Mullvad is so keen to not store users’ personal information, it doesn’t offer new recurring plans anymore. That’s the kind of privacy-first mindset you can expect, and while you may think that sounds like overkill, your account information is tied to a single account number.

That means logging into your account is done without having to hand over an email or password, and payments are handled monthly at that flat €5 per month rolling deal (so the only price change will be dependent on the exchange rate at that time).

You can even buy prepaid cards if you don’t want to log payment information, which makes Mullvad the ideal VPN service for anyone looking to leave a minimal digital footprint.

See how Mullvad compares to other Mac VPNs we’ve tested.

For that lower price you may be wondering what kind of corners are cut, but you won’t find any (outside of more servers). Split Tunnelling, multihop connections and even an AI-focused defence mechanism called DAITA are included in your membership. It also performed excellently when we hopped between different countries’ versions of Netflix.

The app itself is a little different to many rivals, accessed exclusively from the menu bar on Mac rather than having that as an option. That’s likely to be a matter of preference, but the privacy focus, geo-unblocking and low price make this well worth a look.

Features & Apps

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Content Blockers: Mullvad has a more granular filter for content blocking than some other services.

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Foundry

Mullvad is available on Mac (which we’ll be reviewing primarily today), but it also has Windows, iOS, iPadOS, Android, and plenty more apps. See our round ups of the Best VPN for iPad and Best VPN for iPhone.

They all work the same way, but the Mac version is restricted to the menu bar as mentioned above. That’s fine (outside of making snapping screenshots for this review a tad awkward), and it packs plenty of features inside.

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iOS App: The iOS app looks identical to the Mac version.

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Foundry

Once you get your head around that, all versions of the app contribute to a total device limit of five. We’d always prefer more, but for this price that’s €1 per device if you use them all. Unlike some services, the iPhone and iPad apps also pack plenty of power user features, too, like multihop connections and the DAITA protection.

Sticking with the Mac version, though, and Mullvad offers a bunch of features that would be paid additions elsewhere. There’s the Kill Switch to cut traffic if the VPN drops, while a Lockdown Mode takes that step further and forces the user to reconnect via Mullvad if the connection drops.

There’s Multihop for bouncing your connection via multiple servers, and split tunnelling is available as standard so users can send some traffic via the VPN and ignore it for others, and the ad blocker is more granular than you may expect, letting you stop adult content or gambling sites, among other things.