TechRadar Verdict
Surfshark is the VPN if you’re trying to avoid marketing surveillance, offering a comprehensive set of privacy features at an affordable price. It performs well in most areas, including speed, unblocking, and server capacity. While it’s at the top of our list regarding consistently high speeds, it continues to merely challenge for the top spot across other categories.
Pros
- +
Unlimited devices on a single subscription
- +
Not many virtual-only locations
- +
Multiple identity and privacy management tools
Cons
- -
CleanWeb is less effective than you'd expect
- -
Price increase post-renewal
- -
No port forwarding
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Surfshark has made a pretty big splash in the VPN market in a short amount of time. Despite only starting in 2018, it has rapidly built a reputation as one of the industry's leading VPN providers. While there are plenty of reasons for this, the simplest answer is often that Surfshark provides fantastic value for money, with very little sacrifice to achieve the value.
You might be scratching your head if you’re looking at its monthly plan. Yes, $15.45 a month for a VPN is very expensive compared to the other best VPNs, However, it offers a huge discount when you purchase a long-term plan that brings Surfshark down into very affordable territory. There's also a bunch of security tools provided alongside the core VPN which only add to Surshark's impressive value.
That said, Surfshark still has a few sticking points. In our testing, we looked at its speed, privacy policy, unblocking capabilities, and overall value for money, to see where the service excelled and fell short, all to help you decide whether Surfshark is the right VPN for your needs.
Recent updates
Since our last update, we've put Surfshark through another round of testing to see how it holds up. Plus, Surfshark themselves have announced several changes to the service, including the arrival of Alternative Number, browser extension improvements, and improvements to its killswitch, which is something we'd flagged in our last rounds of testing.
Features
Surfshark’s not just a VPN, it’s an all-in-one security toolkit designed to keep you safe online. Of course, the core VPN features are all in order. Its VPN offers a variety of security protocols, including OpenVPN and WireGuard, alongside AES-256 encryption to ensure that your data is secure from prying eyes.
Surfshark uses a DNS-level blocker called “CleanWeb” to keep adverts from even being served to your computer. For all of the ads and malware that CleanWeb can’t catch, there’s a browser-based add-on called “CleanWeb 2.0” that’s supposed to deal with the rest. It also automatically catches and dismisses cookie consent popups, which is really handy. In our testing, Surfshark successfully blocked around 84% of ads, putting it above Proton VPN in terms of ad blocking, having scored 79%, on par with NordVPN, but trailing ExpressVPN which scored 90% in our tests.
Surfshark also provides tools that make preserving your privacy online easier. These include the Alternative ID feature, which helps you keep your personal information private by automatically generating a new persona, complete with a separate email address. It’s nothing you couldn’t do by hand, but it’s incredibly useful if you’re signing up for a website you don’t trust and don’t want to spend an extra ten minutes creating a one-use burner email.
Surfshark recently improved this feature with Alternative Number, which allows you to create a secondary phone number for websites, protecting your real number from potential misuse. It’s accessible via the app and won’t interfere with your normal phone number, meaning you won't need to swap your SIM card.
Upgrading to Surfshark One unlocks a whole bunch of extra tools designed to keep your data private, including a private ad-free search engine to replace your Google searches, a real-time breach monitor that keeps an eye on any suspicious activity relating to your personal details, and a built-in antivirus that works alongside your VPN to keep malware off your computer.
Features score: 9/10
Server network
Surfshark boasts an impressive network with servers in 140 locations across 100 countries, covering most of the popular VPN destinations you’d need. The distribution is roughly what you’d expect from a top-tier VPN: plenty in the US, EU, and Asia, but relatively few locations to choose from in the Middle East, Africa, Russia, and Oceania.
That said, I’ve encountered a small issue with Surfshark. It’s not always apparent which servers are physically located and which are virtually hosted by looking at the in-app server list, even if they’re labeled as such on their website. This isn’t a massive problem, but if you’re trying to pick servers for maximum speeds then it can be a little annoying. Given that Surfshark clearly labels these virtual servers on their website, I think this is less malicious deception and more a mistake in how they’ve attributed them in the app. Either way, it’d be nice to see this fixed.
Server network score: 8/10
Apps
Surfshark has a solid lineup of apps that cover all the major platforms, including Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, and even Linux. There are also some less common client options on show here such as Amazon Fire Sticks, routers, browser add-ons, and a brand-new Apple TV app.
On mobile, both the iOS and Android apps are well-crafted with several small improvements that show Surfshark is thinking about how the mobile platform differs. For example, the mobile client now has widgets that allow you to control your VPN connection without bringing up the full app. You can also log in just by scanning a QR code from a device that’s already logged in, making it easier to onboard your mobile devices once you’re signed in on your desktop. All of this helps to ensure you're never struggling to get connected.
