Every European VPN service reviewed
Geneva, Switzerland
Founded 2017
Free tier / from about €4.99/month
Free tier, unlimited data
Best for: Users wanting a trustworthy VPN with a genuinely usable free option
Proton VPN has the free tier in this category that behaves like a real product rather than a trial.
Free users get servers in five countries — the USA, Netherlands, Japan, Romania and Poland — with unlimited data and no time restriction, funded by paying subscribers rather than by advertising, and Proton has committed publicly to never showing ads or selling user data to monetise free users.
PrivadoVPN is the only other provider here with a free tier, but it is capped at 10GB every 30 days; for someone who needs a VPN and cannot pay for one, Proton's uncapped version is the difference between protection and a countdown.
Proton AG operates from Geneva, outside the EU and outside the Five, Nine and Fourteen Eyes arrangements, with servers in more than 90 countries, all apps open source and an independently audited no-logs policy.
Secure Core routes traffic through Proton-owned servers in Switzerland, Iceland or Sweden — including a former military bunker — before exiting, so a compromised exit server still cannot see your real address. NetShield blocks ads and trackers at DNS level, alongside a kill switch, split tunnelling and Tor over VPN. Paid plans start around €4.99 and integrate with Proton Mail, Calendar and Drive.
What Proton VPN does well
- Free tier with unlimited data, five countries and no time limit
- Secure Core multi-hop through Proton-owned high-security facilities
- All apps open source with an independently audited no-logs policy
- Swiss jurisdiction, outside the EU and the Eyes alliances
- Integrates with Proton Mail, Calendar and Drive in one account
Where Proton VPN falls short
- Free tier runs at medium speed and slows at peak times
- Server network smaller than the largest commercial providers
- Paid pricing above budget VPN options
- Swiss adequacy decision rather than intra-EEA processing
Standout feature. Secure Core: Proton VPN is the only provider here that routes multi-hop traffic through facilities it owns outright, including a decommissioned military bunker in Switzerland.
Gibraltar
Founded 2009
From €6/month (Standard) / €10/month (Pro)
No free tier
Best for: Privacy-focused users who value transparency and ethical practices
IVPN competes on honesty about its own business, which is rarer in this industry than any technical feature. IVPN publishes details of its corporate structure and ownership so customers know exactly who is handling their traffic, requires no email address to sign up, and declines to market itself as a streaming unblocker rather than making a promise it cannot keep. The applications are open source and the no-logs policy has been independently audited.
IVPN Limited is established in Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory with its own legal system, no mandatory data retention laws and data protection regulations aligned with GDPR — a favourable jurisdiction, though not the EU, which is worth noting for procurement rules that distinguish the two.
The network covers 35+ countries with WireGuard and OpenVPN, multi-hop routing, AntiTracker for ad and tracker blocking, a kill switch, split tunnelling and port forwarding. Pricing is €6 per month for Standard and €10 for Pro, with no free tier.
What IVPN does well
- Publishes its corporate structure and ownership openly
- No email address required to create an account
- Open-source apps with an independently audited no-logs policy
- Multi-hop, AntiTracker, port forwarding and split tunnelling
- Gibraltar has no mandatory data retention laws
Where IVPN falls short
- Network of around 35 countries, smaller than large competitors
- No free tier and pricing above budget options
- Does not market itself as a streaming unblocker
- Gibraltar is outside the EU, which some procurement rules treat differently
Standout feature. Published ownership: IVPN is the only provider in this category that tells you who owns the company handling your traffic, which is information every other vendor treats as optional.
Italy
Founded 2010
From about €3.79/month on a 3-year plan
3-day plan available
Best for: Technically minded users who want advanced control and open-source tools
AirVPN was started by activists rather than by a marketing department, and the product still reflects that.
AirVPN offers double-hop routing, port forwarding, DNS leak protection, a kill switch, Tor over VPN, and SSH and SSL tunnelling for networks that block VPN traffic outright — a depth of technical control the polished commercial providers do not expose. Real-time server statistics are published openly, so a user can see load and bandwidth per server before connecting rather than trusting an automatic choice.
AirVPN operates from Italy under EU jurisdiction with servers in 21+ countries, and its Eddie client is fully open source under GPLv3.
