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In this article, we analyse Mozilla VPN’s privacy and security features, pricing model, speed and compatibility and compare them with other popular VPN services, to help you decide whether Mozilla is the right choice for you
Considering Mozilla’s reputation for protecting user privacy, it’s no surprise it offers consumers a robust virtual private network (VPN) tool. Mozilla VPN is a paid subscription-based service available to customers in 33 countries. It is a stand-alone software product that can be downloaded online and has more than 400 servers in 42 countries, but the catch is these servers are owned by Mullvad VPN – more on that later.
If you are a privacy-conscious internet user who wants to hide their Internet Protocol (IP) address and browsing activity and access content unavailable in your country, you may want to consider using Mozilla VPN.
Our researchers spent several hours analysing and testing Mozilla VPN’s speed, pricing, customer service, performance, compatibility and ability to ensure security and privacy, comparing it with the best VPNs on the market.
Rating: ★★★1/2
Mozilla VPN is a new-comer to the VPN market, having launched commercially in 2020. Still, it offers users a high level of security with WireGuard’s state-of-the-art encryption algorithm. In addition, users also benefit from single-hop and multi-hop capabilities, as well as split tunnelling and kill switch functions.
Although Mozilla has a no-log policy and says it does not log browsing history, a subscription requires a Firefox account, which does collect certain personally identifiable data, such as IP addresses, device identifiers, and information about the user’s operating system. However, Mozilla says this information is only used for maintenance and troubleshooting issues. Further complicating the situation, Mozilla has built its service around Mullvad VPN’s server infrastructure. Although Mullvad offers an audited no-logs policy, it is unclear how this pertains to Mozilla subscribers.
Mozilla VPN does not appear to strip its users of good internet speed, as verified by our speed testing below.
You can use Mozilla VPN on your desktop, mobile devices and tablets, and it is compatible with iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and Linux.
Our reviewers are committed to bringing you the most accurate and up-to-date information so you can make an informed decision when it comes to buying a reliable VPN. We will only recommend a provider after hours of testing, extensive head-to-head feature comparisons, and after taking into account verified customer reviews and the opinions of industry experts.
Our Mozilla VPN review score was determined by the following categories:
We researched and tested a total of 25 elements within these categories, including:
All of our VPN articles are fact-checked by our in-house team of experts, so you can be assured our content is as accurate and up to date as possible. Read our article on how we review VPNs to find out more.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Robust encryption with WireGuard advanced protocol and multi-hop capability | Stores certain categories of personal information, such as IP addresses, device information and account details, despite the no-log policy |
| Split tunnelling | Limited compatibility |
| Consumer-friendly and easy-to-use desktop and mobile apps | Uses third-party server network owned by Mullvad VPN |
| Excellent local server speed |
Compared with its competitors, Mozilla VPN is at the lower end of the price range in terms of its monthly cost. However, it lags behind all other VPN providers in terms of number of servers. Its confusing privacy policy and the fact it uses another service’s servers might cause concern for those looking for privacy over functionality.
| VPN | Monthly price | Cheapest price | Free version | Number of servers | Maximum devices supported | Netflix | BBC Iplayer | Disney+ | Amazon | HBO Max | Audit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mozilla VPN | $9.99 (£7.64) | £4.05/m for the annual subscription | No | 415 | 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Yes |
| ExpressVPN | £10.19 | £5.25/m for 1-year subscription | No | 3,000+ | 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Yes |
| NordVPN | £10.39 | £2.79/m for a 2-year subscription | No | 5,400+ | 6 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Yes |
| Surfshark | £9.88 | £1.75/m for 2-year subscription | No | 3,200+ | Unlimited | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Yes |
| Cyber Ghost | £10.89 | £1.92/m for 2-year subscription | No | 9,773 | 7 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Yes |
Just like its competitors in the market, Mozilla offers its customers both an annual subscription and a monthly plan, the former being the cheapest option. It provides its customers with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
However, if you purchased your Mozilla VPN subscription on either the Apple App Store or Google Play, your right to refund will be subject to the terms of these platforms, and you will have to submit your refund request to these platforms.
| Subscription term | Price |
|---|---|
| Monthly | $9.99 (£7.64) / month |
| 12 months | $4.99 (£3.81) / month ($59.88/£45.78 up front) |
Mozilla allows its customers to pay for the subscription via two methods:
When you compare one VPN product to another, consider a few features, such as the level of privacy the VPN tool provides and whether it retains your browsing activity. Furthermore, using a VPN tool without losing internet speed is also crucial.
