Mullvad VPN Review 2024: Is Legit or Scam?

Mullvad review tells if Mullvad VPN is safe, legit, real or scam. Its complaints, users’ good and bad feedback are also reviewed.

So, if you are looking for the best and most truthful Mullvad VPN reviews, this post is for you.

What is Mullvad VPN?

Mullvad is a Swedish word that means mole. The mole you should picture is not the small velvety-furred burrowing creature of the animal world, or the molecular weight of a substance used in chemistry, or the small congenital pigmented skin spot, but the secret agents working undercover in the world of espionage.

Just as the activities of a good secret agent cannot be traced to the agent, Mullvad wants to make sure that your online activities cannot be traced to you. Note the word ‘good’

Mullvad is one of many providers of Virtual Private Network (VPN) services. VPNs create a secure connection between the internet and the device accessing the internet. They mask your online address (IP address) ensuring that you cannot be tracked; they also encrypt your online traffic, ensuring that prying eyes do not see what you do online.

Just as it will take not just any secret agent, but a good one, to remain untraceable; it will also take a good VPN to make sure you are untraceable.

How good is Mullvad in making you untraceable by giving you online privacy and security? This review will answer that question.

Is Mullvad VPN Safe?

Mullvad is safe to use. According to research and experience, Mullvad has no safety issue in using the VPN at all. All your information is well safe and secured by the VPN.

Is Mullvad VPN Legit or Scam?

As of writing this Mullvad review, Mullvad VPN is found out to be legit or doing well just like a normal VPN network. But this does not mean they are perfect or have not bad feedback. In fact, we have gathered all the Mullvad VPN complaints and feedback below to help you know exactly what to expect Mullvad VPN.

Mullvad VPN complaints and feedback:

• Paul Says:

Serious VPN-provider who understands privacy, security and how to treat costumers1

• Patrick says:

I have personally made use of mullvad for some months now and only had one problem with the client that the support team of mullvad assisted me to fix quickly. You are also not required to provide your email address so that is a plus.

• Ben says:

I’ve used a lot of VPNs, the “famous” ones (PIA, ExpressVPN, PureVPN, NordVPN etc…) but the best ones I found were Mullvad and AirVPN.

Both deeply involved in Internet freedom causes and not only doing business.

Mullvad is the top of the cream for a European user: Good client that you can easily customize, great speed, strong encryption and VERY safe registration.

For Linux users, there’s a possibility to use Wireguard which is fluent sand save.

Mullvad Tutorial:

Below you can view Mullvad tutorial in video. This will help you if you do not have the experience on install and putting Mullvad to work.

PRIVACY AND SECURITY

Top reviewers have labelled mullvad VPN: “a VPN for the truly paranoid”, “the best VPN service for serious privacy”, and “the best VPN for privacy I have seen”.

Are these just statements from praise singers?  Will someone who is very critical of VPN privacy features come to the same conclusions? Let us consider what Mullvad has on the security and privacy front.

VPN Protocol:

Mullvad uses only two VPN protocol – OpenVPN protocol and Wireguard VPN protocol. The wireguard protocol offers greater speeds compared to the OpenVPN protocol but is still being developed. For the OpenVPN protocol encryption, they use AES 256 cypher, and a 4096 bit RSA certificate (with SHA512) for data auth, 4096 bit DH parameters for key exchange and also support perfect forward secrecy. Though Mullvad does not say so, this level of encryption is military-grade and nigh unhackable.

Logging Policy:

Mullvad does not have a lengthy privacy policy like most VPNs. In their short policy, they state that they do not store activity logs of any kind. They do not log traffic, DNS requests, IP addresses, user bandwidth, connections (including when one is made, when one disconnects, or how long it lasted, or any kind of timestamp), or account activities. They also state that they refrain from sending usage statistics to external parties.

They plainly state that the only account activity recorded is a number of simultaneous connection, but they add that their operation model ensures that this data does not compromise users’ privacy. And in any case, it is only temporarily stored.

