Compare AirVPN and Mullvad on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.
Both listed as alternatives to: ExpressVPN, IVPN, Private Internet Access
Italy· VPN Services
Needs review
Strong European option when you need remote port forwarding, Dynamic DNS, and open-source clients. Skip for enterprise fleet VPN or ISO/SOC-led vendor risk — consider WireGuard mesh (e.g. Tailscale/NetBird) or audited privacy VPNs such as Mullvad.
Sweden· VPN Services
Needs review
Shortlist when you need a Swedish founder-owned privacy VPN with numbered accounts, GPL clients, RAM-only relays, and a dense public audit trail. Skip when you need dedicated IPs, remote port forwarding, or productized enterprise SSO/ISO packaging—consider Proton VPN for suite/free-tier onboarding or AirVPN for inbound ports.
Highlighted rows differ between the two products.
| Feature | AirVPN | Mullvad |
|---|---|---|
| Country of origin | Italy | Sweden |
| Category | VPN Services | VPN Services |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | No | No |
| Headquarters | Italy | Sweden |
| Legal entity | AirVPN di Paolo Brini (also Air di Paolo Brini), Perugia | Mullvad VPN AB (reg. no. 559238-4001); parent Amagicom AB |
| Governing law | Italian courts / EU private international law framing (per ToS) | Swedish / EU law (GDPR); see Swedish legislation help page |
| US parent / control | No known US parent | No known US parent |
| CLOUD Act exposure (indicative) | Low | Medium |
| Hosting / residency | Multi-region servers (EU and outside EU). Confirm exit-node policy if you need EU-only traffic. | Multi-region VPN exits (EU and outside EU, including USA) on owned and rented colo (public provider list: e.g. M247, DataPacket, xtom, Zenlayer, Blix). RAM-only VPN OS. Account/payment personal data claimed stored only in EU/EEA. Payment subprocessors include Stripe and PayPal (US-group) plus SEB for bank/Swish when those methods are used; support email self-hosted by Mullvad since 2024. |
| Summary | Italian OpenVPN/WireGuard VPN with remote port forwarding, Dynamic DNS, and open-source Eddie clients—strong for technical privacy use, not enterprise fleet VPN. | Swedish privacy VPN with numbered accounts (no email), GPL-3 clients, RAM-only relays, and repeated third-party security audits—built for anonymity over enterprise packaging. |
| Tags |
| At a glance | AirVPN | Mullvad |
|---|---|---|
| HQ / entity | Perugia, Italy — AirVPN di Paolo Brini (sole proprietorship) | Gothenburg, Sweden — Mullvad VPN AB (parent Amagicom AB) |
| Protocols | OpenVPN, WireGuard; OpenVPN over SSH/SSL/Tor | WireGuard (primary), OpenVPN; bridges/obfuscation |
| Clients | Eddie GPLv3 (desktop + Android); configs without GUI | GPL-3 apps (Win/macOS/Linux/Android/iOS); WireGuard configs + CLI |
| Inbound ports | Up to 5 reserved remote ports + optional *.airdns.org DDNS | Not listed |
| Sessions | Five simultaneous connections per account | Five simultaneous connections; shared exits only |
| Commercial model | Prepaid access (see vendor site for current plans) | Prepaid access; no free tier; cash/crypto/card/PayPal (see site) |
| Independent audit | No public no-logs audit found | Not listed |
| B2B packaging | Self-serve ToS; no productized enterprise pack found | Self-serve consumer ToS; no productized enterprise pack found |
| Ownership | Not listed | 100% founders Fredrik Stromberg and Daniel Berntsson |
| Infrastructure | Not listed | RAM-only VPN relays; multi-region colo (owned + rented) |
| Independent audits | Not listed | Multiple public app/infra audits (Cure53, ROS, Assured, X41, …) |
Remote port forwarding and airdns.org DDNS
Reserve up to five inbound remote ports (TCP/UDP) while a plan is active, optionally map to different local ports, and attach optional *.airdns.org names that follow the VPN exit IP—useful for P2P, seedboxes, and self-hosted services.
Open-source Eddie client with Network Lock
Official GPLv3 client for major desktops and Android with firewall-based Network Lock (blocks traffic outside the tunnel), CLI, multi-provider mode, and hostile-network layering (SSH/SSL/Tor with AirVPN).
OpenVPN, WireGuard, and layered entry
Choose WireGuard or OpenVPN; OpenVPN is available on multiple ports and can run over SSH, SSL, or Tor when middleboxes block or throttle plain VPN handshakes. Dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 and internal VPN DNS with optional block lists.
Minimal identity requirements
Signup does not require real identity fields; email is optional for support. Payment processors handle their own data when used.
Transparent capacity and multi-session use
Five simultaneous connections, free server switches, public live server load, and a stated minimum allocated bandwidth per session. Commercial access is prepaid—see the vendor site for current plans.
Numbered accounts (no email required)
Signup generates a random account number with prepaid time remaining—no username, password, or email by default. Multiple people can share a number; recovery without the number is intentionally hard. Best when identity linkage is a risk; use cash or self-hosted crypto payments if you also want to avoid card/PayPal trails.
WireGuard-first apps with multihop and obfuscation
Official clients for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS use WireGuard with multihop, quantum-resistant tunnel options, DAITA traffic-analysis resistance, and bridge/obfuscation modes (Shadowsocks, UDP-over-TCP, QUIC, LWO on selected servers) for censored networks. Kill switch and tunnel DNS are on by default. Up to five simultaneous connections per account.
