Basically the title, is there any technical difference between both, or are they equivalent ?
Mozilla uses Mullvad.
So, what you should be looking for is ProtonVPN vs Mullvad VPN.
r/ProtonVPN would probably get better answers.
Mozilla VPN uses Mullvad.
PTIO recommends Mullvad like ProtonVPN.
There are many differences (ProtonVPN supports a lot of additional features), but the main one is that Mozilla is based in the US, and Proton is based in Switzerland.
I can’t speak about speed, as I’ve not used Mozilla.
To me, it’s mostly about:
- Trusting Mullvad with your data, which is a smaller, more opaque company.
- Caring that Mullvad is under Swedish jurisdiction. In theory, if it’s all encrypted and they don’t keep logs, should not matter. That said, your traffic still goes through Sweden.
Not drastic differences, but worth thinking about.
I purchased both but stayed with ProtonVPN because of their Protonmail bundle.
I 100% honestly preferred the simplicity of Mozilla VPN. But I couldn’t run it on my desktop (Pop_OS! based on Ubuntu). I think they’ve very recently added (official) support for Ubuntu, so I really want to give it another shot in 2 years.
… as a slight aside, a lot of comments indicate that Mullvad and Mozilla VPN are the same. They can’t be exactly the same because their executables are drastically different in size. On macOS:
Mozilla VPN is 37.9 mb,
Mullvad VPN is 276.3 mb
So I think Mozilla made front end changes of some sort (?). I’ve used them both and the interfaces are different and maybe that’s the reason.
Yep. And the primary difference is that Mullvad uses Wireguard, while ProtonVPN does not. It still uses OpenVPN and IKEv2.
I’ve used both and generally prefer Mullvad. Wireguard just feels so fast in comparison. That said, I am actually only subscribed to ProtonVPN, because I needed a VPN for my Synology NAS, and the OS does not yet support Wireguard.
Not sure how mullvad is opaque tbh. Their source code is open as is all their policies (you can check out their site, they’re very open about it).
Always through Sweden? I use Mullvad in the US and I choose to connect through their Atlanta node. I was on Mozilla VPN before but it wouldn’t auto-connect after reboot. Very pleased with Mullvad.
Well, that was an exercise in writing clearly 
Let me add some clarifications:
- I meant “more opaque” not as in “it’s really opaque” but just as a tiny bit less transparent than ProtonMail in the sense that the founders are less public, they don’t necessarily talk about when they’re being blocked, etc. That’s it
- I meant “going through” Sweden in a legal sense, which was repetitive and confusing and as I had already written “under Swedish jurisdiction.”
I have nothing against Mullvad. If anything I like that they’re really going the extra mile to protect the anonymity of their users.
Your traffic does not go through Sweden unless you connect to a Swedish VPN server. Mullvad has servers in 37 countries.
Yes.
I use only Mullvad because of wireguard plus they have a pretty good linux app with split tunneling and kill switch.
Edit: Another plus with mullvad is you can actually sign up anonymously.
Wait, Mullvad is a company, openVPN is a software/protocol, are the two comparable?
Mullvad uses Wireguard (software/protocol) instead of OpenVPN or IKEv2.
Mullvad also offers OpenVPN in addition to wireguard.
I was totally unaware of that… Thanks for the info!