Surfshark is one of the newer VPN providers around, being founded back in the 2018. It quickly blazed its own trail and is arguably now one of the three most popular VPN providers in the business alongside ExpressVPN and NordVPN. In fact, in 2022 it was acquired by Nord Security, the creators of NordVPN, and with that added backing it has been steadily adding new features to strengthen its offering.
Surfshark has more than 3,200 servers in 100 different locations, uses rock solid AES-256 encryption, offers a wide range of VPN protocols and is one of the few VPN providers to offer an unlimited simultaneous connections policy.
On top of the VPN, various tiers of subscription include antivirus and malware protection (for five different devices, this is not unlimited like the connections), data breach monitoring to protect your personal data, ad-free and tracker-free web search, and even a tool called Alternative ID that can give you a new email and phone number to use when you sign up to websites.
In this review, we’ll take a look at all the features Surfshark has to offer, see why it's so popular with both new and experienced users, and gauge whether it deserves to be included in our list of the best VPNs of 2024.
Surfshark review - Spec sheet
For a quick explanation of any VPN-related terminology, check out our VPN glossary for more information.
Recent updates
- Data leak checking tool was released free in October 2024
- Dropped support for older versions of Windows as of August 2024. Only Windows 10/11 will receive updates
- Released VPN app for Apple TV in April 2024
- Surfshark’s Android app passed the Mobile App Security Assessment (MASA) audit in December 2023
- Launched Alternative ID feature in July 2023
- Acquired by Nord Security in February 2022
Surfshark review: Features
While it doesn’t offer quite as many features as some of its higher-priced competitors, Surfshark brings a compelling blend of price, privacy and security to the table for any budget-conscious internet user.
While its server count isn’t as high as some, 100 countries and 3200 servers is more than enough for anyone, and guarantees a fast connection no matter where you might be. On top of that there are additional connection features that come as standard such as a kill switch, split tunneling and multi-hop/double-VPN. If you need a static IP address (what Surfshark calls a Dedicated IP) then you can add this to your monthly subscription for an extra fee.
On top of this, your subscription (depending on the tier you pick) gets you access to additional privacy and security features including dark web/data breach monitoring through Surfshark Alert, malware and antivirus protection with Surfshark One and private web searching through Surfshark Search, which promises a number of privacy advantages over better known search engines like Google and Bing.
Surfshark offers everything you need to stay safe online, but doesn’t offer quite as many features as some of its higher-priced competitors
While it’s better than running with no protection at all, Surfshark's CleanWeb malware and phishing blocking is quite poor compared to the competition and stand-alone products.
We tested this by attempting to open 100 brand new malicious URLs from anti-phishing experts OpenPhish and were disappointed to find that Surfshark struggled with identifying and blocking both phishing and malware sites. Its ad blocking was far better, and the results much closer to its competitors, but it needs to work on improving this if it hopes to be a real alternative to the many stand-alone products available.
One of the newest features in Surfshark’s privacy toolbox is Alternative ID, which generates an entirely new identity you can use to sign up to websites and email lists without ever needing to expose any of your real-life data. This fake identity includes a full name, gender, age, home address, and associated email address.
Rating: 8/10
Surfshark review: Server network
Compared to some of its competition Surfshark’s network of “only" 3,200 servers is quite small. NordVPN, for example, claims to have over 6000 servers, but in real-world testing this perceived lack has never posed a problem. Download speeds have been consistently fast on every server that we tried.
Surfshark offers plenty of locations spread all around the world, and even if many of these are virtual servers rather than physical ones, you are guaranteed a fast connection no matter which location you pick.
Rating: 9.5/10
Surfshark review: Pricing and plans
As you can see, there are hefty discounts available when signing up for 1 year or more, as is common with most premium VPN providers. Paying month by month will always be the most expensive option. In terms of features, the entry level “starter” tier basically gets you just the VPN and the Alternative ID function.
Surfshark One includes the ad blocking, antivirus and anti-malware functions as well as the data breach tool and, finally, One+ also bundles in Incogni, which is a tool to remove your information from data brokers. You can find more information on just what Incogni does by checking out our Incogni review.
While Surfshark might not offer quite as many additional features as, say, NordVPN, which also includes a password manager and cloud storage, its pricing is still very keen, its one-year and two-year subscriptions being vastly cheaper than the competition.
One thing to bear in mind is that while that $2.19-a-month price might be tempting, remember that when the contract renews, the price will go up. While Surfshark is cheaper than many alternatives, you should keep an eye on that. Finally, you can give Surfshark a try free of charge by signing up, and then taking advantage of the 30-day money-back guarantee if you decide it’s not quite what you’re looking for.
Rating: 9.5/10
How easy is Surfshark to use?
Surfshark is delightfully easy to use, and second only to ExpressVPN in terms of how simple it is to get up and running once you’ve downloaded the app from your App Store of choice. Both mobile and desktop apps are nicely laid out, and it's clear how to use most of the features. While it lacks the big, friendly power-button style connection option of ExpressVPN, Surfshark’s apps make it easy for users to locate the nearest or fastest locations to get online.
There are easy-to-find links to features such as Alternative ID, which gets it own icon on mobile, and the settings are easy to access, each with a small description of what it is and what it does to make it simple for beginners to get to grips with. In case you do run into a problem, Surfshark’s support portal has some great articles to help with troubleshooting.
While its support site isn’t quite as extensive as competitors like ExpressVPN, it’s still easy for beginners to search and use, with the articles written in plain English that doesn’t rely too heavily on technical jargon.
Rating: 9/10
Surfshark review: Apps
You can find all the Surfshark apps on the provider’s download page as well as through your app store of choice on Windows, iOS, Android and through the extension pages for browsers such as Firefox and Chrome. The apps and browser extensions all share the same design as and layout as the desktop clients through all their different iterations. This makes it easy to hop from one to another without the requirement to re-learn where everything is.
