Mullvad was launched in March 2009 by Amagicom AB. Mullvad began supporting connections via the OpenVPN protocol in 2009. Mullvad was an early adopter and supporter of the WireGuard protocol, announcing the availability of the new VPN protocol in March 2017 and making a "generous donation" supporting WireGuard development between July and December 2017. In October 2019, Mullvad partnered with Mozilla. According to Mozilla, their upcoming VPN service, Mozilla VPN, would utilize Mullvad's WireGuard servers.
Service
, Mullvad's server list showed details for 667 server locations across 36 countries. A TechRadar review notes that "Mullvad's core service is powerful, up-to-date, and absolutely stuffed with high-end technologies." Complementing its use of the open-source OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols, Mullvad includes "industrial strength" encryption, 4096-bit RSA certificates with SHA512 for server authentication, perfect forward secrecy, "multiple layers" of DNS leak protection, IPv6 leak protection, "multiple stealth options" to help bypass government or corporate VPN blocking, and built in support for port forwarding. Mullvad provides VPN client applications for computers running under Windows, macOS and Linux operating systems., native iOS and Android Mullvad VPN clients using the WireGuard protocol are available. iOS and Android mobile operating system users can also configure and use built-in VPN clients or the OpenVPN or WireGuard apps to access Mullvad's service.
Privacy
No email address or other identifying information is requested during Mullvad's registration process. Rather, a unique 16-digit account number is anonymously generated for each new user. This account number is henceforth used to log in to the Mullvad service. To help ensure the privacy of its users, Mullvad accepts the anonymous payment methods of cash, Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.. For users of its VPN service, Mullvad's no-logging policy precludes logging of: the user's IP address, the VPN IP address used, browsing activity, bandwidth, connections, session duration, timestamps, and DNS requests. The TechRadar review notes that "The end result of all this is you don't have to worry about how Mullvad handles court requests to access your usage data, because, well, there isn't any."
Reception
While Mullvad has been noted for taking a strong approach to privacy and maintaining good connection speeds, the VPN client setup and interface has been noted as being more onerous and technically involved than some other VPN providers especially on some client platforms. However, a follow-up review by the same source in October 2018 notes, "Mullvad has a much improved, modern Windows client." This more recent PC World review concludes, "With its commitment to privacy, anonymity, and performance Mullvad remains our top recommendation for a VPN service." In November 2018, TechRadar noted Mullvad as one of five VPN providers to answer to a set of trustworthiness questions posed by the Center for Democracy and Technology. In March 2019, a TechRadar review noted slightly substandard speeds. However, a more recent and more thorough TechRadar review dated June 11, 2019 stated that "speeds are excellent." The latter review notes a shortcoming for mobile users in that, as of June 2019, Mullvad provides no mobile VPN client apps. Therefore VPN service on mobile devices must be set up manually, as guided by tutorials on the Mullvad support web pages. The non-profit Freedom of the Press Foundation, in their "Choosing a VPN” guide, lists Mullvad amongst the four VPNs that meet their recommended settings and features for VPN use as a tool for protecting online activity. The non-profit organization has developed a comprehensive list of VPN Provider Criteria in order to objectively recommend VPNs., only three VPNs had fulfilled those criteria. Mullvad is one of those three recommended VPN services.
