VPN for expats in Prague: do you need one, and which?

Do you actually need one?

Probably not to "stay safe" in general, and I'd rather say that upfront. A VPN is useful in a few specific situations, and expats hit most of them:

• Public and shared Wi-Fi: cafés, hotels, co-working spaces, airport lounges. It stops other people on the network seeing what you're doing.
• Reaching home-country services: some banks, government portals and work systems from back home behave differently, or refuse to work, when you log in from abroad.
• Privacy from your internet provider: your provider can normally see which sites you visit. A VPN moves that trust to the VPN company instead.

What a VPN does not do is remove viruses, make you anonymous online, or replace two-factor codes and good passwords. If someone sells it to you as a cure-all, be wary.

Why I recommend Mullvad

The one I recommend is Mullvad. This page isn't sponsored, and I don't earn anything if you sign up. The reasons are the boring, trustworthy kind:

• No email, no name. You get a randomly generated account number instead of a login. There's no profile to leak because there isn't one.
• One flat price. It costs a flat €5 a month, whatever plan length you pick. No "first year cheap, then it triples" trap and no discount-and-upsell maze.
• Paying without a trace is genuinely possible: besides cards and other digital options, it accepts cash sent by post.
• Modern protocol. It supports WireGuard, which is fast and light on battery, and a single account covers several devices.
• Checkable claims. It has published independent security audits, so you can read them instead of taking my word for it.

Check the current price, payment options and audit reports on Mullvad's own site before you buy, because those details can change.

Honest downsides

• It's not a streaming tool. If unblocking films is your main reason, a different service may suit you better, and none of them win every time.
• Some sites and banks distrust VPN addresses. That's normal for any VPN, and it's usually solved by turning it off for that one app.
• It's bare-bones. The app is simple and focused. If you want extras like ad blocking bundled with a slick dashboard, you'll find it plain.

Setting it up so it actually helps

1. Install it on the devices you use on public Wi-Fi first, usually your laptop and phone.
2. Turn on the app's "always require VPN" or kill-switch setting, so nothing leaks if the connection drops.
3. Keep your account number somewhere safe, like your password manager. Without an email address, there is no "forgot my login" button.
4. Test your important apps once: banking, work tools, streaming. Decide now which ones you'll pause it for, not in a panic later.
5. Don't run two VPNs or a VPN plus a "security suite" that also filters traffic. That's the most common cause of "the internet is broken" calls.

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