Mozilla VPN protects your data with military-grade encryption and has over 400 servers in more than 40 countries, though it’s important to note these servers are owned by Mullvad VPN, not Mozilla.
Furthermore, Mozilla VPN allows you to maintain the security and privacy of your sensitive data without compromising internet speed, thanks to its split tunnelling capability and the WireGuard advanced protocol.
Mozilla VPN differs from its competitors in one key way: it relies on the server infrastructure of a third-party partner, Mullvad, to provide its VPN service. When you turn on Mozilla VPN, it encrypts all your traffic data and transmits it to Mullvad.
Put simply, Mozilla uses the same servers as Mullvad, and the Mozilla support team refers to Mullvad’s page for the current list of all servers and the countries in which they are located. It also contains information about the current availability of each server and whether they are rented or owned.
Mullvad, and by extension Mozilla, has 415 servers across 42 countries that support the WireGuard protocol, which is the only one used by Mozilla VPN. These servers are spread across diverse geographical locations and are available on almost all continents. For instance, Mullvad servers operate in Australia, Canada, the US, Singapore, Japan and certain European countries, such as Germany, Sweden and Austria.
However, Mozilla does not have any servers in Africa. Furthermore, Mozilla has no servers in countries known for their oppressive internet policies, such as Turkey, Russia and Vietnam.
Mozilla has a no-log policy and claims it does not collect or retain any data about its customers’ browsing activity and hides it from its customers’ internet service providers (ISPs).
However, there are still a few categories of personal data Mozilla VPN collects and retains:
In its privacy policy, Mozilla explains it collects these categories of data to improve and measure service performance and troubleshoot issues. Thankfully, Mozilla also allows you to opt out of such data collection.
Since Mozilla is headquartered in the US and is subject to its data-sharing laws, it may receive government requests for access to your data. The answer of whether this no-logs policy has been audited is a bit complicated, and our researchers had a hard time determining the truth. On one hand, because Mozilla uses Mullvad’s servers and Mullvad has been independently audited, one could assume Mozilla customers are covered by the same privacy policy, particularly since its own policy includes a link to the Mullvad policy for more information about activity logs. On the other hand, Mozilla says it encrypts your internet traffic to send it to Mullvad, and there’s no independent verification of whether the company collects any data relating to this traffic. It would be good to see Mozilla clarify this in the future to assure customers.
A VPN tool without a kill switch is at risk of defeating the entire purpose of using a VPN. This is because if your VPN becomes unstable or disconnects, your IP address and network activity may be exposed immediately.
A kill switch is a common VPN feature that keeps your information secure and private by immediately cutting off your internet connection when your VPN becomes unstable.
Mozilla VPN provides an automatic kill switch that cannot be turned on or off manually, keeping your IP address, location and network activity secure and private at all times.
VPN split tunnelling allows users to choose which devices and apps are protected with VPN encryption and which can connect to the internet without it. The most significant advantage of split tunnelling is that it increases your internet speed and performance by reducing bandwidth.
With Mozilla VPN’s split tunnelling function, you can protect your sensitive financial information when you log in to online banking with VPN encryption while playing games with great internet speed on your regular network.
When you turn on Mozilla VPN, it creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and its servers so your IP address, location data and network activity are hidden from your ISP and other malicious third parties.
Mozilla VPN relies on WireGuard’s advanced protocol, which uses state-of-the-art ChaCha20 authenticated encryption to encrypt your data. Similar to the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256) encryption method, ChaCha20 is symmetrical, meaning the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt information, making it a more efficient and less resource-intensive way of protecting users’ data.. However, ChaCha20 has a shorter key and less code, which makes the VPN connection faster because it takes less processing power. Plus, since ChaCha20 has less code, it has a narrower attack surface, reducing the security risks.
Put simply, Mozilla VPN provides robust security for users without compromising connection speed, by using ChaCha20 authenticated encryption.
