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Cybersecurity · head to head

Mullvad VPN vs OPNsense

M

Mullvad VPN

Cybersecurity

Privacy-first VPN with one flat price and no email required to sign up

From
$5/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
OPNsense logo

OPNsense

Networking

FreeBSD-based firewall and routing platform with weekly updates and a full configuration API

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only OPNsense has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Mullvad VPN offers no free trial or free tier, unlike several consumer VPN competitors.; OPNsense throughput depends entirely on hardware you selected yourself, and intrusion prevention at multi-gigabit rates will saturate a machine that handled plain firewalling fine, with no vendor sizing commitment to fall back on.
  • They diverge on capability: Mullvad VPN covers Flat single pricing, OPNsense covers Stateful firewall on pf.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Mullvad VPN and OPNsense actually diverge.

Attributes where Mullvad VPN and OPNsense differ
AttributeMullvad VPNOPNsense
Starting price$5/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
Platformswindows, mac, linux, ios, androidx86-64 appliances, Virtual machines, Deciso hardware
CategoryCybersecurityNetworking
Founded2009Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Mullvad VPN

  • Flat single pricing
  • Account-number signup
  • Cash and crypto payments
  • WireGuard support
  • Independent audits

Only in OPNsense

  • Stateful firewall on pf
  • VPN suite
  • Suricata IDS and IPS
  • Full configuration API
  • High availability
  • Weekly update cadence

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Mullvad VPN

  • Paying for a VPN anonymously with cash or cryptocurrencynot OPNsense
  • Avoiding tiered upsells with a single flat-rate plannot OPNsense
  • Signing up without providing an email addressnot OPNsense
  • Verifying a provider's privacy claims via independent auditsnot OPNsense

OPNsense

  • Replacing a small business firewall appliance whose renewal quote exceeded the cost of the hardwarenot Mullvad VPN
  • Branch offices where the firewall configuration must be produced by Ansible rather than by handnot Mullvad VPN
  • Sites that need WireGuard and intrusion prevention on the same box without separate feature licencesnot Mullvad VPN
  • A homelab or lab network needing VLAN routing, multi-WAN and DNS filtering on one machinenot Mullvad VPN

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Mullvad VPN

  • Offers no free trial or free tier, unlike several consumer VPN competitors.
  • Lacks a bundled tiered structure, so there is no cheaper limited plan for occasional users.
  • Server network and streaming-unblocking performance is smaller than large mainstream VPN providers.
  • No annual discount, meaning long-term subscribers pay the same monthly rate as short-term users.

OPNsense

  • Throughput depends entirely on hardware you selected yourself, and intrusion prevention at multi-gigabit rates will saturate a machine that handled plain firewalling fine, with no vendor sizing commitment to fall back on.
  • The weekly update cadence is good for security but means more change events than a team used to annual appliance firmware, and occasional regressions reach production installations.
  • FreeBSD underneath limits driver support compared with Linux, so recent network cards and some virtualisation drivers can be unsupported or slow.
  • The plugin ecosystem is uneven in quality; some plugins are maintained by a single contributor and can lag a major release, breaking a function you depended on.
  • Community support is a forum, so an outage at two in the morning on the free edition is your problem alone unless you bought the business subscription in advance.

Pricing, plan by plan

Mullvad VPN

$5/month
  • Mullvad VPN$5/month
    • Flat rate regardless of subscription length
    • 5 simultaneous devices
    • No email required

OPNsense

Free
  • OPNsense Community EditionFree
    • MIT licence with no feature restrictions
    • All VPN, IDS and HA features included
    • Weekly updates and two major releases a year
  • OPNsense Business Edition$undefined/year
    • Stabilised update track lagging community releases
    • Commercial support from Deciso
    • Additional enterprise plugins and configuration backup

Which should you pick?

Choose Mullvad VPN if

  • You need flat single pricing.
  • You work on windows, mac, linux, ios, android.
  • You also want account-number signup.
Mullvad VPN review

Choose OPNsense if

  • You need stateful firewall on pf.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on x86-64 appliances, Virtual machines, Deciso hardware.
  • You also want vpn suite.
OPNsense review

Questions people ask

Is Mullvad VPN or OPNsense better?
Neither clearly leads. Mullvad VPN starts at $5/month and OPNsense at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Mullvad VPN or OPNsense?
OPNsense has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $5/month for Mullvad VPN and Free for OPNsense.
Does Mullvad VPN or OPNsense run on more platforms?
Mullvad VPN runs on windows, mac, linux, ios, android. OPNsense runs on x86-64 appliances, Virtual machines, Deciso hardware.
Can I use OPNsense for free?
Yes. OPNsense has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Mullvad VPN starts at $5/month.
What is Mullvad VPN best used for?
Mullvad VPN is most often used for paying for a vpn anonymously with cash or cryptocurrency, avoiding tiered upsells with a single flat-rate plan, signing up without providing an email address, verifying a provider's privacy claims via independent audits. Of those, paying for a vpn anonymously with cash or cryptocurrency and avoiding tiered upsells with a single flat-rate plan are not what OPNsense is typically brought in for.
What can Mullvad VPN do that OPNsense cannot?
Mullvad VPN covers Flat single pricing, Account-number signup, Cash and crypto payments, WireGuard support. OPNsense covers Stateful firewall on pf, VPN suite, Suricata IDS and IPS, Full configuration API.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

OPNsense: How is it different from pfSense?

It is a 2015 fork with an MIT licence, a fixed weekly release cadence, a complete configuration API and a different interface. Feature coverage is comparable; the release process and API are the real differences.

OPNsense: Do I need the Business Edition?

Only if you want commercial support or a slower, stabilised update stream. No features are withheld from the community edition.

OPNsense: Can it handle a gigabit internet connection?

Plain firewalling on modest current hardware, comfortably. With Suricata inspection enabled, expect to need a considerably stronger CPU.

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