Mullvad VPN Review

[Presented by BestCloudBest.com]

Privacy and security while browsing the Internet are becoming priorities for an increasing number of people. Many Internet users also want to access streaming services, moreover, some want to access P2P/torrenting services.

“Virtual Private Networks” (VPNs) offer these advantages, therefore, it’s a happening market out there for VPNs! It’s increasingly a competitive market, and Mullvad VPN is one of the many players in this market.

It’s owned by Amagicom AB, which is a cybersecurity company. Mullvad is based in Sweden, and it offers notable privacy and security features. This VPN unblocks streaming services partially and allows P2P/torrenting. Should you use it? We have reviewed this VPN provider in detail so that you can decide whether it’s a good choice for you. Let’s take a deep dive into what Mullvad VPN can offer.

The Features of Mullvad VPN

The very reason you have started to think about buying a VPN service is the set of specific services they offer! You will likely pay close attention to the features of a VPN provider before buying its service, therefore, let’s review the features of Mullvad VPN.

Is your information secure at Mullvad VPN?

Mullvad is one of those VPN providers with a strong privacy track record. It replaces your IP address with one of its IP addresses, therefore, the activities and location of your device can’t be linked to you.

As part of its “no logs” policy, the company doesn’t log your IP address, Internet traffic, DNS requests, or bandwidth. Mullvad assigns you a numbered account and you can remain anonymous. The company doesn’t ask for any personal information when users sign-up, not even an email address.

Note that Mullvad monitors some information, which includes the total number of simultaneous connections per account. It doesn’t log this information though, and it monitors the CPU load and the total bandwidth consumption per server. The company does this to ensure that users don’t exceed the limit of simultaneous connections per account, which is five.

The Mullvad website has no ads or trackers. It uses a few cookies though, and the company declares this on its “Cookie policy” webpage. These cookies are for general purposes like keeping you logged on, remembering your language preference, and for cross-site request forgery protection.

Mullvad has a transparent privacy policy on its website, and the company declares the personal information they process and why. If you make a payment using a bank wire, PayPal, Stripe, etc., then Mullvad processes the associated personal information. It also processes your personal information when you send an email to the company or report a problem. All such instances of Mullvad processing your personal data are subject to GDPR and other relevant data retention laws.

Note that the jurisdiction of Mullvad is Sweden, which is one of the “14 Eyes” coalition countries that allow mass surveillance. While Mullvad proclaims that it doesn’t log your Internet activity or user data, its jurisdiction is not ideal for privacy. Having said that, we haven’t found any reason to believe that Mullvad has handed over any data to the Swedish authorities to comply with the data retention laws in that country.

Encryption methods used by Mullvad VPN

If you are planning to use a VPN, then security is likely high on your priority. We are happy to note that Mullvad does very well on this count. It uses OpenVPN, which certainly has the reputation of being the most secure VPN protocol.

You can also use another protocol if you use Mullvad, and that’s the WireGuard protocol. It’s a crypto-based protocol that’s still under development. WireGuard is available on Linux, whereas its Windows and Android software are currently in the beta-testing phase. This new protocol promises much, both on accounts of security and connection speed.

Mullvad uses AES-256 encryption, which is the military-grade encryption! It also has 4096-bit RSA certificates with SHA512, which is very secure.

The company supports SSL/SSH tunneling, which adds an additional layer of encryption. Countries that operate Internet surveillance systems use the “deep packet inspection” technique, however, SSL/SSH tunneling can evade this.

Mullvad offers automatic “kill switches”, which blocks the Internet connection of a user in case his/her VPN connection terminates unexpectedly. This prevents any accidental leak of the users’ Internet traffic.

Note that if a user forgets to start the Mullvad app, then the “kill switch” will not be able to offer this protection. Don’t worry! All the servers of Mullvad support SOCKS5 protocol, which helps to anonymize your connection. The SOCKS5 proxy will protect your data even if you couldn’t use the “kill switch”.

Mullvad protects you against IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks. The company has its own DNS servers, which include its public DNS server as well as DNS servers running on each of its VPN servers. This solution prevents your browser from leaking your real IP address. Note that the Mullvad apps have DNS leak protection running by default, however, you will need to manually configure it if you use OpenVPN.

