ExpressVPN vs Mullvad

ExpressVPN is a consumer product with a marketing budget. Mullvad is closer to a utility: one price, no account, no upsell, and a website that does not try very hard to persuade you. They are aimed at different people and the honest version of this comparison says which one you are.

Two prices, and only one of them moves

ExpressVPN's introductory rate covers twenty-eight months, then renews at roughly triple. Mullvad charges five euros a month at one month and at ten years, with no auto-renewal — the balance runs down and you top it up.

Over a first term ExpressVPN is competitive. Over any longer horizon it is not, and the gap is not close. If you are the kind of person who forgets what a subscription costs until the statement arrives, that asymmetry is the whole comparison.

What a company can be forced to hand over

Mullvad's answer to the no-logs question is that it holds nothing to hand over. Registration takes no email address and sets no password, it accepts cash, and in 2023 police searched its servers and left with nothing. That is evidence of a kind an audit cannot produce, because it was not commissioned by the company being examined.

ExpressVPN's answer is jurisdiction and process: the British Virgin Islands sits outside the intelligence-sharing agreements, servers hold nothing on disk and rebuild on restart, and KPMG reviewed the controls in February 2025 — for a single day rather than a period. The apps are closed source and were last examined in 2024.

Sweden, where Mullvad is registered, shares intelligence with thirteen other governments. Mullvad's position is that this matters less when there is nothing to collect, which is a coherent argument rather than a dodge, but it is an argument you have to accept.

Which should you choose?

Choose Mullvad if you would rather a company was unable to identify you than promised not to, and five devices is enough. Pick ExpressVPN if you need more than five devices, you want the connection to feel fastest, or you want apps for a television — Mullvad has none of those.

If five devices is the sticking point and the rest of Mullvad's argument appeals, that constraint is fixed and worth checking against your household before you decide.