| VPN | Surfshark |
| Based in | British Virgin Islands |
| Logs | No logs |
| Price | $2.49/mo. |
| Support | 24/7 Live chat |
| Refund | 30 days |
| Website | Surfshark.com |
Surfshark is one of the newer VPN services that launched on the scene just a few short years ago. Despite being a relative newcomer in the VPN space, Surfshark feels very polished. And as we discovered in this Surfshark review, it is putting up very impressive test results with speeds and security features.
But there are also a few drawbacks we discovered. Keep reading to see if Surfshark is a good fit for your needs, or if you should consider other options.
Here is an overview of our findings:
Pros of Surfshark
- Support for all operating systems and devices + Unlimited connections
- Strong privacy protection policies
- Secure encryption and leak protection features
- Full WireGuard support (with fast speeds)
- Passed an independent security audit
- Large, secure server network operating in RAM-disk
- CleanWeb (ad blocker) and Whitelister (split tunneling) features
- Surfshark works with Netflix and other streaming services
- Multi-hop VPN, plus extra features
- Excellent prices and money-back guarantee
- 24/7 live chat support
Cons of Surfshark
- Slower OpenVPN speeds
- Limited VPN router support
Additional research findings
- Does Surfshark work for torrenting?
- Does Surfshark work in China?
Now let’s get into the details…
Pros of Surfshark VPN
Here are the pros (advantages) of Surfshark.
1. Support for all operating systems and devices + Unlimited connections
Despite being a newer VPN service, Surfshark already has a great lineup of apps that cover all major operating systems and devices.
You can use Surfshark with:
- Desktop and Laptops
- Windows
- Mac OS
- Linux
- Phones and tablets
- Android
- iOS
- Browsers (This is a browser extension)
- Chrome (and Chromium-based browsers)
- Firefox
- Smart TVs (This is smart DNS)
- Amazon Fire TV
- Apple TV
- Other Smart TVs (see website for details)
- Gaming consoles (This is smart DNS)
- Playstation
- Xbox
Get more details on Surfshark apps here.
Note: Do not confuse the Browser Extensions or Smart DNS for the dedicated VPN client on your operating system. In short, a browser extension only works within the browser, rather than encrypting all traffic on your operating system like a VPN. And a Smart DNS is simply modifying your DNS settings rather than encrypting all traffic. We discuss this distinction more in our best VPNs for Chrome guide.
Unlimited number of connections
Another big advantage you get with Surfshark is an unlimited number of simultaneous connections. In the VPN industry, most services limit you to about five simultaneous connections, give or take a few. While Perfect Privacy also offers an unlimited number of connections, it is significantly more expensive than Surfshark.
Here is the official policy from their website:
We offer an exclusive service to our customers – our VPN enables you to connect all your devices at once, without a limit on simultaneous connections!
2. Strong privacy protection policies
Surfshark does a great job at ensuring customer privacy remains protected. For starters, it is based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). This is an excellent privacy jurisdiction that is safely outside the Five Eyes surveillance alliances. The BVI is politically and legally independent with strong privacy protection laws. This makes it a popular jurisdiction for banking and privacy-focused businesses. It’s also where ExpressVPN is based (see our ExpressVPN review for details).
Another important consideration is logs. Many countries around the world are implementing laws that cripple encryption and data privacy. There are various data retention laws now in place throughout the West, along with an expansion of surveillance authorities. By legally incorporating in a safe overseas jurisdiction, Surfshark can better protect user privacy. From their website:
We’re based in the British Virgin Islands, which allows us to keep our VPN logs-free. We don’t collect any information that could lead us to know who you are or what you’re up to online.
Like many other VPNs and tech companies, Surfshark has a team of people working around the world.
Now on to the next important question…
Does Surfshark keep logs?
I read through the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for this Surfshark review. Both are rather verbose. Here are some important takeaways:
- Surfshark does not keep any logs that could identify a user or their activities online. (No IP addresses or usage data is recorded.)
- SurfShark apps have a “crash reports” option to report diagnostic info if the app crashes. This is anonymized and it can be easily disabled in the settings.
Note that many VPN services have an option to send crash reports in the apps. If you find this concerning, just disable the option in settings.
The Surfshark mobile apps may also contain an advertising ID. Again, if you find this problematic, then you can just disable it in the settings.
Surfshark Warrant Canary
Surfshark maintains a warrant canary to alert their customers to any government action that could infringe on customer privacy. Here is the latest version from their website:
As of October 30, 2020 Surfshark has received:
0 National Security letters;
0 Gag orders;
0 Warrants from a government organization.
Looks good! You generally do not see warrant canaries with US VPN services, such as IPVanish, which are subject to data requests and gag orders that prevent any disclosure.
