I have never use Mullvad VPN but I can give two recommendations:
If money is no concern, use Astrill. Easy of software, number of countries, GFC, circumvent geoblocking, it is one of the best, if not the best, but it comes with a big price tag attached. I think 300 USD/2 years if I remember correctly.
If you don't need the best, AirVPN has often deals for 50USD/2 years. But the servers are very "spammy" (tons of captchas for you to solve).
Mullvad has had multiple public audits and even contributed to other security-related open source projects. You don't have to create an account and they even take cash by mail. It can't be more anonymous than that.
Astrill on the other hand has had no public audits, and costs more than twice as much. It is not worth the price, since their security can't be checked by normal users. Also they require an account.
Furthermore even in their FAQ they don't say that they wouldn't give the data to a court. They ask the question, but don't really answer it.
Please don't give judgements if you dont have an idea what are you talking about.
Just use the best programming language. Ups? For what application? Yes, everything depends on the application. Honestly, I doubt that many VPNs are better then Astrill if it comes to the GFC. I mentioned, it comes at a price. But if you are price sensitive, Mullvad is still nearly double the price of AirVPN....
"Mullvad has had multiple public audits and even contributed to other security-related open source projects."
"You don't have to create an account, and they even take cash by mail. It can't be more"
Well, I dont think any of my recommendations takes cash by mail, but that may take bitcoin. And for the applications you are hinting at, it is much more important that you connect via Tor to your VPN. One thing gives anonymity, the other privacy.
"Furthermore even in their FAQ they don't say that they wouldn't give the data to a court."
ROTFL. Every company will give data, or the data they have, to a court. At least in their own jurisdiction. Yet, there are (or were) VPNs that were cyberspace only. No corporation, just a website. A business that is not incorporated and only exits in cyberspace may indeed have a lot of leverage. At this point, you may ask yourself what you are doing. But if it is really so important, I would start setting up my own servers and selling my own VPNs. A tree you can hide best in a Forrest.
"I would never buy a VPN from a company like that."
If everything you have is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail. Everything depends on your application and what you want to achieve.
Why do you think Astrill is one of the best? And why do you think it is better than Mullvad?
I trust Mullvad because it does security audits like this. And it stores no data and has a history of police showing up without any data compromised [1].
Astill works on most OS, software is extremely slick, has many servers, at my time even Mainland china IPs were possible. Works reliable in China, is often NOT detected as a VPN (geo-blocking, Banks, captchas). They even offer fixed IP addresses, if desired. If you ask why would you have a fixed ip address and if this does not contradict the idea of a VPN you may have little international experience and don't understand the different applications of a VPN. Hey, there may be people that give a f... about the privacy it offers because they have totally different applications.
If you want a Mercedes of VPNs, likely Astrill is the choice. If privacy is your main concern, there are many options. Dont mistake privacy for anonymity. If in doubt, pay with Bitcoin and use TOR to connect to your VPN.
For my current application, AirVPN is more than enough. Two years: are 79 €, if they have a special, it is 49 euro. If you are cost sensitive, Mullvad is double the price already, but at least only less than half of the Astrill price.
Not true. There are enough places where you can buy BTC for cash. In Austria, you can buy at gas stations or in the post office. As long as you use a fresh wallet and only one time, I don't see who this could identify you. It may be backtracked to Austria, of which I am not a citizen.
Bitcoin are non fungible and by design traceable. Anybody can figure out where they came from and gas station and post office have security cameras. Use the right tool for the job which is monero.
Not sure why you are giving plugs for two lesser-known VPN providers (at least I’ve never heard of them) that are adopting less secure practices such as requiring email for sign-up and are more expensive than Mullvad, that is widely considered one of the most trusted VPN providers. Also I’m currently using Mullvad in mainland China right at this moment, it works perfectly fine.
If money is no concern, use Astrill. Easy of software, number of countries, GFC, circumvent geoblocking, it is one of the best, if not the best, but it comes with a big price tag attached. I think 300 USD/2 years if I remember correctly.
If you don't need the best, AirVPN has often deals for 50USD/2 years. But the servers are very "spammy" (tons of captchas for you to solve).