Can I use Mullvad Browser without a VPN?

Privacy Questions
1

I wanted to actually ask if it is fine to use the Mullvad Browser without a VPN. I know this may come out as an obvious answer which is “no” or “it depends”, but I am still curious. Even if you don’t use Mullvad Browser, you are still benefitting from some of their privacy and security options that are configured on the browser but is that any different from using my normal browser (Brave). You just won’t get the protection of being a network of people and the benefits that come with that.

I guess another question I have related to this topic would be, should I switch back to using my normal browser (Brave) if I don’t use a VPN with Mullvad?

3

Yes, you can of course use without a VPN. Albeit it depends on what you’re going for when using the browser but it’s perfectly fine.

4

Yeah, I understand that’s not the intended use case and was mainly curious if it still should be used without a VPN.

5

Interesting. I was reading the PrivacyGuides browser recommendations page and saw that when you use Mullvad without a VPN, you are basically getting the same fingerprinting protection as if you were using Firefox + Arkenfox or Brave. With that being said, is it still worth using Mullvad Browser?

6

Ask yourself this first: what are you trying to achieve with it when using it?

I’m not authority on this and this is subjective - if you want to use it, use it. I don’t use it for my own reasons.

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7

That’s a great question. I was mainly trying to protect myself from being fingerprinted and for sites to stop tracking me. I also liked that it was hardened by default and uBlock Origin pre-installed so little to nothing had to be done on the users side to start using it, but that’s more of a convenience rather than achieving something by using it.

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8

In that case, then I recommend using Mullvad Browser with Mullvad VPN.

9

I know and I would if I could, but I’m debating whether if I can use it without a VPN, or if I should just switch back to my main browser.

10

You can definitely use it without a VPN, but it wouldn’t serve its best purpose.

11

Yeah, that was my thinking as well. There wouldn’t be any point to using Mullvad Browser if I didn’t have any VPN on.

12

Yes, that’s one way to put it.

But if you don’t care about it serving its full purpose, you can still use it simply because you want to use it. For example, I still have it on my computer but I use ProtonVPN. Sometimes if a webpage doesn’t open or show well on FF, I open Mullvad Browser to see what web elements didn’t work on my FF.

13

I appreciate your reply and thank you for sharing your thoughts. Overall, I think I’m going to stop using Mullvad Browser since I don’t really use a VPN anymore. I do hope to come back to using Mullvad Browser when I start using a VPN again, but for now I’m hoping on the Brave train. I actually do want to look into Firefox + Arkenfox a bit more and see if it’s better than Brave, but that’s a different topic for a different day.

14

Btw, I hope you realize you’re responding to your own post and not other responders here - so people don’t get any notifications.