3. Secure encryption and leak protection features
For encryption, Surfshark utilizes the industry standard of AES-256-GCM (Galois/Counter Mode) cipher with an RSA-2048 key exchange. Additionally, Surfshark offers the following VPN protocols:
- OpenVPN – OpenVPN is generally considered the “gold standard” with VPNs because it offers good performance, is open source, and is considered very secure.
- WireGuard – WireGuard is the newest addition to Surfshark and offers the fastest speeds and latest encryption technology.
- IKEv2 – This is considered to be a very secure protocol with excellent performance. While it usually outperforms OpenVPN, it is not open source, which is a drawback.
Depending on which Surfshark app you are using, you can select from the available VPN protocols right in the settings area.
Surfshark currently supports the WireGuard VPN protocol on the following operating systems: Windows, Mac OS, Android, and iOS. With Linux, WireGuard support will be coming out later in the year.
Surfshark kill switch
The Surfshark kill switch feature will block traffic if your VPN connection drops. This ensures your location and IP address remain protected, even if the VPN connection fails (for any reason). You can see the kill switch in the settings. Here is the Surfshark Windows app that we tested for this review, with the kill switch enabled:
The kill switch feature is available with Surfshark apps for Windows, Mac OS, Android, and iOS. I tested the kill switch with the Surfshark Windows VPN app and everything worked well.
Surfshark leak tests (no leaks found)
For this Surfshark review, I also ran the Windows and Mac OS clients through some basic VPN tests and checks. I could not find any IP address leaks or DNS leaks. In short, everything with Surfshark worked well in our tests.
The SurfShark Mac OS app also did well in our tests, with no leaks or bugs identified.
Read about Surfshark’s security features here.
4. Full WireGuard support (with fast speeds)
One of the biggest updates to this Surfshark review is the implementation of WireGuard.
With the latest version of the SurfShark VPN apps, you can easily enable the WireGuard VPN protocol right in the settings, as you see below.
There are many advantages to using the WireGuard VPN protocol:
- Amazing download speeds
- Instant connections
- Seamless transition between networks, without losing a connection
- The latest upgrades in encryption technology
In our tests, we found all of these benefits to be on full display with Surfshark. So let’s get to the speed tests!
Surfshark WireGuard speed test results
We ran all tests on a 500 Mbps connection using the latest Surfshark VPN apps with the WireGuard protocol. All tests were carried out in our US lab testing Surfshark servers in the US, Canada, and Europe.
First I tested a Surfshark VPN server in Los Angeles (USA) and was able to get 346 Mbps.
At well over 300 Mbps, this is an excellent speed test result.
Next I tested a Surfshark VPN server in Seattle. Once again, the results were excellent at 308 Mbps.
Even though the Surfshark Seattle server is not as fast as the previous Los Angeles server, 308 Mbps is still great.
The last Surfshark server I tested in the United States was in New York. This was the most impressive speed I found, at 397 Mbps.
At nearly 400 Mbps, this puts Surfshark in the league of the fastest VPNs we have tested here at Restore Privacy.
We also ran some speed tests with Surfshark servers in Canada. Here was a server in Toronto at 360 Mbps:
Surfshark is one of the best VPNs for Canada that delivers consistent performance.
Lastly, I tested servers in the UK. Once again, the performance was excellent with this Surfshark server in the UK: 330 Mbps.
If you want the fastest VPN speeds with Surfshark, simply use the WireGuard VPN protocol. Aside from fast download speeds, WireGuard also offers these benefits:
- Near-instant connections (no more waiting 10+ seconds for the VPN to connect)
- Improved mobile performance
- Better battery life
- More reliability (fewer dropped connections)
We did notice that OpenVPN speeds were nowhere near the level of WireGuard performance, but we’ll discuss that more below.
5. Passed an independent security audit
Many VPNs are working to build trust in a rapidly-growing industry by undergoing external audits. Surfshark is going along with this (positive) trend. It underwent an audit by Cure53, a reputable cybersecurity firm based in Germany. Cure53 had this to say:
As the extremely low number of findings and their limited implications clearly indicate, the results of this Cure53 assessment of the Surfshark VPN extensions position the product in a very good light. Two members of the Cure53 team, who examined the scope in November 2018, can only conclude that the tested applications make a very robust impression and are not exposed to any issues, neither in the privacy nor in the more general security realms.
For a third-party security audit, this ready very well. Note, however, that the audit was limited to the Android and iOS browser extensions. You can read the full audit report here.
There are also a few verified no logs VPNs that have undergone external audits to verify their logging policies. (Surfshark has not done this yet.) Some of the larger VPN services have undergone third-party audits to verify the no-logs status. We discuss two examples of this in our NordVPN vs ExpressVPN comparison.
6. Large, secure server network operating in RAM-disk
For being a relatively young (new) VPN service, Surfshark has a surprisingly large number of servers around the world. The current numbers are 1,700+ servers in 63 countries.
As you can see above, all Surfshark servers run Private DNS and are P2P-friendly.
Does Surfshark use virtual server locations?
