Mullvad vs Proton VPN
The two privacy-VPN picks worth taking seriously. One is a flat-fee anarchist favorite. The other is the only major VPN with a usable free tier.
Both audited, both with successful no-logs proofs under legal pressure, both built by teams with privacy as the actual mission rather than marketing.
Mullvad charges a flat $5/month. No annual upsell, no tiers, no streaming carve-outs. The signup flow generates a 16-digit account number — no email, no name, no anything. Pay in cash, Monero, or BTC if you want full anonymity. Swedish jurisdiction.
Proton VPN has a genuine free tier with no bandwidth cap (the only major VPN where this is true). Paid tiers add Tor-over-VPN, Secure Core multi-hop, and bundle with Mail/Drive/Calendar/Pass. Email required at signup, but anonymous payment options exist. Swiss jurisdiction.
Pick Mullvad if the cleanest possible privacy story matters more than features. The flat pricing model and anonymous account are unique in the category.
Pick Proton VPN if you want a free option for occasional use, or if you're already in the Proton ecosystem. The bundle math gets very favorable when Mail + VPN + Drive land in one subscription.
Either is a defensible answer. The wrong answer is a flashy name like NordVPN or ExpressVPN.