ExpressVPN vs Mullvad: which wins in 2026?

The decision turns on three differences. Identity first: Mullvad knows its customers only as account numbers — sign-up asks for no email and no name — while an ExpressVPN account is built on an email address like most subscriptions. Reach second: ExpressVPN covers 113 countries with 10 to 14 device slots depending on tier; Mullvad lists 50 countries and caps every account at 5 devices. Price shape third: ExpressVPN’s advertised $3.19 a month is an intro rate that renews at $99.95 a year, while Mullvad charges a flat €5 a month at every term length and has since 2009.

A fourth difference matters only right now: ExpressVPN has suspended its 30-day money-back guarantee for purchases made 11 Jul to 11 Aug 2026, during its sweepstakes promo. Every number below comes from the two vendors’ own pricing, server, policy, and audit pages as of 23 Jul 2026, unless a third-party comparison is credited. Both providers appear in our full VPN rankings.

ExpressVPN vs Mullvad at a glance, as of 23 Jul 2026

	ExpressVPN	Mullvad
Monthly price	$14.99 (Basic)	€5 — about $5.71
Best long-term deal	$3.19/mo — $89.32 for 28 months	€5/mo — no term discounts exist
Renewal after intro term	$99.95/yr (about $8.33/mo)	€5/mo, unchanged since 2009
Money-back guarantee	30 days — suspended 11 Jul to 11 Aug 2026	14 days, selected payment methods
Simultaneous devices	10, 12, or 14 by tier	5
Server network	113 countries, 214+ locations	584 servers, 50 countries
Protocols	Lightway, WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2	WireGuard only since 15 Jan 2026
RAM-only servers	Yes — TrustedServer	Yes — STBoot, no persistent storage
Latest no-logs audit	KPMG, 2025 — downloadable report	Cure53 infrastructure audit, Jun 2024
Anonymous sign-up	No — email-based account	Yes — random account number
Jurisdiction	British Virgin Islands	Sweden
Free plan or trial	3-day trial, iOS and Android apps	None

Which one costs less?

Mullvad month to month; ExpressVPN over a two-year commitment — with an expiry date on that advantage. Rolling monthly, Mullvad’s flat €5 including VAT (about $5.71 at the rate its pricing page displayed) is less than half of ExpressVPN Basic’s $14.99. Commit to ExpressVPN’s two-year deal and the order flips: $89.32 buys the first 28 months — $3.19 a month, four free months included — while 28 months of Mullvad costs €140, about $160.

The renewal is the part to price in. ExpressVPN’s $3.19 is an intro rate: after the first 28 months, Basic autorenews at $99.95 a year, about $8.33 a month. Mullvad has no renewal jump to disclose — no sales either, and one discount in the whole catalog: 10% off for paying with cryptocurrency.

What you pay	ExpressVPN Basic	Mullvad
One month, rolling	$14.99	€5 (about $5.71)
First 28 months	$89.32 (2-year plan)	€140 (about $160)
Each year after that	$99.95	€60 (about $68.50)

Run the totals and ExpressVPN’s head start lasts a while: even at the $99.95 renewal rate, its running total stays below Mullvad’s flat rate for the first 52 months. From ExpressVPN’s third renewal — about four and a third years in — Mullvad becomes the cheaper subscription and stays that way. Two caveats. Mullvad bills in euros, so the dollar figures move with the exchange rate. And ExpressVPN’s $16.99 Advanced and $22.99 Express Pro tiers renew higher still, at $119.95 and $199.95 a year, bundling non-VPN extras — password manager, email relay, identity tools, eSIM data. If you only want the VPN, Basic is the tier to compare.

Can you get a refund right now?

From ExpressVPN, not if you buy before 12 Aug 2026. Purchases made during its Summer Tech Sweepstakes promo, 11 Jul to 11 Aug 2026, are excluded from the 30-day money-back guarantee — the pricing table itself currently shows the guarantee as not applicable. Outside the promo window, the guarantee covers first-time customers only, excludes App Store and Google Play in-app purchases, and gives unintended renewals a 14-day refund window.