First, let’s define what we’re talking about. A virtual server location is when a VPN server announces a location, such as Chile for example, when it is in fact located somewhere else, such as in the US. We’ve examined the issue of virtual server locations before, and there are pros and cons to doing this.
For the purpose of this Surfshark review, we can clearly see that Surfshark uses some virtual server locations for remote regions. Surfshark is transparent about this fact and clearly announces the virtual locations in the apps (unlike HideMyAss for example). You can identify the virtual locations within the Surfshark client because they are marked with a “V” for virtual.
Note: Using virtual server locations is not a dealbreaker. ExpressVPN and others also use virtual locations in a limited number of cases to support remote regions. Like ExpressVPN, Surfshark also discloses all virtual locations.
7. CleanWeb (ad blocker) and Whitelister (split tunneling) features
Surfshark comes integrated with some cool features that I tested out for this Surfshark review. First we’ll examine the CleanWeb feature.
CleanWeb filter to block ads, trackers, malware, and phishing domains
Surfshark has a useful filtering feature called CleanWeb. This feature blocks ads, trackers, malware, and phishing domains, as well as “suspicious links” that are on a blacklist. There are some nice advantages to VPN ad blockers, which can efficiently block domains at the VPN server via DNS requests, rather than relying on browser extensions.
You can enable CleanWeb in the Surfshark settings. This feature is available in the Windows, Mac OS, Android, and iOS apps. Here is the CleanWeb feature I tested out for this review with the Windows client and it worked well.
I tested this out by visiting some ad-infested websites with CleanWeb enabled. It looks to be working very well as all ads were effectively blocked.
Other VPNs also offer ad-blocking, such as with the CyberSec feature that we tested in the NordVPN review.
Whitelister (split tunneling) feature
Like with CleanWeb, the Whitelister feature is also activated directly in the Surfshark app settings area. This tool allows you to “Select apps or websites & IPs to bypass VPN.”
This may be useful in certain cases. For example if you have a streaming service that blocks the VPN, then bypassing the VPN with only that app may be helpful. This is another feature that we also see being offered by other VPNs, as we noted with our ProtonVPN review.
8. Surfshark works with Netflix and other streaming services
If you need a good VPN for Netflix, Surfshark is a solid choice.
I tested out Surfshark with US Netflix and everything worked perfectly. I used the Seattle server and was able to unblock all content. Streaming quality was also perfect without any interruptions.
Out of curiosity, I also asked Surfshark support what other Netflix regions they support. The answer was impressive with a long list of Netflix regions around the world:
Many people want access to American Netflix because it offers the largest library anywhere, and you can access it with any Netflix account and a VPN server in the US. Surfshark, however, gives you many options if you enjoy streaming Netflix with a VPN.
Beyond Netflix, Surfshark is a great all-around VPN for streaming, with many other services supported including BBC iPlayer, Disney Plus, Hulu, DAZN, and more.
9. Multi-hop VPN, plus extra features
Surfshark offers a multi-hop VPN feature, which will route your traffic over two different VPN servers. As of the time of this Surfshark review, there are fourteen different double-hop server configurations available. These can be selected directly within the Surfshark client under Locations > MultiHop.
This can be a good feature if you are looking for more encryption and privacy above and beyond a single-hop connection. However, speeds will likely be slower than single-hop servers.
We have a multi-hop VPN guide that dives into this topic more if you are interested.
Extra (paid) features
Surfshark also offers a few additional features, beyond what we’ve covered above. These two features are referred to as “Privacy Beyond VPN” and are available for an additional $.99 per month:
- Surfshark Alert – Get real-time alerts when your emails & passwords are at risk of being hacked.
- Surfshark Search – The real incognito mode for searches you don’t want anyone to see.
You can see these features on the checkout page and they can be activated with one click.
You may find this package to be useful and worth the monthly (added) price. However, there are many different private search engines available that are free of charge. There are also identity theft protection services, but they can be quite expensive.
10. Excellent prices and money-back guarantee
Surfshark is probably the cheapest VPN that I would still consider to be a high-quality service. It is a great value at only $2.49 per month with the two-year plan. So your total price is only $59.76 for a two-year subscription.
At $2.49 per month, Surfshark is cheaper than nearly all other leading (high-quality) VPN services.
Surfshark supports all major payment options: credit cards, PayPal, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, and cryptocurrencies.
Surfshark 30-day refund policy
Surfshark offers a 30-day refund policy on all plans. This is a great refund window as many VPNs restrict refunds to only one week.
Reading through the terms and conditions, there are a few exceptions for mobile apps and gift cards.
We can refund you on the basis of our 30-day money-back guarantee. Except if you signed up via iTunes/App Store or with a prepaid card/gift card. These are out of our hands.
These exceptions are pretty standard. You can see the respective mobile stores for their refund policies.
The 30 day refund window basically acts as a free trial VPN, since you can cancel any time within the window for a full refund.
