I have used both Mullvad and AirVPN for extended periods of time.

Mullvad is the gold standard. If you don't need port forwarding and privacy is your biggest concern there is no better choice. Check out their server infrastructure, and tools such as DAITA / Leta / Mullvad browser to see how much they contribute to the privacy community.

Mullvad is also a much better UX. AirVPN Eddie client feels like its stuck in 1998.

Both are good VPNs - Mullvad just happens to be the best. The only real issue, from a privacy perspective, with AirVPN is they refuse to be audited so you are stuck just trusting they do what they say but OTOH they have been around for a long time and never given a reason not to be trusted.

If you do need port forwarding, AirVPN probably has the best implementation of it. They also have customizable DNS on a per device level which is also pretty cool.

Generally, it’s best to go by capability, not by policy.

Any company has to do what the government of its country says. This goes both for the VPN company, AND any exit node country. So you have to always assume that whatever country your exit node is in has full access to the data exiting the VPN there.

Then there’s the technology being used, the expertise with which it is configured, and finally the policies in place for handling and storing your PII.

Mullvad has a strong record on all accounts, even as far as just giving a year’s notice that it will stop supporting OpenVPN.

AirVPN has virtually no track record, fewer details on hardware, configuration, expertise and PII handling, and it’s in the EU, so has to comply with EU laws as well as Italian laws.

Being in the EU means it has to comply with the GDPR, which does have its benefits. But it also means an EU member state could put a gag order on your account and be monitoring all your data without you ever knowing.

So it all comes down to who you want your data to be private from and why.

Personally, I avoid all public VPN services as much as possible, and assume that the only thing they’re really doing is tricking the next service in the hop as to what country I’m connecting from.

I've never used AirVPN, but I've used Mullvad for a few years and I rarely ever have any issues with it. I won't deny that I have few complaints, but the complaints that I do have are quite minimal. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Mullvad based on my own experience.

Mullvad is ditching OpenVPN. I don't use Wireguard since it breaks my firewall rules. AirVPN is decent enough. I have used them for port forwarding before.

I hear a lot of good talk on Mullvad and ProtonVPN. ProtonVPN allows port forwarding. But yeah, it's a bit pricey. Good luck in your search.

I use Mullvad VPN and unfortunately they are based in a country that is part of the 14 eyes alliance. IVPN if I'm not mistaken is based in Gibraltar, which at certain times makes me consider migration

There’s also OVPN. They do all the stuff people like Mullvad for but they own all their own hardware and they’ve had their no-logging policy tested in court.

Tailscale is better.