Mullvad vs PIA: anonymity or price?

Reach, the axis that decides most Mullvad matchups, is a tie here: Mullvad’s live server list shows 50 countries, and Private Internet Access’s rendered server list shows exactly 50 as well. Strip that out and three differences remain. Price runs the opposite way from Mullvad’s other comparisons — PIA’s 39-month plan costs about $79 and renews at $79 every three years, near $2.19 a month, while the same 39 months of Mullvad’s flat €5 cost about $223. Identity: a Mullvad account is a random number held by a Swedish company; a PIA account is an email-linked subscription from a US company inside the Five Eyes alliance. Devices: PIA sets no cap on simultaneous connections; Mullvad allows 5.

Every figure below comes from the two providers’ own pricing, server, policy, and audit pages as of 23 Jul 2026; third-party calls are attributed to the outlets that made them. Both providers hold spots in our full VPN rankings.

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

	Mullvad	Private Internet Access
Monthly price	€5 — about $5.71	$11.95
Best long-term deal	€5/mo — no term discounts exist	$2.03/mo — about $79 for 39 months
Renewal after intro term	€5/mo, unchanged since 2009	$79 every 3 years (about $2.19/mo)
Money-back guarantee	14 days, selected payment methods	30 days, new subscribers
Free plan or trial	None	None
Simultaneous devices	5	Unlimited
Server countries	50 (584 servers, 91 cities)	50 on its server list (homepage claims 90)
Virtual locations	None — all dedicated hardware	Some — India served from Singapore and the UK
Protocols	WireGuard only since 15 Jan 2026	WireGuard and OpenVPN, both open source
RAM-only servers	Yes — no persistent storage, STBoot	Yes
Latest no-logs audit	Cure53 infrastructure audit, Jun 2024	Deloitte Audit Romania, 2025 — public PDF
Anonymous sign-up	Yes — random account number	No — email-linked account
Jurisdiction	Sweden	United States (Colorado) — Five Eyes member

Which one actually costs less?

It depends entirely on how long you stay. Month to month, Mullvad: €5 — about $5.71 at the rate its pricing page displayed on 23 Jul 2026 — against $11.95 for PIA, less than half. Commit past roughly 14 months and the order flips for good. PIA’s “3 Years + 3 Months” deal, running under an 83% summer promotion at the July check, bills about $79 for 39 months; the same $79 buys not quite 14 months of Mullvad, and the full 39 months cost about $223.

Renewal is where this pair breaks the industry pattern. Mullvad’s usual advantage over discount VPNs is that their intro rates jump at renewal while its €5 never moves. PIA is the exception: after the 39-month term it autorenews at $79 every three years — about $2.19 a month, sixteen cents above the intro rate. The long-run bill lands near $26.33 a year for PIA against about $68.50 for Mullvad, so there is no renewal trap for the flat rate to beat.

What you pay	Mullvad	PIA
One month, rolling	€5 (about $5.71)	$11.95
First 39 months	€195 (about $223)	about $79
Each year after that	€60 (about $68.50)	about $26.33 ($79 every 3 years)

Three footnotes. Mullvad bills in euros, so its dollar figures move with the exchange rate, and its only discount anywhere is 10% off for cryptocurrency payments. PIA’s middle option is murkier — its pricing page quotes two different renewal figures for the 1-year plan on the same page — so if you buy PIA, buy the plan whose terms are plain. And that 39-month price was a promotional rate at the July check, so confirm it at checkout.

Refunds split the same way as the prices. PIA gives 30 days, for new subscribers, with app-store purchases refunded through the store and a new account opened within three months of a prior refund ineligible; its terms also allow a refund within 30 days of a renewal. Mullvad’s is 14 days and applies solely to credit card, PayPal, Google Play, Swish, and bank-wire payments — the cash and cryptocurrency routes that make an account anonymous carry no refund at all. Neither sells a free plan or a trial.

Is anonymity worth the extra $144?

That is the 39-month gap, and it buys two very different trust models. PIA’s case is that you can verify it: Deloitte Audit Romania completed its third no-logs engagement in 2025 — after 2022 and 2024 — under the ISAE 3000 (Revised) standard, covering VPN configurations, management systems, and the token system behind dedicated IPs, with the report offered as a public PDF you can read before paying. The company adds that court subpoenas have produced no user data — its own claim, but consistent with that record. Mullvad’s design removes most of the need to verify: sign-up generates a random account number with no email or name attached, payable in cash or Monero, so there is far less about you to log in the first place.

Jurisdiction pushes the contrast to its extreme — this pair puts the friendliest and least friendly addresses in the budget class side by side. Mullvad VPN AB answers to Swedish law — which, per its legal page, imposes no LEK data-retention duties on VPN providers. PIA Private Internet Access, Inc. operates under Colorado law from Denver — and the United States founded the Five Eyes alliance. If the address alone decides it for you, our most private VPN rankings start from that filter.

Mullvad’s audit record carries one caveat that cuts the other way. Its most recent look at the no-logging infrastructure is Cure53’s fourth infrastructure audit, from June 2024, scoped to anything that would impact privacy; the auditors went hunting for any path to compromising user traffic — anonymity or integrity — and found none. Adversarial, but not a formal no-logs attestation — which is exactly what PIA’s Deloitte engagement is. Both fleets run entirely in RAM: PIA’s servers wipe data on every reboot, and Mullvad’s carry no persistent storage at all. What each kind of engagement proves, and what it can’t, is in our guide to no-log VPN audits.

If both list 50 countries, is the network a wash?