11. Live chat support available 24/7
In working on this Surfshark review, I had many interactions with their support team. I found the support to be fast and helpful. You can access the live chat support directly through the website and it is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
I also found the Surfshark website to have lots of good info. There is a dedicated support domain with dozens of tutorials and guides.
Cons of Surfshark VPN
Now let’s examine the cons (drawbacks) of Surfshark VPN.
1. Slower OpenVPN speeds
I ran lots of speed tests for this Surfshark review. The test results for the WireGuard protocol were excellent and are all posted above.
There is one drawback with speeds however. I found the OpenVPN protocol to not offer the best performance. While anyone can use WireGuard, some may prefer to use OpenVPN for various reasons. OpenVPN is also the only protocol supported with Linux as well as the multi-hop feature.
Below you can see that OpenVPN speeds were not great in a few locations.
Here was a server in Los Angeles with the OpenVPN protocol and I’m getting around 81 Mbps.
Similarly, the OpenVPN protocol with a UK server was also not very impressive at 79 Mbps.
We can expect OpenVPN to not perform at the same level as WireGuard. With that being said, you can typically get speeds of over 150 or 200 Mbps with OpenVPN using a fast VPN service. For example, I can usually get speeds of over 200 Mbps using NordVPN.
If you don’t need to use OpenVPN, then you’ll be better off with WireGuard, which is more than adequate with Surfshark.
2. Limited VPN router support
Another drawback I found with Surfshark is that there is no VPN router app. Some VPNs, such as ExpressVPN and VyprVPN, offer a dedicated app that can be used with some routers, with the right firmware. This makes it very easy to get the VPN up and running, assuming you have the right router.
With Surfshark, however, there is no dedicated VPN router app. However, you can still use Surfshark with a router, but it may be more complicated. Here are some options for using Surfshark with a router:
- Get a preconfigured VPN router from vendors such as Flashrouters, Sabai Technology, or Vilfo.
- Get a VPN-enabled router that comes with full support for OpenVPN. My top recommendation for this is the latest models from Asus.
- Flash your existing router with a firmware that will work with VPNs. This can be tricky and it also comes with some risk. Proceed with caution.
As you can see, there are still many options for using Surfshark with a VPN router, but it’d be great if they developed a dedicated VPN router app to make that even easier. See my VPN router guide for more of a discussion on this topic.
Additional research findings
Here are some additional research findings and test results for this Surfshark VPN review.
Does Surfshark work for torrenting?
While it may not be the best VPN for torrenting, Surfshark is still an excellent choice
According to the Surfshark website, all servers are P2P friendly.
With great speeds (using WireGuard), good leak protection settings, no logs, and safe, secure apps, Surfshark is a good option to consider. Torrenters may also find peace of mind knowing that Surfshark is not forced to comply with DMCA laws because they are based in the British Virgin Islands. Therefore legal notices and copyright demands should not affect Surfshark users in any way.
Does Surfshark work in China?
Surfshark has a built-in feature called NoBorders, which they developed to help users get around VPN blocks and restrictions. This will be useful in China. VPNs use different names for this feature, such as the Chameleon protocol with VyprVPN.
The Surfshark NoBorders feature can be enabled directly in the app. This should allow you to use the VPN in areas where VPNs may be blocked, such as in China.
With this feature built into the Surfshark apps, it is probably a good VPN for China if you need to get through the Great Firewall.
Note: Surfshark also has a “Camouflage mode” feature that obfuscates VPN traffic. This feature is enabled with the OpenVPN protocol (UDP and TCP). While this is similar to the “NoBorders” feature, they are separate.
Surfshark review conclusion
Despite being a relatively cheap VPN that is relatively new to the VPN world, Surfshark packs a punch. It delivers serious value when you consider all of the features, preferences, and performance, all for only $2.49 per month.
As a brief recap, here are the highlights of Surfshark VPN:
- Great apps for all major devices and operating systems
- Unlimited number of connections
- Based in a safe offshore jurisdiction (BVI) with a good no logs policy
- Good leak protection features (kill switch) with strong encryption
- Multi-hop VPN servers (13 to choose from)
- CleanWeb feature to block ads, trackers, malware, and phishing domains
- Split tunneling feature (Whitelister)
- Works well with Netflix and other streaming channels
- 24/7 live chat support and a 30 day money-back guarantee
Overall Surfshark is one of the better VPNs I’ve tested and is currently one of our top recommendations.
If you want to give Surfshark a try, grab the 81% discount offer here>>
Alternatives to Surfshark
Below are a few great alternatives to Surfshark that we have tested and reviewed. Check out the review or grab the discount for the best savings. Both of these VPNs have a 30 day money-back guarantee.
You can also check out our guide on the top VPN Services for other recommendations.
Surfshark Review
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Surfshark VPN Review
(3.7)
I still don’t get why this VPN is one of the top ones.
