Proton VPN vs Mullvad VPN — Australia 2026

Evidenced differences

• Billed currency on the public grid. Proton VPN’s AU-locale pricing grid on 12 Sep 2026 printed AUD (chips AUD / CHF / EUR / USD). Mullvad’s public grid printed a euro rate “Including VAT”; A$8.09 is labelled as an equivalent of €5, not a billed AUD SKU. Checkout was not started, so whether an Australian card is charged in AUD for Mullvad remains unknown. Do not treat the euro billed total as an Australian-dollar amount.
• Introductory billed total and covered months. Proton VPN Plus 2-year billed A$134.16 for 24 months (no bonus months) and renews at A$134.28 every 12 months. That intro is charged in full inside 12 months. The A$5.59 teaser is an average, not a cancellable monthly price. 559×12=6708 is not 13416. Mullvad 1-year prepaid billed €60.00 for 12 months at the same €5/month as the 1-month and 1-decade cards — there is no cheaper long-term teaser. Covered months are 24 versus 12. 12-month cash equals those intros. Columns stay in native currency. Mullvad subscriptions were removed in 2022; time is a prepaid time-bank, not an auto-renewing intro that later jumps.
• Account identifier and payment identity. Proton VPN is sold against a Proton account (Proton address or an external email used as the identifier). Privacy copy lists payment records via Chargebee/Stripe/PayPal. Mullvad uses a numbered account with no email required on the website. Cash in AUD and other listed currencies can be mailed to Gothenburg; cash is not refundable and the account number must not be written on the envelope. Generating a Mullvad account does not add time. Apps were not run and no account was created for this pair.
• Simultaneous connections on the compared SKUs. Proton VPN Plus and Unlimited help document 10 devices on one account at the same time (Free is 1). Mullvad pricing FAQ and terms document 5 devices / 5 simultaneous connections; a router consumes one of those five. The cash table uses VPN Plus 2-year versus 1-year prepaid, so the documented cap is 10 versus 5 at those plans. We did not measure how many tunnels actually stay up.
• Free plan. Proton Free is a genuine no-card plan: 1 device, medium speed, servers in 10 countries randomly selected, unlimited volume with a reserved right to restrict free-server speed, and no streaming/P2P/NetShield/Secure Core/split tunneling. An A$1.00 first-month Plus coupon on the Free card is an upsell, not the free plan. Mullvad does not operate a free VPN. Generating a numbered account does not add time.
• Inspectable report scope. Proton’s Securitum August 2025 no-logs PDF (on-site Zürich 18–20 Aug 2025) was downloaded over HTTPS and read; it is a point-in-time server-logging opinion and lists a Switzerland accounting service as out of scope. The May 2026 Securitum PDF loaded on Proton Drive; the cover was inspected and inner pages rendered as canvas, so that row is not a full-body inspection. Mullvad’s public X41 app PDF (10 Dec 2024), Cure53 relay-infrastructure PDF (27 Jun 2024), X41 API/payments PDF (20 Jan 2026) and Assured GotaTun code review (17 Feb 2026) were downloaded and read. Those are app, staging-infra, API and protocol reviews — not a no-logs ISAE on production VPN servers. A public PDF is not a numeric security score and not proof of zero retained account data.
• In-app OpenVPN. Proton documents OpenVPN on the Linux GUI only; it was discontinued in the Android app and removed from macOS/iOS apps. Mullvad removed OpenVPN from the desktop app in 2025.14; OpenVPN servers were due down 15 Jan 2026. Both default to WireGuard on the listed apps. This is vendor documentation, not an app test and not a speed result.
• Legal entities and Five Eyes. Proton VPN’s operator is Proton AG in Geneva, Switzerland, under the non-profit Proton Foundation as primary shareholder (terms 23 Jun 2026). The swiss-based FAQ still names “Proton Technologies AG”; current terms use Proton AG. Mullvad’s contract is with Mullvad VPN AB in Gothenburg, Sweden (parent Amagicom AB, also Swedish). Five Eyes is no on both stored legal-entity fields. Neither jurisdiction is Australian data residency. Proton account/control-plane copy names Switzerland, Germany or Norway; Mullvad privacy copy names EU/EEA processing.
• Consumer versus business products. This pair is personal VPN only. Proton VPN for Business is a separate offering and is not scored here. Mullvad is not a ZTNA or SASE overlay. Do not infer SSO or private-resource access from a consumer tier.

