/priv/ - Privacy & Anonymity

• Sign-up: anonymous account number, no email or name required
• Payment: cash by mail or crypto accepted, so there's no purchase record tying an identity to an account
• Real-world test: Swedish police raided Mullvad's offices in 2023 with a warrant and left without obtaining any user activity logs
• Audits: multiple independent audits of its apps and infrastructure, most recently a payment/account API audit by X41 D-Sec in Jan 2026
• Pricing: flat rate, unchanged since 2009, no upsell tiers or "limited time" pricing games

The one people point to when they want proof, not a promise. Doesn't try to be everything - five simultaneous devices, one flat price, and a company that seems more interested in not knowing things about you than in growing a feature list.

• Apps: open-source clients across platforms, so the code claims can actually be checked
• Audits: no-logs policy independently audited multiple times (2022, 2023, 2024)
• Free tier: genuinely usable free plan with no data cap, unusual among "free" VPNs, most of which log or throttle you instead
• Anonymous signup: can be created via a Proton Mail alias, crypto accepted for payment
• Extra feature: Secure Core routes traffic through hardened servers in privacy-friendly countries before it ever leaves Proton's network

Built by the CERN alumni behind Proton Mail. Good default pick if you want a no-logs VPN and don't want to think much harder about it than that - the free tier alone is worth knowing about.

• Apps: open-source, alongside Proton one of the only providers with both open-source apps and annual third-party audits
• Sign-up: account number system, no email required, doesn't even ask you to pick your own account number
• Business model: caps new signups during high-demand periods rather than overselling server capacity
• Transparency: publishes its own warrant canary and detailed audit history rather than just a badge

Smaller than the big names and proud of it. Less marketing budget, more of the budget seems to go toward actually being what it says it is. Worth a look if the household names feel too commercial for your taste.

• Audits: no-logs policy audited more times than any other provider on this list (six audits by this point, most recent by Deloitte, Feb 2026)
• Jurisdiction: Panama, outside the Five/Nine/Fourteen Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangements
• Servers: RAM-only, large network, includes Double VPN and Onion-over-VPN routing options
• Note: parent company Nord Security is now Netherlands-based following the 2025 Surfshark merger - worth knowing, doesn't change the audit record

The mainstream pick, and there's a reason for that - the audit trail genuinely backs it up. Bigger company, bigger feature set, less of the "five guys in Sweden" vibe than Mullvad, still holds up on the actual privacy claims.