Proton VPN vs Mullvad: which wins in 2026?

Proton VPN is the better pick for most people: 148 countries versus Mullvad's 50, 10 devices versus 5, and a lower first-term price at $2.99 a month for two years. Choose Mullvad if anonymity is the point — no email at sign-up, cash or Monero payments, and a flat €5 a month unchanged since 2009.

Three differences decide this matchup. Identity first: Mullvad sign-up generates a random account number — no email, no name, nothing tying the account to you — and it takes cash by post or Monero if you want no payment trail either. Proton VPN accounts are created with an email address, like nearly every other subscription on the internet.

Scale second. Proton VPN’s live server page listed 20,677 servers across 148 countries on 23 Jul 2026; Mullvad’s listed 584 servers in 50 countries. Proton VPN Plus secures 10 devices at a time to Mullvad’s 5, and Proton VPN has a genuine free tier while Mullvad sells nothing but the paid plan.

Price shape third. Proton VPN plays the industry’s discount game: $2.99 a month for the first two years, then renewal at more than double that rate. Mullvad refuses to play — €5 a month at every term length, unchanged since 2009, no sales, no intro rates.

Every number below comes from the two providers’ own pricing, server, audit, and policy pages, as of 23 Jul 2026, except where a third-party comparison is named. Both providers hold spots in our full VPN rankings.

Proton VPN vs Mullvad at a glance, as of 23 Jul 2026
	Proton VPN	Mullvad
Monthly price	$9.99 (VPN Plus)	€5 — about $5.71
Best long-term deal	$2.99/mo — $71.76 for 24 months	€5/mo — no term discounts exist
Renewal after intro term	$83.88/yr (about $6.99/mo)	€5/mo, unchanged since 2009
Money-back guarantee	30 days, all paid plans	14 days, selected payment methods
Free plan	Yes — 1 device, no data cap	None, and no trial
Simultaneous devices	10 on VPN Plus	5
Server network	20,677 servers, 148 countries	584 servers, 50 countries
Protocols	WireGuard, OpenVPN, Stealth	WireGuard only since 15 Jan 2026
RAM-only servers	No — encrypted disks by design	Yes — no persistent storage
Latest no-logs audit	Securitum, 2026 — published in full	Cure53 infrastructure audit, Jun 2024
Anonymous sign-up	No — email-linked account	Yes — random account number
Jurisdiction	Switzerland (Proton AG)	Sweden (Mullvad VPN AB)

Which one costs less?

Mullvad month to month, Proton VPN over any two-year stretch. The rolling monthly prices are €5 — about $5.71 at the exchange rate Mullvad’s pricing page showed at our check — against $9.99 for VPN Plus, so Mullvad is close to half price. Commit for two years and the order flips: Proton VPN bills $71.76 up front for 24 months, while 24 months of Mullvad costs €120, about $137.

Then comes the part Proton VPN’s checkout shows in smaller type: $2.99 is an intro rate. After the first 24 months, VPN Plus renews at $83.88 every 12 months — about $6.99 a month, more than double the advertised price. Mullvad has no renewal jump to disclose. Its price has not moved since 2009, and the only discount that exists is 10% off for paying with cryptocurrency.

What you pay	Proton VPN Plus	Mullvad
One month, rolling	$9.99	€5 (about $5.71)
First 24 months	$71.76 (2-year plan)	€120 (about $137)
Each year after that	$83.88	€60 (about $68.50)

Run the totals and Proton VPN’s two-year head start holds for a long time: even at the higher renewal rate, Mullvad’s running total doesn’t drop below Proton VPN’s until the seventh year. One caveat — Mullvad bills in euros, so the dollar figures move with the exchange rate.

Refunds differ more than the headline prices do. Proton VPN puts a 30-day money-back guarantee on every paid plan. Mullvad gives 14 days, and only on credit card, PayPal, Google Play, Swish, and bank-wire payments; cash, cryptocurrency, voucher, and Apple App Store purchases are excluded.

Which one is more anonymous?

Mullvad, decisively. Its sign-up asks for nothing: the service generates a random account number and collects no email address, no name, and no personal information. Payment can be as anonymous as the account — Mullvad accepts cash sent by post plus Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Monero. Proton VPN’s sign-up runs through an email-linked Proton account, the gap comparison sites such as RTINGS flag first.

Sign-up anonymity is not the same thing as logging policy, and on policy the two are closer. Both operate from privacy-friendly jurisdictions: Proton AG is based in Geneva and states that the current Swiss legal framework imposes no logging requirements on it, while Mullvad VPN AB’s legal page states VPN providers are not covered by Sweden’s data-retention rules under LEK. Proton adds one number worth knowing: it says its no-logs policy has held in more than 400 legal cases without logs to hand over. For the wider field, see our most private VPN rankings.

Whose audit record is stronger?

Proton VPN’s no-logs trail is more recent and easier to inspect. Securitum has audited its no-logs infrastructure five years running, 2022 through 2026, and every report is published in full — no login, no gatekeeping. Its apps are open source on top.