Since Mullvad does not collect or store user data, so if a court were to order them to divulge sensitive user information, there is nothing to show.

Signing up:

Mullvad says they take privacy very seriously. The process of signing up to the service is a testament to that. Because of Mullvad’s commitment not to collect or keep any user data, they do not ask you for a name, email address, password, phone number, or any other personal information. All you need is to click “Get Account” and the system will randomly generate a numbered account for you, which you can then use to connect to Mullvad.

This distinguishes Mullvad from all other VPNs in the market. While other VPNs will require one login information or the other and claim that it’s for one verification or the other; Mullvad does not want to know who you are, and do not wish to verify anything. You cannot be more anonymous.

Use of Cookies:

This is definitely not referring to the small crunchy sweet cakes that we love to eat, but the short line of text that a website saves to your computer or mobile device when you access the site. Cookies are meant to provide a personalized user experience; so they track browsing history and save pertinent information which will be used to better serve you when you return online. Even with a VPN use, cookies can still cause your online activities and location to be known.

The cookies of the World Wide Web are definitely not crunchy, sweet, worth loving or worth having; they are insidious and can compromise privacy, and only worth clearing.

The more cookies a VPNs uses, the more risk is posed to privacy. Therefore, Mullvad minimalist use of cookies adds to giving more online security and privacy. Mullvad uses only two cookies – to keep you logged in and to remember your preferred language.

Kill Switch:

What is known as the kill switch in many VPN clients blocks internet access when the VPN connection is broken. This prevents you from connecting to the internet without the VPN protection and risk leaking your IP address and online activities to your ISP and other snoopers. Mullvad’s “block the internet on connection failure” button does just that.

With Mulvad focus on privacy, it is not at all surprising that Mullvad has a ‘kill switch’ feature, or that it is enabled by default. Because it is certain that a VPN connection must drop at some point, any VPN that does not have a kill switch have only collected your money.

DNS leaks Protection:

Mullvad offers protection against DNS leaks. Users with Windows and Linux operating systems can open the settings tab and select the “stop DNS leaks”; for Mac users, the feature is always enabled.

Jurisdiction:

Mullvad is located in Sweden. Though, Sweden is a member of the 14 eyes intelligence gathering and sharing alliance that VPN users will rather want to stay away from; Sweden has come to be known as a privacy-friendly country. For example, the constraints of the European Union Data Retention Directive did not apply to VPNs who worked from Sweden.

Mullvad Features:

Ease of Use:

Mullvad is easy to download, and installation is also fairly smooth if the right version was downloaded. When you open the Mullvad client, you can either sign up for the free trial or subscribe to the service. After that, you generate your numbered account; input the account number in the appropriate window, and you will be connected.

The client connects to a default server making life easy for new VPN users. It is also very easy to select and switch servers. You can easily disconnect and re-connect to a server from the main menu. The countries are arranged in alphabetical order, and clicking any country will show all the servers in the country. Mullvad supports 13 languages.

P2P Activity:

Mullvad allows P2P activities so you can download torrents. They also offer unlimited bandwidth for your streaming pleasure. However, Mullvad has very few P2P servers. With few servers, users to server ratio will be high as many users will be connected to a few servers for torrenting activities; and with the heavy downloads that torrenting entails, there will be low speeds. It is therefore not a good VPN choice for torrenting

Mullvad NetFlix:

Most users highly rate VPNs that allow access to Netflix. Netflix’s continuous blocking of VPNs means there are few VPNs with which you can still watch Netflix contents. For now, you can still get to access on a few of  Mullvad’s servers.

Mullvad Supported devices: ios, Android, iPhones

Mullvad supports the 5 major operating systems – Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, and Android. However, they have standalone clients for the only Window, Linux and Mac. To use Mullvad on your mobile iPad, iPhones, and Android devices, you have to download one Mullvad OpenVPN client to your device and go through the setup process which less tech-savvy users will perceive as rigorous. I will like to see Mullvad develop a client for Android and iOS platforms.