I mean I get the fact that it offers more streaming libraries, but this is probably just because the VPN is quite new on the block and Netflix hasn’t targeted it yet, which will be for sure in the future.
Secondly, browser extension audit isn’t that much of an audit at all, because that is not the main use case for a VPN service, and for sure that should not be the first thing to be audited, as it only raises more questions like “Why did they audit it at first, is there something they haven’t yet figured out on VPN side?”
Thirdly, I do get the fact that Wireguard offers great performance, but in most countries ISPs don’t even give you speeds over 100, thus the performance boost is great for something available in the future, but not at this point in time. Moreover, OpenVPN is still better in terms of privacy, and most routers (speaking of Asus routers) don’t offer Wireguard out of the box (Asus doesn’t offer it at all, and there is no way of changing the firmware on it), and the fact that OpenVPN performance is quite bad is not a Con, but quite a major issue for a lot of users.
I mean the only real advantage I see here is the price, but that alone doesn’t come close to making this VPN service number 2 in the top VPN lists…
But that’s just my personal opinion.
Most of our readers are in the US, although we do write for a global audience, and internet speeds in the US are pretty decent. It seems speed and performance are bigger factors with people. With our recent review update, we were very impressed with Surfshark’s speeds and full implementation of the WireGuard VPN protocol. It also offers many useful features, such as CleanWeb to efficiently block ads and trackers on your operating system. And while the audit was limited in scope to browser extensions, it is still more than most VPNs have done (zero audits).
Overall, the biggest reasons that Surfshark earned a higher spot in our overall rankings are are as follows:
– Full WireGuard support
– Much faster speeds than our previous tests (thanks to WireGuard)
– Continues to work really well with streaming
– Lots of features
– Low price
Hi , sven
In top you said surfshark and in down of page you change it from express vpn
surfshark vpn not proven and audited !!!
Why you offer it to all????
Please prove your comment in here thanks .
I have no idea what this comment means or asks.
Hi , sven this guy say right (vikky)
Why expressvpn is lower than surfshark , is new of exprience
And never audited , second surfshark perhaps logs ! , because we donot know about it 100% , expressvpn is the first vpn in the world did audited and did run on ram servers , what is answer of you about above ?
We have adjusted the overall rankings for many reasons:
– Surfshark now supports the WireGuard VPN protocol on all major devices and operating systems. (ExpressVPN does not)
– Surfshark is very fast in our recent tests, with speeds up to 400 Mbps. (ExpressVPN is much slower.)
– Surfshark unblocks streaming sites around the world without any issues. (ExpressVPN is getting blocked by many streaming sites right now, including BBC iPlayer.)
– Surfshark offers more features than ExpressVPN and better performance for a much lower price.
It simply outranks ExpressVPN, and the no-logs audit is just one minor consideration.
While Surfshark has not undergone a no-logs audit, they have passed a security audit conducted by Cure53. And as an offshore (safe privacy jurisdiction), no-logs provider with a good track record, I have no reason to doubt their claims.
Not to mention their automatic “Camouflage Mode” with OpenVPN, and Geo-spoofing location data with Android (Which works very well with services like Hulu that require location services to be activated on Android in order for the app to run).
I’ve had a couple of issues with WireGuard lately. Switching from mobile data to wifi results in having to re-connect to current SurfShark server or choosing another. I have also found their IKEv2 protocol to leak my IPV6 address on a couple of occasions using their multi-hop feature. There was a stretch where certain protocols would disappear from the menu while having “No Borders” mode activated. I don’t live in a repressive country so I was a bit startled to see those options dropping off. Turning off that feature fixed that issue.
Cleanweb works great as well as their search/account monitoring service. Worth the extra dollar a month.
Overall I’m a satisfied customer.
I used them for a short while and decided to move onto other services. Recently returned and I am quite pleased. For the price I feel I get a lot of features. RAM disc-mode servers, unlimited connections (Which is a plus for those who are hyper-sensitive towards logging/privacy policies), Wireguard, and fairly good speeds. I’ve only encountered connectivity issues once, and their Android app killswitch is a bit buggy but overall I think I’ll stick with them for the long-haul.
I’ve recently been using ProtonVPN and Perfect Privacy. Personally, PP was a bit overkill for my threat model, and Surfshark bests ProtonVPN for features/overall value. RAM-discs as well as their host providers security policies (I’ve researched the hosters of the servers I use frequently) and found them to be very physically secure, so Proton’s “SecureCore” feature was offset for me.
I was initially turned off by the secretive nature of the people who run Surfshark (Their CEO goes by a pseudonym), and how it appeared on the scene so quickly (Without publicly disclosing their investors, etc) but it appears that the service itself is very privacy-oriented (RAM-discs, Camouflage mode, No Borders, their paid search function, etc). They have the appearance of a polished, professional service but at the same time are very secretive. Their social media accounts are practically dead, they don’t offer user testimonials, etc. This could be a good thing as they are obviously doing what they can to protect user privacy in other areas besides their service use but it can also mean that they could very well have something to hide.
