NordVPN vs Mullvad

These two disagree about what a VPN company should know about you. NordVPN runs the conventional model: an account, an email address, a card, a subscription that renews. Mullvad generates a number, takes your money, and holds nothing else.

What happens when the first term ends

NordVPN's advertised rate covers twenty-seven months. After that it renews at more than three times the figure that persuaded you, which is the single most common complaint about buying a VPN at all and is not unique to NordVPN.

Mullvad charges five euros a month at one month and at ten years. There is no promotional rate, so there is nothing to expire, and there is no auto-renewal — the account runs down and you top it up. Over three years that is a smaller number than NordVPN's, and more usefully it is a number you can predict.

What the account itself gives away

Mullvad asks for no email address and sets no password. In 2023 police searched its servers and left with nothing, which is the only kind of evidence for a no-logs claim that does not depend on trusting the company. It also takes cash.

NordVPN's answer is auditors: six outside reviews of the no-logs claim, most recently Deloitte in December 2025, and Panama sits outside every intelligence-sharing agreement. Mullvad is in Sweden, which shares intelligence with thirteen other governments — a genuine mark against it, and the reason its answer is architectural rather than jurisdictional.

Where NordVPN is plainly ahead is reach. Mullvad caps you at five devices and cannot raise it, has no port forwarding, no route into Tor, and its split tunnelling only pushes apps out of the tunnel rather than selecting what goes in.

Which should you choose?

Choose Mullvad if you would rather a company could not identify you than promise it will not, and five devices covers your household. Choose NordVPN if you need more devices, a way into Tor, or obfuscation on a network that blocks VPNs — and go in knowing what the second charge looks like.

If five devices is the only thing stopping you, Proton VPN sits between the two: audited five years running, open source clients, and a free tier you can test first.