Mullvad vs Proton VPN: Two Answers to the Same Question
Most VPN comparisons are between products that differ at the margins. This one is not. Mullvad and Proton VPN both start from the position that the provider should know as little as possible about you, and they arrive at genuinely different products, which makes the choice unusually clear once you know which axis you care about.
Mullvad asks for no email address and charges a flat €5 a month, so there is no discounted first term and no renewal jump.
Proton VPN runs the only free plan on our list with no data cap, funded by paid subscriptions rather than by its users.
Device limits differ meaningfully: five against ten.
The refund windows differ too, and the shorter one belongs to the provider that removed the most other risk.
The short answer
Recorded on 6 September 2026, seen from Europe: Mullvad at €5 a month flat, five devices, a 14-day money-back window, and no email address required to open an account. Proton VPN with a free plan at no cost and no data cap, paid plans from €3.49 a month, ten devices, and a 30-day window.
If your priority is that the provider holds as little about you as possible, Mullvad's account model is the stronger structural answer, because data not collected cannot be retained or handed over.
If your priority is audited claims, more devices, a longer refund window and a free tier you can test indefinitely, Proton VPN answers those better. Neither is a compromise version of the other.
The account model, which is the real difference
Opening a Mullvad account produces a generated account number. No email address, no name. You can pay in ways that do not tie back to you, and top up an existing number rather than holding a subscription.
This matters more than a policy statement, because it changes what is possible rather than what is promised. A no-logs policy is a commitment about handling data the provider has. Not collecting the data in the first place removes the question.
Proton VPN takes the more conventional route of an account with credentials, and answers the trust question through audits and jurisdiction instead. Both are legitimate; they simply ask you to rely on different things.
Pricing, and the absence of a trap
Mullvad's flat €5 removes the pattern that dominates this market. There is no first-term discount, so there is no renewal increase, and no arithmetic to do about which plan length is cheapest over which horizon.
Against that, €5 is more than the entry price of most competitors, including Proton VPN's €3.49. On a two-year view the comparison narrows considerably, because the competitor's figure is a first term and Mullvad's is the whole relationship.
This is why we keep saying the headline price is the wrong number. The pattern and the arithmetic are set out in what you pay once the deal ends.
The free plan, and why it is unusual
Proton VPN's free tier carries no data cap, which makes it the only one on our list that behaves like a product rather than a sample. It is funded by the paid subscriptions, which is the part that matters.
Nearly every other free VPN has to be funded by something, and where subscriptions are absent the available options involve the users. That is not a suspicion, it is arithmetic, and we set out what it costs in what you give up to pay nothing.
Practically, the free plan means you can test Proton VPN for as long as you like before deciding. Mullvad has no equivalent, and its 14-day window is the shortest among the providers we cover.
Devices, and who that rules out
Five simultaneous connections against ten is a larger gap than it sounds once you count honestly. A phone, a laptop, a tablet and a television is four before anyone else in the household appears.
If you are covering one person, five is comfortable. If you are covering a household, five is the constraint that will decide this comparison regardless of anything else on this page.
Neither is generous by current standards; unlimited connections are available elsewhere, and Surfshark recorded exactly that at €2.49. That is a different trade, made against a different privacy posture.
What each one asks you to trust
With Mullvad you are trusting a structure. Little is collected, so little exists to be compelled or leaked. The weakness is that you rely on the provider genuinely operating as described, with a shorter window in which to change your mind.
With Proton VPN you are trusting evidence. Terms have been examined externally, the jurisdiction is stated, and the free tier's funding is explained. The weakness is that an account with credentials always exists, so there is more to protect.
We do not think one of these is correct and the other mistaken. How we weigh them, and why we report jurisdiction and audit history above feature counts, is in our review methodology.
How to choose
Ask which of two sentences describes you better. "I want the provider to know as little about me as possible" points to Mullvad. "I want claims that someone outside the company has checked, on enough devices, with room to change my mind" points to Proton VPN.
If neither sentence is quite it, and what you actually want is streaming access or the lowest cost across a household, then this comparison is the wrong one and the ranking is the place to look.
If you are still undecided, the free plan settles it cheaply. Run Proton VPN for a fortnight at no cost; if the thing that bothers you afterwards is that an account with your email exists at all, you have found your answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Mullvad worth more than a cheaper provider? On a two-year comparison including renewals the gap is smaller than the headline suggests. Whether the account model is worth the remainder is a judgement only you can make.
Can I use Proton VPN's free plan indefinitely? There is no data cap, so nothing forces an upgrade. Server choice and speed are more limited than on paid plans.
Which is better for streaming? Neither is built primarily for it, and both are unpredictable at it. If that is the main job, look at the providers we rank for it in the ranking.
How do the paid Proton tiers differ? We took that apart separately in what the extra money buys.
If you make a purchase via one of these links, we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Learn More