Furthermore, Mozilla VPN provides a multi-hop function, which adds an extra layer of security by directing your traffic through an additional VPN server.
Since AES-256 is older and has been in the market for more than two decades, popular VPN providers advertise the use of AES-256 more heavily. However, major VPN providers such as NordVPN, Surfshark and Proton VPN also support the WireGuard protocol.
While internet users value their online security and privacy greatly, they also want to enjoy the online world with high connection speeds and without disruptions.
In terms of testing internet speed, three criteria need to be considered:
Our researchers tested Mozilla VPN to find out how much using the service affected internet download and upload speeds. Testing the internet speed without a VPN gave us a baseline and helped us calculate the degradation between speeds with and without Mozilla VPN. Our reviewers used the Ookla Speedtest for this research.
| Download speed (Mbps) | Upload speed (Mbps) | Latency (ping) | Percentage of base download speed | Percentage of base upload speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No VPN | 63.25 | 12.25 | 16 | ||
| UK to UK | 60.82 | 14.62 | 45 | 96.15% | 119.34% |
| UK to US | 45.98 | 13.32 | 172 | 72.69% | 108.73% |
| UK to AUS | 25.47 | 12.32 | 607 | 40.26% | 100.57% |
Except for the test where we connected to a UK VPN server from the UK, download speed experienced noticeable drops in all VPN tests compared with not using a VPN.
Not surprisingly, download speed had the sharpest drop when connected to an Australian server; it was only 40.26 per cent as fast as not using a VPN.
Overall, the connection to the UK VPN server had the best performance in terms of download speed, as it was 96.15 per cent as fast as not using a VPN.
As for the connection to the US server, the download speed stood at 72.69 per cent compared with not using a VPN. This is good news for internet users who want to enjoy US streaming services.
Upload speed produced the most interesting results; in all tests where we connected to a VPN server, the upload speed was faster than not using a VPN. When connected to a UK VPN server, the upload speed is 119.34 per cent faster than not using a VPN. When we connected to a US VPN server, the upload speed was 8.73 per cent faster than not using a VPN. Even when we connected to an Australian server, the upload speed did not suffer any decline; it was 100.57 per cent as fast as not using a VPN.
Overall, Mozilla VPN performs quite well in terms of internet speed when connected to servers in different countries. One important factor to note is that your internet speed will be slower regardless of the VPN tool you use if you are connecting to a server in a distant location.
WebRTC is a collection of standardised technologies that allows web browsers to communicate directly with each other without the need for an intermediate server. The benefits of WebRTC include faster internet speeds and less lag for video chat, file transfer and live streaming.
For WebRTC to work, two devices must know each other’s IP addresses. However, any leak of your real IP address to a third party threatens your privacy.
Our researcher performed a WebRTC leak test – which tells you if your IP address is exposed – with and without using Mozilla VPN. When performing the test while connected to the VPN, the IP address was undetectable, and no WebRTC leak was detected. The test showed a WebRTC-exposed IP address when performed without a VPN.
Mozilla discloses security audits carried out by independent audit firms on its website. Two years ago, the Germany-based audit firm Cure53 conducted security audits on Mozilla VPN and found some vulnerabilities with medium or high severity.
While one of the security vulnerabilities allegedly exposed customers to the risk of WebSocket hijacking attempts, no customers were affected.
Mozilla VPN is limited to desktops, mobile devices and tablets. Here is the list of operating systems it’s compatible with:
Linux distributions:
However, Mozilla VPN is currently not compatible with gaming consoles such as PlayStation or Xbox, or with smart TVs.
Mozilla VPN’s desktop app is a user-friendly tool with a simple design. Its user interface allows you to turn VPN on with its toggle function, and you can select your location with one click. While you can select your location, you cannot select a specific server.
Furthermore, Mozilla VPN allows you to test your internet speed and view your IP address in the app.
You can activate single-hop or multi-hop functionality in the settings with a simple click.
If you wish to block ads, malware or trackers, click the “Privacy” section in the settings and turn the blockers on.
One thing that makes Mozilla VPN different from its competitors is that you need to set up a Firefox account to purchase and manage your subscription.
