Mullvad vs Windscribe

These two share the property that almost nothing else here has: you can pay for either without telling it who you are. From that starting point they go in different directions, and the direction is the decision.

Neither one needs your email address

Mullvad issues a randomly generated account number, takes your money, and holds nothing else. It accepts cash through the post and Monero. In 2023 Swedish police searched its servers under warrant and left with nothing, which is evidence no audit can manufacture.

Windscribe also asks for no email address and no password, and accepts cash. What it does not do is minimise beyond that: it runs a normal service with accounts, a configurable DNS filter, and a plan you assemble by location.

On evidence Mullvad is ahead at the recent end. Four external reviews were published between October 2025 and June 2026, covering the Android app, a WireGuard implementation and the payment and account backend. Windscribe's last outside server review was June 2024, past the two-year mark. Both publish open-source clients. Both are inside intelligence-sharing agreements — Sweden in the fourteen-country one, Canada in the five.

What Windscribe adds that Mullvad refuses to

Mullvad caps you at five simultaneous devices and the ceiling cannot be raised. Windscribe has no cap at all, on the free plan as well as the paid one. Mullvad removed port forwarding; Windscribe has it. Mullvad's split tunnelling only pushes applications out of the tunnel rather than selecting what goes in. Mullvad has no television app and does not claim streaming; Windscribe supports it.

Price is a genuine tie rather than a win. Mullvad charges five euros a month at any term with nothing to expire. Windscribe renews at the rate it showed you, and its build-your-own plan can come in lower if you use few countries.

Which should you choose?

Choose Mullvad if minimising what exists about you is the point and five devices covers you. Choose Windscribe if you need more devices, port forwarding, or streaming — it gives up very little of the anonymity and removes most of the limits.

For a household rather than a person, Windscribe is usually the right answer here, and the reason is the device ceiling rather than anything about privacy.