Mullvad VPN vs Proton VPN
Both are alternatives to NordVPN. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as Proton VPN vs Mullvad VPN — same comparison, one verdict.
Mullvad VPN and Proton VPN are closely matched on ownership (88 vs 86) — this one comes down to pricing and to which trade-offs below you can live with.
Mullvad VPN
TOP PICKThe privacy gold standard — flat price, no account, fully audited.
Mullvad is the privacy purist's VPN. There's no email or personal detail at signup — you get a random account number — and the price is a flat €5/month with no tiers or upsells (unchanged since 2009). Its apps are open-source, its no-logs policy has been independently audited many times (Cure53 and Assured), and it accepts cash and Monero for genuinely anonymous payment. It isn't built for streaming gymnastics; it's built so that no one, including Mullvad, can tie your traffic to you. Notably, Mullvad refuses to run an affiliate program — so no site earns a commission recommending it, including us. We still rank it first.
Proton VPN
Open-source, audited, with a genuinely unlimited free tier.
Proton VPN, from the Swiss maker of Proton Mail, was the first major provider to open-source its apps on every platform, and its no-logs policy has passed independent audits five years running (Securitum). Its free tier is the rare honest one — unlimited data, no bandwidth throttling — and the paid plans add more servers, streaming, and Secure Core routing. It's the best all-rounder for people who want strong, transparent privacy without giving up convenience.
Side by side
6 points of comparison, every one read from a verified field. Green marks the side that wins a row outright. A dash means we do not hold that fact — never that it is zero.
| Mullvad VPN | Proton VPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty ScoreOur transparent 0–100 composite for data ownership and exit cost. | 88 | 86 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Local-first data | No | No |
| License | GPL-3.0 (apps) | GPL-3.0 (apps) |
| Pricing | Flat €5/month, no tiers; anonymous 16-digit account number, no email | Free tier with unlimited data; paid Plus roughly $5–10/month |
Mullvad VPN is Macrostack's recommended NordVPN alternative, so it's our pick here.
Weighing both against staying on NordVPN? Is NordVPN free? What it actually costs →
Mullvad VPN
Strengths
- +No email or personal info — just a random account number
- +Open-source apps, repeatedly audited (Cure53, Assured)
- +Flat €5/month, no price games or renewal hikes
- +Anonymous payment options including cash and Monero
Trade-offs
- −Not focused on streaming unblocking
- −A VPN service you don't self-host (you trust the no-logs audits)
- −Fewer flashy extras than the big commercial VPNs
Proton VPN
Strengths
- +Fully open-source apps, audited no-logs (five years running)
- +Genuinely unlimited free tier, no throttling
- +Swiss-based, strong privacy jurisdiction
- +Part of the wider Proton privacy suite (Mail, Drive, Pass)
Trade-offs
- −Free tier limits server choice and speed
- −A hosted service you don't self-host
- −Best features are on the paid plan
Which one fits you
The trade-offs above, turned into a decision. Find the line that describes your team.
Choose Mullvad VPN
if a lower exit cost matters more to you than any single feature, and no email or personal info — just a random account number.
Choose Proton VPN
if fully open-source apps, audited no-logs (five years running).
Neither, yet
if both carry a real cost you should weigh first — not focused on streaming unblocking, and free tier limits server choice and speed. If either of those is a dealbreaker for your team, the shortlist is wrong rather than the choice.
Mullvad VPN vs Proton VPN — common questions
Is Mullvad VPN a better fit than Proton VPN for vpn & privacy?
It depends on what you are optimising for, and the honest split is this: Mullvad VPN scores 88 to Proton VPN's 86 on data ownership and exit cost, so it is the safer choice if you care about being able to leave. Proton VPN earns its place on a different axis — fully open-source apps, audited no-logs (five years running). Neither is a wrong answer for every team; the table above is the actual comparison.
What happens if we want to switch later?
Neither of these is local-first by default, so plan the exit at the point you adopt rather than later. Export what matters on a schedule instead of trusting you can retrieve it on demand — that is the most common way a vpn & privacy migration turns into a project instead of an afternoon.
Is Proton VPN free?
Proton VPN: Free tier with unlimited data; paid Plus roughly $5–10/month. The other side of this comparison, Mullvad VPN, is priced as Flat €5/month, no tiers; anonymous 16-digit account number, no email. "Free" here means no licence fee — if you self-host it you still pay for the server, and the running cost row above is our honest estimate of that.
Are Mullvad VPN and Proton VPN both alternatives to NordVPN?
Yes — both appear in our NordVPN comparison, which is why they are worth putting side by side. People usually arrive here already having decided to move off NordVPN and now choosing between the two replacements, which is a narrower and much easier question.
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Facts verified 2026-07-14. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.