If you’re just browsing clearnet sites, does TOR really add that much more protection? especially if the VPN if paid for anonymously.
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Yes, the Tor network with the Tor Browser is designed for user anonymity, while Mullvad VPN’s network with the Mullvad Browser is not.
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Except when there is a necessity or good reason to avoid Tor, I would generally go as far as recommending Tor and Tor Browser for general internet use, and Mullvad Browser + VPN for online services that block or discriminate against Tor users.
To answer your question, Tor is designed for anonymity and privacy while AFAIK a VPN (virtual private network) is meant for connecting remote computers together over the internet to form a private network. A VPN may hide your IP address from online services you connect to but AFAIK a VPN session is tied to an account. A VPN is centralized (unless it isn’t) and if an online service or state actor desires to go after someone using a VPN they can apply pressure on the VPN provider.
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You can be quite anonymous with Mullvad so if that’s all you use, you could do much worse. But Tor still has the three hop architecture, is free and actually, I’ve had mixed results on Mullvad with website blockage that I experience less on Tor, especially browsing Reddit.
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Tor browser with onion routing is currently the strongest and most certain way to gain online anonymity. Mullvad browser, as a browser, has almost identical antifingerprinting capabilities with Tor browser.
However, there is a significant difference between the crowd each users blend in. All Tor browser users are mandated to blend in the Tor network since Tor browser routes all traffic through the the Tor relay nodes. Mullvad browser on the other hand, can be used with or without a VPN. In best case, Mullvad browser should be used in conjunction with Mullvad VPN(which also allows to use the Mullvad proxy extension). Tor browser has a more crowd of people that users can blend in, thus concealing their true identity and preventing websites from tracking its users.
IMO, whether you use VPN or not, Mullvad browser is more than okay to use as a daily browser. It provides the strongest antifingerprinting techniques available, has built-in adblocker(ublock origin, which isn’t affected by MV3 since it’s not based on chromium), can be used out-of-the-box unlike many browsers(especially Brave, which is extremely bloated by default).
Although VPNs do not provide strict anonymity, Mullvad is one that provides something closest to anonymity a regular VPN can.
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Mullvad recently added a randomization feature to their browser extension so every site gets a different IP address, similar to how the Tor browser does it. It was just added and there’s no way to refresh the connection, so I hope they add that.
Mullvad is a great middle ground for most people who want to avoid tracking while maintaining more convenience, but it’s a trusted setup. That’s one big difference with a VPN and Tor–VPNs require trust and Tor doesn’t.
I will say don’t overestimate how many users of Mullvad there are and how big the crowd is. How many people use a VPN? And how many of those VPN use Mullvad? I would assume it’s a very small percentage. It’s not hard to figure out if an IP is Mullvad, iirc they make it all public, but don’t quote me on that. I mean, you could easily check on am.i.mullvad.net.
A website could probably guess it’s the same user if they don’t get much Mullvad traffic. Obviously that’s different from them figuring out your identity, but once they identified your sessions, they could target you with various attacks.
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I hadn’t heard of per site IP address rotation, how does that work? My mullvad client is always staying on the same exit IP. Just checked in the MV browser with the extension too and saw no difference. You sure about this?
Good point, pool or TOR users is way bigger.
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Yeah it’s there for me as a button below all websites and you can see it was added ^
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I’m very interested in migrating to Mullvad Browser, but can I use extensions even if they’re not recommended? I need to use at least two other extensions since uBO is already integrated into Mullvad.
Is Mullvad fast and reliable on Windows, macOS, and Linux?
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I love Mullvad Browser, but it is definitely not what I would call “fast” (at least not on Linux). It is, however, one of the only browsers that has any meaningful fingerprint protection. I like the proxy feature built into the browser, as well. Honestly though, for most use cases I’d recommend Mullvad Browser for, Tor Browser is perhaps better.
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You can use extensions like in Firefox, but if you want fingerprinting protection, maybe just use Mullvad for sites that are likely to be trying to track and fingerprint you, while using Brave for more trustworthy websites that aren’t likely to fingerprint you.
The extensions may give you a distinct fingerprint and are not recommended for that reason.
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How do I install extensions on Mullvad?
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Go to Firefox Addons
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Oh? So Mullvad officially supports add-ons? I thought I had to sideload it or something like that.
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Just to hop in on this, the biggest difference is that mullvad, or basically any normal vpn is privacy by policy, while tor is privacy by design.
With a vpn you need to trust the provider to keep their word, with tor, no node provider knows the origin of the traffic (you) and the destination(the website your visiting).
The more interesting conparison would be how tor fairs against multi party relays like obscura. We wrote an article about MPR’s a while ago: Where are all the Multi-Party Relays? - Privacy Guides
We also have a more detailed explanation about how tor works on our knowledgebase, both in text and video format: Tor Overview - Privacy Guides
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Just to highlight that the Mullvad Browser Extension can be installed on any Firefox based browser.
I really like the combination of LibreWolf with uBO, the Mullvad extension and multi-account containers. Gives you granular control over proxies and site data. Add in other browsers for specific use cases and it’s a really nice setup.
I believe the beauty of the Mullvad Browser is the same as Tor, blending in with the crowd. As soon as you start changing things it becomes a lot less useful. I’d keep it for that specific use case when Tor isn’t an option.
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Back when CreepJS still worked, I was testing browsers, and Tor was the only one that pinged 80+ hits over the last 90 days. Meaning it really did anonymize. Mullvad doesn’t seem to give me the same protection. YMMV, but it shouldn’t.
Also worth knowing is that a VPN IP does point back to the company that runs VPNs over those servers, and a VPN company that knows what you do. A Tor network IP doesn’t leave any of that.
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I have never used Tor before. Is it as simple as downloading, installing, and connecting to the Tor network? On Android, it seems to be like that. Just want to get this right and not screw up and compromise my privacy and security.
Is Tor’s speed and responsiveness about as fast as using Mullvad VPN with multihop on, or is it even slower?
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I expect this is mostly because the pool is still relatively small. I think its much more likely to see Tor users outright than a paid up Mullvad user (and any other mix that’s free greatly shrinks the pool), and that is a factor people should also consider if blending in is a part of their threat model.
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It shows information regarding your Mullvad connection and it also allows you to add a proxy after the VPN tunnel. The proxies are usually less likely to be blocked by sites and can be applied on a per domain basis, all the same or all random.
Just as an example you could set Mullvad VPN to enter in Switzerland, exit in Sweden and then proxy to your home country. You’d have a triple hop, the speeds are fine for general browsing (even watching videos) and it’s less likely to be blocked than a VPN exit.
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