Disclosure: GoIPScan earns a commission if you buy NordVPN or Surfshark through the links on this page, at no extra cost to you. We have no commercial relationship with Proton VPN or Mullvad — their links are plain. We included them because leaving them out would have made this comparison less useful, and the affiliate money is not a reason to pretend the alternatives don’t exist. No provider was given copy approval, and nobody paid for a placement or a rating.

Before you switch: find out whether your current VPN actually leaks

If you already pay for a VPN, the useful first question isn’t “which is best?” but “is the one I have doing its job?” A VPN can look connected in its own app while your real IP still escapes through DNS or WebRTC — and you will never notice from inside the app.

This matters more than the marketing suggests. NordVPN’s own support documentation states plainly that browsers can leak your real IP over WebRTC even while the VPN is connected, and that you need its browser extension on top of the app to stop it [5]. Mullvad goes further and notes that Firefox is the only browser able to disable WebRTC completely [22]. Neither of those facts appears on a “best VPN” listicle, and both are reasons to test rather than trust.

The comparison table

Four providers: the two we have an affiliate relationship with, plus Proton VPN and Mullvad, which are the two most commonly cited by privacy researchers. Numbered references link to the source and the quote we took it from.

A note on server counts. These are marketing figures, and they are the least trustworthy row in the table. NordVPN’s support documentation says 167+ countries [2] while its own marketing pages have cited noticeably different numbers; the totals also mix physical servers with virtual locations, where the server is not in the country it advertises. Treat the row as an order of magnitude, not a specification — and note that Mullvad’s 50 countries is a live count from its own status page rather than a rounded claim [17].

The four, honestly

What the table can’t tell you

An audit is a snapshot, not a guarantee. Every no-logs engagement here describes what auditors observed during a defined window, on the infrastructure they were shown — it is meaningfully better than an unaudited promise, and it is not proof that nothing is ever logged. Read the scope before you read the headline.

Jurisdiction matters less than it is usually made to sound, and in a specific way: what protects you is having no data to hand over, not the flag on the company registration. Mullvad’s position is strong not because Sweden is a privacy haven — it is an EU and Fourteen Eyes country — but because an account is a random number with no email attached to it [19].

And a VPN only moves your traffic’s exit point. It does not stop you being identified by a browser fingerprint, by cookies, or by logging into the same accounts you always use. If your reason for wanting one is “my ISP can see my browsing”, a VPN genuinely fixes that. If it is “I want to be anonymous”, a VPN alone will not get you there. Our guide to what a VPN actually is covers where the boundary sits, and what someone can do with your IP covers what is really exposed without one.

How we verified this

On 28 September 2026 we opened each provider’s own documentation — support articles and product pages, not review sites — and recorded the exact wording for every cell. Where a provider’s own pages disagreed with each other, we used the support documentation and said so in the table. Where we could not find an official statement, the cell reads unverified; we did not fall back on a third-party review or on what we assumed to be true. Prices move constantly and promotional rates renew higher, so we have deliberately not printed price figures we could not verify on the day — check the provider’s current page before buying.

These figures will drift. Server counts change weekly, audits are repeated annually, and features move between tiers. If you are reading this long after the date above, treat it as a starting point and re-check the sources.

Sources

1. [1] NordVPN Support — Where is NordVPN based
   “NordVPN is based and operates under the jurisdiction of Panama, meanwhile Nord Security, parent company of NordVPN is based in Europe, in the Netherlands.”
2. [2] NordVPN Support — Where can I find the NordVPN server list
   “NordVPN has over 8,400+ servers in 167+ countries around the world.”
3. [3] NordVPN Support — What features does NordVPN have
   “NordVPN lets you use one subscription on up to 10 devices / DNS leak protection: Stops your DNS requests from slipping outside the VPN tunnel”
4. [4] NordVPN Support — Kill Switch: how does it work
   “Kill Switch is a feature that helps prevent unprotected access to the internet when your traffic doesn't go through a NordVPN server. Windows, iOS, macOS, Android 8.0+, Linux; not available on Amazon Fire TV Stick.”
5. [5] NordVPN Support — How to stop WebRTC leaks
   “Sometimes various browsers experience WebRTC leaks which may cause the real IP address leak, even when using a VPN. However, you can easily disable the WebRTC leaks using the NordVPN browser extension on top of the NordVPN app.”
6. [6] Nord Security press — no-logs assurance assessment (fifth)
   “Deloitte Audit Lithuania, one of the market-leading Big Four firms; access from November 18 until December 20, 2024.”
7. [7] Surfshark — Features
   “Unlimited simultaneous connections to secure all your devices. Surfshark B.V., Kabelweg 57, 1014BA Amsterdam, the Netherlands.”
8. [8] Surfshark — Servers
   “Explore 4500+ servers in 100 countries.”
9. [9] Surfshark — No-logs policy
   “Independently and regularly assured by Deloitte in 2023 and 2025. Surfshark is based in the Netherlands. We use RAM-only servers.”
10. [10] Surfshark — Kill Switch
    “Soft kill switch activates only if the VPN connection drops unexpectedly; Strict kill switch blocks internet access anytime the VPN is off. iOS, macOS, Android, Windows, Linux.”
11. [11] Surfshark blog — no-logs policy verified again (Deloitte, ISAE 3000)
    “Deloitte reaffirms that your browsing and activities are not logged or tracked. Published 2025-11-26, ISAE 3000.”
12. [12] Proton VPN — Secure VPN
    “Proton VPN runs over 20,000 servers in over 140 countries. Up to 10 devices. Based in Switzerland. Kill switch in all our apps. Ensures your browsing history is never leaked to your internet service provider.”
13. [13] Proton VPN Support — What is kill switch
    “Standard kill switch on all free and paid plans (Windows, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, Android, Linux). Advanced kill switch on Windows, Linux GUI, iOS/iPadOS (beta) only allows internet access when connected to Proton VPN.”
14. [14] Proton VPN blog — no-logs audit (Securitum)
    “Fifth consecutive annual audit by Securitum. The technical evidence reviewed did not indicate that the examined Proton VPN server infrastructure logs users' browsing activity, DNS queries, destination services, network traffic contents or user-identifiable connection metadata.”
15. [15] Proton VPN blog — all apps are open source
    “All Proton VPN apps are open source and independently audited, with reports published.”
16. [16] Proton VPN — Free VPN
    “Has no data or speed limits; has no advertisements; does not log your online activity.”
17. [17] Mullvad — Servers
    “566 servers, 50 countries.”
18. [18] Mullvad — Pricing
    “EUR 5 per month for all subscription lengths. Start with one click to generate an account. You'll immediately get an account number. You can use a Mullvad VPN account on up to 5 devices.”
19. [19] Mullvad — No logging of user data policy
    “We do not keep activity logs of any kind. Accounts store only a random account number and expiry date. Swedish law / Swedish Accounting Act.”
20. [20] Mullvad — Using the Mullvad VPN app
    “the app's built-in kill switch ... automatically blocking the Internet upon VPN connection failure. Lockdown mode will also block the internet after you click on Disconnect or Quit.”
21. [21] Mullvad — DNS leaks
    “The Mullvad VPN app protects you from DNS leaks, unless you enable Use custom DNS server in the Mullvad app settings.”
22. [22] Mullvad — WebRTC
    “your real IP is at risk of being exposed... Firefox is the only browser that can properly disable WebRTC completely.”
23. [23] Mullvad — Audits (blog tag)
    “Cure53 infrastructure audits (2021; fourth audit June 3-14 2024); Assured AB audits of infrastructure, account/payment services and Leta; X41 app audit.”