The system-wide VPN solution Firefox Private Networks VPN will be launched in the coming weeks under the new name Mozilla VPN.
The organization launched the product in 2019 under the name Firefox Private Network VPN as a beta in the United States after it launched the Firefox Private Network extension earlier that year.
firefox-mozilla-vpn is provided by the Swedish company Mullvad, uses WireGuard and comes with strong privacy protections that include a strict no logging policy.
The beta exit marks the next step for the product. Mozilla decided to rename Firefox Private Network VPN to Mozilla VPN to "serve a larger audience" and to distinguish it better from the Firefox Private Network browser extension which it also maintains.
It needs to be noted that the two products are different on many levels. Mozilla VPN is based on Mullvad while Firefox Private Network browser extension is using Cloudflare's infrastructure as its backbone. The former offers system-wide protection, the latter only in Firefox.
Mozilla VPN will be launched in the United States initially for an introductory price of $4.99 per month. For comparison purposes, Mullvad accounts are available for €5 (which is about $5.50) per month. It is likely that Mozilla is going to raise the price of the solution at one point in time as it uses the word "introductory" or "for a limited time" when it lists the current price.
Mozilla VPN customers may use the VPN solution on up to five devices, and may be used on Windows, Google Android, and Apple iOS initially. Versions for Mac OS and Linux are in the works and will follow at a later point in time.
Mozilla plans to expand the regional availability of Mozilla VPN later this year but did not reveal which regions it targets initially.
Closing Words
It will be interesting to see how well Mozilla VPN will do from a business point of view. The introductory price is not exactly cheap when compared to other popular VPN solutions. It remains to be seen if Mozilla's name behind the product will entice users to start using it instead of other solutions, even if it lacks some of the advanced features or tools that other VPN solutions offer.
Another factor that is unknown at this point in time is how Mullvad's network will cope with the increase in users if a sizeable number of users signs up for Mozilla VPN in the first weeks after launch.
Mozilla needs to diversify its income as it is too dependent on search engine deals. What makes this even more problematic is that the company's current deal is with its biggest competitor in the browser market, Google.
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