Mullvad servers don’t have any virus. While Mullvad doesn’t provide its ad blocker, it recommends that users block ads with the help of uBlock Origin. uBlock Origin is a free, open-source browser extension, and you can use it to block ads. It works with all popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc.

Server locations for Mullvad VPN

Won’t you like a VPN provider that’s transparent about its capabilities and infrastructure? We think you will like it, and Mullvad demonstrates commendable transparency here. At the time of this review, the company has 542 servers in 58 cities spanning across 35 countries, and it lists all of them on its website. Mullvad is adding more servers.

The company has 358 OpenVPN servers, 156 WireGuard servers, and 28 bridge servers. We will touch upon the topic of bridge servers shortly. It covers all the key geographies like North America, Europe, Australia, Japan, etc. On its website, Mullvad specifies whether it owns a server or it has taken it on rent from a 3rd party. The company makes it clear that all its servers are physical machines.

NORTH AMERICA
Canada; Canada - Montreal; Canada - Toronto; Canada - Vancouver; United States; US - Atlanta, GA; US - Boston, MA; US - Charlotte, NC; US - Chicago, IL; US - Cleveland, OH; US - Dallas, TX; US - Denver, CO; US - Honolulu, HI; US - Jackson, MS; US - Las Vegas, NV; US - Los Angeles, CA; US - Louisville, KY; US - Miami, FL; US - Milwaukee, WI; US - Minneapolis/St. Paul Apt, MN; US - New York, NY; US - Oklahoma City, OK; US - Philadelphia, PA; US - Phoenix, AZ; US - Piscataway, NJ; US - Portland, OR; US - Richmond, VA; US - Salt Lake City, UT; US - San Francisco, CA; US - San Jose, CA; US - Seattle, WA; US - Secaucus, NJ; US - Sioux Falls, SD; US - St. Louis , MO; US - Stamford, CT; US - Washington, DC

CENTRAL AMERICA & CARIBBEAN
N/A

SOUTH AMERICA
Brazil

EUROPE
Albania; Austria; Belgium; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Denmark; Finland; France; Greece; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Latvia; Luxembourg; Moldova; Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Serbia; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; United Kingdom; UK - London; UK - Manchester

ASIA
Hong Kong; Japan; Singapore

AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST
Israel; South Africa

OCEANIA
Australia; Australia - Adelaide; Australia - Brisbane; Australia - Canberra; Australia - Melbourne; Australia - Perth; Australia - Sydney; New Zealand

Platforms supported by Mullvad VPN

Mullvad supports all key platforms like Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. The company has custom apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Its custom Android app is in the beta testing stage.

It doesn’t have a custom app for iOS. To use this VPN on your iPhone/iPad, you need to use either the OpenVPN or WireGuard apps. Mullvad provides customized configuration files that you should use.

Mullvad provides detailed guides for all its custom apps, configuration files, etc. This VPN provider supports a wide range of routers, and it provides configuration files and guides for them too.

For the WireGuard protocol, Mullvad supports the OpenWrt router. For the OpenVPN protocol, the company supports all key routers like DD-WRT, OpenWrt, PfSense, Asus Merlin, and Tomato. Mullvad certainly has you well covered as far as supporting platforms are concerned!

The company allows 5 simultaneous connections for an account. Mullvad has impressive speed, and it imposes no bandwidth restrictions.

Can Mullvad unblock streaming services?

Mullvad unblocks streaming services, however, it doesn’t succeed consistently. It sometimes unblocks BBC iPlayer, moreover, it allows access to US YouTube.

This VPN is unable to unblock Netflix most of the time, however, you might occasionally succeed. Mullvad is able to unblock HBO GO. Note that Mullvad isn’t able to unblock Hulu.

Does Mullvad VPN allow running torrents?

Mullvad supports P2P/torrenting despite its jurisdiction being Sweden, which is a “14 Eyes” country. It provides a Bittorrent guide on its website, moreover, it offers good speed and unlimited bandwidth.

Can Mullvad VPN bypass internet censorship?

Mullvad has an interesting solution to bypass Internet censorship that countries like China impose, and this is where its bridge servers come into the picture. This VPN provider sends your Internet traffic to its bridge servers, and it wraps your data using the SSH protocol. Thanks to this added layer of encryption, the surveillance technology of countries like China can’t detect this.

