Security and privacy decision

Mullvad

A technically capable user can build and run a small WireGuard-based VPN for personal or small-group use, but cannot cheaply reproduce Mullvad’s global server footprint, anonymity payment options, and polished cross-platform clients; keeping Mullvad is reasonable if you need scale and convenience.

Visit website

Subscription$5/month ✓ verified

Initial build30 hours

Monthly upkeep6 hours + $0

Evidence3/3 runs agree

Open-source builds that already do this

Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need — the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship.

trailofbits/algo30,348AGPL-3.0Automates provisioning of a personal VPN server in the cloud using Ansible and generates client configs.Open on GitHub OutlineFoundation/outline-apps9,212Apache-2.0Provides a server manager and client for creating, managing, and sharing simple VPN access to servers.Open on GitHub

Code Mullvad publishes itself

Not a way out of the subscription — these are the vendor’s own repositories. Worth a look for how they build, and for anything you would have to integrate with.

What a replacement has to do

Provision VPN servers, run WireGuard/OpenVPN on them, generate per-account keys/configs, deliver client config and client software for devices, route device traffic through the tunnel and maintain server list.

What it still won’t have

Global multi-region server network and bandwidth at Mullvad scale
Anonymous, multi-payment options and account model as provided by Mullvad
Polish of official clients, browser integration, and long-term operation experience

What remains hard

Product polish and ongoing maintenance

Read the build prompt

First-year cost

Keep paying

Paying is—cheaper in year one.

On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 1 seat.

Paid seatsseats

Money you would actually spend

Keep paying

—

Subscription price × seats × 12

Build it

—

AI build —APIs + hosting —

Time you would spend

—

What you would spend

AI to build it$ onceAPIs + hosting$/mo

What we assumed

Initial buildhrsMonthly upkeephrsYour rate$/hr

The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.

Runnable build prompt

Not run yet

Build a minimal self-hosted VPN service using Ubuntu 22.04 VPS instances, WireGuard for tunnels, PostgreSQL for account metadata, and a Python Flask web UI. In scope: automated VPS provisioning script (Terraform or shell) for one region, WireGuard install and firewall configuration, keypair generation and storage, an authenticated web page to create an account identifier and download per-device WireGuard configs, basic server monitoring (health checks + alerts), systemd services, and automated backup of configs. Out of scope: global multi-region server fleet, payment processing, mobile-native apps, and automated bandwidth scaling. Require input validation, error handling, and unit/integration tests for key config generation and web endpoints.

How we checked4 sources · 3/3 runs agreed · evidence score 67

How the score was reached

Partly verdict base52
An open-source build was found+5
4 cited sources+3
Price verified on pricing page+3
3/3 assessment runs agreed+4
Evidence score67

The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time — so the same evidence always produces the same number.

How scoring works →

Cited sources · 4

Every page the run actually retrieved.

official productMullvad product page
official pricingMullvad pricing
open sourcetrailofbits/algo
open sourceOutlineFoundation/outline-apps

Integrity checks

What held up, and what did not.

✓ Price read off the page✓ 3 independent runs, one answer✓ Citations limited to fetched pages! 1 moat recorded