That said, I was a little worried when I updated the Android version and saw that Surfshark required several additional telephony permissions to run. However, once I saw the Alternative Number function in action it made a lot more sense to me that the app would need to be able to make calls and so on.
One area that's seen a nice amount of focus since our last round of testing is the Chrome browser extension. Surfshark's in-browser offering now gives you the ability to activate location spoofing in browser, plus you now have the ability to auto-fill forms with your Surfshark Alternative ID. While the service has some hiccups still, such as not being able to fill in titles, and it sometimes struggled entering genders automatically, it still provides a near-identical experience to the standard apps, with the added benefit of features such as eliminating cookie consent banners which might otherwise slow down your search.
Surfshark is one of the few providers that offers a graphical Linux client, which I’m always happy to see. Linux tends to be an afterthought for even top VPN providers, and while Surfshark is making headway in correcting that it’s still not quite on par with their Windows and MacOS clients. It lacks some basic features, like a kill-switch and split-tunnelling, along with most of Surfshark’s advanced features, but it's likely a more premium experience than you'd find from some other top VPN providers.
Apps score: 9/10
Ease of use
Surfshark is designed to be user-friendly, even if you’re not particularly tech-savvy. It’s a little busier to look at than ExpressVPN or NordVPN at first glance, but it’s still just as easy to get started. All you have to do is download, install, and log in, then you click the connect button in the corner and you’re connected.
Once you’re signed in, you're immediately presented with the location guide, which is a little distracting but it’s easy to quickly get to grips with how selecting locations works. Alongside this, you have clear and understandable icons to help you access other features and settings if you want to customize your VPN experience, or access other features such as Alternative ID or Surfshark Search.
Surfshark’s mobile apps are similarly busy, and, although the connect button is more prominently featured, it’s still overlaid on top of a visible location list. Much like the desktop app, the bottom segment of the app provides easy access to other settings and features, so, while some of the more advanced features aren't instantly accessible, there's a clear path to accessing what you need to set up your VPN how you wish.
Ease of use score: 8/10
Speed and performance
Our testing setup uses two virtualized machines positioned in the UK and US respectively. Each one has 1 Gbps connection, which we use to test the max speeds we can get out of any given provider. To get the averages, we test multiple speed test sites at various times of the day while connected to each protocol. You can find out more in our VPN testing methodology.
If our latest round of testing proved one thing without doubt, it's that Surfshark continues to be impressively fast, continuing, in fact, to rank top of our fastest VPN rankings by a clear margin.
Surfshark consistently maxed out our connections to the nearest server and the US at 950Mbps+, achieving this both during the day and at night. This is a feat no other provider on our top five VPN list can claim to, although NordVPN and ProtonVPN posted maximum speeds of 950Mbps at times.
The only issue I encountered is that the jitter we observed when testing WireGuard connecting to the nearest server became unacceptably high throughout the morning. While this didn't occur in other tests, it should be noted if you're looking to use your VPN with real-time applications such as video calling apps or online games that this could occur.
Understandably, due to the older technology involved, Surfshark's OpenVPN speeds were a fair amount slower than those achieved on WireGuard. Despite this, it continues to provide the fastest OpenVPN speeds of providers we test, achieving 460 Mbps download speeds in our tests, which is still over 200 Mbps more than its nearest competitor, PIA. It should be noted, however, that this is a rather large drop from our last tests, where Surfshark achieved 640 Mbps using OpenVPN.
Either way, whether you're using OpenVPN or WireGuard for your connection, Surfshark will be more than quick enough for your needs, providing you have a fast enough connection to start with, so you can game online, stream in HD, or whatever you might choose, to your heart's content.
Speed and performance score: 10/10
Unblocking sites and content
Surfshark has long been capable in the department of content unblocking, currently ranking third in our streaming VPN rankings and fourth in terms of torrenting,
We test some of the most popular Netflix regions (US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan) as well as Amazon Prime, Disney+, and some regional streams such as BBC iPlayer, ITV, Channel 4, 9Now, and 10Play. In our testing, we had no issues accessing any of these services in any region we tested in, these include the UK, US, Canada, and Japan.
Surfshark doesn't offer specifically optimized servers for streaming, instead opting to ensure all of its servers can seamlessly access content wherever you are. This clearly works, and made sure we weren't left searching for the most optimized servers when wanting to quickly access our favorite shows throughout testing. This is a huge plus, especially if you're new to VPN's and don't want to have to muck about with too many settings.
Similar to streaming, Surfshark isn’t specialized for torrenting, but you can connect to any Surfshark server and your P2P services will work. Unfortunately, Surfshark doesn’t support port-forwarding so you won’t get the same connectivity you do from VPN providers that allow you to forward your ports (Private Internet Access springs to mind immediately).
Unblocking score: 9/10
Privacy and security
Surfshark uses AES-256 encryption to secure your internet traffic between your computer and the VPN server, which when combined with secure protocols like OpenVPN and WireGuard ensures that your data is completely safe from snooping and tampering while inside the tunnel.
