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Comparisons of these two usually run through speed, servers and price. All three favour NordVPN, and none of them is the actual difference.
NordVPN needs your email address to sell you a subscription. Mullvad refuses to accept one. You click a button, receive a sixteen-digit number, and that number is everything the company will ever know about you. No name, no address, no password to reset.
Everything else in this Mullvad vs NordVPN comparison follows from that single decision — including the parts where Mullvad loses badly.
The Short Answer
NordVPN wins for most people. It holds our highest rating at 4.8, lost 2.9% of baseline speed in CNET’s testing, unblocks streaming reliably, and covers ten devices against Mullvad’s five.
Mullvad wins if the provider itself is who you want privacy from. No email, cash accepted by post, more than ten audits published in full, a police raid that produced nothing, and $75 less across four years.
Head to Head
| Mullvad | NordVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Sign-up | A 16-digit number | Email required |
| Payment | Cash by post accepted | Card, PayPal, crypto |
| Audits | 10+, all published | 6, account holders only |
| Tested by | Police warrant, 2023 | Not on record |
| Speed | 650 Mbps, 7th of 22 | 2.9% loss (CNET) |
| Devices | 5 | 10 |
| Servers | ~700 | 6,400 to 9,500 |
| Streaming | Not promised | Reliable |
| Jurisdiction | Sweden (14 Eyes) | Panama |
| Price | €5 flat, forever | $3.39 → $11.59 |
| Four years | ~$260 | ~$335 |
| Our rating | 4.2 | 4.8 |
What Each Company Knows About You
Start here, because it is the difference you cannot configure away.
NordVPN holds an email address, a payment record and a subscription history. That is ordinary and legal, and it is also a set of records that exists whether or not anyone ever asks for it. Crypto payment is accepted, though the account still requires an email.
Mullvad holds a number. No email, no username, no password. Payment by cryptocurrency works, and so does cash sent by post — you write the account number on a slip, put it in an envelope, and the balance appears when it arrives.
⚠️ A no-logs policy and a no-account architecture answer different questions. The first describes what a company chooses not to record about your browsing. The second describes what it is unable to record about your identity. NordVPN’s audits verify the first thoroughly; only Mullvad addresses the second. What a VPN actually hides sets out where each claim ends.
Lose the Mullvad number and the account is gone, because recovery would require the company to know something about you. That is the cost of the design, and it is a real one.
Winner: Mullvad, and nothing NordVPN can add would change it.
Audits: Six Behind a Login, Ten in the Open
NordVPN has six independent assessments, the most recent by Deloitte between 10 November and 12 December 2025, under the ISAE 3000 standard. Rigorous work by a Big Four firm, covering standard, Double VPN, Onion Over VPN and obfuscated servers.
The reports go to subscribers. You can read them inside your Nord Account, which means after you have paid.
Mullvad has more than ten, by Cure53 and Assured AB, and every report stays on the website with the findings intact. The 2022 Cure53 audit identified minor issues; Mullvad published them alongside the fixes rather than issuing a summary.
Then there is the part no audit provides. In April 2023 Swedish police arrived at Mullvad’s offices with a search warrant seeking customer data and left without seizing anything. Our full Mullvad review covers what happened in detail.
⚠️ A Big Four engagement carries weight a smaller firm’s does not, so this is not a straightforward win. But if your reason for buying is that you would rather verify than trust, one of these lets you read the evidence first.
Winner: Mullvad on transparency, NordVPN on auditor weight.
Speed and Network: NordVPN, Comfortably
CNET measured a 2.9% average download loss for NordVPN across more than 250 tests, the best result in that lineup. Mullvad, meanwhile, was recorded at 650 Mbps and seventh of twenty-two providers in separate testing, holding roughly 85% of baseline on nearby servers.
Those are different labs and different baselines, so treat the gap as directional rather than precise. Both are fast enough for anything most people do; how much speed you actually lose explains why percentages and megabits so often disagree.
Network size is not close. NordVPN runs somewhere between 6,400 and 9,500 servers depending on which source you believe. Mullvad runs around 700 across 40-plus countries, and argues that a physical server in the country listed beats a padded count of virtual locations.
⚠️ Since January 2026 Mullvad supports WireGuard only, having retired OpenVPN. Older routers that speak only OpenVPN can no longer connect, which our router guide covers.
Winner: NordVPN.
Devices and Features
NordVPN allows ten simultaneous connections. Mullvad allows five. For a single user that is fine; for a couple with phones, laptops and a tablet it is not, and Mullvad sells no add-on. Its sibling Surfshark allows unlimited, which widens the same gap further.