GPL-3 open-source clients
Desktop and mobile client code is published under GPL-3 (github.com/mullvad/mullvadvpn-app) with public audit reports in-repo. WireGuard config export and a CLI support non-GUI deployments. iOS App Store distribution uses Apple's EULA rather than GPL for the shipped binary.
RAM-only relays and public audit trail
VPN infrastructure completed migration to diskless/RAM-only operation so reboots discard volatile state. Multiple independent infrastructure and app assessments (Cure53, Radically Open Security, Assured, X41, and others) publish findings; Cure53's work explicitly looked for privacy-impacting flaws on sample relays.
DAITA and quantum-resistant tunnels
DAITA (Defense Against AI-guided Traffic Analysis) adds padding/cover traffic patterns against modern traffic-analysis models. Quantum-resistant WireGuard tunnel modes are available across platforms and were rolled out as defaults on supported clients—useful for long-lived confidentiality threat models, at some performance cost.
| Assurance & compliance | AirVPN | Mullvad |
|---|---|---|
| Independent no-logs / security audit | Not found Privacy notice describes no mass-storage activity/IP logs; architecture claims are first-party only. | Verified Public Cure53 infrastructure reports (e.g. 2021, 2024) and other third-party app/infra audits; Cure53 stated no PII on assessed systems and no anonymity compromise found in 2024 sample. April 2023 Swedish police search reported no customer data seized. |
| ISO 27001 | Not found | Not found |
| SOC 2 / SOC 3 | Not found | Not found |
| GDPR / EU data protection | Vendor claimed EU (Italian) operator; privacy notice cites GDPR and related EU directives. | Vendor claimed Swedish EU entity; privacy policy addresses GDPR rights and states personal data stored/processed only in EU/EEA. |
| US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative) | Vendor claimed No known US parent from public research — indicative exposure low vs US-owned brands; multi-region exits still matter. | Partial EU entity, founder-owned, no known US parent. Partial residual exposure: Stripe and PayPal as payment processors (US-group) when those methods are chosen; multi-region exits include US colo. Not legal advice. |
| Data processing agreement (B2B) | Not found No productized enterprise DPA flow found; consumer ToS/privacy notice only. | Not found Consumer privacy policy and ToS published; no productized enterprise DPA flow found on primary pages. |
| EU AI Act | Not applicable VPN connectivity product; not an AI system under typical procurement framing. | Not applicable VPN connectivity product; not an AI system under typical procurement framing (DAITA is a traffic-defense feature, not a general-purpose AI product). |
| Considerations & known limitations | AirVPN | Mullvad |
|---|---|---|
| Italian resident restriction | High ToS and footer ban residents of Italy. Orgs with Italian-based staff cannot use AirVPN as a universal approved VPN; exclude that population or choose another vendor. | Not listed |
| No public independent no-logs audit | Medium If vendor risk requires ISO/SOC or a no-logs audit letter, treat this as a gap until evidence is obtained offline. | Not listed |
| Multi-region exit nodes | Medium Traffic can exit outside the EU depending on server choice. Strict residency policies need operational controls, not just EU HQ. | Not listed |
| Small operator / sole proprietorship | Medium Long-running activist project with a small operating structure; set continuity and support expectations accordingly. | Not listed |
| US CLOUD Act (indicative) | Low No known US parent from public research. Not a guarantee against other LE cooperation or non-EU exits. | Low No known US parent. Residual exposure mainly via US payment SaaS and optional US exits—not ownership. Not a guarantee against other LE cooperation. |
| Consumer packaging, not enterprise control plane | Not listed | Medium Self-serve numbered accounts without productized SSO/MDM org admin, ISO/SOC claims, or click-through DPA. Procurement that requires those artifacts needs offline negotiation or another vendor. |
| US payment processors when card/PayPal used | Not listed | Medium Stripe and PayPal process identity-bearing payment data outside the pure numbered-account model. Cash or self-hosted crypto reduces that trail; card/PayPal does not. |
| Multi-region exit nodes including non-EU | Not listed | Medium Traffic can leave the tunnel outside the EU depending on server choice. Strict residency policies need operational EU-only exit controls, not HQ branding alone. |
| No new port forwarding; no dedicated IP | Not listed | Low Remote port forwarding was disabled for new ports in 2023; dedicated IPs are not offered by design. Choose AirVPN or self-hosted WireGuard if inbound reachability is required. |
| Weak recovery without the account number | Not listed | Low No email-based reset by default. Losing the number can mean losing access; treat it as a secret in team runbooks. |
When: You need enterprise fleet / zero-trust mesh connectivity
Consider: Tailscale, NetBird, or self-hosted WireGuard
Different product class: org network access vs consumer privacy VPN with inbound ports.
When: You prioritise audited no-logs / accountless anonymity over inbound ports
Consider: Mullvad
Mullvad is stronger on the public no-logs narrative; weaker on multi-port forwarding / airdns.org-style DDNS.
When: You want a free tier and a broader consumer privacy suite
Consider: Proton VPN
When: You need inbound remote port forwarding or Dynamic DNS
Consider: AirVPN
Mullvad disabled new port forwards in 2023; AirVPN remains port-forward oriented.
When: You want a free tier plus mail/drive in one European privacy suite
Consider: Proton VPN
Proton is account-based with a broader product suite; Mullvad optimizes for minimal identity.
When: You need maximum consumer server footprint and streaming-oriented features
Consider: NordVPN or Surfshark
Trade a denser feature catalog for weaker accountless/audit differentiation vs Mullvad.
When: You need enterprise zero-trust mesh or org-wide device VPN with SSO
Consider: Self-hosted WireGuard, Tailscale, or NetBird
Different product class than consumer privacy VPN.