Surfshark VPN Review
Today’s Surfshark Best Deals
If you are looking to get one of the best PVN services on a budget, then Surfshark might be on your radar. Combining really underrated pricing, premium apps, and plenty of functionality, it seems to be the best of both worlds.
With a recently upgraded network of more than 3,200 servers in 65 countries, unlimited simultaneous connections on a single plan and industry-standard AES-256-GCM encryption as well as a good choice of protocols, on paper it looks like it should satisfy any user – but Can it live up to that in use?
In our in-depth Surfshark review, we’ve gone over the key features that make this product a real contender, and so popular with both new and experienced users. You’ll see if any sacrifices were made to keep the price very low, or if you’re already getting a top-notch VPN for just a few dollars a month.
To head to a specific part of the review, simply click on the navigation bar at the top of the page. Other than that, keep scrolling for everything you need to know about Surfshark.
- Surfshark subscription options:
- 24-month plan – $2.21 per month (total cost $53.04)
Surfshark 1 minute review
While the shorter plans are relatively expensive, sign up for two years and you’ll get one of the best monthly rates available: just $2.49 a month. And with regular deals and discounts, you are likely to get them at a lower price. For example, for Black Friday and beyond, Surfshark is offering 3 months free, which brings the price down to $2.21 per month.
Be aware that the price will go up after your initial period, so remember to check lowercase before renewing.
Surfshark beats all the basics like AES-256 encryption and more than 3,200 servers, but you’ll also get a lot of extra features like MultiHop, which allows you to cycle through more than one server at a time.
You’ll also get split tunneling, which is excellent for torrenting and disconnecting your connections, and a kill switch on your PC and Mac. In our rigorous pressure test, the lock switch failed several times, but in real use, this is unlikely to happen.
Other than these basics, Surfshark really pushed the boat upside down in terms of features. GPS spoofing, URL and ad blocking, multiple hops (routing across two consecutive servers for more privacy), extensive P2P support, additional password technology that will alert you about leaks, and an “invisible to devices” mode, which can hide your device from Others on the same network. The droppings are barely insignificant, then.
In terms of records, Surfshark’s published policies are impressive, and their base in the BVI is positive. And there is a significant improvement in the last server audit that was conducted in 2021.
Speeds are good when using WireGuard, topping out at around 475Mbps. While this isn’t a leader in its class, it’s certainly no slouch. However, we were disappointed with OpenVPN’s speeds of around 100-110Mbps. While this is not ideal, most users will use WireGuard anyway.
Surfshark really shines when it comes to streaming, and you’ll be able to unblock Netflix, iPlayer, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and more. In this area, there is not much to improve at all.
Customer support is good, with articles and live chat available. Articles are not the gold standard, but they are sufficient for most issues. Live chat is comprehensive, if mostly text-driven, but in more in-depth circumstances, operators steer clear of text and offer helpful advice.
Overall, Surfshark is a powerful VPN, and its appeal is only enhanced by its very cheap price.
(Image credit: Surfshark)
Latest updates
Surfshark recently updated its iOS and Android apps, including support for widgets.
Mac apps are now fully compatible with the new M1 chip, which means seamless performance on whatever device you use.
Surfshark’s really good browser extensions support split tunneling, which is a neat added feature that offers a real benefit.
Finally, while the full report has yet to be published, Surfshark has undergone a full security audit of its servers. As always, great to see, and it only increases our opinion of the service.
Surfshark on paper
Number of servers: 3200+
number of countries: 65+
Supported platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, Fire TV, Apple TV, Other TVs, PlayStation, Xbox, Chrome, Firefox (browser extensions)
simultaneous connections: Unlimited
Split Tunnel: Yes
kill switch: Yes
Supported protocols: WireGuard, OpenVPN UDP, OpenVPN TCP, IKEv2
Registration Country: British Virgin Islands
supports: 24/7 live chat, email and knowledge base
Surfshark VPN Price: What is its price, and is there a Surfshark free trial?
When you look at the cost of Surfshark’s service on a regular monthly plan, it doesn’t seem reasonable. In fact, at $12.95 a month, it’s actually more expensive than some of its competitors.
If you choose to pay for six months in one go, the price drops to $6.49 per month – still a bit pricey – but select the two-year plan and you’ll notice a significant drop in price. The longest option on offer, the 24-month plan is just $2.49 per month, which cuts back on nearly every other premium VPN.
However, at the time of writing, there is a VPN deal that offers an additional three months on the two-year plan, bringing the price down to $2.21 per month. Great value.
Some users will undoubtedly be put off by subscribing to a long plan, but it is a cheap VPN compared to other similar services which makes it totally worth it. Your first two years of accessing Surfshark will incur a one-time payment of $59.76. In comparison, NordVPN costs $83.88 for one year.