I’ve read elsewhere on here that you intend to write an article covering these common concerns and I look forward to reading it.
Yes, there are good reasons for owners of VPNs to remain anonymous. Namely, this protects the owners, the VPN, and the users from governments putting direct pressure on the people running the VPN itself. In the past, we’ve seen owners get pressured by government agencies to give up data. The formerly “no logs” IPVanish (based in the US) was one example of this – and they caved under pressure and gave up user logs.
Another huge benefit with Surfshark is they have now implemented WireGuard. On the tests we ran, we were able to get 300 to 400 Mbps with US servers using the WireGuard protocol, which is awesome. We’ll be updating this review shortly with new speed test results…
Wireguard has worked well for me too, but I am curious as to how they implement it with their Multi-Hop. NordVPN did not offer Wireguard as part of their Double VPN feature.
I just can’t get rid of the feeling that Surfshark and NordVPN belong together as they both have the same features. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have any problems with it.
Yes they definitely have some similarities. As for as legal business entities, they are indeed separate, with Surfshark being based in the BVI and NordVPN being in Panama. Another noteworthy difference is that Surfshark utilizes a few virtual server locations, while NordVPN does not.
Great review. You should mention that they upgraded to 100% RAM-only servers in July 2020.
https://surfshark.com/blog/surfshark-upgraded-to-ram-only-servers
Yep, we’ll discuss that with the next update (soon).
Latest update of surfshark vpn get wireguard support please review this how wireguard works here
Hello Sven, why did you removed my comment.
Are you getting paid from Surfshark?
I am putting some real solid evidence about Surfshark.
Surfshark charges people for haveibeenpawnd free service. That’s unfair practice. This should be put in review and not just bypassed. I am really long reader of website and I believe in you. Don’t let money control you. Give all truth to persons.
Harley the comments section is for user reviews. You provided a link to Twitter. Of course it looks like one of the sources for Surfshark’s HackLock paid add-on is haveibeenpwned, a free service. I’m not sure where the other data comes from for this service. No, I’m not paid by Surfshark for censorship. It’s a standard affiliate like other VPNs as explained on the Mission page. If you have used Surfshark, feel free to leave your own review.
There is no other source of hacklock as they have accepted it now.
Price needs to be updated. It’s now $2.5/mo for first 24 months and then $5 after that.
Yep, we’ll be updating the pricing info on all articles discussing Surfshark within the next day or so.
Thank you for the review. After trying several other VPN services, I found most of them leaked like screen door. I use an OpenBSD server as a router and running the package “trafshow” to see what is going through my connection. No leakage and speed is faster than my ISP. Please look into 4G wireless providers to review. Looking forward to more of you reviews! DRX
Hi Sven, can you investigate if there are any connections of Surfshark with Gaditek company behind PureVPN because I think there is. Let us know if you find anything. Thanks
I’ve looked at this and no, Surfshark is not connected to Gaditek, a company based in Pakistan. Gaditek is connected to PureVPN, Ivacy, and a handful of “review” websites.
Hello Sven.
Here is something interesting. SurfShark is reported here to be headquartered in Hong Kong, China: https://www.zoominfo.com/c/surfshark/452604156
It looks dodgy. Rather go for a VPN that is upfront in the ownership. Maybe this VPN with some of the other big names are state sponsored 🙂
Cheers.
I have no idea what this Zoom Info site is about or the evidence for this. Surfshark is a BVI registered corporation, falling under BVI jurisdiction.
I am concerned by the fact that who is behind SurfShark is a mystery. It very well could be a government somewhere running it. Also, how can a company give away unlimited connections for under $2 per month. It doesn’t make economic sense, unless this is just a short-term goal. Perhaps they will sell off the operation with a large customer base before too long.
As for no logs – SurfShark has done one of sorts a couple of years ago. Is this really credible? And the fact that they are based in the BVI doesn’t mean much when the entire operation looks “grey”. The same goes for the likes of NordVPN.
Wouldn’t it be better better to go for the likes of Mullvad and VyprVPN, who is transparent about ownership. Mullvad for instance doesn’t have an affiliate program and doesn’t really advertise like other VPNs. They don’t even ask for an email address to register. I would have expected a company like Mullvad to be in the list of recommended VPNs. Sven, your thoughts here?
I too shared concerns for a few years about Surfshark, and was hesitant to promote a new VPN with no public leadership. I can tell you there are many advantages to the VPN, the VPN’s users, and the VPN owners to remain as anonymous as possible so that they cannot be pressured by governments to give up data on their users. Government can, will, and have gone after public-facing individuals behind privacy-focused companies. Just look at Ladar Levison with Lavabit.