Pricing starts around €3.79 per month on a three-year plan, making it the cheapest option in this category, with shorter plans and even a three-day option available. The trade-offs follow from the same choices: the interface is dense with options that will overwhelm a non-technical user, the mobile apps are less refined than competitors', support runs through forums and email rather than 24/7 chat, and speed varies with server load.
What AirVPN does well
- Advanced control: double-hop, port forwarding, SSH and SSL tunnelling
- Tor over VPN and comprehensive leak protection
- Eddie client fully open source under GPLv3
- Real-time public server statistics before you connect
- Cheapest in this category from about €3.79/month
Where AirVPN falls short
- Interface is overwhelming for non-technical users
- Around 21 countries, one of the smaller full server networks here
- Mobile apps less polished than competitors
- Forum and email support only, with variable speeds under load
Standout feature. SSH and SSL tunnelling: AirVPN is the only provider here that can disguise VPN traffic to get through networks that block VPNs outright.
Hamburg, Germany
Founded 2008
From about €8.95/month
7-day money-back guarantee
Best for: Privacy professionals requiring maximum anonymity and unlimited devices
Perfect Privacy is the maximalist option in this category. Multi-hop cascades run through up to four VPN servers in sequence — configurable manually, so a user chooses the exact route — which means no single server ever knows both the origin and the destination, and a compromised server sees only encrypted traffic arriving from another VPN.
TrackStop blocks ads, trackers, malware and configurable content categories at DNS level inside the VPN network, so it works across every device and application rather than only in a browser where it can be detected and circumvented.
Perfect Privacy has operated from Hamburg since 2008 under German and therefore EU jurisdiction, with servers in 25+ countries at up to 1 Gbps and no device limit at all — one subscription covers a whole household or a whole team.
The no-logs position is structural: infrastructure is built without persistent storage that could retain connection timestamps, addresses, bandwidth, traffic or DNS queries. Pricing starts around €8.95 per month, the highest here, with better rates on longer terms, cryptocurrency accepted and a 7-day money-back guarantee.
What Perfect Privacy does well
- Multi-hop cascades of up to four servers with manual route control
- TrackStop blocks ads and trackers at DNS level across all devices
- Unlimited devices on a single subscription
- Up to 1 Gbps, and infrastructure built without persistent storage
- German company operating since 2008, EU jurisdiction
Where Perfect Privacy falls short
- Most expensive in this category at about €8.95/month
- Apps are not open source
- Network of 25+ countries is mid-sized
- Four-hop cascades cost substantial speed
Standout feature. Four-hop cascades with manual routing: Perfect Privacy is the only provider here that lets you build the exact chain of servers your traffic passes through.
Stockholm, Sweden
Founded 2014
From about €4.22/month on a yearly plan
10-day money-back guarantee
Best for: Privacy purists who want infrastructure they can verify rather than trust
OVPN owns its hardware, which almost nobody in this industry does. Most VPN providers rent servers from third-party data centres and rely on a contract to ensure nobody tampers with them; OVPN purchases, configures and physically installs all 96 of its servers across 30 locations, renting only the rack space and connectivity.
That removes data centre staff from the trust model entirely. The servers then run diskless, entirely in RAM — power one off and everything on it is irreversibly gone, so a seized machine holds nothing. The absence of logs is a physical property, not a policy.
OVPN Integritet AB operates from Stockholm under Swedish and therefore EU jurisdiction, with WireGuard, OpenVPN and multi-hop support from about €4.22 per month on a yearly plan.
The claim has been tested: in 2019 copyright holders went to a Swedish court to compel OVPN to produce user data, and OVPN demonstrated it did not have what was being asked for. Very few providers anywhere have had a no-logs policy examined in legal proceedings rather than in an audit. The cost of owning the hardware is a smaller network, and the apps are functional rather than feature-rich.
What OVPN does well
- Owns all 96 servers outright — no data centre staff in the trust model
- Diskless servers running in RAM, so a seized machine holds nothing
- No-logs policy tested and upheld in a Swedish court in 2019
- Swedish company, EU jurisdiction, WireGuard and multi-hop
- From about €4.22/month on a yearly plan
Where OVPN falls short
- Fewer servers and locations than providers who rent infrastructure
- No dedicated streaming servers
- Apps are basic next to feature-rich alternatives
- Not open source, unlike Mullvad, Proton VPN and IVPN
Standout feature. A court-tested no-logs policy on diskless self-owned servers: OVPN is the only provider here whose privacy claim has been examined by a judge and survived.
