Verdict
Surfshark provides an excellent VPN service , and the straight-out number of connected gadget – within reasonableness – is utile for households with many devices . You likely do n’t call for the spare on-line security department features of the One and One+ bundles , though .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Surfshark is one of the very best VPNs if you ’re wait for f number and unseamed access to external website and services of all kind .
Like its sibling companyNordVPN , it ’s been tot up hatful of extra features to its core service . Surfshark is flashy than Nord , and its renewal price increases – although still a divisor – are more modest .
Although it ’s headquartered in the Netherlands , having moved from the more famously privacy - favorable British Virgin Islands , Surfshark has a clear no - logging insurance , and the surety of its software and system is independentlyaudited . Most recently , its no - logging insurance policy was audited in January 2023 .
Users may connect an inexhaustible number of equipment at the same time ; it use Aries - disk servers throughout its infrastructure and supports torrenting across all its server .
Pricing and subscriptions
There are two further Surfshark tier – Surfshark One and Surfshark One+ . These admit a image of additional anti - malware and security system features , but are more expensive .
Surfshark One get you the society ’s antivirus tools , which have unfortunately only seen modified assessment by major security measures testing houses , a search engine , and breach monitoring . Surfshark One+ adds Incogni data agent remotion tools to assist you scrub your personal data from the net directory that care to profit from it .
All three tiers include ad and biscuit blocking , a nominally straight-out routine of equipment and alternative identity and email speech generation for economic consumption when registering on shady site .
mention that Surfshark requires you to touch its illustration via either email or via a live schmooze inspection and repair if you wish to cancel a recurring subscription , rather than simply allowing you to do this from your account Sir Frederick Handley Page .
Privacy and Protection
Surfshark ’s 2021 move from the British Virgin Islands to the Netherlands disconcerted a number of users . Although it stay less than clear what the virtual legal implications of this are for a VPN that keeps no logs , it ’s worth note that the Netherlands is one of the “ Nine eye ” international government activity intelligence data sharing cooperative .
I ’m pleased to take down that Surfshark now put out awarrant canaryand has , at the time of writing , received no US national security measure alphabetic character or muzzle order , nor guarantee from any government establishment .
Surfshark hasended supportfor the IKEv2 / IPsec communications protocol on Windows , thus resolving possible issues surrounding its use of self - signed certificate . IKEv2 support is retained for mobile users .
Features and usability
There are official Surfshark clients for the expected major platforms : Windows , Linux – now with a glossy GUI app alongside its command - line connection dick – macOS , iOS and Android .
It also has client for Amazon’sFire TVstick , and Chrome and Firefox browsers . You get detailed connexion information for set up your VPN on other machine , including router and waiter , and on apportion a association from your PC to a games console .
Surfshark ’s chunky Windows program show your connection status and makes it easy to choose from locations ,
The kill replacement , to obstruct dealings if your connexion to the VPN endpoint drops , is disabled by default option . you may opt between a soft and strictkill change , the former of which only kicks in if VPN traffic is break , while the latter keeps you offline under any stipulation in which you ’re not connected to the VPN , including manual disconnection , take over Surfshark ’s summons are participating .
feature include multi - hop connections ( which go through two VPN endpoints in an attempt to further obfuscate your point of pedigree ) , IP address rotation , an on - by - default NoBorders Mode ( which attempts to evade internal - level firewalls ) , endpoints with static IP addresses , a disconnected tunnelling whitelist for applications / IP address that you want to use with your un - VPN’d internet connection , and an ad blocking agent that ’s disabled by nonremittal .
obfuscate servers are available if you switch to the OpenVPN protocol – Surfshark uses WireGuard by default , which does n’t support the obfuscation standard in utilization here .
Performance
Surfshark , likeProtonVPN , NordVPN , ExpressVPNandTunnelbear , is systematically among the fastest - performing VPN service in our tests , and this round of testing has been no elision . Its norm come in marginally behind NordVPN , but in practice , it ’s so close as to make no betting odds .
Surfshark uses the fast WireGuard protocol by nonremittal , and has the base to couple . It ’s also a popular choice with those who do n’t require to shut down their VPN whenever they watch a streaming video military service .
reduplicate upper tests over the past year have shown that Surfshark persistently places among the top scorer , and it does a consistently good problem of hiding the fact that you ’re really connected to a VPN .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
One of Surfshark ’s standout features is that it can play on an unlimited number of devices , making it a good option if you have lots and lots of gadgets , from tablet and smartphones to laptop computer .
Surfshark clearly values security . It has a believable policy of not logging user body process , maintains a warrant stool pigeon and has commissionedsecurity audits . But its policies are yet to be tested by sound action or server seizure – unlike a smattering of rivals , most notably Perfect Privacy .
Final Thoughts
invalidate a subscription is also unnecessarily involved . Despite this , it ’s an splendid choice alongside sibling companyNordVPNand highly able rivalsProtonVPNandExpressVPN . I ’m also impress by the wide range of supported weapons platform and use cases and the fact that there ’s no terminus ad quem to the number of devices you could link to it .
Surfshark has proven its track book when it comes to performance , but for those who appraise security department above all else , Perfect Privacy remain your best wager despite its cost and comparatively slow speeds .
Trusted Score
How we test
All speeding test are guide across a character connection with a maximum test connection speed of 980Mbps , which means that we ’re able to get a good idea of the upper threshold of each VPN service ’s speed at the meter of examination .
FAQs
No . You ’ll require to compensate a subscription fee to use Surfshark . However , a 7 - daylight free trial is available to Android , macOS , and iOS users who sign up via their machine ’s app fund .
Surfshark is now base in the Netherlands , although long - condition legacy subscriptions will stay on under the British Virgin Islands ’ regulations until their next reclamation .
