Mullvad vs Windscribe

Comparing: two VPNs
Decided by: Independent no-logs audits
Last reviewed: 2026-08-26

MullvadTakes bitcoin

No email, no username, no password: a random account number, cash or Monero in an envelope, and a police raid that came away with nothing.

WindscribeTakes bitcoin

Seized twice and prosecuted once, with nothing to hand over each time; no email needed to sign up, and it takes bitcoin over Lightning.

Verdict: Mullvad

Mullvad carries more independent audits of its no-logs claim: 4 against 3 for Windscribe. We publish no rating for VPNs, so the audit count is the one criterion that decides.

Criterion: Independent no-logs audits
Mullvad: 4
Windscribe: 3

Mullvad and Windscribe, fact by fact

Every row is from the two reviews as of their review dates, with sources on each. A check marks the side a decidable criterion favours; rows without one are information, not a score.

Mullvad and Windscribe compared fact by fact from their reviews; a check marks the side a decidable criterion favours.
Fact	Mullvad	Windscribe
Independent audits	4, latest 2024 (favoured on this row)	3, latest 2024
Real-world tests	1	3
Incidents on record	0	1
Market exits	0	0
Owner	Mullvad VPN AB	Windscribe Limited
Jurisdiction	Sweden	Canada
Eyes alliance	Fourteen Eyes	Five Eyes
Price	Flat EUR 5/mo, any term	$69/yr Pro, or from $3/mo
Money-back	14 days	7 days
Crypto accepted	bitcoin, bitcoin cash, monero	bitcoin, bitcoin lightning
Anonymous signup	Yes	Yes
Free tier	None	10 GB a month with a confirmed email, 2 GB without, across 11 countries
Servers	Vendor publishes a live server list, running to roughly 550 servers, and marks which are owned rather than rented	Vendor states servers in more than 69 countries on paid plans, all running from RAM after the FreshScribe rebuild
Last reviewed	2026-08-26	2026-08-26

No-logs evidence, side by side

Dated audits and real-world tests from each review. An empty column is a finding: the claim has not been independently checked.

Mullvad

2024Audit by Cure53: fourth infrastructure audit, covering one OpenVPN and one WireGuard server plus the Ansible deployment code
2023At least six officers from the Swedish police National Operations Department searched Mullvad's Gothenburg office with a warrant seeking customer data: Mullvad showed the data did not exist and the officers left without seizing equipment or obtaining any customer information
2021Audit by Cure53: infrastructure audit that found no personally identifiable information or privacy leaks
2020Audit by Cure53: penetration test and source code audit of the apps across Windows, Android and iOS
2018Audit by Cure53: penetration test and source code audit of the VPN client app

Windscribe

2026Dutch authorities physically seized a Windscribe server from a data centre rack: The company reports they found a stock install running entirely in RAM, with no drives, logs or user data on it
2025Greek prosecutors, with INTERPOL involvement, charged co-founder Yegor Sak personally over activity traced to a Windscribe server: The case was dismissed on 11 April 2025 after a two-year fight, because Windscribe held no user data to produce
2024Audit by PacketLabs: the full FreshScribe server infrastructure, 20 repositories and roughly 80,000 lines of code, with external and internal penetration testing
2022Audit by Leviathan Security Group: security audit of the mobile applications
2021Audit by Leviathan Security Group: security audit of the desktop applications
2021Ukrainian authorities seized two Windscribe servers: No user activity logs were found, but the unencrypted disks exposed an OpenVPN certificate authority key; Windscribe disclosed this publicly and rebuilt its network to run only in RAM

Frequently asked questions

Is Mullvad or Windscribe better for privacy?

Mullvad carries more independent audits of its no-logs claim: 4 against 3 for Windscribe. We publish no rating for VPNs, so the audit count is the one criterion that decides. Audits, court and seizure records and incidents are dated on each review with their sources.

Can I pay Mullvad or Windscribe with bitcoin?

Mullvad takes bitcoin, bitcoin cash and monero (processor: In-house, on self-hosted full nodes). Windscribe takes bitcoin and bitcoin lightning (processor: In-house). Each review quotes the vendor's own refund sentence for crypto purchases verbatim.

Which is cheaper, Mullvad or Windscribe?

Mullvad: Flat EUR 5/mo, any term. Windscribe: $69/yr Pro, or from $3/mo. Money-back: Mullvad 14 days, Windscribe 7 days. Prices are from each vendor's own page as of the review date.

Where are Mullvad and Windscribe based?

Mullvad: Sweden (fourteen eyes member). Windscribe: Canada (five eyes member). A jurisdiction matters less than a court record showing what the provider could hand over; the reviews carry those where they exist.

The full reviews: Mullvad and Windscribe, each with its sources, and every VPN we review.

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