Vilnius, Lithuania
Founded 2012
Subscription, cheapest on multi-year plans
30-day money-back guarantee
Best for: People who want a large, fast network and are content with a mainstream provider
NordVPN is the largest VPN in this category and the one most people have heard of, and the fact worth knowing is that it is Lithuanian. Nord Security was founded in Vilnius in 2012 by two childhood friends, became one of Lithuania's handful of unicorns, and still has its headquarters and most of its 900-plus staff there.
What that scale buys is the thing smaller privacy-focused providers cannot match: servers in far more countries, consistently high speeds because capacity is not scarce, and applications on every platform that work without configuration. For streaming, travel and everyday use those are the properties that actually determine whether a VPN gets used or quietly abandoned.
Its no-logs policy has been independently audited, which is the relevant assurance for a provider you cannot inspect — and it is a weaker guarantee than Mullvad's, which accepts cash and needs no account at all.
That is the honest comparison: NordVPN asks you to trust an audited company, while Mullvad and IVPN are designed so that trust is needed less.
Lithuania is inside the EU, which is a mixed position for a VPN — GDPR applies, and so does EU law enforcement cooperation, whereas the strictest privacy providers deliberately sit elsewhere. Subscription pricing is cheapest on multi-year plans, which is a long commitment for a service you may want to change.
What NordVPN does well
- Largest server network of any provider here
- Consistently fast, with capacity across many countries
- Independently audited no-logs policy
- Polished applications on every platform
- Lithuanian company, EU jurisdiction
Where NordVPN falls short
- Requires an account, unlike Mullvad
- Audited trust rather than a design that needs less trust
- EU jurisdiction cuts both ways for a VPN
- Best pricing needs a multi-year commitment
Standout feature. The one VPN most people already know is Lithuanian — European scale without giving up speed or coverage.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
From about €2.49/month on a heavily discounted 24-month plan (promotional rate, renews higher); Starter, One and One+ tiers; 30-day money-back guarantee
30-day money-back guarantee
Best for: Households wanting unlimited devices on one plan
Surfshark's headline feature is arithmetic: one subscription, unlimited simultaneous device connections. Every other provider in this category prices per device or caps the count somewhere between one and ten; Surfshark drops the limit entirely, which matters for a family or a small office covering laptops, phones and a router all at once.
Dynamic MultiHop lets you manually chain two VPN locations for the same reason Perfect Privacy and Proton VPN's Secure Core exist — so a single compromised exit server never sees both who you are and where you are going — and a kill switch and 4,500+ servers round out the basics.
Surfshark B.V. is registered in Amsterdam, so EU jurisdiction and GDPR apply directly rather than through an adequacy decision.
Surfshark's own timeline lists a first independent audit by Cure53 in 2018, a RAM-only server network since 2020 and Deloitte verifications of its no-logs policy in 2023 and again in 2025, so the no-logs claim has been checked from outside; the apps are not open source, though.
Since a 2022 merger Surfshark belongs to Nord Security, the group behind NordVPN. Pricing follows the industry's standard discount ladder: a Starter plan advertised from about €2.49 a month runs only on a heavily discounted 24-month commitment, well below Mullvad's flat €5 with no such trap.
What Surfshark does well
- Unlimited simultaneous device connections on every plan
- Dynamic MultiHop across two manually chosen locations
- EU company: Surfshark B.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 4,500+ servers, among the larger networks here
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Where Surfshark falls short
- Part of Nord Security since 2022, so not independent of NordVPN
- Apps are not open source
- Headline price needs a 24-month commitment; renews far higher
- No cash or cryptocurrency option for anonymous payment
Standout feature. Unlimited devices on one subscription: Surfshark is the only provider here with no cap on simultaneous connections at all.