Not quite — same count, not the same map or the same hardware. PIA’s 50 entries include Hong Kong and Macau counted as separate territories; Mullvad’s list showed 584 servers across 91 cities at the 23 Jul 2026 check. If you need an IP in one specific country, the two public lists are the only comparison that matters.

The hardware differs more than the count. Every Mullvad server is owned or rented dedicated hardware physically located where the list says — no virtual locations at all, and hosting providers get no OS-level access. Parts of PIA’s map are virtual: its India IPs, for example, are served from Singapore and the UK. PIA’s own pages also disagree with each other — the homepage still advertises 90 countries while the server list and its FAQ say 50; the rendered list is the figure that held up.

Third-party server totals deserve the same caution. Comparisons at Fahimai and Shellfire both put PIA’s fleet around 35,000 servers — but they quote 91 and 84 countries respectively, figures PIA’s own list contradicts, so treat those totals as loose estimates rather than specs.

What do outside tests say about speed and streaming?

On speed, the published record for this pair genuinely conflicts: across the comparisons at Comparitech, VPNpro, and Fahimai, one names Mullvad among the fastest VPNs while another gives PIA the better overall performance — and none documents the conditions (ISP, distance, repeat runs) that would make either result reproducible. Both services run WireGuard, so no protocol gap explains a winner either. Treat the speed question as open.

Streaming leans one way: Comparitech and VPNpro rate PIA better at unblocking popular services and describe Mullvad as capable but not built for it. The practical move follows from the refund terms — PIA’s 30-day guarantee is the workable window for testing your own platforms, while Mullvad’s 14 days exclude the payment methods most of its buyers choose it for.

What about devices, protocols, and torrenting?

Devices are the least ambiguous line in the table: one PIA subscription covers unlimited simultaneous connections, while a Mullvad account stops at 5. A household running phones, laptops, and TVs through one plan hits that ceiling fast.

Mullvad has spoken only WireGuard since 15 Jan 2026, when it removed OpenVPN client- and server-side — routers and manual setups that depend on OpenVPN no longer connect. PIA’s apps switch between WireGuard and OpenVPN, both open source, and its server list carries an IKEv2/IPsec column for iOS-style setups. In this pair, needing OpenVPN settles the choice by itself; the trade-offs between the protocols are in our WireGuard vs OpenVPN guide.

Torrenting is closer than Mullvad’s reputation suggests: it removed port forwarding, disabling new ports on 29 May 2023, which cost heavy seeders a feature they relied on. Both fleets are RAM-only, so neither writes session data to disk. The wider field is ranked in our torrenting VPN picks.

Support is a one-liner: Comparitech’s comparison credits PIA with 24/7 live chat and notes Mullvad’s support is leaner.

Choose Mullvad if

• You want the provider to know nothing about you: numbered accounts, cash by post, Monero.
• You pay month to month — about $5.71 against $11.95.
• A US-based VPN is off your list, whatever the audits say.
• Virtual locations bother you: every Mullvad server is dedicated hardware physically where listed.

Get it at Mullvad — the account model and streaming record are weighed in our Mullvad review.

Choose PIA if

• Total cost decides it: about $79 for 39 months, then about $26.33 a year — roughly $42 a year less than Mullvad’s flat rate.
• Every device in the house shares one plan: unlimited connections against 5.
• You want a formal no-logs attestation you can read before paying — PIA’s Deloitte report is a public download.
• Your router or setup still needs OpenVPN, which Mullvad dropped in January 2026.
• Streaming matters: Comparitech and VPNpro both rate PIA the stronger unblocker.

Check current terms at Private Internet Access; the full teardown is in our Private Internet Access review.

Frequently asked questions

Is Mullvad better than PIA?

Only if anonymity is the job: a Mullvad account is an anonymous numbered login under Swedish jurisdiction, payable in cash or Monero. PIA renews at about $26.33 a year against roughly $68.50 for Mullvad, covers unlimited devices against 5, and offers a public Deloitte no-logs report. Both list servers in 50 countries.

Which is cheaper, Mullvad or PIA?

Month to month, Mullvad: €5 — about $5.71 — against $11.95. From roughly 14 months on, PIA: its $79 first term covers 39 months, while the same $79 buys not quite 14 months of Mullvad. At renewal, PIA charges $79 every three years, about $26.33 a year, against about $68.50 a year for Mullvad's flat €5.

Is Mullvad more private than PIA?

On what the provider knows about you, yes: the account is an anonymous number with no email or personal details behind it, cash and Monero are accepted, and Sweden's data-retention rules do not cover VPN providers. PIA is a US company in a Five Eyes country; its counterweight is a third Deloitte no-logs engagement (2025) with a public report, plus its statement that subpoenas have produced no user data.

Which is faster, Mullvad or PIA?

The published record conflicts: across comparisons at Comparitech, VPNpro, and Fahimai, one names Mullvad among the fastest VPNs while another gives PIA the overall edge, and none documents reproducible test conditions. Both run WireGuard. The test that settles it runs on your own connection — practical inside PIA's 30-day refund window, tighter in Mullvad's 14 days.

How many devices do Mullvad and PIA allow?

PIA's homepage states one subscription covers unlimited simultaneous connections on compatible devices. Mullvad's pricing FAQ caps an account at 5 devices.

Is Mullvad or PIA better for torrenting?

PIA has the structural edge now: unlimited connections and a RAM-only network, while Mullvad walked away from port forwarding — no new ports after 29 May 2023 — a feature heavy seeders relied on. Mullvad still fits torrenting where anonymity from the provider matters more than seeding features.