Surfshark includes essential features like a kill switch, that cuts your internet connection if it detects you’ve lost access to your VPN. In our last round of testing, we noticed some bugs when using this kill switch which was a worry at the time, but Surfshark has released an update improving the stability of this feature and we’re pretty happy with it now.
There’s also DNS leak protection via an encrypted DNS run by Surfshark, so your ISP can’t snoop on your browser requests, if you want even more protection, the option of multi-hop connections offers an added layer of security by passing your connection through multiple VPN servers instead of only one.
We also put Surfshark’s malware blocking to the test by feeding it 100 brand-new malicious URLs from anti-phishing experts OpenPhish. Surfshark itself performed poorly, with only 6% of malware sites blocked and 7% of phishing sites. Surfshark’s dedicated antivirus engine did better, bumping malware sites blocked up to 34% and phishing sites up to a staggering 94%.
You might be surprised to hear that this was the best performance we recorded against our phishing list, outdoing even the BitDefender instance we use for comparison. Primarily this shows that while you can partially rely on these tools, we'd always recommend that they are part of an approach that includes several different layers of defense including a dedicated antivirus tool.
Privacy and security score: 9/10
Track record
Since its inception, Surfshark has maintained a solid reputation. It hasn't always delivered the premium product we know today, but it’s a company that’s listening and adapting to its customer base.
Surfshark has a strict no-logs policy, most recently audited by Deloitte in 2023. The audit revealed that Surfshark does not track or store your browsing activity. However, like many VPN providers, Surfshark collects minimal usage data, such as your account information and crash reports, to improve the service. This data is not linked to your browsing activity and is anonymized where possible.
While being based in the Netherlands is a little worrying because it’s a member of several intelligence-sharing pacts, we get a fair amount of information on how it impacts the service. That’s right, Surfshark has recently begun publishing a quarterly transparency report. It gives you an idea of how many requests for user information Surfshark has had to respond to, as well as law enforcement inquiries. As far as we know, Surfshark hasn’t turned over any user information related to a single inquiry.
Track record score: 8/10
Customer support
Surfshark offers several different options for customer support, but you’re most likely to run into their AI chatbot first of all. I used it to query some basic information about server numbers and locations, which gave me some useful articles to read through in return. It’s pretty quick to get passed through to a customer support rep too, all of whom were helpful and friendly.
If you prefer reading, there’s a comprehensive FAQ knowledge base. The knowledge base is well-organized and filled with articles on each platform, making it easy to sort out any issues you might have using the VPN. Something that caught my eye while browsing through it was Surfshark’s “Surfschool”, which is an educational repository filled with end-to-end advice on how to use their VPN as well as some information about common attacks it prevents.
Customer support score: 8/10
Pricing and plans
Don’t let Surfshark’s monthly price scare you off. Yes, the monthly plan is relatively expensive at $15.45 per month. However, the cost drops significantly if you commit to a longer-term plan. Buy a two-year plan and it’s priced at just $2.19 per month, making Surfshark one of the most affordable options on our top five VPNs list. Only PIA is cheaper, at $2.03 per month on a three-year plan, but there is a caveat. Surfshark’s prices go back to $4.98 on renewal, so you’re only getting that great price upfront.
If you want all of the extra privacy features Surfshark offers, you’ll have to upgrade to Surfshark One. It works out to $.50 extra on your monthly bill, no matter which subscription timeframe you go with. For this extra fee, you get its Antivirus program, as well as a private search engine, real-time breach alerts on your email, and webcam protection. It’s a lot for such a small increase in price, but Surfshark One really increases the value you’ll get out of the VPN.
You can also order a dedicated IP from a select number of locations on Surfshark, each of which will set you back $3.75 a month.
Pricing score: 9/10
Should you use Surfshark?
Surfshark is a strong VPN provider that continues to top our best cheap VPN rankings. Most VPNs are only providing a solution to one part of the online privacy problem, but Surfshark is really an all-in-one solution.
Even if you’re not won over by Surfshark’s privacy tools, it’s still an exceptionally fast VPN with servers dotted all over the planet. Surfshark also runs an unlimited device policy, which lets you connect as many devices as you like to a single subscription, adding to its exceptional value for money.
Total score: 87/100
Surfshark alternatives
Not sure if Surfshark quite fits your needs? Here's our three top alternatives available right now:
Surfshark FAQs
How secure is Surfshark?
Surfshark uses industry-standard AES-256 encryption and secure protocols like OpenVPN and WireGuard to keep your data safe. It also offers additional security features like a kill switch and DNS leak protection.
Does Surfshark work with Netflix?
Yes, Surfshark is effective at unblocking Netflix, as well as other popular streaming services like Amazon Prime, Disney+, and BBC iPlayer.
What is Surfshark's refund policy?
Surfshark offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, allowing you to try the service risk-free and request a refund if you’re not satisfied.