However, NordVPN has gotten so big, and now they are launching other products like NordPass and NordLocker, that being anonymous is challenging, so they are being more transparent about the people behind the company. They maintain the Panama parent company for Nord products due to the favorable privacy jurisdiction, which protects Nord users. Explained here:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/meet-nordsec-the-company-behind-nordvpn-wants-to-be-your-one-stop-privacy-suite/
Surfshark is similar. They have operations and staff around the world, but all business and legal issues fall under the parent company, which is located in the BVI, one of the best privacy jurisdictions in the world. This protects the VPN’s user base more than anything else, and particularly their private data if some government wanted to go after the BVI for logs. We’ve seen this before when Turkey went after ExpressVPN for logs, and then ended up seizing an ExpressVPN server. And if a VPN is protected behind a solid legal jursidiction, they can’t be forced to cough up logs as easily.
IPVanish, for example, is a US “no logs” VPN that was forced to start collecting logs on a user who was being investigated by the FBI. And of course IPVanish users were never warned of this.
And here’s another example for you since you mentioned Mullvad in Sweden. OVPN is based in Sweden and is transparent, like Mullvad. This makes them a target for data requests and they are currently in an ongoing court battle over this exact issue right now, fighting over a case in Swedish court with a media company demanding logs:
https://www.ovpn.com/en/blog/ovpn-fights-court-order
https://www.ovpn.com/en/blog/update-on-court-order
So, long story short, I have done the research on these issues. Surfshark was launched in 2018. I tested the VPN in early 2020, it performed very well, then I reached out to Surfshark staff with specific questions about the business and operations. It all checked out. It is a solid service in my opinion.
With prices, I believe they are keeping the prices as low as possible just to enter the VPN market and try to get a foothold before the prices adjust up to more realistic levels, but I can’t say for sure. As for unlimited devices, this isn’t a big deal since most people use very few devices and very little bandwidth with their subscription. IPVanish, Windscribe, and Perfect Privacy all give you unlimited devices as well, just to name a few.
I don’t like Surfshark’s metric. I’ve been seeing people selling piggy back subscriptions taking advantage of their unlimited devices policy. Nord’s metric is better with 6 devices or simultaneously connections.
In my pre-sale communication with SurfShark I became quickly frustrated by the lack of transparency and accuracy of their information. I was told they can’t provide me the number of locations (of their servers) in a given country. And they won’t say which cities the servers are located. So the US might only have a few servers and who knows where? I was told the user can’t select a specific server eg. New York but from the pics and user feedback, that’s too appears untrue as well.
In terms of speeds, many users report their speeds are better than Nord because Nord’s speeds have declined recently.
Anyway, I’ve removed Surfshark from my list of VPNs to consider.
Thank you for another lovely review Sven. When you get time, can you please do a review of VeePN? Been heaving a lot about it but want it Sven-Tested before committing $$$.
Hi Sven,
Is the OpenVPN file a generic file that works with all VPN providers that caters for the OpenVPN protocol or is it specific to a VPN provider? I am considering Surfshark, and would appreciate a guideline of setup on an Asus VPN router, including killswitch setup on router, and guide to upgrade stock Asus firmware to AsusWRTMerlin.. Thanks in advance…
Hi Alpha, the OpenVPN config files are specific to VPN providers. I discuss Asus routers and setup in the VPN router guide, but Surfshark should also be able to help you with that.
Thanks Sven, before I upgrade to AsusWRTMerlin, I need to know if speeds are impacted negatively with the Asus RT-AC68U and I have a dual pack for Aimesh use, but I’m confused, as some on YouTube indicates that you only update the main unit to Merlin and leave the 2nd unit on stock, then Aimesh still works, but according to the Merlin site, it does not support Aimesh?
Update to article : Surfshark now upgraded its server Infrasteucture to 100% RAM Only servers and Gonna Launch WireGuard Protocol within the end of the year.
They have planned to do a second Security Audit to audit all apps and Servers, Due to CoVid-19 Pandemic they are unable to perform the audit.
The key factor for them between July-September is Speed.
Sven Taylor, I think that you have to change the image as surfshark had increased its servers from 1040+ to 1700+.
Yep, we’ll get it with the next review update. Server numbers are constantly changing…
I am now using Surfshark for a few weeks and I have understood that the Kill Switch for Mac is not a real Kill Switch: it is just there to reconnect automatically if the connection drops, but it won’t disable the Internet connection, as it does on Windows.
According to support, they are working on implementing it properly on Mac, but it is not there yet.
What’s new in this update?
They added OpenVPN support for the Mac OS app, which removed that as a con. I also ran new speed tests on a 500 Mbps connection.
Hi Sven,
I just registered to Surfshark and was indeed surprised that openVPN was available on Mac.
But should I choose UDP or TCP?
And what about the results of your new speed tests?
Thanks!
Use UDP as it provides the best performance. The new speed test results are posted in the review above.
hello Sven.
about that IP leak test – how was your system set up? i notice the IPv6 test did not go through (“IPv6 test not reachable”).