Mullvad’s guarantee is narrower on paper but applies to a purchase made today: 14 days, for payments made by credit card, PayPal, Google Play, Swish, or bank wire. Cash refunds are ruled out by anti-money-laundering law; cryptocurrency, vouchers, and Apple App Store purchases are ineligible too. Neither service has a free plan. ExpressVPN offers a 3-day trial through its iOS and Android apps; Mullvad offers no trial at all.

Which one is more anonymous?

Mullvad, comfortably. Its whole account model is subtraction — a bare account number, no email or name requested, cash by post or Monero if even the payment should say nothing — and our Mullvad review traces how deep that goes. An ExpressVPN account is tied to an email address — the gap RTINGS’ comparison points to first when it weighs the two on anonymity.

Jurisdiction is a quieter contrast. ExpressVPN is registered in the British Virgin Islands, which it describes as a jurisdiction with strong privacy laws, and it is part of the Kape Group, per its own trust page. Mullvad VPN AB is Swedish, and by its legal page’s reading, LEK — Sweden’s data-retention law — does not apply to VPN providers. Both publish no-logs policies.

Whose audit record is stronger?

ExpressVPN’s is more recent and more formal. KPMG’s third engagement — an ISAE (UK) 3000 Type 1 assurance report announced 25 Jun 2025, covering the service as of 28 Feb 2025 — examined the no-logs policy and TrustedServer claims and identified no issues. Anyone can download the report after accepting KPMG’s terms. On Mullvad’s side the closest equivalent is Cure53’s fourth infrastructure audit of June 2024: an adversarial review, scoped to anything that would impact privacy, in which the testers failed to find any route to compromising a user’s traffic anonymity — valuable, but a server security audit rather than a formal no-logs attestation. What these engagements prove and can’t prove is in our guide to no-log VPN audits.

Hardware is a tie with different accents. Both fleets run entirely in RAM. ExpressVPN’s TrustedServer reloads the full software stack on every reboot and has been audited by PwC and Cure53. Mullvad’s servers boot through its own STBoot bootloader with no persistent storage, and none of its locations are virtual — every server is dedicated hardware physically where the list says, with hosting providers given no OS-level access.

Which is better for streaming?

ExpressVPN, and the third-party comparisons are not close. Cybernews, Gizmodo, and PrivacyJournal all rate ExpressVPN well ahead for unblocking; between them they credit it with 15+ Netflix catalogs, put Mullvad at one or two, and one of them found Mullvad’s streaming access limited to YouTube. Mullvad doesn’t market unblocking at all. We run no streaming tests of our own, so treat those as the outlets’ findings — our streaming VPN rankings cover the wider field.

Reach backs the verdict up. ExpressVPN lists 113 countries and 214+ server locations; Mullvad lists 584 servers in 50 countries and 91 cities. On simultaneous connections, ExpressVPN allows 10 on Basic, 12 on Advanced, and 14 on Express Pro; Mullvad allows 5 on its single plan.

Is ExpressVPN faster than Mullvad?

There is no agreed winner. The 2025–2026 comparisons — CyberInsider’s and RTINGS’ among them — disagree: most describe ExpressVPN as faster and more consistent, at least one ranks Mullvad significantly faster overall, and one splits the result by distance, with Mullvad quicker to nearby servers and ExpressVPN steadier on long-haul connections. We run no benchmarks of our own. Test on your own connection inside a refund window — and for purchases before 12 Aug 2026, the only refund window that applies is Mullvad’s 14 days.

What about protocols and torrenting?