NordVPN’s feature list has no Mullvad equivalent: Meshnet linking up to 60 of your own devices, Threat Protection Pro, Smart DNS for televisions that cannot run an app, and Double VPN or Onion Over VPN as distinct routing options.
Mullvad counters with less, deliberately. Split tunnelling, a free SOCKS5 proxy, P2P across the whole network, and open-source apps on every platform. Neither offers port forwarding — Mullvad removed it in 2023, and NordVPN has never offered it, as our torrenting guide explains.
Streaming settles itself. NordVPN unblocks reliably; Mullvad does not maintain streaming servers and does not claim it will work.
Winner: NordVPN.
Price: The Cheaper One Costs More Per Month
This inverts, which is why it catches people out.
Mullvad charges €5 a month, about $5.40, and has since 2009. No tiers, no annual discount, no renewal increase.
NordVPN Basic starts around $3.39 a month on the two-year plan with three bonus months — cheaper than Mullvad — then renews at $139.08 a year, about $11.59 monthly.
Across four years: roughly $260 for Mullvad against $335 for NordVPN, a gap near $75. So the provider with the higher monthly rate is the cheaper one to own, purely because the other one doubles. Our cheap VPN guide sets both against the rest of the category.
⚠️ Both refund within 30 days. Mullvad returns unused time if you cancel mid-term, which follows from billing monthly rather than upfront.
Winner: Mullvad.
Winners by Category
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Anonymity from the provider | Mullvad |
| Audit transparency | Mullvad |
| Tested by legal process | Mullvad |
| Four-year cost | Mullvad |
| Speed | NordVPN |
| Server network | NordVPN |
| Streaming | NordVPN |
| Devices | NordVPN |
| Specialty features | NordVPN |
| Jurisdiction on paper | NordVPN |
When to Choose Mullvad Instead
You want the provider to know nothing. This is the whole argument, and no feature list answers it.
Audits you can read decide it for you. Ten-plus published reports beat six you have to subscribe to see.
Pricing games annoy you. Seventeen years at one number, and $75 less across four years.
You are a single user. Five devices is enough for one person and awkward for two — Proton VPN gives ten for about the same money if that is the sticking point.
How We Research
This comparison draws on our full reviews of both providers, NordVPN’s assurance-engagement announcement and coverage of it, Mullvad’s published audit reports from Cure53 and Assured AB, contemporaneous reporting on the April 2023 police search, renewal figures from each provider’s own terms, and speed results from named independent testers including CNET — cross-checked and verified at publication. We don’t run our own speed tests. Where the two were measured by different labs on different baselines, as they are on speed, we say so rather than presenting the numbers as a like-for-like result. Our full approach lives on the About Us page.
Mullvad vs NordVPN FAQ
Mullvad, structurally. NordVPN’s no-logs policy is verified by six Deloitte audits, but the company still holds your email address and payment history. Mullvad issues a sixteen-digit account number instead and accepts cash by post, so there is no identity on file to protect in the first place.
NordVPN. It lost 2.9% of baseline download speed in CNET’s testing, the best result in that round. Mullvad was measured at 650 Mbps and seventh of twenty-two providers in separate testing, which is fast but not comparable directly, since the two figures come from different labs.
Mullvad, by about $75. It charges a flat €5 a month, roughly $260 across four years. NordVPN starts cheaper at around $3.39 a month, then renews at $139.08 a year, bringing its four-year total near $335.
Not reliably, and it does not claim to. Mullvad maintains no streaming-optimised servers and treats unblocking as outside its purpose. NordVPN unblocks consistently and includes Smart DNS for televisions that cannot run a VPN app.
NordVPN allows ten simultaneous connections; Mullvad allows five. Neither sells an add-on to raise the limit. Five suits one person comfortably and a couple awkwardly, which is the practical reason most households pick NordVPN.
The Verdict
NordVPN wins this comparison and holds first place in our rankings. Faster, ten devices instead of five, streaming that works, and a feature set Mullvad has no interest in matching.
Mullvad wins the one thing NordVPN cannot offer. It never learns who you are, publishes every audit report in full, was tested by an actual search warrant, and costs $75 less across four years.
Ultimately the question is not which is better but what you are buying. If a VPN is a tool for streaming and speed, buy the fast one. If it is a way of not being known by the company you are paying, only one of these is designed for that. Against Proton VPN, NordVPN faces a similar argument from a different direction.