Surfshark vs Mullvad: features or anonymity?

Mullvad asks who you are exactly once, and accepts “nobody” as the answer: sign-up generates a random account number — no email, no name, no personal details — and payment can be cash in an envelope or Monero. Surfshark runs a conventional checkout with an email-linked account. That is the first of three differences that decide this comparison.

The second is price shape. Surfshark plays the market’s discount playbook well: $2.49 a month for the first 27 months of its Starter plan, renewing at $79.00 a year after that. Mullvad has charged a flat €5 a month since 2009 at every term length — no sales, no intro rates, and nothing off except 10% for paying with cryptocurrency.

The third is everyday coverage. Surfshark connects unlimited devices at once and lists 4,500-plus servers in 100 countries, all reachable over WireGuard, IKEv2, or OpenVPN. Mullvad allows five devices, lists 584 servers in 50 countries, and speaks only WireGuard since 15 January 2026.

Figures below come from the two providers’ own pricing, audit, server, and legal pages as of 23 Jul 2026, with third-party claims credited where they appear. Both providers hold spots in our full VPN rankings.

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

	Surfshark	Mullvad
Monthly price	$16.45 (Starter)	€5 — about $5.71
Best long-term deal	$2.49/mo — $67.23 for 27 months	€5/mo — no term discounts exist
Renewal after intro term	$79.00/yr (about $6.58/mo)	€5/mo, unchanged since 2009
Money-back guarantee	30 days, initial purchase only	14 days, selected payment methods
Free trial	7 days on 12- and 24-month plans	None
Simultaneous devices	Unlimited	5
Server network	4,500+ servers, 100 countries	584 servers, 50 countries
Protocols	WireGuard, IKEv2, OpenVPN	WireGuard only since 15 Jan 2026
RAM-only servers	Yes	Yes — booted with Mullvad's STBoot
Latest audit	Deloitte no-logs engagement, 2025	Cure53 infrastructure audit, Jun 2024
Anonymous sign-up	No — email-linked account	Yes — random account number
Jurisdiction	Netherlands (terms under BVI law)	Sweden (Mullvad VPN AB)

Which one costs less over time?

Month to month, Mullvad, and it is not close: €5 — about $5.71 at the exchange rate Mullvad’s pricing page showed on 23 Jul 2026 — against $16.45 for one month of Surfshark Starter. Mullvad costs roughly a third as much.

Commit for two years and the order flips. Surfshark’s 24-month Starter deal bills $67.23 across its first 27 months, three bundled extra months included. Twenty-seven months of Mullvad time costs €135, about $154 — more than double.

What you pay	Surfshark Starter	Mullvad
One month, rolling	$16.45	€5 (about $5.71)
First 27 months	$67.23 (24-month deal)	€135 (about $154)
Each year after that	$79.00	€60 (about $68.50)

Once the intro term ends, Surfshark’s renewal is $79.00 a year — about $6.58 a month, which sits above Mullvad’s flat rate. So Mullvad becomes the cheaper subscription again from the first renewal, but Surfshark’s intro head start is large enough that its running total stays lower for about a decade. Two things can move that date: Mullvad bills in euros, so dollar totals track the exchange rate, and Surfshark’s terms allow it to A/B-test what renewal price an individual account is shown — our Surfshark review quotes the clause — so your $79.00 may differ.

Refunds follow the same split between generous-with-conditions and strict-but-plain. Surfshark’s 30-day guarantee applies to the first purchase alone — renewals are non-refundable — and leaves out prepaid cards, gift cards, and resellers other than Paddle, Google Play, and Cleverbridge. Mullvad allows 14 days, restricted to credit card, PayPal, Google Play, Swish, and bank-wire payments — choose the anonymous routes, cash or cryptocurrency, and the guarantee disappears, cash being ruled out by anti-money-laundering rules. Surfshark adds a 7-day free trial on its 12- and 24-month plans — card up front, three devices while it runs — and the chosen plan is charged automatically after day seven. Mullvad sells no trial of any kind.

Which one knows less about you?

Mullvad, by design — you cannot leak what was never collected, and a numbered account paid for with posted banknotes or Monero collects nothing; our Mullvad review examines how far that model goes. Surfshark’s checkout is the industry norm — an email-linked account paid by conventional means.

Jurisdiction takes a sentence more for one side than the other. Mullvad VPN AB is Swedish; per its legal help page, the LEK statute’s data-retention duties do not reach VPN providers. Surfshark is Surfshark B.V. of Amsterdam, but its terms of service are expressly governed by British Virgin Islands law — “the same as it was before we moved to the Netherlands”, in its own words — so describing it as simply a Dutch service understates the arrangement.

Corporate structure differs too: in February 2022 Surfshark merged with Nord Security — NordVPN’s parent — and each, they state, still operates autonomously on its own infrastructure.

What do the audits actually cover?

Different things, which is why the comparison resists a one-liner. Surfshark holds a no-logs assurance engagement with Deloitte under the ISAE 3000 standard, announced 16 June 2025 and updated that November — the second engagement, following an initial no-logs audit in January 2023. The catch: the detailed report is available only to logged-in Surfshark customers, so you cannot read the findings before paying.