Yes, the test machine was a Windows 10 laptop with IPv6 enabled, and the Surfshark VPN client was blocking IPv6. This is how most VPNs handle IPv6, since they only support IPv4.
that is interesting. i wrote to Surfshark a few days ago about IPv6. i was informed that the end-user has to disable IPv6 from within the operating system before using the VPN – and i did not mention which o/s i was using.
maybe it’s different for Win 10 … ?
“Surfshark is planning to implement Wireguard to its servers in the second half of 2020”. So it will probably be faster soon.
The only thing holding me back from pulling the trigger on surf shark is that they have not been audited for their no logs policy. Should that be a big concern to avoid them?
Hey Jay, I don’t have a clear answer on that one. It all comes down to trust and what you are comfortable with. These VPNs have had their no-logs policies audited and confirmed:
ExpressVPN
NordVPN
VyprVPN
Actually surfshark gonna do the security Audit to all its servers within this, but it may get delayed to CoVid-19 Pandemic.
Hi, Sven
I’m on my first month trial with Surfshark, and I’m really impressed with the service and its features. However, I had a few strange issues (you didn’t mentioned eather, I think). First, the android app’s killswich seems to be pretty unstable, it tends to ‘sleep’ when the phone is not in use, and the ip leaked a couple of times! However, if I use the native android’s killswitch (which is also in the options), everything works well. BUT… in that case, the whitelister won’t work. On Windows, the whitelister again makes problems. If it’s enabled it tends to leak the ip address on certain servers. I had a long chat with the operators last night, they found out that the whitelister option is the cause. I really need the whitelister for my bank app, so this could be the potential dealbreaker. Otherwise, this service is amazing, a much much better then NORD, which I used before Surfshark. Thanks.
Hi Bronco,
Have you asked Surfshark if they have a designated server that will work with your bank without having to whitelist? That’s what I had to do and since have had no problems accessing my bank.
MarkR
I am a Surfshark user due to the very competitive price. But I just found by Exodus they used trackers : AppsFlyer, Google Analytics, Google CrashLytics, Google Firebase Analytics.
I would not have used it at all if I found it earlier. There are still a few options there which doesn’t contain any tracker.
Hi Sven,
Don’t forget to add this standalone Surfshark review to those accessible from the main banner menu. I.e., Reviews -> VPN Reviews -> Surfshark. 😉
MarkR
Thanks for the reminder, Mark. I just updated the menu with Surfshark and a few of our other new review categories.
Please Make an article on DNS, DNSSEC, DOH, DOT, Privacy Focused, No-logging DNS Providers., i hate Google, Cloudflare, OpenDNS, Cleanbrowsing DNS, please make article on it.
hello, I bought to do the tests here in Brazil. Exclusive price, but it doesn’t work in my country. They claim that it has a nk brasil server, but with a ping of 450 or 500 in my opinion it is virtual. I tried to solve via chat, changing settings but even so it didn’t work. I don’t recommend it for Brazil.
Thanks for putting out this review, Sven. After testing several VPNs, I decided about a month ago to go with Surfshark over Express and Nord. I’m happy — and relieved?! — to say that nothing in your review makes me regret it. 🙂
For me, it was almost a toss up. I found Surfshark’s Windows and Android apps more polished than Nord’s and I didn’t find Express worth the higher price. With regard to speed, after trying dozens of combinations of servers, times of day, speedtest sites, and ISPs (home, work, public wi-fi) I didn’t find a significant or consistent difference in download speeds between the three.
One thing I did find is that whitelisting/split tunneling may not always work like you think. With all three, I had to use a particular server — rather than split tunneling — in order to get to my online banking site. So, for anyone who might need or want to take advantage of that feature, I’d recommend testing it thoroughly before settling on a particular service.
Thanks, again, for the great work you all do for this site.
MarkR
Sir you are providing us a pure and complete review keep it up but please provide us top ten best privacy friendly DNS servers (Third party) providers please Please
Oops… 🙂
“Pros of Surfshark VPN
Here are the pros (advantages) of NordVPN.”
MarkR
Thanks Mark, typo fixed (copied from a template).
One quick question, ExpressVPN expires in 20 days. I’m not that fascinated. Should I stay with ExpressVPN or should I go with Surfshark?
With a 30 day refund window, you can try out Surfshark risk-free.
Does Surfshark work with Amazon Fire stick?
Yep, Surfshark has a dedicated Amazon app for FireStick / Fire TV.
Signed up for Surfshark last year and been working well. P2P torrents work also without a problem.
Only downside is the mobile app client doesn’t work with Netflix bypass (only on PC). This despite the fact that Surfshark support simulating the GPS location of selected server. Probably Android somehow leaks the true IP (you should test it)
Does Surfshark work with BBC iPlayer, please?
Yes.