Mullvad VPN review 2027: €5 flat rate, real trade-offs

Mullvad sells one product at one price and refuses to play the games the rest of the market runs on. No email at signup. No sales, no coupons, no intro rates that double at renewal. That discipline is why it holds a privacy-first slot in our full VPN rankings — and why it loses points on streaming, devices, and network size.

How private is Mullvad really?

The account system is the headline. Mullvad generates a random account number instead of asking for an email address, and collects no personal details with it. You can pay by card, PayPal, Google Play, Swish, or bank wire — or post cash and pay in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, or Monero if you want no payment trail at all.

The company behind it, Mullvad VPN AB, is Swedish and operates under Swedish law. Its legal help page states that VPN providers are not covered by Sweden’s data-retention rules under LEK, so there is no law forcing it to store connection records.

The infrastructure backs the policy. Every VPN server runs from RAM with no persistent storage, booted through Mullvad’s own STBoot bootloader under its System Transparency principles, and the server documentation states none of them store logs. There are no virtual locations either: every server is dedicated hardware physically located where the list says it is, and hosting providers get no OS-level access.

The policy has survived a real test. In 2023, Swedish police demanded customer information, and Engadget reports Mullvad could not comply — the data simply did not exist.

What do Mullvad’s audits actually cover?

Cure53 audited Mullvad’s VPN infrastructure in June 2024 — the fourth infrastructure audit — with a scope Mullvad describes as “anything that would impact privacy”. Cure53 “attempted to identify any potential methods by which a user’s VPN traffic anonymity or integrity could be compromised. No such issues were found.”

Two honest caveats. First, that engagement is a security and privacy audit of the servers, not a formal no-logs attestation of the kind NordVPN and Surfshark commission from Deloitte. Second, Mullvad’s later audits — Assured on the web app (2025), X41 D-Sec on the payment and account API (2026), Assured on GotaTun (2026), Leviathan on MASA (2026) — cover other components, so June 2024 remains the most recent independent look at the no-logging infrastructure as of this review. The cadence itself is strong: Engadget counts 17 audits across the service’s history.

Is the €5 price honest?

Unusually so. Mullvad charges a flat €5 per month including VAT — about $5.71 at the exchange rate shown on its pricing page — whether you buy one month or ten years. The price has not changed since 2009. The only discount that exists is 10% off for paying with cryptocurrency. Compare that with what the discount-led rivals actually charge once the intro term ends:

Advertised price vs what renewal actually costs (vendor pricing pages, 23 Jul 2026)

Provider	Best advertised price	First-term bill	After the intro term
Mullvad VPN	€5/mo — no term discounts	€5 per month, any length	€5/mo, unchanged since 2009
NordVPN	$3.49/mo (2-year Basic)	$94.23 for 27 months	$139.08/yr (about $11.59/mo)
Surfshark	$2.49/mo (24-month Starter)	$67.23 for 27 months	$79.00/yr
Proton VPN	$2.99/mo (2-year Plus)	$71.76 for 24 months	$83.88/yr (about $6.99/mo)

The fine print is where Mullvad is stingier than the market. The money-back guarantee runs 14 days, not the 30 most big rivals offer, and it only covers credit card, PayPal, Google Play, Swish, and bank wire payments. Cash is excluded under anti-money-laundering rules; cryptocurrency, vouchers, and Apple App Store purchases are excluded too — Apple handles its own refunds. There is no free plan and no trial. The free Mullvad Browser is a separate product, not the VPN.

What features do you get — and what is missing?

WireGuard is now the only protocol. Mullvad removed OpenVPN entirely, client- and server-side, on 15 January 2026, so routers and third-party setups that depended on OpenVPN no longer connect. Our WireGuard vs OpenVPN guide explains what that switch means in practice. On top of WireGuard, Mullvad runs quantum-resistant tunnels and DAITA traffic obfuscation.