Setting up Mullvad on routers can also come as difficult (for the less tech-savvy) because of the configurations that are needed. Mullvad can also do better here, as some VPNs have pre-configured routers on the market.

Adblocking:

Mullvad does not have features that block ads. Most VPNs are offering many ‘beyond VPN’ features such as ad-blocking, malware blocking and social media blocking.  Pop-up ads not only annoyingly disrupt browsing but also cause sites to be slow to load, while social media add buttons and similar pop-ups could plant files that compromise privacy. I would like to see Mullvad enhance user browsing experience by adding these features to their client.

Simultaneous connections:

This is fast becoming a deal-breaker to most users because they do not want to spend more to have VPN protection on their multiple devices and even on the devices of family members. Mullvad allows you to use one account to protect up to five devices simultaneously. This is a good one because five simultaneous connections are the industry average; only a few VPNs offer more.

Mullvad Server Availability

Other VPNs announce the number of countries they operate servers in as well as the numbers of servers operated. With just a look you will know the size of the VPN server network. Not Mullvad. On their site, Mullvad lists all their servers and their locations, and you have to physically count to know the number of countries covered.

The number of servers and locations in a VPN network is becoming important in discussing a VPN service. With regards to VPN servers; the phrase ‘the more the merrier’ couldn’t be more apt. The more server locations a VPN has the more locations you’ll have to hide under (greater anonymity); the more you’re likely to get a nearby server (the closer the server the better the internet speed), and the less likely you are to get an overcrowded server (an overcrowded server reduces internet speed).

Mullvad currently operates 222 servers (188 regular servers, 29 wireguard servers, and 5 bridge servers) in 32 countries. Mullvad’s 188 regular servers count pale in comparison with some VPN who operate thousands of servers; however, the number of countries covered (32) is on par with many VPNs in the market. Mullvad would say that they have relatively low numbers because they do not follow the practice of using virtual servers, but they can do well to improve their server count. The more the merrier.

In terms of geographical distribution; their servers are kind of concentrated in few countries. For example, the US (51), the UK (11), and Sweden (35) account for over 50% of the regular server count; there are no servers in the whole of Africa and the Middle East, and only one server in South America (Brazil). There are also no servers in China, Russia and Turkey (countries with restrictive regimes that impose Internet censorship).

There are many VPNs that have a better distribution of their servers; VPNs are increasingly moving operations to Africa (with South Africa, Egypt and Kenya), and the top VPNs are also operating servers in the anti-internet-freedom locales of China and Russia.

Speed

VPNs are primarily to provide online privacy and security; so why do we need to consider speed? Consider that though the primary purpose of a car is to take you from point A to point B, you’ll rather use a car that will take you from A to B in a reasonable time, than a car that will take forever.

VPN use slows internet speed because of all the data encryption and rerouting that is involved. However, a good VPN will record only a minimal or tolerable drop in the speed recorded without a VPN use. A slow VPN is that which drops speed significantly to intolerable levels and is as useless as a car that takes forever to go from A to B.

Mullvad does not feature well in terms of speed. While some of their servers were very fast (Swedish servers especially), others were not so great, while some were really slow. If speed is your primary concern, then the speed inconsistency of Mullvard will be a deal-breaker for you.

Mullvad Price:

Mullvard has the simplest pricing I have seen among VPNs. The Mullvad VPN service cost €5.00 for 30 days.

This pricing model is simple because of it flexible – it does not entail having priced packages for fixed periods. You get to decide how long you want the VPN protection. You can decide you need the VPN for 100 days, 120 days, 150 days or any other length of time. All you need to do is calculate how much your desired coverage period will cost (using the €5.00/ 30 days rate) and make the corresponding payment.

You can also simply pay any amount, and Mullvad will give you to the service for the corresponding period. For example, you can pay €17.00 and you’ll have the service for 100 days.

Mullvad is unique in offering this flexible pricing model. Other VPNs offer priced packages for fixed periods (1 month, 6 months, one year, two years); and it is not uncommon to see users disgruntled because the fixed period on offer is either too short or too long for them.