Zweidlen, Switzerland
Founded 2006
CHF 6 per month flat (about €6.35); no subscription, no registration required; optional firewall, speed upgrade and extra device add-ons
No free trial or money-back guarantee published
Best for: Anyone who wants a Swiss IP without creating an account
SwissVPN skips the account entirely. There is no email, no username you choose, no registration form: pay CHF 6 for a month, and the checkout page hands you a server address, a username and a password on the spot.
That is a more radical version of the anonymity Mullvad offers with its 16-digit number — SwissVPN never asks you to create anything to identify. The trade-off is scope: one exit point, a single data centre in Zurich, and manual setup through OpenVPN, L2TP, SSTP or PPTP rather than a dedicated app for each platform.
Monzoon Networks AG has run SwissVPN from Zweidlen, Switzerland since 2006, which makes it one of the longest continuously operating providers in this category, older than every entry here except Perfect Privacy.
There is no published no-logs audit and no open-source client to inspect — the whole product is built around not knowing who you are in the first place rather than proving what it does with what it collects. Pricing is flat, with no subscription and no discount ladder to distrust: CHF 6 buys exactly one month, every time.
What SwissVPN does well
- No registration at all: credentials issued instantly at purchase
- Flat CHF 6 per month, no subscription trap
- Operating from Switzerland since 2006
- Four protocols: OpenVPN, L2TP over IPsec, SSTP and PPTP
- Static IP and dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 available as options
Where SwissVPN falls short
- One data centre, in Zurich — no location choice
- No dedicated apps; setup is manual on every device
- No independent no-logs audit or open-source client
- No free trial or money-back guarantee published
Standout feature. No registration step of any kind: SwissVPN issues a server address, username and password at checkout instead of asking you to sign up first.
Helsinki, Finland
From €49.99 for 1 device for 1 year (about €4.17/month) up to €144.99 for 5 devices over 2 years, incl. VAT
30-day free trial
Best for: Buyers who want a listed security company behind the VPN
F-Secure VPN — the product previously sold as Freedome — comes from a company whose main business is antivirus and endpoint protection rather than VPN alone, and that shows in the fit and finish: a kill switch, ad and tracker blocking, and a 30-day free trial with no odd account requirements.
Plans are priced by device count rather than server access — one, three or five devices on the same VPN — which is simpler than the tiered feature-gating some competitors use, though it means a single-device household still pays close to what a three-device one does.
F-Secure Oyj is a public limited company registered in Helsinki and listed on Nasdaq Helsinki, restructured into its current legal form in 2022 when F-Secure's consumer business split from the enterprise business now sold as WithSecure.
Being a public, audited company is a form of accountability the smaller providers in this category do not have, but F-Secure has not published an independent audit of its no-logs claim specifically, and the apps are not open source. Pricing starts around €49.99 for one device for a year, roughly €4.17 a month, rising to €144.99 for five devices over two years.
What F-Secure VPN does well
- Backed by a public, Nasdaq Helsinki-listed security company
- 30-day free trial, no unusual signup requirements
- Kill switch and built-in ad/tracker blocking
- Simple per-device pricing: 1, 3 or 5 devices
- Finnish company, direct EU jurisdiction
Where F-Secure VPN falls short
- No independently published audit of the no-logs claim
- Apps are not open source
- No published server or country count
- Priced per device rather than per household
Standout feature. A listed antivirus company's VPN: F-Secure is the only provider here that is itself a public company audited under securities law.
Ytterby, Sweden
30-day money-back guarantee
Best for: Users who want many simultaneous connections and free setup help
PrivateVPN's standout number is ten: ten simultaneous device connections on a single subscription, which is more than every provider in this category except Perfect Privacy's unlimited allowance.
The company also offers free remote installation support — someone will walk you through setup rather than leaving you with a help article — which matters for the protocol-level configuration this category sometimes demands. The network spans more than 200 servers in 63 countries, wider than Mullvad, IVPN, AirVPN or Perfect Privacy, though the company does not publish how many of those servers it owns outright the way OVPN does.
PrivateVPN Global AB is registered in Ytterby, Sweden, putting it under the same Swedish and EU jurisdiction as Mullvad and OVPN, and the company points to Swedish privacy law as the basis for its zero-logging claim rather than to an independent audit or a court test.