Subsequently, Mullvad sends this data to its regular VPN servers. The company offers a detailed guide on its website about connecting to its bridge servers.

Pricing

Mullvad offers a flat rate of €5 per month. If you want, you can buy it for a year, however, the monthly rate remains €5. You can pay using a credit card, PayPal, etc. Buyers residing in Sweden can purchase a subscription in a retail store or pay using Swish.

Mullvad allows you to pay by cash, which you can send in an envelope via mail without a return address. This is one option if you want to buy Mullvad services anonymously.

You can buy Mullvad services anonymously using Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. The company offers a 10% discount if you buy using these cryptocurrencies.

The company has a 30-days money-back guarantee. The refund process is straightforward if you use traditional payment methods like a credit card or PayPal.

If you bought Mullvad services using cryptocurrencies, then you need to deal with a more complex refund process. You need to follow the refund guidelines on the Mullvad website to learn how to get a refund if you have paid using cryptocurrencies.

Mullvad doesn’t issue a refund if you have paid by cash since the company needs to comply with “Anti-Money Laundering” (AML) regulations. You can get a free trial period, however, it’s for 3 hours only.

The pros and cons of Mullvad

You would likely need to analyze the pros and cons of Mullvad before deciding whether to buy it. Mullvad offers the following advantages:

- It’s privacy-friendly with its “no-logs” policy and anonymous numbered accounts, moreover, it doesn’t collect personal information.
- Mullvad is secure with OpenVPN protocol, military-grade encryption, “kill switches”, and SOCKS5 protocol. There are no viruses in its servers, moreover, Mullvad guards against IP/DNS/WebRTC leaks.
- It supports all key platforms and routers. You can connect up to 5 devices simultaneously.
- Mullvad offers good speed and doesn’t impose any bandwidth restriction.
- It allows P2P/torrenting.
- Mullvad is priced reasonably.
- The customer support is reasonable, and the company provides excellent documentation.

There are a few disadvantages of Mullvad, and these are as follows:

- It often can’t unblock popular streaming services like Netflix and Hulu.
- Mullvad doesn’t have a custom app for iOS.
- The free trial period is for 3 hours only.
- Mullvad doesn’t offer live chat support.

A few quick facts about Mullvad

Now that you know the features and pros-and-cons of Mullvad, a few quick facts could help you to make an informed decision. Here we go:

- Mullvad is owned by Amagicom AB, a well-known cybersecurity company. This VPN provider is based in Sweden and it’s in operation since 2009.
- It has a robust privacy track record, aided by its “no-logs” policy, numbered accounts, and features that help users to maintain anonymity.
- Although based in Sweden, which is one of the “14 Eyes” countries, the privacy features of Mullvad are impressive.
- Mullvad is secure since it uses secure protocols and excellent encryption, moreover, it guards against IP/DNS/WebRTC leaks.
- This VPN provider supports all key platforms and routers, moreover, it offers 5 simultaneous connections and good speed.
- It’s often unable to unblock streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, however, it supports P2P/torrenting.
- Mullvad is easy to use, the company offers reasonable customer support, and the service is reasonably priced.

Getting started with Mullvad VPN

Everybody likes user-friendly products, therefore, you will surely like your VPN to be easy-to-use, wouldn’t you? Mullvad is indeed user-friendly, and you can sense that as soon as you visit its website.

The website shows all the key menu options prominently, e.g., “Help”, “My account”, “Download”, “Policies”, etc.

Generating a numbered account is easy including the payment process. The Mullvad website generates your anonymous number account, subsequently, you pay using the available payment options to add time to the account. The experience is smooth.

You can then proceed to download the Mullvad app. Note that the “Help” page on the Mullvad website offers detailed guides including FAQs.

Mullvad VPN used on Windows

Mullvad VPN’s Windows client is a very simple and easy to use program. At Mullvad VPN the client’s privacy is at the highest priority, and that first shows when you want to create an account: there is no need for your email address or password because accounts are automatically generated and accessed with a 16 digit code.

The application opens with the login screen, here you have to enter your login code. The service automatically connects to the best server when the application launches, this can be annoying but there is an option to turn it off. If you want to select a server manually just click on the “Switch Location” button and select a server that you like, although the server list has no search bar or any means of sorting.

