The best things in life are worth waiting for, or so the old saying goes, but does that old wisdom apply to VPNs? Probably not, if only due to the fact that VPNs aren’t exactly the type of software you can wait around for. Efforts to protect your online security and privacy ought to have started yesterday. And so, despite being quite a robust offering, Mozilla VPN is probably not the right service for most users.
Of course, all of that’s assuming you aren’t able to get an invite. Yes, there’s an invite system, even a full-fledged waiting list, at that. Granted, It’s only been a couple of months since Mozilla started this closed beta test of sorts, but things have been moving at a pretty glacial pace, complicating the task of actually reviewing the VPN rather substantially.
Mozilla VPN Review
Summary
With time, we believe this service can mature into something truly special but would still advise caution, at least until we see how Mozilla handles managing its premiere VPN solution once users start pouring in from all of the world.
Mozilla VPN Performance
Technologically speaking, Mozilla VPN offers the very edge of what modern traffic tunneling protocols can feasibly achieve. Symmetric WireGuard encryption, multi-hopping, granular kill switches, P2P protocol optimizations for faster torrenting… the list goes on and on. Connection degradation was even minimal from Europe, where the service isn’t even officially available as of this review.
Although yes, that means we used a VPN to sign up for a VPN. That’s how much Mozilla managed to intrigue us and performance-wise, there’s little to complain about here. Of course, it remains to be seen how well will its server network be able to handle larger traffic volumes oscillating at much sharper amplitudes once it hits the stable channel.
Mozilla VPN Privacy & Security
Unfortunately, this is where things start to go sideways. See, not many countries are truly conducive to businesses that legitimately care for consumer privacy. But even fewer are so blatantly opposed to it as Mozilla’s home country. Yes, we’re talking about the United States because no, you do not want to have to rely on an American company to protect your privacy.
As the volume and pervasiveness of stateside spying legislation pretty much invalidate any privacy vow a VPN provider could make. A shame, really, but again, there aren’t many VPN-friendly countries to choose from in the first place.
Mozilla VPN Warrant Canary
Despite having a pretty consistent pro-privacy track record, Mozilla was never a big believer in warrant canaries, in all their simplistic glory. And so its dedicated VPN platform doesn’t come with one, either. As for other reporting standards, it’s probably a bit too early to scrutinize those given how the entirety of the firm’s resources are presently focused on ironing out the technical aspect of the VPN. Of course, you could easily argue that something as paramount to a product as privacy is to a VPN should have been built into the very concept of the app. For the time being, Mozilla still doesn’t have much in the way of a retort to that.
Mozilla VPN Ease of Use
At least the service can speak for itself when it comes to intuitiveness because its interfaces are truly a pleasure to navigate, which is as high as praise goes in the world of software. Of course, the dozens of miscellaneous features will still add some clunk to the most thoroughly buried among settings menus. Which is also a quintessential software trait. Ultimately, however, Mozilla VPN offers a consistent user experience that it even manages to translate to touchscreens in a pretty seamless fashion.
Mozilla VPN Pricing
Despite its shortcomings, it’s hard to argue that $5 a month for Mozilla VPN isn’t a steal. But it also remains to be seen whether Mozilla sticks with that pricing once its tunneling app becomes available globally. Right now, the basic license allows for concurrent use on up to five devices, which is slightly above the industry’s average – at least at this particular price point.
Mozilla VPN Review Summary
Mozilla deserves a lot of recognition for demonstrating how there’s still plenty of room on the market for new VPN providers, so long as they have some genuine quality to offer. Doubly so if the overall package is so competitively priced. With time, we believe this service can mature into something truly special but would still advise caution, at least until we see how Mozilla handles managing its premiere VPN solution once users start pouring in from all of the world, instead of just half a dozen test markets.
Editor’s Note
BSN’s Mozilla VPN Review has been written by Dominik Bosnjak, a long-time VPN-user-turned-advocate who spends more time scrutinizing VPN Providers on a daily basis than he’d like to admit. When he isn’t writing VPN Guides and covering general Tech News, he’s probably spending time with his dog, video games, or both. Fun fact: the Shih Tzu in question is the only remaining creature in Dominik’s life who hasn’t told him they’re sick of him talking about Best VPN practices and government-sponsored erosion of digital privacy which made using the Internet less convenient over the years. He occasionally dabbles in video editing, Wall Street memes, and demonstrating a remarkable lack of guitar-playing ability.
If you want more tidbit-sized rants about any of those things, you can find him on Twitter @dddominikk.