The missing pieces add up, and they are why Features scores 7.0 out of 10:

• 5 simultaneous devices. NordVPN and Proton VPN allow 10; Surfshark allows unlimited.
• No port forwarding. Mullvad disabled new ports on 29 May 2023 and never brought the feature back.
• A small network. The live server list showed 584 servers in 50 countries and 91 cities at our check (551 online). Rivals list 100 to 149 countries. The honest counterweight: none of Mullvad’s locations are virtual.

Dedicated apps cover Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, and Tom’s Guide notes a DNS-based content blocker for ads, trackers, and malware built into the service.

How does it handle streaming, torrenting, and speed?

Streaming is the weak spot, and it is why Streaming & use-case fit scores 6.0 — the lowest dimension in the rating. Reviewers disagree on the details, but the dominant finding in recent tests is that Mullvad does not reliably unblock Netflix, and both Engadget and Tom’s Guide flag streaming limitations. If unblocking is the main job, start with the best VPNs for streaming instead.

Torrenting is a better fit: P2P is allowed on all servers. The caveat is the missing port forwarding, which matters if you seed heavily — our torrenting rankings cover providers that still offer it.

On speed, PCMag’s latest tests recorded download speeds dropping 10.57% and uploads 4.23% with Mullvad connected, ranking it fifth among the VPNs tested. Those are PCMag’s numbers, not ours — this site runs no benchmarks of its own.

The score, explained

Dimension	Weight	Score /10
Privacy & trust	30%	9.5
Features	25%	7.0
Price honesty	20%	10.0
Streaming & use-case fit	15%	6.0
Transparency	10%	9.0
Weighted total	—	8.4

The two lowest dimensions are covered above: streaming loses points for unreliable unblocking, and features lose points for the 5-device cap, the missing port forwarding, and the small network. Privacy & trust stops short of a perfect score for one reason — the strongest audit of the no-logging infrastructure dates to June 2024 and is not a formal no-logs attestation.

Who should choose something else?

If you want yearly published no-logs audits, a free tier, or a bigger network, Proton VPN is the closest privacy-first rival. Securitum has audited its no-logs infrastructure five years running (2022–2026) with every report published in full, its free plan covers one device with no data cap, and its live server list spans 148 countries against Mullvad’s 50. The full head-to-head is in Proton VPN vs Mullvad compared.

If the 5-device cap is the blocker, Surfshark allows unlimited simultaneous connections — just go in knowing its $2.49/month intro price renews at $79.00 per year.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions

Is Mullvad VPN good for privacy?

Yes. Accounts are random numbers with no email attached, you can pay with cash or Monero, and every server runs from RAM with no persistent storage. When Swedish police demanded customer data in 2023, Mullvad had nothing to hand over.

Does Mullvad VPN work with Netflix?

Not reliably. Reviewers disagree on the details, but the dominant finding in recent tests is that Mullvad struggles to unblock Netflix and other major streaming platforms. Pick a streaming-focused VPN if that is the main job.

How much does Mullvad VPN cost?

A flat €5 per month including VAT — about $5.71 — whether you buy one month or ten years. The price has not changed since 2009, there are no sales, and paying with cryptocurrency takes 10% off.

Does Mullvad keep logs?

Mullvad states its servers store no logs and run entirely from RAM with no persistent storage. The strongest real-world evidence is the 2023 Swedish police demand, which produced nothing because no customer data existed.

How many devices can you use with Mullvad?

Up to 5 devices on one account, per the pricing-page FAQ. That is below NordVPN and Proton VPN, which allow 10, and Surfshark, which allows unlimited connections.

Is Mullvad good for torrenting?

Yes — P2P traffic is allowed on all servers. The one caveat: Mullvad removed port forwarding in May 2023, which matters if you seed heavily.

Does Mullvad have a free trial or money-back guarantee?

There is no free plan or trial. A 14-day money-back guarantee covers credit card, PayPal, Google Play, Swish, and bank wire payments; cash, cryptocurrency, voucher, and Apple App Store purchases are excluded.