Best VPN in 2026: Audited No-Logs Providers Compared by Jurisdiction, Audit History, and Real Pricing

Five major VPN providers — Mullvad, NordVPN, Proton VPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark — compared by published price, jurisdiction, audit history, and what their no-logs policy pages actually say. Every claim links to the vendor's own page or to the audit firm's report.

Quick answer
  • Mullvad has a flat €5/month rate (any commitment length, unchanged since 2009), no account creation, and four published Cure53 infrastructure audits — strongest case for a privacy-first default.
  • Proton VPN runs apps as open source on GitHub, has passed four consecutive Securitum no-logs audits (2022–2025), and its parent company is headquartered in Switzerland — useful when jurisdiction matters.
  • NordVPN has the longest published audit chain (six independent no-logs assessments, ISAE 3000, latest by Deloitte 2025) and the most aggressive long-term pricing ($3.39/mo on Basic 2-year).
Best overall: mullvad
Methodology

We compared each vendor's publicly listed pricing tiers, published audit reports, jurisdiction, and no-logs policy pages. Every numeric claim and every policy claim on this page links to the vendor's own page or to the audit firm's report. We do not run our own speed tests, so we do not publish raw Mbps numbers — those vary by user network, server load, and time of day, and any single number we cited would not be reproducible. Sources accessed 2026-04-30.

  • Audit history30%

    Number of published independent no-logs / infrastructure audits, recency of the most recent published report, and the audit standard (ISAE 3000 vs other).

  • Jurisdiction20%

    Country where the operating entity is registered. 5 / 9 / 14 Eyes membership applies regardless of marketing claims.

  • No-logs policy specificity20%

    Whether the vendor's no-logs page lists the specific data classes it does not log (traffic, DNS, IP, connection metadata) versus making a generic claim.

  • Published price15%

    Long-term subscription price (typically 2-year) in USD, plus the renewal price after the intro period ends.

  • Refund window10%

    Money-back guarantee period documented on the vendor's pricing or terms page.

  • Open-source clients5%

    Whether the vendor's client apps are published as open source on GitHub or equivalent.

Testing window
2026-04-25 → 2026-04-30
Data sources
  • Vendor pricing pages (Mullvad, NordVPN, Proton VPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark)
  • Vendor no-logs policy pages
  • Independent audit reports (Cure53, Deloitte, Securitum, KPMG, PwC, Praetorian)
  • WireGuard whitepaper (wireguard.com/papers/wireguard.pdf)
  • OpenVPN 2.6 reference manual (openvpn.net)
Written by
Subger Editorial Team
Comparison desk

We read every public pricing page, no-logs policy, and audit report so you do not have to. Every numeric and policy claim on this page links to the source it came from. Editorial standards: see /about.

Last tested
Apr 30, 2026
Next review Jul 30, 2026

Our take on each product

mullvad

Recommended

Flat €5/month, four published Cure53 audits, no account creation needed.

Pros
  • Flat €5/month regardless of commitment length — same price for 1 month or 1 decade, unchanged since 2009 (per mullvad.net/en/pricing)
  • No account email or username required — sign up generates a random account number
  • Fourth Cure53 infrastructure audit completed June 2024; full report linked from Mullvad's blog
  • Accepts cash, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Monero in addition to standard payment rails
Cons
  • Sweden is part of the 14 Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement
  • 5-device-per-account cap is lower than several competitors
  • 14-day money-back guarantee is shorter than NordVPN/Proton/ExpressVPN/Surfshark's 30-day windows
Best for: Privacy-first users who want a flat predictable price, no account email, and a documented audit trail

protonvpn

Recommended

Switzerland-based, four consecutive Securitum no-logs audits, all client apps open-source.

Pros
  • Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland — outside 5/9/14 Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangements
  • All client apps (iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, browser) published as open source on GitHub
  • Four consecutive no-logs audits by Securitum (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025); reports linked from protonvpn.com/blog/no-logs-audit
  • Free tier offers servers in 10 countries with no logs and no ads (per protonvpn.com/pricing)
  • VPN Plus 2-year price is $2.99/mo, among the lowest in the audited-VPN category
Cons
  • Free tier auto-selects server country and is single-device-only
  • Server count concentration in M247 / Datacamp ASNs noted by third-party reviewers
Best for: Users who want a free tier from an audited provider, plus the optional integrated Mail/Drive/Pass bundle (Proton Unlimited)

nordvpn

Recommended

Six published no-logs audits — the longest published audit chain in the category.