Mullvad VPN doesn’t provide as many settings as other competitors but it does include the essentials. There are the usual general settings like launching the app when the computer boots also auto-connect is available, and there is an option to block local network traffic as well.

In the advanced settings, you can find the VPN related features:

· Users can enable IPv6 protocol;·
· Turn on the kill switch;
· Switch between VPN protocols: OpenVPN or WireGuard.

The client software also has a built-in bug report system, and when we contacted Mullvad VPN’s support through email, they replied promptly within 3-5 minutes. On the website, there are very good guides and an equally good FAQ if you have questions about the service. but Our experience with the support shows that they are friendly and happy to help their clients.

Considering everything, Mullvad VPN provides a very simple and easy to use Windows client. When using the fastest protocol settings we had a network speed of around 100-200mb/s which compared to other providers is a pretty good average.

The application is well made but we did spot some annoying facts: the app window can’t be moved or resized, and right-clicking on the tray icon doesn’t bring up any options. In the future, it would be nice to see more features and functionality added to the client but one thing is for sure: Mullvad VPN’s main objective is to protect your privacy. During the testing, we didn’t run into any bugs and the service passed all security tests.

Mullvad VPN's Android app

Mullvad VPN’s Android app follows the same design scheme as the desktop edition, it’s minimalistic with a dark color scheme, and large buttons.

Logging in to the app is done on the main screen using your 16 digit account code, and there is no option to create a new account directly from the application, it has to be done through the website. It’s common that the mobile version of VPN applications are way simpler than their desktop counterparts.Or experience shows that this is true in the case of Mullvad VPN.

The android application of Mullvad VPN can be downloaded from two different sources: either from the GooglePlay store or directly from the website. The simple way of installing the program is through GooglePlay Store. Getting the app from the website is only recommended for advanced users.

Just like in the Windows app users can take advantage of the automatic server selection, or they can select a server from the server list. The server list only shows the availability of the servers without any additional information and there is no search bar.

The settings are very limited, in the preferences tab you can turn on auto-connect and auto-start and there is also an option to block all LAN network traffic. In the advanced settings, users can choose to turn on IPv6 protocol, and you can select between UDP and TCP.

Overall MullvadVPN on Android is a very easy to use and simple client, but this simplicity is also a drawback, there are many features missing that a lot of people would deem essential. For example, there is no killswitch and there is no split tunneling. Mullvad VPN is a service that we would recommend to users who are looking for a VPN that’s really simple. During our testing, we detected no IP/DNS leaks, and we didn’t run into any bugs or glitches.

Mulvad VPN experience on Linux

Mullvad VPN gives a graphical client for it’s Linux user base which is really nice to see, it’s often that even market-leading providers don’t take the extra step to develop a visual client for Linux, it’s usually just a text-based terminal application.

Installing the program is really simple. All you have to do is download the “.deb” installer from the website of Mullvad and run it. On the download page, users can easily find and download the version that’s right for them.

Once the installation is completed the application can be accessed by launching the Mullvad VPN shortcut. The application is really similar to the Windows version: when we compared the two, we found no differences.

After entering your login code you can begin using the service by clicking on the connect button, or you can select a different server with the “Switch location” button. The server list has no indicator for ping or server load, this means that you just have to guess which one is the best, there is no search bar and it can be quite hard to find locations.

Just like in the Windows version there are a very small amount of settings to play around with. Mullvad supports OpenVPN and Wireguard and it also supports several different ports and options to switch between UDP and TCP.

Mullvad VPN does provide a Kill Switch which blocks all internet traffic if the VPN disconnects, it has the option to enable IPv6 routing but for security reasons, we would recommend keeping this turned off.

Thanks to the graphical interface Mullvad’s Linux client is as simple to use on Linux as on any other platform. While Mullvad VPN is easy to use and it’s as simple as a VPN client can get, it lacks a lot of functionality, there is no information about the servers in the server list, and there is no ad/malware blocking. Until additional functionality gets added to the client we can only recommend it to users who want a really simple VPN service with excellent privacy. During our testing, the software showed no bugs and it passed the leak tests.

Customer service at Mullvad VPN

Mullvad provides customer support via email, and the email address is displayed prominently on its “Help” page.