The only disadvantage of the Mullvad flexible pricing model is that it does not give discounts. With the other VPNs, users who opt for the longer-term subscriptions get significant cost savings, because the packages are usually heavily discounted. To put this in perspective, while the monthly subscription of some of the top VPNs is about $10.00, their discounted long term (2 years, 3 years) subscription come to about $3.50 per month. So with €5.00 for 30 days, Mullvad is cheap in the short term but would prove more expensive in the long term.

Mullvad Payment Options:

Mullvad accepts payment with any of the regular payment methods such as bank wire, credit cards, PayPal. Mullvad warns that credit card payments and bank transfers leave records; they add that these records are kept and maintained by the banks and card companies and that Mullvad has nothing to do with the records and can do nothing to erase them.

To avoid the records of the regular payment methods; Mullvad also supports anonymous payments with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. They actively encourage using anonymous payments methods and even incentivize it by giving a 10% discount for payment with bitcoin.

Mullvad has taken anonymous payment to crazy realms of anonymity by accepting cash payment. You can stuff cash (in any currency) in an envelope and mail to mullvad; you just have to also include the account number you generated from the system. There is no VPN in the market that match Mullvad’s offer of anonymous cash payment.

Refund Policy:

Mullvad also grants refunds if you are not satisfied with the VPN service.  Like most of the competing VPNs, they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, which means that you must request the refund not later than 30 days from the time of payment.

If payment was made through the regular methods, refunds are quite straight forward; but getting back your refund will not be a smooth process if payment was through the anonymous methods of bitcoin and bitcoin cash. If you made cash payment; forget a refund. Mullvad doesn’t do refunds for cash payment.

Mullvad Free Trial:

Mullvad gives a 3 hours free trial. I have seen VPN give 3 days and 7 days of the free trial, yet users felt the trial session could be longer. Mullvad 3-hours free trial is therefore grossly inadequate to properly test the service. The only consolation is that if the 3 hours is insufficient for you to get a good feel of the service (which will be the case given the advanced technical configurations within it), you can pay, get a good feel of the service for 30 days and activate the ‘30 days money-back guarantee’ clause.

Customer Support Service

Mullvad customer support service, like most VPNs, consists of a knowledge base for self-help and an email support system.

Their knowledge base consists of FAQs and guides. The FAQs address most common questions relating to the use of the Mullvad VPN. The guides contain detail instructions: for installing the Mullvad app on the different platforms, and for troubleshooting various problems.

The e-mail support service allows you to reach out to a Mullvad agent with a detailed description of any issue you might have. Your privacy is not compromised by using the e-mail support because the email is protected by PGP encryption. The timeliness of response is anything between 1 – 24 hours which is also relatively good, as some VPN takes about 48 hours to respond to queries.

However, Mullvad does not have a live chat feature. This would be disappointing to users who would want instant responses.

Summary

Mullvad lives and breathe security. They are easily the VPN that gives you something close to complete anonymity. Mullvard privacy features (use of high-level encryption protocol, not keeping user data, allowing anonymous payments (even cash), not requiring login information, minimalist use of cookies, offering DNS leak protection, offering a kill switch) will wear you a cloak of online anonymity that you will be hard-pressed to get with any other VPN.

Mullvad VPN is also priced on the cheap side if you are not a perpetual user. They allow P2P activity as well as access to Netflix.

However, the lack of stand-alone apps for Android and iOS platforms counts against them. The complex configurations needed to set up the app on certain devices and routers make the VPN kind of aimed at techie users. Also, Mullvad can do better with speeds.

They will hardly impress users that view speed as equally important as privacy. They can also increase the number of servers and locations. The more, the merrier. Though they support P2P file sharing, they will hardly come out as a good VPN for BitTorrent because of the few servers that they have for the activity. They are also badly missing a live chat support service.

Do you have experience with Mullvad? Good or bad, kindly use the comment section below to give us your brief Mullvad review.