Pros
  • Six independent no-logs assurance assessments under ISAE 3000: PwC 2018, PwC 2020, Deloitte 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
  • Operating entity Nordvpn S.A. registered in Panama — outside 5/9/14 Eyes
  • Tiered pricing: Basic 2-year $3.39/mo, monthly $12.99 (per nordvpn.com/pricing)
  • 30-day money-back guarantee
  • Up to 10 simultaneous connections
Cons
  • Renewal pricing is materially higher than the introductory 2-year rate — read the pricing page footnote
  • Tiered upsell (Plus / Complete / Prime) bundles non-VPN products that not every buyer wants
Best for: Users who weigh audit-chain length heavily and prefer a 2-year commitment with the lowest intro price

expressvpn

Niche pick

23 published audits per the Trust Center; 2026 pricing restructure into Basic / Advanced / Pro tiers.

Pros
  • Trust Center lists 23 published third-party audits — KPMG no-logs (2022, 2025), Cure53 + Praetorian Lightway (2024)
  • Operating entity Express VPN International Ltd. is registered in the British Virgin Islands — outside 5/9/14 Eyes
  • Lightway protocol Rust rewrite audited by Cure53 (Oct 2024) and Praetorian (Sep 2024); both retests passed Dec 2024
  • 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
  • List price is the highest of the five providers compared — Basic 2-year $3.49/mo intro vs. competitor lows of $1.99–$2.99/mo
  • 2026 tier restructure means the Basic plan that maps to old single-tier features is itself a downgrade for some buyers — verify the feature list before committing
Best for: Users who weigh audit-volume specifically and are comfortable with the higher list price

surfshark

Niche pick

Cheapest 2-year intro price of the five; based in the Netherlands which is in 9 Eyes.

Pros
  • Cheapest 2-year intro price: Starter $1.99/mo (per surfshark.com/pricing)
  • Unlimited simultaneous connections — only Mullvad's competitors generally cap device count
  • Deloitte no-logs audits in 2023 and 2025 under ISAE 3000; report available to subscribers in-app
  • 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
  • Surfshark B.V. is registered in the Netherlands — part of the 9 Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement
  • Audit cadence (2023 and 2025) is less frequent than NordVPN's annual chain
  • Renewal price is materially higher than the intro rate — same caveat as NordVPN
Best for: Households with many devices wanting the lowest intro price and 9 Eyes jurisdiction is acceptable

Recent updates

  1. Truth-pass review

    Re-read every vendor pricing, no-logs, audit, and jurisdiction source page. Removed the prior fabricated speed-benchmarking methodology and the unsupported throughput numbers in the comparison table. Switched to a research-based methodology grounded in published audits and vendor policy pages.

The full comparison

Service
Number of distinct published third-party audit reports listed by the vendor.
Calendar year of the most recent published audit report.
Country of the operating entity, with 5/9/14 Eyes status appended.
Lowest tier 2-year monthly price in USD (Mullvad: flat rate, single tier).
Money-back guarantee period as documented on the vendor's pricing or terms page.
Open-source appsWhether the vendor publishes its desktop / mobile client source code under an OSI-approved license.
Mullvad
42024Sweden (14 Eyes)5.8614Yes
Proton VPN
42025Switzerland (none)2.9930Yes
NordVPN
62025Panama (none)3.3930No
ExpressVPN
232025BVI (none)3.4930No
Surfshark
22025Netherlands (9 Eyes)1.9930No

Audit counts are read from each vendor's trust center / audit-history page. ExpressVPN's count of 23 includes app, infrastructure, and protocol audits dating back several years; the others reflect no-logs / infrastructure assessments specifically. 2-year price is the lowest published intro-tier monthly rate at the cheapest commitment length. Mullvad is the exception: a single flat €5/month rate (~$5.86 USD at access date) regardless of commitment. Sources accessed 2026-04-30 — see vpn-sources.ts for URLs.

Frequently asked questions

What is a no-logs VPN?

A no-logs VPN is a provider that pledges not to record traffic, DNS queries, IP addresses, or connection timestamps that could be tied back to an individual user. The pledge is only meaningful when an independent auditor has examined the provider's actual infrastructure — Mullvad (Cure53), NordVPN (Deloitte/PwC), Proton VPN (Securitum), ExpressVPN (KPMG), and Surfshark (Deloitte) all have published audit reports.

Does VPN jurisdiction actually matter?

Jurisdiction matters when a government can compel the operating entity to hand over data. Providers in 5 / 9 / 14 Eyes countries (USA, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ + Denmark/France/Netherlands/Norway + Germany/Belgium/Italy/Sweden/Spain) are subject to those countries' data-request frameworks. Jurisdiction matters less if the provider does not log the data being requested — which is what audits exist to verify.

Which VPN protocol should I use — WireGuard or OpenVPN?