Mullvad now speaks one protocol. OpenVPN is gone from its clients and servers alike as of 15 Jan 2026 — a dead end for routers and third-party setups that relied on it — leaving WireGuard, with quantum-resistant tunnels and DAITA traffic obfuscation on top. ExpressVPN keeps the full toolkit: Lightway, its open-source Rust protocol with post-quantum ML-KEM, is the default, alongside a customized WireGuard with post-quantum protection on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and Apple TV, plus OpenVPN and IKEv2. If your hardware needs OpenVPN or IKEv2, Mullvad is out.

Torrenting is allowed on both, and Gizmodo’s and Cybernews’ comparisons rate the two broadly similar for P2P. One structural gap: port forwarding is gone from Mullvad, with no new ports issued since 29 May 2023 — a loss heavy seeders feel. ExpressVPN’s position on port forwarding isn’t covered by the pages cited here, so confirm it directly if seeding is the job.

Choose ExpressVPN if

• Streaming is part of the job: comparisons credit it with 15+ Netflix catalogs while Mullvad often manages only YouTube.
• You need reach: 113 countries against 50, and up to 14 device slots against 5.
• Your router or firmware depends on OpenVPN or IKEv2, which Mullvad dropped in January 2026.
• You want the most recent formal no-logs audit you can read: KPMG’s 2025 report is downloadable after accepting its terms.

Plans are at ExpressVPN — if a refund window matters, wait until 12 Aug 2026, when purchases regain the 30-day guarantee. Our ExpressVPN review has the full breakdown.

Choose Mullvad if

• You want no identity attached to the account: a random account number at sign-up, cash or Monero for payment.
• You’d rather pay one flat price than track a renewal date: €5 a month at every term length since 2009.
• You pay month to month: about $5.71 against $14.99.
• You want a refund window that applies to a purchase made today.
• Virtual locations bother you: every Mullvad server is dedicated hardware where the list says it is.

Get it at Mullvad; our Mullvad review covers the rest, streaming record included.

Frequently asked questions

Is Mullvad better than ExpressVPN for privacy?

On the information each holds, yes: nothing links a Mullvad account to a person — a random number stands in for an identity, and cash or Monero can pay — while an ExpressVPN account requires an email address. Both publish no-logs policies backed by independent work — KPMG's 2025 assurance report for ExpressVPN, Cure53's June 2024 infrastructure audit for Mullvad.

Is Mullvad cheaper than ExpressVPN?

By the month, yes — €5, about $5.71, to ExpressVPN's $14.99. Over the first 28 months, ExpressVPN's two-year deal is cheaper — $89.32 against about $160 of Mullvad. Because ExpressVPN Basic then renews at $99.95 a year, its running total stays lower for the first 52 months; after that, Mullvad's flat rate makes it the cheaper subscription.

How many devices can you use with ExpressVPN vs Mullvad?

ExpressVPN allows 10 simultaneous connections on Basic ($14.99 a month), 12 on Advanced ($16.99), and 14 on Express Pro ($22.99). Mullvad allows 5 devices per account on its single flat-rate plan.

Does ExpressVPN have more servers than Mullvad?

ExpressVPN covers more of the map — 113 countries and 214+ locations — though it doesn't publish a total server count. Mullvad listed 584 servers in 50 countries and 91 cities as of 23 Jul 2026, all dedicated hardware with no virtual locations.

Is ExpressVPN faster than Mullvad?

There's no agreed answer. Third-party comparisons from 2025–2026 conflict: most describe ExpressVPN as faster and more consistent, at least one ranks Mullvad significantly faster overall, and one found Mullvad quicker on nearby servers with ExpressVPN steadier over distance. Testing on your own connection inside a refund window is the reliable check.

Which is better for torrenting, ExpressVPN or Mullvad?

Both allow P2P, and comparisons at Gizmodo and Cybernews rate them broadly similar for torrenting. Mullvad no longer offers port forwarding — it stopped issuing new ports on 29 May 2023 — which matters to heavy seeders. ExpressVPN's pages don't settle its port-forwarding position, so confirm it with the vendor before buying for that use.