Mullvad’s most recent look at the no-logging infrastructure is Cure53’s fourth infrastructure audit, from June 2024, scoped to “anything that would impact privacy”. Cure53 attempted to find ways a user’s traffic anonymity or integrity could be compromised and found none. Two honest caveats: that engagement is a security and privacy audit of the servers, not a formal no-logs attestation, and Mullvad’s later audits — Assured on the web app in 2025, X41 D-Sec on the payment and account API in 2026, Assured on GotaTun and Leviathan on MASA in 2026 — cover other components. What these engagements prove, and what they can’t, is in our guide to no-log VPN audits.

Server hardware cuts the other way. Every Mullvad server runs from RAM with no persistent storage, booted through its own STBoot bootloader, and none of its locations are virtual — all dedicated hardware physically where the list says. Proton VPN chose not to run RAM-only servers and published its reasoning: it argues RAM-only adds no real security and instead uses bare-metal machines with LUKS AES-256 full-disk encryption and keys stored off-site.

Whose network is bigger — and does it matter?

Proton VPN’s, by a factor of 35 on server count: 20,677 servers in 148 countries and 191 locations against Mullvad’s 584 servers in 50 countries and 91 cities. If you need an IP address in a specific country, Proton VPN’s map is simply three times wider.

Recent third-party comparisons, CNET’s and Cybernews’ among them, give Proton VPN a slight overall speed edge and rate it the more reliable choice for streaming; the same comparisons describe Mullvad as a service that doesn’t prioritize unblocking. We run no benchmarks of our own, so treat those as their findings — and note that Proton VPN is the easy one to check yourself, since the free tier needs no card and paid plans carry the 30-day guarantee.

The free tier deserves its own line: one device, no ads, no logs, no data or bandwidth caps, at medium speed on servers in 10 randomly selected countries. Mullvad’s pricing FAQ is blunt that no free plan is coming — it doesn’t operate that way. On paid device limits, Proton VPN Plus covers 10 simultaneous connections to Mullvad’s 5.

What about protocols and setups?

Mullvad now speaks only WireGuard. It removed OpenVPN entirely — client- and server-side — on 15 January 2026, so routers and third-party setups that depended on OpenVPN no longer connect. On top of WireGuard it runs quantum-resistant tunnels and DAITA traffic obfuscation. It also has no port forwarding: new ports were disabled on 29 May 2023 and the feature never returned.

Proton VPN keeps a fuller toolkit: WireGuard and OpenVPN over UDP and TCP, plus its custom Stealth obfuscation protocol, with WireGuard available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. If your hardware or network depends on OpenVPN, this one is not a close call.

Choose Proton VPN if

You want the lower price for the next two years: $71.76 against about $137 for Mullvad.
You need more than five device slots — VPN Plus covers 10.
You want to try before paying: the free tier has no data cap and needs no card.
You want country variety — 148 countries against 50 — or streaming is part of the job.
You want the most recent no-logs audit you can read in full, or you need OpenVPN.

Choose Mullvad if

You want your identity nowhere near your VPN: numbered accounts, cash by post, Monero.
You’d rather pay one honest price forever than diary a renewal date — €5 flat since 2009.
You pay month to month: about $5.71 against $9.99.
RAM-only servers and zero virtual locations matter to you.
You want one protocol, WireGuard, everywhere, with nothing else to configure.

Get it at Mullvad — the full breakdown, including its streaming record, is in our Mullvad review.

Frequently asked questions

Is Mullvad more private than Proton VPN?

For sign-up anonymity, yes. Mullvad generates a random account number, collects no email or personal information, and accepts cash and Monero. Proton VPN requires an email-linked account. On logging, both publish no-logs policies backed by independent work — Securitum's 2026 audit for Proton VPN, Cure53's June 2024 infrastructure audit for Mullvad.

Does Mullvad require an email address?

No. Sign-up generates a random account number with no email, name, or personal information attached, and you can pay with cash by post or cryptocurrency. Proton VPN does require an email address to create an account.

Is Mullvad cheaper than Proton VPN?

Month to month, yes: €5 (about $5.71) against $9.99. Over the first two years the order flips — Proton VPN's 2-year plan bills $71.76 while 24 months of Mullvad costs €120, about $137. After the intro term Proton VPN renews at $83.88 a year, so Mullvad becomes the cheaper subscription again.

Does Proton VPN have more servers than Mullvad?

Yes, by a wide margin: 20,677 servers in 148 countries against 584 servers in 50 countries on the two providers' live server pages, as of 23 Jul 2026. Mullvad's counterweight is that it runs no virtual locations — every server is dedicated hardware physically located where its list says.

Can I use Proton VPN or Mullvad on multiple devices?

Proton VPN Plus secures 10 devices at a time; Mullvad allows 5 per account. Proton VPN's free plan is limited to a single device.

Is Proton VPN or Mullvad better for torrenting?

Torrenting is allowed on both, and third-party comparisons rate Proton VPN higher because Mullvad removed port forwarding — new ports were disabled on 29 May 2023, which hurts heavy seeders. Proton VPN's own pages don't detail its P2P feature set, so treat that ranking as the comparisons' finding.