WireGuard is newer, uses modern primitives (Curve25519, ChaCha20-Poly1305), and is faster on most networks. OpenVPN is older, GPL-licensed, runs in user-space, supports both TCP and UDP, and traverses restrictive networks more reliably because it can run on TCP port 443. Use WireGuard by default; switch to OpenVPN-TCP when WireGuard is blocked.

Are free VPNs safe?

Most free VPNs are not. The exception is Proton VPN's free tier, which is funded by Proton's paid subscriptions and audited under the same no-logs policy as the paid tier. Free VPNs from less-known providers commonly monetize via traffic logging or ad injection — neither of which appear in independent audit reports.

Can a VPN unblock Netflix or other streaming services?

Streaming services actively block known VPN exit IPs and the cat-and-mouse game changes weekly. Vendors do not publish guarantees because doing so would invite the streamer to escalate their blocklist. The honest answer: no VPN unblocks every service all the time. All five vendors above have 30-day (or in Mullvad's case 14-day) money-back guarantees so you can test on the specific service you care about.

What is a VPN kill switch?

A kill switch blocks all internet traffic if the VPN connection drops, preventing your real IP from leaking to the destination service mid-session. All five vendors above ship a kill switch in their official client apps. The kill-switch behavior is also a standard test target in the published infrastructure audits — failing to recover from a dropped connection without leaking would be a finding in the report.

Related

Total cost of ownership

Each row uses the lowest-tier 2-year monthly price the vendor publishes. Renewal pricing typically rises after the intro term — see the vendor's pricing page footnote for the renewal rate. Mullvad is the exception: same €5/month for 1 month or 1 decade.

ServiceTotal over 1 moEffective $/mo
Mullvad
Flat €5/month (~$5.86 USD) — same rate at every commitment length, unchanged since 2009.
$5.86
cheapest
$5.86
Proton VPN
VPN Plus 2-year intro $2.99/mo; renews at standard rate. Free tier available with no time limit.
$9.99
$9.99
NordVPN
Basic tier 2-year intro $3.39/mo; renews at monthly rate. Plus / Complete / Prime tiers higher.
$12.99
$12.99
ExpressVPN
Basic tier 2-year intro $3.49/mo (incl. 4 bonus months); renews at monthly rate.
$12.99
$12.99
Surfshark
Starter tier 2-year intro $1.99/mo; renews at monthly rate. One / One+ tiers higher.
$15.45
$15.45

Assumes list renewal pricing after any promotional period. Does not include taxes or currency conversion. Regional pricing may apply at checkout.

Find the right pick for you

Tell us what you optimize for — we will point at the audited VPN whose published positions best match.

  1. 1. What matters most to you?
  2. 2. How much do you weigh jurisdiction?
  3. 3. How many devices?

Learn more

Long-form explainers on the concepts behind this pillar.

Known issues

  • Minorreported Apr 30, 2026

    ExpressVPN 2026 pricing tier restructure

    ExpressVPN moved from a single tier to Basic / Advanced / Pro in early 2026 (per expressvpn.com/blog/introducing-expressvpn-tiered-pricing/). The Basic tier corresponds to what most existing users had previously; Advanced and Pro bundle additional features. Verify the feature list against your needs before assuming the 'lowest' price is the right tier.

    expressvpn
  • Majorreported Apr 30, 2026

    Renewal pricing rises after intro period

    NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark all show prominent intro pricing on their pricing pages and renew at materially higher rates after the intro period (NordVPN intro $3.39/mo → renewal $12.99/mo; ExpressVPN intro $3.49/mo → renewal $12.99/mo; Surfshark intro $1.99/mo → renewal $15.45/mo). Read the pricing-page footnote and set a calendar reminder before the renewal date. Mullvad does not have this pattern.

    nordvpnexpressvpnsurfshark

The landscape

Five providers dominate consumer paid VPN in 2026: Mullvad, Proton VPN, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark. All five have published independent audits; what varies is audit frequency, audit scope (no-logs only vs. infrastructure + client apps), jurisdiction, and how aggressively the renewal price diverges from the intro price. NordVPN and ExpressVPN's most recent audits are no-logs assessments under ISAE 3000; Mullvad's most recent Cure53 audit is an infrastructure audit covering OpenVPN and WireGuard server configuration. The cheapest 2-year intro price is Surfshark Starter at $1.99/mo; the only price that does not change at renewal is Mullvad's flat €5/month.

Audited providers compared
5
Total published audits across the group
39
Cheapest 2-year intro $/mo
$1.99
Most consistent flat rate
€5/mo (Mullvad)

Every correction is logged publicly. Response within 10 business days.