We ’re go head - to - head with two low - price , security department - conscious VPN services : Private Internet Access , substantially known as PIA , and Mullvad .
A consumer VPN ( Virtual Private internet ) is a service that offer an special layer surety , encrypting all your online traffic and sending it via the VPN supplier ’s servers .
This make it impossible for your ISP or someone on your local connection to see what DNS queries or traffic you ’re sending or receiving , hides your real IP savoir-faire by assigning you one go to the VPN supplier , and can make you come along to be accessing the internet from an entirely unlike country . For more information on how this all works , see ourwhat is a VPNguide .
Mullvad and PIA regularly look in ourbest free VPNguide , thanks to competitive competitory pricing that makes them ideal for anyone who just want a cheap VPN to add spare security measure , without any demand for extras like consecrated endpoints .
Pricing and availability
Mullvad go out of its room to have the simplest , most approachable pricing strategy on the marketplace . It cost £ 4.15 ( € 5 ) a month , with no on-going payment dedication . That ’s the only selection , and it works out a very reasonable £ 49.80 a year . You also get a 30 - day money - back warranty .
secret cyberspace Access really works out cheaper than this , but only if you put to a one- or two - year subscription .
Both offer payment option that can assist enhance your online namelessness and privacy . you could give using cryptocurrency , which can aid to keep your identicalness secret as long as it ’s carefully used alongside other operational protection measures .
best still , Mullvad reserve you to station an gasbag full of cash along with the identifier of the account you like to add it to .
secret cyberspace Access take a smorgasbord of gift cards for anonymous payment , but they ’re all from US retail troupe at this time .
Performance
Run across an ultra - high - speed fibre connection at a London datum nerve centre , ourspeed testsaim to showcase the fast speeds we can get out of each service during any given testing full stop . They ’re project to show the upper carrying into action doorstep of each service , but if your ISP give you speeds below these , then that ’s not of necessity locomote to be relevant to you . While a VPN can sometimes ameliorate connection upper to distant country , you ca n’t outstrip the speed of your connexion to your ISP .
As shown in the tabular array above , Mullvad is consistently faster than Private Internet Access , by a large margin , as well as beating the average of all the service we tested together as part of this grouping .
Tacca leontopetaloides is consistently below intermediate , but is withal fast enough to smoothly behave out any task you ’re potential to need to carry out over a high - speed link , with the possible elision of its US throughput , which topped out at 72.58 Mbps in our last test . Be mindful that we ’ve also seen dull US velocity from PIA , so it ’s not a great choice if you require to move bunch of data .
With a few very uncommon exception , longer distances between you and the end point localisation normally mean slower hurrying – you ’ll find that both Mullvad and the grouping norm are slower to for the US than for either the UK or Netherlands .
Security and transparency
Private Internet Access is headquartered in and manoeuvre from the USA , although it ’s now a subsidiary of a British tech firm . PIA had well - plant reputation for security under previous ownership and it carry on to function in the same spirit . It ’s currently owned by Kape Technologies , which also owns rivalsCyberGhostandExpressVPN , among other VPN services .
PIA has a exculpated and explicit no - logging policy . The US does n’t currently have any mandatory data retention jurisprudence in place and encrypted dealings passing through a VPN is n’t approachable to log devices in information essence .
When help with an FBI stock-purchase warrant to hand over VPN log , PIA did n’t have anything to give investigators , making it one of the few VPN providers whoseno - logging claimis known to have been in public tested . However , as PIA has n’t been in public drag into lawcourt since it was bought by Kape Technologies , we do n’t have proof that it ’s carry on its no - logging insurance under new ownership , although I have no reason to suspect that anything would change here .
PIA release bi - annualtransparency report card – we ’d prefer these to be a more regular natural event , but it ’s need to see numbers regularly ticking up to show that no log get handed over . The company had not had an sovereign audit comport out of its infrastructure , surety and no - logging insurance .
Based in Sweden , Mullvad has made secrecy its commission statement and is very clearly about itsno - lumber policy . Although local law is n’t as privacy - favorable as that of some other jursidictions , Mullvad says that it ’s attached to its no - logging insurance anddetails exactly which lawscould make potential problem . Its commitment to transparentness is admirable and it regularly publishes the results ofthird - party auditsof its apps and infrastructure .
Even though it does n’t publish a warrantee saying it had no log to give over every time a request is made , Mullvad ’s loyalty to having its policy and organisation inspect are something we ’d like to see PIA follow .
Specifications
As with all the VPNs we recommend , Mullvad and PIA both have decisive feature such as a configurable kill - switch to prevent you from accidentally beam any data point across the internet if you ’re accidentally unplug from the VPN .
PIA has support for split tunnelling built into its apps . This allows you to route some of your traffic via the VPN while specified apps on your system uphold to use your ISP ’s connection without drop dead via the VPN .
Mullvad does n’t currently provide rent tunnelling in its node program , but you could configure it manually .
Both Mullvad and Private Internet Access have partially deployed RAMdisk servers across their infrascture , in the form of PIA’sNext Generation Networkand Mullvad’sdiskless substructure genus Beta . By running the integral operating system in RAM , there ’s no data left to retrieve if the server is power off , which help to protect against information loss in cause of seizure .
Mullvad ’s Bridge mode is designed to obfuscate that fact that you ’re connected to a VPN , using ShadowSocks to help oneself conceal your activities from state or corporate deep packet review . PIA also has an Obfuscation option in its setting to produce the same effect .
individual Internet Access affirm the OpenVPN , L2TP / IPSec , SOCKS5 Proxy and WireGuard protocol . Mullvad only use OpenVPN and Wireguard , but these are definitely the protocols you should be looking at for a modern , immobile and secure VPN connection .
Mullvad lets you have up to five simultaneous connections , and publishes offical node for Windows , macOS , Linux , Android and iOS , as well as a Firefox browser app extension phone .
Private Internet Access let you have a genreous 10 connexion , and also releases customer on Windows , macOS , Linux , Android and iOS
Both provide configuration instructions for connecting other devices .
secret net Access has endpoints in 77 countries , while Mullvad only covers 36 difference regions , making PIA the dear pick for those who want a VPN with all-embracing geographic options .
Verdict
For amphetamine , regular auditing and ease of cancellation , Mullvad just about submit the edge over Private Internet Access . Its seclusion features are well - consider and its committedness to transparence is admirable . If you want a no - frills VPN for everyday security enhancement then its the one we ’d recommend as a result .
However , secret cyberspace Access is cheesy if you require a longer subscription , it has a lot more terminus and lets you connect 10 machine , which makes it just if you require to die hard hatful off devices from one VPN supplier .