You can contact its customer support team via Twitter and Facebook too. The support team responds within one-to-two hours, and the quality of response is good.

Mullvad doesn’t offer live chat support, which can be seen as a drawback. However, the quality of documentation on its “Help” page is excellent, therefore, you might not need much customer support.

Jurisdiction of Mullvad VPN

Sweden is the jurisdiction of Mullvad, and this country is part of the “14 Eyes” coalition. The countries in this coalition conduct mass surveillance, therefore, Sweden isn’t the ideal jurisdiction for a VPN provider. Mullvad would be subject to the data retention laws in Sweden.

However, in the case of Mullvad, two factors jointly mitigate this. First of all, Mullvad provides numbered accounts to its users, which is anonymous. Secondly, if you want, you can buy the services from Mullvad completely anonymously, by paying using cash or cryptocurrencies. Even if Mullvad was forced to log users’ Internet activities and provide the logs to the Swedish government, the anonymity of its users remain.

Does Mullvad VPN keep any logs?

Mullvad has a “no logs” policy, and the company doesn’t log your IP address, Internet traffic, DNS requests, or bandwidth. You get a numbered account, therefore, you can remain anonymous. The sign-up process doesn’t require any personal information, and Mullvad doesn’t even ask for an email address.

As the company states on its website, Mullvad monitors some information, which includes the total number of simultaneous connections per account. The company clarifies that it doesn’t log this information. Mullvad needs to ensure that its users don’t exceed the limit of 5 simultaneous connections per account, and towards this, it monitors the CPU load and the total bandwidth consumption per server.

The Mullvad website doesn’t use ads or trackers, however, it has a few cookies that the company declares on its website policy pages. It uses these cookies for keeping you logged on, remembering your language preference, and for cross-site request forgery protection.

This VPN provider states in its privacy policy the personal information they process and why. When users pay using a bank wire, PayPal, Stripe, etc., then Mullvad processes the relevant personal information. Furthermore, Mullvad processes your personal information when you send an email to the company or report a problem. All of these are governed by GDPR or other relevant data retention laws, and none of these pose any particular concern as far as we could see.

Encryption and technical security of Mullvad VPN

Security is a strong point of Mullvad. It uses OpenVPN, which has the best reputation as a secure VPN protocol. OpenVPN has no known security vulnerabilities.

The other protocol supported by Mullvad is WireGuard, which is still in development. However, this crypto-based protocol promises to deliver much, both in terms of security and speed.

AES-256 encryption and 4096-bit RSA certificates with SHA512 strengthen the security credentials of Mullvad further. Mullvad supports SSL/SSH tunneling, and this adds an additional layer of encryption. SSL/SSH evades the “deep packet inspection” technique used by countries that conduct mass surveillance. There are no viruses in any of the Mullvad servers.

This VPN provider has automatic “kill switches” to block the Internet connection of a user if his/her VPN connection suddenly drops. “Kill switches” guard against any accidental leak of the users data.

Since all the servers of Mullvad support SOCKS5 protocol, your connections are anonymized further. As a proxy, this protects your data in case of the sudden termination of the VPN connection even if you couldn’t use the “kill switch”.

There are no IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks with Mullvad. This VPN provider runs its own DNS servers including its public DNS server and DNS servers running on each of its VPN servers. Mullvad apps have DNS leak protection running by default. If you use the OpenVPN app, then you will need to manually configure the DNS leak protection.

Our short conclusion of Mullvad VPN

Given the demand for VPN services, many VPN providers are competing in this space and it can often be hard to choose one. Mullvad is a privacy and security-focused VPN provider with a “no-logs” policy and features that let you remain anonymous. Although its jurisdiction is Sweden, its privacy track record is indeed impressive, moreover, the company uses excellent security solutions.

It supports all key platforms and routers. Although it doesn’t have a custom app for iOS, Mullvad offers detailed guides to use secure protocols like OpenVPN on iOS. Mullvad is often unable to unblock popular streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, however, its speed, ease-of-use, and support for P2P/torrenting are impressive.

The customer support is reasonable. Although Mullvad doesn’t offer live chat support, its excellent documentation surely compensates for that. Mullvad is priced reasonably. The 3-hours trial period might seem short, however, its excellent interface more than makes up for it! We certainly recommend Mullvad VPN.

Mullvad VPN