has deliberately chosen not to compete on that axis.

Privacy and logging: the strongest case on the site

Most VPN privacy claims come down to "trust our policy, here is an audit". Mullvad's comes down to something better: it does not have the information in the first place.

Signup produces a number. You click "Generate account" and get a random 16-digit string. No email address, no username, no password, no name. That number is your entire identity. If you lose it, Mullvad cannot help you recover it, because it does not know who you are.

Payment need not identify you either. Card and PayPal work normally. So does cryptocurrency. So does putting cash in an envelope with your account number on a slip of paper and posting it to Sweden — an option that exists precisely so that no payment processor sits between you and the service.

It was tested for real. In April 2023 Swedish police executed a search warrant at Mullvad's Gothenburg office looking for customer data. They left empty-handed, and Mullvad published an account of the visit. An audit tells you an inspector looked and found nothing recorded. A raid tells you the police looked and found nothing recorded. The second is stronger evidence.

The supporting infrastructure is consistent: RAM-only servers, an infrastructure audit by Assured AB in 2024, every app open-source and independently reviewed, Swedish jurisdiction. Mullvad also runs its own DNS and offers multi-hop and obfuscation. We have not run leak tests of our own — run our own DNS leak test and WebRTC leak test once you're connected.

Privacy sub-score: 7.8.

Speed

We have not measured Mullvad's speed. WireGuard is the only modern protocol on offer, alongside OpenVPN, and WireGuard is the fastest widely-used option, so the app is not the likely bottleneck. The real constraint is the network: roughly 650 servers across 49 countries is a small footprint next to VPNs covering well over a hundred countries, so there are places where Mullvad simply has no nearby server — and distance, not the protocol, is what costs you speed and latency. Run our speed test on a server near you to see what it actually does on your line.

Streaming

We have not tested Mullvad against Netflix or anything else. We do not especially need to: Mullvad's own documentation tells people not to buy it for streaming, and explains why. Unblocking streaming services means continuously rotating IP addresses ahead of detection — an arms race Mullvad has deliberately opted out of, because running the network that way cuts against the anonymity it is built for.

Take the provider at its word here. Do not buy Mullvad to watch things. If streaming is the point, look at a VPN built to compete on it, and check the result yourself inside the refund window — a claim about which services unblock today is stale within weeks regardless of who makes it.

Torrenting

P2P is allowed on every server, with no labelled subset to hunt for. The anonymous account is a real advantage for anyone whose concern is the ordinary notice-from-your-ISP mechanism.

But port forwarding was removed in 2023. Downloading is unaffected; seeding is not — without an open port, other peers cannot initiate a connection to you, so upload suffers and private trackers that enforce ratios will notice. Proton VPN and PIA both include it, and for a torrent-first purchase either is the better tool.

Apps and ease of use

Mullvad's apps are minimal in a way that is either refreshing or spartan depending on what you wanted. A connect button, a server list, a settings page with more real controls than most — multi-hop, obfuscation via bridges, DNS content blocking, a kill switch that is always on rather than optional.

Every app is open-source and has been independently reviewed, which is rarer than it should be and is the practical reason to believe the client is doing what it says.

What you do not get: an Android TV app, a Fire TV app, an Apple TV app, or any of the streaming-adjacent conveniences. Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, browser extensions and routers is the whole list. Five simultaneous devices, which in a household of phones and laptops is a real ceiling.

Pricing: flat, and the argument for it

€5 a month. That is the entire price list. No annual plan, no two-year plan, no Black Friday, no introductory rate, no renewal.

Against NordVPN's $3.39 or Surfshark's $2.19 on two-year plans, that is expensive. Against their $12.99 monthly rates it is cheap. And it is the only pricing on this site where the number you pay in year three is the number you agreed to in month one — every other VPN here renews higher, several of them by more than 60%.

There is a privacy argument too: no long subscription means no stored payment relationship, which is consistent with everything else about how the service works.

Customer support

Email and a help centre. No live chat, no phone. We have not contacted support, so we cannot tell you how fast it answers. If you want hand-holding at 2am, this is not it.

Is Mullvad safe?

Its no-logs claim has the strongest public evidence of any VPN we rate: a police search rather than only an auditor's inspection. Anonymous accounts, cash payments, RAM-only servers, open-source audited apps, Swedish jurisdiction, an always-on kill switch. We have not run leak tests of our own — check DNS and WebRTC yourself once you're connected.

Is Mullvad worth it?

If privacy is the actual reason you want a VPN: yes, unreservedly, and the €5 is the least interesting thing about the decision. If you want a VPN that also handles Netflix, covers the family's eight devices and costs $2 a month: no, and Mullvad would tell you the same.

Who should buy Mullvad — and who shouldn't

Buy it if you want a VPN that cannot identify you, if you object on principle to introductory pricing that triples on renewal, if you run Linux and want open-source clients, or if the 2023 raid is the kind of evidence that actually moves you — it should.

Don't if you want to stream, if you need more than five devices, if you seed torrents, or if you want live chat. Those are not oversights Mullvad plans to fix; they are the consequences of the choices that make it good at the one thing.