Buyer scenarios

Reproducible prepaid cash example

Horizons are cash charged, not prorated service. A 24-month prepaid is billed in full inside 12 months. Australian checkout totals stay unknown. Open the same plans in the cost tool

Native currencies differ (AUD vs EUR). Columns are not converted. Which billed total is cheaper in Australian dollars is unknown.

Hand checks: 13416/24=559; 559*12=6708 ≠ 13416; 13416+13428=26844; 6000/12=500; 500*12=6000.

• Cash outlay counts billed charges when they are taken. A 24-month prepaid is billed in full inside a 12-month horizon.
• The effective monthly figure is an average of the introductory billed total over covered months. It is not the cash charged each month.
• Australian checkout totals are unknown. Checkout was not started. Card FX fees are omitted.
• GST treatment is unknown on at least one listed total. Those figures are not GST-inclusive Australian checkout prices.
• Native currencies differ. Cash columns stay in the billed currency. Do not treat the smaller number as cheaper. An Australian-dollar ranking of these billed totals is unknown without a dated HTTPS FX quote, and that quote would still not be an Australian checkout total.

Unknown on this pair

• Australian checkout totals (checkout was not started; GST unknown on both listed amounts; Proton payments API attached Swiss MWST 8.1%, not a printed AU GST line)
• AUD equivalent of Mullvad EUR billed totals (no dated HTTPS FX quote is attached; card FX fees omitted; A$8.09 is a vendor FX equivalent of €5, not checkout)
• Whether a Mullvad Australian card is charged in EUR or another currency at checkout
• Physical versus virtual Australian exits on Proton VPN (Mullvad vendor copy says physical cities; that is not a site visit)
• Account and control-plane data residency (data_hosting remains unknown on both)
• Inner pages of the May 2026 Securitum Proton Drive PDF (canvas; not OCR’d)
• Independent speed, leak-test or streaming-unblocking results — not tested

Original conclusions from the record

• On the stored 12 Sep 2026 cards, Proton VPN Plus 2-year 12-month cash is 13416 AUD cents and Mullvad 1-year prepaid 12-month cash is 6000 EUR cents. Covered months are 24 versus 12. 12-month cash equals those intros. 559×12=6708 is not 13416. Mullvad 6000/12=500 and 500×12=6000 because covered months are 12. 36-month cash is 13416+13428=26844 AUD cents if the documented yearly renewal is taken, and 6000+6000+6000=18000 EUR cents for three yearly Mullvad top-ups at the same rate. Native currencies differ, so the smaller number is not cheaper. GST is unknown on both; charged Australian totals stay unknown.
• The documented account model is the clearest non-price product difference: a Proton account identifier versus a Mullvad numbered account with optional mailed cash. That is privacy-policy and pricing-FAQ copy, not an account we created.
• The documented simultaneous-connection cap is 10 (Proton Plus) versus 5 (Mullvad). That is help and terms copy, not a measured session count.
• A genuine no-card free plan exists on Proton VPN only, with documented one-device and country-randomisation limits. Mullvad has no free plan. The Free-card A$1.00 Plus coupon is not the free plan.
• Inspectable report scope differs: Proton’s 2025 Securitum no-logs PDF was read; the 2026 Drive PDF was cover-only. Mullvad’s opened PDFs are app, staging-infra, API and protocol reviews with printed findings, not a no-logs ISAE. That is a report-scope difference, not a claim that one product is more secure.
• In-app OpenVPN is documented on Proton Linux GUI only and was removed from Mullvad’s desktop app. Both default to WireGuard on the listed platforms. Apps were not run.
• Both advertise Australian city exits. Neither record establishes Australian data residency. Both retain account and payment identifiers despite no-logs claims.
• This is not a ranked winner, not a numeric security score, and not a speed or streaming result. Business private-resource access is out of scope for both consumer listings.

Sources

• Proton VPN pricing (12 Sep 2026)
• Proton VPN plans and device limits
• Proton VPN advertised Australian exits
• Proton VPN privacy policy
• Proton terms (23 Jun 2026)
• Securitum Proton VPN no-logs PDF (2025)
• Proton VPN no-logs audit blog
• Proton VPN protocol how-to
• Mullvad pricing (12 Sep 2026)
• Mullvad terms of service
• Mullvad no-logging policy
• Mullvad advertised Australian exits
• X41 Mullvad app PDF (10 Dec 2024)
• Cure53 Mullvad infrastructure PDF (27 Jun 2024)
• X41 Mullvad API PDF (20 Jan 2026)
• Assured GotaTun PDF (17 Feb 2026)

Calculation clock 2026-09-12. Product research dates stay 2026-09-12. Changing the evaluation time does not rewrite those checked dates.