Mullvad VS Surfshark Comparison

UPDATED Apr. 2024
Table Of Contents+
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Surfshark and Mullvad are like a Porsche and a BMW. They both have excellent features when viewed individually, but when observed side by side, it becomes obvious that their creators invested great efforts in maximizing the quality of various distinct aspects of their products. This Surfshark VS Mullvad comparison is designed to make it easy for you to see how well these two services do in different departments, so you could decide which one offers exactly what you need. It further presents the results of an expert analysis conducted in order to show which VPN provides better services overall.

Surfshark
Best For Avid Streamers
VS
Mullvad
Best For Beginners

Highlights

Surfshark
Surfshark is at the very top of the VPN market thanks to its bank-grade encryption, strict zero-logging policy, excellent speed, and impressive feature suite. It works with some of the most popular streaming services.
  • 800+ servers
  • AES-256 cypher
  • Internet killswitch
  • Zero-knowledge DNS
Mullvad
Mullvad is a privacy-centric VPN provider from Sweden. The service is built around the idea of free internet for everybody offering solid encryption and providing a secure online environment for its users without any connection logs.
  • 5 simultaneous connections
  • P2P allowed on all servers
  • Cash and Bitcoin accepted

Compare Prices

Company
1 Month
3 Months
6 Months
1 Year
2 Years
Surfshark
1 Month
$11.95
3 Months
/
6 Months
/
1 Year
$5.99
2 Years
$1.99
Mullvad
1 Month
$6.11
3 Months
$18.34
6 Months
$36.69
1 Year
$73.39
2 Years
/
* The prices shown represent the cost of one month within different subscriptions. To see all available plans and pricing options, check individual reviews.

Compare Features

Surfshark
Based In
British Virgin Ilands
Number Of Servers
500+
Number Of Countries
50
Protocols
OpenVPN; IKEv2
Encryption
AES-256
Simultaneous Connections
unlimited
Logs Policy
no logs
Dedicated IP
Killswitch
DNS Leak Protection
Allows Torrenting
Torrenting Servers
SmartDNS
Mullvad
Based In
Sweden
Number Of Servers
0
Number Of Countries
0
Protocols
OpenVPN, Wireguard
Encryption
AES-256, RSA-4096 certificates, SHA-512 server authentication
Simultaneous Connections
5
Logs Policy
no logs
Dedicated IP
Killswitch
DNS Leak Protection
Allows Torrenting
Torrenting Servers
SmartDNS

Supported Devices

Surfshark
Windows
OS X
Android
iOS
Router
Mullvad
Windows
OS X
Linux
Android
iOS

Compare Ratings

Surfshark
FINAL RATING
9.9/10
Anonymity
Reliability
Performance
Features
Support
Value For Money
Mullvad
FINAL RATING
8.2/10
Anonymity
Reliability
Performance
Features
Support
Value For Money

Compare User Reviews

Surfshark
  • Submitted By Gavin Miller on 01/08/2020
    This is a perfect vpn from people like myself who use it for streaming, and gaming and for torrents. Streaming speed has been the fastest out of all the vpns I’ve tried so far. Other and eaqualiy important feature, at least for me, is that you can completely mask your IP address by jumping from one server to another. However, it really slows your internet so I suggest you do it only when necessary.
  • Submitted By Harley Andrade on 12/20/2019
    The first time I came across surfshark I’ve read that it only has an app for android, however by the time I was deciding on what to buy they’ve already transitioned to Windows and IOS and after I’ve read its awesome review it was a no brainer. I went fro one year subscription straight away which is $5.99 per month for one year and so far I’ve been very pleased with everything.
  • Submitted By J. Bennet on 12/02/2019
    I got a Surfshark subscription during Black Friday, so obviously I'm quite happy with the price. I mainly needed it to unblock Netflix and Disney+ so I read some reviews (including this one) before buying it to make sure. I did have some downtime on Disney+, but when I contacted their customer support, they gave me and exact SLA of when it will be fixed and added a free week to my subscription. I'd say it was handled very well.
  • Submitted By SJ on 11/20/2019
    Yes, Surfshark is affordable, but service is patchy. I wanted Surfshark to connect to a certain website, and all VPNs in a certain location fail to "geolocate" to that location. I contacted Surfshark within the 30 days warranty period and customer support failed to fix the problem or refund my money as requested. Customer support is no good. If they refund my money or fix the problem, I will update this review. Until then....avoid Surfshark.
Mullvad
  • Submitted By donkey on 12/06/2019
    I've been using Mullvad for over 2 years and am very happy with their service. I have a lot of computers and run numerous operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux, Servers, etc) and the setup is simple every time. They don't have as many servers as some of the bigger VPN services, but I get over 100Mb/sec when I'm connected through the app and they have servers that are very local to me on the east coast of the US. I especially love their wireguard support, which I use exclusively on my linux machines and I get my full bandwidth. It's blazing fast (for me) and the setup is super easy thanks to their configuration wizard, including the multihop feature. Even better is the ability to pay anonymously, you can even mail them cash and you never need to provide a name or even an email address!
  • Submitted By Alex Fredrick on 09/03/2019
    If you are considering a VPN, stop considering anything other than Mullvad. I have used every VPN on the market and there is just no comparison to the features offered by Mullvad, The simplicity of their user interface, my grandma can use. Forget about all these numbers, (pings, speeds etc.) All the VPN's have same similar numbers so this is just wasting your time. However, aside from that, they are consistently updating and this company want to go #1, it obvious just one example their customer service. 5 Stars is just not enough
  • Submitted By Mullvad User on 07/07/2019
    I am a Windows 8.1 PC user. This VPN works great initially, however, after several uses over a short spell of days or so, this VPN won't allow you to access the internet directly at all, without it being active on your Windows PC -- no matter what you do to adjust the settings, even if you Quit the app(with the correct settings ticked to enable you to connect to the internet WITHOUT this VPN active; You will NOT be able to access the internet; Many websites limit their functionality or completely disallow connections through a VPN. I have used this VPN with my Windows 7 & 8.1 (PCs) and experienced this issue consistently with both over the past year that I have used Mullvad VPN for Windows. And even if you need to update to their most recent version, the issue will re-emerge shortly after doing so. If you wanted this problem addressed, you would have to connect with a 3rd party via email that will need to document everything in order to service this issue!! -- reasonable anonymity is then out-the-window!! So I have to assume that Mullvad is earning money from the 3rd party customer service(email) that they invite you to reference for help exclusively. Now of course, I don't experience this issue using Mullvad's servers via OpenVPN -- but OpenVPN can't offer the full security features like the Kill Switch, etc. I do however, continue to use Mullvad VPN on my Windows PC, because it's the most cost effective, reliable and secure VPN(I feel) that I can use!
  • Submitted By Gretter on 05/05/2019
    Mullvad does not work out of the box in China. Just home from China, here's a bit of hands on experience. Prior to travel, I tested it from europe. No problems. Tweaking settings as described didn't work for me. I'm a techie, but not on vpn, so some of it was in the blind. Combined with Wireguard, I did get a vpn connection. But I would not have been able to download the Wireguard app without a second working vpn connection. Now, I realize that there's probably sneaky way's to make this work, but if you're the average user... I don't recommend this vpn solutions for your China adventure as of early 2019.

Winner

Surfshark is a new VPN service that already started making waves on the market thanks to its amazing speed and generous features. Read all about this promising service in our dedicated Surfshark review.

* All the prices on this website are subject to change without notice. While we put a great deal of effort into making sure that all the prices are accurate, one or more products may have outdated prices. Please visit the specific product’s official website for exact prices.