Mozilla VPN cannot currently be set up on a router. This means the service can’t be used to protect devices without native apps, such as gaming consoles, smart TVs and Amazon Firestick.
When you need Mozilla VPN support, you can submit your questions through the Firefox portal. Furthermore, all users can submit their queries on the Mozilla help forum. However, Mozilla does not offer live or 24/7 support.
Mozilla VPN received both praise and criticism from its users on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Notably, users are happy with the connection speeds and praise Mozilla for its security- and privacy-enhancing functionalities.
On the other hand, some users complained about randomly disconnecting from the VPN and having occasional issues accessing geo-blocked content in the US.
“I wanted to like this VPN because I like Mozilla, what they stand for, and generally the other products they put out are good, but this just reeks of being incomplete. It [has] very limited features, but then again so does Mullvad, which is essentially what this is just with a redesigned interface. When you’re connected, the speeds are usually good, obviously you’ll get some slow down on a VPN, but this one doesn’t usually slow it down to the point that it’s at all inconvenient to use.
“My main issue is just how unreliable it is at connecting and staying connected. It often takes a few tries to connect and you have to stay vigilant to monitor the connection, as it will just lose the connection in the background and never reconnect. This happens a few times a day and really makes it so I don’t trust it and I will be moving on at the end of the one month I paid for.”
“I signed up during the time when connectivity was still spotty, but I figured there were still kinks to work out given they were also still working on Mac OS support. I don’t regret it though. Ultimately solid VPN. Does what it should. Plus the spotty connectivity was resolved with the latest update. Before the update, I would have to disconnect and reset the connection whenever I would be in and out of service areas or if the phone was locked for a prolonged period of time, but now it just picks back up right where I left off. I knew Mozilla wouldn’t disappoint.”
“Overall I’m very pleased with it, but I have run into one issue. Some of my streaming services (e.g., Netflix) will tell me the programme I’m trying to watch is not available in my current country, even when I am connected to a domestic proxy server (e.g., Atlanta). I’ve filled out their customer-satisfaction questionnaire raising that issue and hope they’ll address it. Otherwise, I find it simple to use, effective, and affordable, both on my laptop and Android phone (on which I never watch videos).”
“Finally, an Android version that works the way it should! The MacOS version on my computer has always been stable and trouble-free. But, until this last update, the Android phone app was buggy – disconnecting multiple times with no warnings. But, so far, this update is working perfectly.”
Mozilla has an excellent reputation, and the growing popularity of its VPN is not surprising. Our research shows Mozilla VPN provides a decent level of security with a good internet speed.
Mozilla VPN uses WireGuard’s advanced protocol, which encrypts your data with a state-of-the-art ChaCha20 algorithm that maintains a higher internet speed than its AES-256 counterpart. However, privacy-conscious users might take issue with the fact that Mozilla does log and store some user data for users’ Firefox accounts (which is needed to subscribe to the VPN), such as IP addresses and which servers are used.
Some users might also be concerned about the fact Mozilla uses Mullvad’s VPN server infrastructure, as it means data could be handled by a third party. However, Mullvad operates an audited no-logs policy, so in theory there shouldn’t be any issues with data collection.
Furthermore, user reviews on the Apple App Store and Google Play express satisfaction with the VPN speed, which our speed tests confirm.
However, Mozilla also has a few shortcomings. Firstly, it only has 415 servers in 42 countries, fewer than most popular VPN products, and it does not have servers in Africa. Secondly, it collects and stores certain data, such as device identifiers, servers you use and your Firefox account details, for service monitoring and improvement. Lastly, Mozilla is incompatible with routers, gaming consoles and smart TVs, and some users complain about unexpectedly disconnecting from the VPN.
Score: ★★★1/2
| Reputation | ★★★ 1/2 |
|---|---|
| Privacy | ★★★ |
| Performance and features | ★★★★ |
| Plans and pricing value | ★★ 1/2 |
| Customer experience | ★★ 1/2 |
The data in this review is reported from a neutral stance and should be used for informational purposes only. We review VPN services from the perspective of:
Independent Advisor does not endorse the streaming of content from regions other than where the subscription is held, nor does it endorse the downloading or consumption of illegally pirated content.
