EU sovereignVPNHeadquarters: SE

Mullvad VPN: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Mullvad VPN is a privacy-focused VPN service for individuals, delivered through apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android. Accounts are anonymous, and the vendor states that it does not log user activity. The client supports WireGuard, including quantum-resistant tunnels and multihop, obfuscation options such as Shadowsocks and QUIC, and DAITA, a feature intended to counter AI-guided traffic analysis. Split tunnelling, custom DNS and content blockers are also available.

Mullvad is operated by Mullvad VPN AB in Gothenburg, Sweden, wholly owned by Amagicom AB; the two founders own both companies. The company states that it has migrated to RAM-only VPN infrastructure. Its servers are hosted with several data-centre providers in many countries, and the server location can be chosen in the app. The client source code is published on GitHub under the GPL-3.0 licence. For a European organisation, the operator and its owners are Swedish, with no foreign parent.

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Sovereignty score

94 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign

Jurisdiction SOV-2100
Headquartered in the EU: European law applies
Data residency SOV-3100
EU-only hosting
Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-390
Self-hostable: encryption keys under your own control
Freedom from lock-in SOV-680
Open source: low switching costs
Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-6100
Source code auditable, forkable and self-hostable

SOV codes: the matching objective in the European Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework. Official source

How the score is calculated

Facts and evidence

Last checked July 2, 2026

Headquarters	SE (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty model	Vendor-hosted (EU)Verified by hand
Data hosting	EUVerified by hand
Open-source	YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant	YesVendor-stated
Compliance documents	2 published, see belowVendor-stated
Hosting signal	ESAB-AS - 31173 Services AB, SE (SE)Technically measured
Category	VPN
Type	Product
Website	mullvad.net ↗

The hosting signal shows the network that serves the vendor's website, often a CDN, and not necessarily where the service or your data is hosted. How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Mullvad VPN

The European alternatives to Mullvad VPN come from our knowledge base of over 6,800 vendors. We only list vendors headquartered in the EU or the EEA; fully European-owned vendors rank before vendors with a foreign owner. For each alternative you see the country, the open-source status and a short description.

Score per alternative: 0 = high exposure, 100 = sovereign

21 European VPN vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

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Why digital sovereignty matters with Mullvad VPN

Mullvad VPN is headquartered in SE and therefore falls under European law: the GDPR, NIS2 and the Data Act. No foreign legislation can compel access to your data.

Data is hosted exclusively in the EU, so Mullvad VPN scores best on data residency.

Mullvad VPN is open source. You can audit the source code, self-host the software and keep the encryption keys under your own control. Switching is easier because data and software are not tied to a single party.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs Mullvad VPN together with your other vendors and gives a total score, a heatmap and the main risk drivers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best European alternative to Mullvad VPN?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Mullvad VPN include AdGuard VPN, AirVPN and Avast SecureLine VPN. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Mullvad VPN?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Mullvad VPN include Cryptostorm. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Mullvad VPN GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Mullvad VPN is headquartered in SE (EU) and hosts data in EU. It is also open-source, so you can self-host it. That makes Mullvad VPN an EU-sovereign choice in its own right; the EU alternatives on this page are comparable European tools.

Details and sources

Verified by handHeadquarters, owner, hosting locations and licence have been checked by us against public sources. Free of charge and for every vendor, not a paid label. Nothing in this knowledge base is taken over automatically. Last checked on July 2, 2026.

Sources

This record was checked via the vendor's website and legal notice during the full audit of June and July 2026. Source links have been recorded per record since 20 September 2026.

Compliance evidence

The links below point to the vendor's own public documents. We only record what we found: a missing link means "not found publicly", not "not compliant".

Security page / trust center: mullvad.net/trust
EU hosting documented: mullvad.net/trust

Provenance of the links above:Vendor-stated

Links checked on September 21, 2026.

Cyber Resilience Act

Public signals that relate to the EU Cyber Resilience Act. They do not count towards the score. A missing line means "not found publicly".

Report a vulnerability: mullvad.net/en/help/how-report-bug-or-vulnerability
security.txt: mullvad.net/.well-known/security.txt
Organisation behind the open-source project: Mullvad VPN AB

For products in scope of the CRA, CE marking is required from 11 December 2027; this cannot be checked yet.

Checked on October 9, 2026. What is the Cyber Resilience Act?

Digital sovereignty in VPN

VPN: Virtual private network — privacy protection, encrypted connection. In this category the choice of vendor determines who has legal access to your data, where that data lives and how easily you can switch later.

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