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Ste41th @lemmy.ml

Mullvad VPN or Proton VPN?

Basically I started with mullvad then turned to proton but after they introduced AI and a crypto wallet I’m just looking for what peoples opinions are.

EDIT: Thank you all for your suggestions and opinions :D

81 comments

  • Mullvad is currently highly trusted by the community. If you lost your trust in proton I recommend switching back to it.

  • Mullvad is cheaper, and probably a bit more trusted, but Proton has port forwarding. Currently I use Mullvad. I don't like the Mullvad's 5 device limit on Wireguard clients though. You can only have 5 devices added to the account, no matter if just 1 or all 5 are currently connected. And after using Wireguard once, I don't want to use OpenVPN again where wg can fully replace it.
    Both support cash payments, though Proton makes me feel like they expect it for larger sums of cash:

    We cannot be responsible for lost shipments, so we strongly recommend sending your payment using a service that provides a tracking number so you can track the shipment. It’s also helpful to notify us that you’re sending us cash in the mail, so we know to expect it.

    While Mullvad asks you not to use registered mail nor send larger amounts of cash. I feel like the latter is implied by asking to notify them. I suppose "Hey, I am sending you 10 bucks via mail." is not what's expected here.

    What I absolutely like is the fair pricing. It's same price no matter how much time you buy, whether it's 1 month, a year or two. Even their direct competitor IVPN does this crap (and so does Proton). I value that quite a bit.

    So currently Mullvad is winning for me.

  • Isn't mullvad better and cheaper?

    • think I didn't get it?

      protonvpn is a few pennies cheaper when goin' for 2 years and even much more when you wait for the black friday offers.

      so if you can't wait and don't use a vpn on a daily basis, mullvad is 100% cheaper, so yes kinda.

      • I wouldn't pay for 2 years for a privacy service. Eventually you'll loose privacy. Better to create a new account at least every 6 months.

  • Mullvad is better imo, unless you need port forwarding. I'm currently using Proton since I pay for Unlimited for that encrypted drive space, and using their VPN saves me money since I just think of the payment as just for Proton Drive. This is a change I made just a few days ago though, for about a year I've paid for both Proton Unlimited and Mullvad, and I legitimately prefer Mullvad over Proton, it just made sense for me to switch money wise. Can't really go wrong between the two imo.

  • they're both good but I use mullvad only because I use proton for email and I don't want one company to have both my emails and web traffic

  • I switched from ProtonVPN Free to Mullvad last month when I needed to torrent something. ProtonVPN Free doesn't allow P2P traffic, and Mullvad is cheaper than ProtonVPN Pro (or whatever it's called these days).

    The AI doesn't seem too bad, but I'd prefer it not be there at all. I have no opinions about the crypto, as there is a legitimate use for it, but I have no use for the wallet as I have had a lot of trouble getting ahold of any cryptocurrency.

    I'm also happier with the company and the experience. I paid with a card, but I liked that they accept cash and Monero.

    On top of that, nobody seems to have anything bad to say about Mullvad. Privacy? They keep no logs and are pretty damn transparent. Limitations? No port forwarding, but I can just use Windscribe if I need that. Clients? They don't exclude Linux or arm64, and BSD users can just use wireguard-go or something.

    There's also a story when one time the Polisen came to Mullvad HQ with a search warrant, but had to leave after discovering that there were no logs kept, and therefore nothing they could do.

    Furthermore, they've made my favourite web browser (which is essentially Tor Browser without Tor) by collaborating with the Tor Project. It's one of only three browsers which give good results in Cover Your Tracks (although I have not yet tested anything with CreepJS; and I tend to change the settings in everything, so your mileage may vary).

    TL;DR: I recommend Mullvad over ProtonVPN, but not because of the AI or crypto.

    I also recommend Posteo over ProtonMail, Filen over Proton Drive, Bitwarden over Proton Pass, and I stopped using Proton before we got Proton Wallet.

  • I used ProtonVPN for years. I use MullvadVPN. Both are totally fine, in my experience. I left ProtonVPN because I couldn't get port forwarding on Linux, and then less than two months after I did that Mullvad removed that feature, so that's how it goes.

  • I found that Proton always had connectivity issues tbh. Frequently had to disable my vpn just to use the internet which defeated the purpose. Never had this issue with Mullvad; I've found it very reliable. Also Mullvad is absolutely more privacy oriented. They don't require any kind of personal data. Proton will be tied to your Proton account so possibly your email, proton drive, etc.

  • I switched to Proton because I use all the products of their unlimited plan so it makes financial sense to go for that.

    However, I feel like Mullvad VPN is vastly superior. Their no bullshit payment options are fanstastic. 5 euros a month, no matter if you buy 1 month or 10 years. I feel like speed and connection stability was noticeably better as well.

    I miss Mullvad VPN, really.

  • mullvad. I've been having issues with proton on windows, but its cheaper for me since I get cloud storage, aliases, and some other stuff with it

  • General consensus seems to be mullvad if you just want a VPN, and proton if you're gonna use all the other stuff. I use their email for some things, and I'm planning to switch to proton drive once they roll out the linux app, so I use proton.

81 comments