Every subscription carries a 30-day money-back guarantee. The one gap worth flagging before buying: the pricing page renders its amounts in the browser rather than in the page itself, so no price could be confirmed here — check the current rate directly before subscribing.
What PrivateVPN does well
- Ten simultaneous device connections on one subscription
- Free remote installation support included
- 200+ servers across 63 countries
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Swedish company, EU jurisdiction
Where PrivateVPN falls short
- Pricing not verifiable on the page at time of review
- No independent audit or court test of the no-logs claim
- Apps are not open source
- No free tier
Standout feature. Ten simultaneous connections and a human on the line to help you set them up — the widest device allowance here short of Perfect Privacy's unlimited.
Garðabær, Iceland
Free tier: 10GB every 30 days (1 device); paid from about $1.11/month on a 24-month plan to $10.99/month monthly (prices in USD); 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans
Free tier (10GB/30 days) plus 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans
Best for: Users who want a free tier and do not mind USD pricing
PrivadoVPN is the second provider in this category with a genuine free tier, after Proton VPN, though the two are not equivalent.
Proton VPN's free plan is unlimited in data and time; PrivadoVPN's is capped at 10GB every 30 days on a single device, which is enough to try the service or cover occasional light use but not enough to live on. Paid plans lift that to ten simultaneous connections, unlimited data, and access to the full server list, with a 30-day money-back guarantee on top of the free tier itself.
The contracting entity is Privado Networks ehf, based in Garðabær, Iceland — Iceland is in the EEA and covered by GDPR through the EEA agreement, but sits outside the EU itself, closer in shape to IVPN's Gibraltar than to the EU members in this category.
Payments may route through a Swiss or a US affiliate depending on the method chosen, though the subscription contract itself stays with the Icelandic entity. Prices are quoted in US dollars rather than euros — from about $1.11 a month on a 24-month plan to $10.99 month-to-month — which is worth converting before comparing against the euro prices elsewhere in this category.
What PrivadoVPN does well
- Free tier: 10GB every 30 days, no card required to start
- Ten simultaneous device connections on paid plans
- Iceland-based contracting entity, EEA and GDPR coverage
- 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans
- Low headline price on longer commitments
Where PrivadoVPN falls short
- Free tier capped at 10GB every 30 days, one device
- Prices shown in US dollars, not euros
- Payment processing may route through a US affiliate
- No independent no-logs audit or open-source apps
Standout feature. A second free tier in this category: PrivadoVPN gives away 10GB every 30 days, smaller than Proton VPN's but with no card required.
Gothenburg, Sweden
Founded 2009
€5/month flat, no discounts or long-term plans
No trial; cancel any time
Best for: Privacy-focused users who want maximum anonymity and transparent pricing
Mullvad VPN never learns who you are, and that is a structurally stronger position than any policy. Instead of an email address, a username or a password, Mullvad generates a random 16-digit account number, and that number is the entire account.
There is no signup form, no password recovery flow to exploit, and no way for Mullvad to associate an account with a person. Pay in cash or cryptocurrency and the anonymity is complete — which is why journalists, activists and privacy researchers keep choosing it.
Mullvad VPN AB operates from Gothenburg under Swedish and therefore EU jurisdiction, with servers in more than 40 countries, WireGuard and OpenVPN support, open-source applications and an independently audited no-logs policy. The pricing is the other statement of principle: a flat €5 per month with no discounts for longer commitments, which removes the industry's standard dark pattern of a cheap first year renewing at a much higher rate. Everyone pays the same, and cancelling costs nothing because nothing was prepaid.
What Mullvad VPN does well
- No email, username or password — just a random 16-digit account number
- Accepts cash and cryptocurrency for genuinely anonymous payment
- Flat €5/month with no discount ladder and no renewal trap
- Open-source apps and an independently audited no-logs policy
- Swedish company, EU jurisdiction, 40+ countries
Where Mullvad VPN falls short
- No streaming-optimised servers and no geo-unblocking promise
- Flat pricing is more expensive than a discounted annual plan elsewhere
- No 24/7 live chat; email support and documentation only
- Server network smaller than the large commercial providers
Standout feature. The 16-digit account number: Mullvad is the only VPN in this category that has no identity to hand over, because it never collected one in the first place.