Mullvad’s newest infrastructure-level check is Cure53’s fourth audit, dated June 2024 and scoped to “anything that would impact privacy”; the auditors hunted for a way to compromise user traffic anonymity or integrity and came up empty. That is a hardening review of the servers rather than a no-logs attestation — the distinction our guide to no-log VPN audits exists to explain.

The hardware stories are closer. Both fleets are RAM-only: Surfshark’s servers erase all data on every reboot and write nothing to disk, while Mullvad’s run with no persistent storage and boot through its own STBoot bootloader under its System Transparency principles. Mullvad adds one claim Surfshark’s pages don’t make: no virtual locations at all — every server is dedicated hardware physically located where the list says, and hosting providers get no OS-level access.

How far do the networks and device limits stretch?

Surfshark lists 4,500-plus servers across 100 countries, all upgraded to 10 Gbps ports. Mullvad’s live server page listed 584 servers in 50 countries and 91 cities on 23 Jul 2026. If you need an IP address in a specific country, check Mullvad’s public list before buying — half the map is missing compared with Surfshark.

Device limits are the starkest line in the table: unlimited simultaneous connections on any paid Surfshark plan against five per Mullvad account. One person with a phone and a laptop will never notice; a household running phones, laptops, TVs, and tablets through one subscription will hit Mullvad’s ceiling quickly.

What about protocols, torrenting, and streaming?

Mullvad now speaks WireGuard and nothing else, having stripped OpenVPN out of both clients and servers on 15 January 2026 — a hard stop for any router or third-party setup that depends on it — with quantum-resistant tunnels and DAITA traffic obfuscation layered over the one protocol left. Port forwarding is finished too: Mullvad shut off new ports on 29 May 2023 and never brought them back, which hurts heavy seeders. Surfshark’s entire network supports WireGuard, IKEv2, and OpenVPN, so older routers and manual setups keep working.

Speed and streaming are where the public record thins out. The only head-to-head speed numbers published for this pair come from Surfshark’s own comparison pages, which report more consistent downloads for Surfshark and occasional upload wins for Mullvad — vendor tests favor vendors, so treat them as claims. On streaming, Surfshark’s blog and third-party write-ups such as Shellfire’s describe major platforms as frequently blocking Mullvad, and none of them publishes reproducible region-by-region results. The direction is consistent across every write-up; the details are unproven. If streaming drives the purchase, start from our best VPNs for streaming — and use Surfshark’s 30-day window to test your own platforms rather than trusting anyone’s list.

Choose Surfshark if

• You cover a household: unlimited simultaneous connections against Mullvad’s five.
• You want the lower two-year cost: $67.23 for the first 27 months against about $154 of Mullvad time.
• You need countries Mullvad doesn’t list — 100 against 50 — or streaming is part of the job.
• Your router or network needs OpenVPN or IKEv2, which Mullvad no longer offers.
• You want an exit ramp: a 7-day trial on long plans plus a 30-day money-back window.

Check current terms at Surfshark, or start with our Surfshark review for the full picture.

Choose Mullvad if

• You want a VPN that never learns your name — an account number instead of an identity, with cash or Monero to match.
• You pay month to month: about $5.71 against $16.45, at a rate that has not moved since 2009.
• You would rather skip renewal maths entirely — no intro rates, no price tests, no sales.
• You want servers with no persistent storage, no virtual locations, and Mullvad’s own STBoot boot chain.
• A single protocol everywhere works for you — WireGuard, running quantum-resistant tunnels and DAITA.

Get it at Mullvad — the trade-offs, including its streaming record, are weighed in our Mullvad review.

Frequently asked questions

Is Surfshark better than Mullvad?

For most households, yes: unlimited devices against five, 100 server countries against 50, three protocols against one, and a 30-day refund window against 14 days. Mullvad wins the job it actually advertises — anonymity — with numbered accounts, cash and Monero payments, and a flat €5 a month that has not changed since 2009.

Is Mullvad cheaper than Surfshark?

Month to month, yes: €5 (about $5.71) against $16.45. Over the first 27 months the order flips — Surfshark's Starter deal bills $67.23 while the same period of Mullvad costs €135, about $154. Post-intro, Surfshark's $79.00-a-year renewal sits above Mullvad's roughly $68.50, so Mullvad is cheaper per year again, though Surfshark's running total stays lower for about a decade.

Does Mullvad require an email address?

No — a Mullvad account is only a random number, and no email, name, or personal detail is ever attached to it. Surfshark does require an email address at checkout.

Can you pay for Mullvad anonymously?

Yes — Mullvad accepts cash sent by post as well as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Monero, with a 10% discount for cryptocurrency payments. The trade-off: cash and crypto purchases are excluded from the 14-day money-back guarantee, which covers card, PayPal, Google Play, Swish, and bank-wire payments only.

How many devices can Surfshark and Mullvad run at once?

Surfshark allows unlimited simultaneous connections on any paid plan; only the 7-day free trial limits you, to three devices. Mullvad allows five devices per account.

Which is better for streaming, Surfshark or Mullvad?

The published evidence points to Surfshark, but weakly: the head-to-head claims come from Surfshark's own comparison pages, and write-ups such as Shellfire's describe major platforms as frequently blocking Mullvad. No outlet publishes reproducible region-by-region results for this pair. Surfshark's 30-day money-back window is the practical way to test your own services.