There is a “but” here, though. While that $2.49 a month price is very tempting, be aware that when you renew, you’ll pay more than that — $4.98 a month to be exact. While this is still cheaper than many alternatives, we recommend taking it into account when the first two years are up.
Surfshark recently launched Surfshark One, which offers standard VPN features, as well as Avira-powered antivirus, data breach monitoring, and privacy-friendly internet search. It’s a good package for just an extra $1.99 a month, and we could see a lot of customers going for this.
If you want to give it a try before you buy, you can make the most of a free seven-day VPN trial and test the service on Mac, iOS or Android. Although this is not a long trial and there is no option for Windows, many similar VPN service providers offer no trial at all. However, if you really want to test out the service, it may be worth just signing up and taking advantage of the 30-day money-back guarantee if it doesn’t live up to your standards.
When it comes to payment options, you may be surprised by the variety on offer. It is possible to pay for Surfshark using most of the leading credit cards, various cryptocurrencies, PayPal, Alipay, Google Pay and Amazon Pay as well.
(Image credit: Surfshark)
How special is Surfshark?
Surfshark is packed with privacy features. You’ll find all the classic privacy measures in place – AES-256 encryption, as well as the secure protocols OpenVPN UDP, TCP, IKEv2 and WireGuard.
However, there are also a number of advanced privacy features. Surfshark uses a private DNS on each of its servers that enables users to add an extra layer of protection and prevent third parties from intercepting browsing sessions.
The service also adopts a VPN chaining mechanism. This system allows users to route their traffic through two separate servers. It can be accessed with a MultiHop button and basically enables users to connect to one site and checkout from another.
This means that even if the crook is able to reach the checkout server, they will not be able to track down your IP address. Surfshark offers 15 routes. The first server is your connection location, which could be UK, USA, Germany, Singapore, France, Netherlands, India or Australia.
The second is your checkout location and where it appears to anyone looking at your niche. The options available for this are Germany, France, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Portugal, Sweden, Singapore, UK and USA.
Finally, Surfshark servers have recently been audited by Cure53, as mentioned above. It’s an essential step to substantiate any claims in the marketing materials, and Surfshark’s results have been good. Cure53 found only four issues, nothing worse than “average”, and these issues have been corrected.
How secure is Surfshark?
Surfshark has a built-in whiteboard that lets you create whitelists of apps, IP addresses, and websites that you can forward around the VPN. The process is similar to split tunneling, and if you find that the VPN is disrupting an app or website, whitelisting it should fix the problem.
You can also set up Whitelister so that only your chosen apps and sites are routed through Surfshark. We tried it and it worked perfectly. We are glad to see this feature in the desktop app – many VPN providers only offer it to mobile users.
Ads, malicious content, and a web tracker are blocked with Surfshark’s CleanWeb feature. However, we gave it a try and were not too impressed with the result. Using a dedicated tool like uBlock Origin allows you to block more content and have more control over the action.
There is an option that enables you to activate the VPN automatically on Windows startup, and it is also possible to switch between different protocols according to your security needs.
One of the most important security features of Surfshark is a kill switch. This enables you to automatically disconnect from the Internet if your VPN is disconnected. And we have some problems with it.
First, there is no middle ground. The kill switch completely disables the internet unless you are connected to a VPN. In other words, you can’t use the internet at all unless Surfshark is turned on. The best option would be to disconnect only if it is lost during VPN browsing session. This is the standard method used by VPN providers, which enables the user to continue browsing without activating the VPN.
Second, there was no notification that the lock switch was activated and our connection was forcibly closed.
One of our tests involved simulating a Windows Surfshark service failure, then closing an IKEv2 connection. In this admittedly unlikely situation, the connection was terminated and the lock switch was not activated. In addition, the application continued to display “Connected”.
In general, though, in everyday use the kill switch is effective, and we only had problems when we simulated a situation that was not likely to ever appear in real terms.
(Image credit: Surfshark)
Does Surfshark keep logs?
Due to Surfshark’s advertised location, BVI, local laws do not require the provider to log many VPN-related activities – and they do. This policy is comparable to ExpressVPN, located in the same jurisdiction.
You’ll find the full summary of Surfshark’s logging policy on its FAQ page, but in short, the service does not collect IP addresses, Internet activity history, VPN server location history, bandwidth usage, session information, or timestamps.
All that is logged is an email address and billing information as well as some anonymous statistical data. For example, this could include crash reports, statistical data, performance data, and other similar statistics.
In terms of security audits, Surfshark has been audited twice by leading security firm Cure53 — once in 2018, for dealing with browser extensions, and once in 2021, which was a more thorough audit of its servers. Fortunately, the results of both were positive, and the few risks identified were addressed.
What is Surfshark’s speed?
Surfshark is a reasonably fast VPN. In our tests, we had no connection issues at all, and connection speeds were pretty good.
When we tested the software on a British data center capable of 1 Gbps, we were slightly disappointed with OpenVPN’s results – the average was…
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