The mobile VPN apps aren’t compromised in terms of functionality either, with the Android app offering split-tunneling (Surfshark calls it Bypasser), MultiHop, app blocking, and whitelisting. The iOS VPN version is almost the same but the Bypasser functionality is new and still only in beta. The mobile apps even outperform the desktop editions in some areas such as Bypasser, which isn’t available on Macs, and IKEv2 protocol support, which isn’t available on Windows.
On top of this, Surfshark's Android VPN app enables you to optimize performance on mobile networks, automatically connect to the VPN in certain scenarios such as any time you’re using an unsecured Wi-Fi hotspot, and even choose your encryption method.
The browser extension are similarly impressive, and there are several browser-specific features that are worth calling out. Surfshark blocks WebRTC leaks by default, preventing websites from identifying your real IP address. The extension can also streamline your browsing experience by blocking those pesky cookie consent banners that every website seems to offer these days.
The real highlight of the browser extension might be how it works with Surfshark’s Alternative ID. Once you’ve created your new identity, the browser extension automatically recognises forms it can fill and displays a Surfshark logo in each box. Click that logo, and a box appears showing your Alternative ID details and with a single click of the ‘Fill Form’ button, Surfshark instantly fills in the name, address, date of birth and email address boxes.
Rating: 9/10
Streaming and unblocking
Accessing content in other countries is always a big reason for using a VPN, and one that can’t unblock the big streaming companies isn’t going to be much use in the long term. Luckily there’s nothing to worry about with Surfshark, with it unblocking everything we threw at it.
Unlike some providers which have specific streaming VPN servers, all Surfshark’s servers appeared to work just fine with the streaming providers we tested, though it should be noted the same doesn’t go for torrenting, though if the VPN detects you’re trying to torrent, it should swap you to a supported server. Here’s a quick table showing how Surfshark stacks up against our other top VPN picks.
As you can see, Surfshark is every bit as capable as services that cost substantially more, so there’s no need to worry that you’re getting a compromised or budget experience when it comes to accessing overseas content.
Surfshark also has an Apple TV app, in addition to its apps for Android TV devices. These smart TV apps make it a breeze to use Surfshark to watch Netflix and other streaming platforms such as Hulu, Prime Video, and Disney+.
When it comes to torrenting VPN, I tested Surfshark with clients such as uTorrent, BitTorrent, and qBittorrent, and didn’t encounter any issues with accessing torrent sites, or with downloading, with Surfshark returning solid download speeds that mean you shouldn’t have any complaints.
The only real downside to Surfshark is that it doesn’t support port forwarding. This is useful for torrenting because it allows you to bypass the NAT firewall on your router, and allows incoming traffic to access your torrent client. That means you could face issues seeding torrent files with this VPN. Just something to bear in mind, especially if you’re signed up to a private tracker that requires you to have a good upload/download ratio.
Rating: 9.5 /10
Surfshark review: Speed and performance
When you’re deciding what VPN provider you might want to try, connection speed is one of the biggest considerations. There’s no point in paying for a subscription if you’re then forced to browse the internet at a snail’s pace and constantly have to deal with the buffering and lag issues when trying to watch movies or play multiplayer games. This is where Surfshark really shines as the fastest VPN around. It’s the top of our testing for both WireGuard and OpenVPN speeds, leaving the competition in the dust.
Before we talk about what this table shows there’s a few commonly used terms we might want to discuss so that you know just what we’re talking about. The ones you really need to look for if you’re reading reviews of a VPN are upload speed, download speed, and latency. There’s also something called jitter (which is when there’s a delay over your network connection, often caused by network congestion) but this is less important and not something a lot of reviews will focus on. Here’s what each term means:
Upload speed: This is how fast your connection is when you’re uploading something to the internet, and we don’t just mean posting photos or video to Facebook or Google Photos. The slower your speed, the longer an upload will take to complete, and that goes for how long it takes for text too, so keep that in mind even if all you ever do is reply to Reddit posts or skeeting (aka posting) on Bluesky.
Download speed: This is how fast your connection is when you’re downloading something to your device. This is important for pretty much everything online. It impacts how fast websites will load, how quickly files will download, whether you can stream HD movies without stuttering or interruptions, if you can stream high quality music and basically everything else you do online. Low download speed means you’ll likely see the “buffering” icon far more often when you’re trying to watch films or TV online.
Latency: Latency is more commonly referred to as your “ping”. It measures the time it takes for data to get from one point on a network to another and it’s most important in online gaming. Say you’re playing a multiplayer game like CS:GO. Your ping is the time between you clicking the mouse to fire your gun at someone, and the game responding. A high ping means that that the game will be slower to respond, and makes it all the more likely you’ll miss your shot.
You don’t need to worry about your speeds or your ping when you use Surfshark. To help put these figures into context, you only need a download speed of around 30 Mbps to watch 4K video content on Netflix, so Surfshark is more than fast enough for your entire household to be streaming the biggest and best movies in the highest quality without impacting your gaming experience.
Score out of 10: 10
Surfshark review: Privacy and security
Surfshark claims to be a no-logs VPN. What “no-logs” means is whether the VPN provider collects any sort of information when you’re connected to the service. Does it store your real-life IP, or what you’ve been looking at online? Surfshark’s servers do collect user ID and IP address information, but they are deleted no more than 15 minutes after a session ends. It also doesn’t log any session information, websites visited, the amount of bandwidth used, etc.
To prove it’s no-logging credentials, Surfshark has undergone multiple audits by external security firms. It underwent two audits by Cure53, a German cybersecurity firm, and in no-logs policy was verified by Deloitte, a world-famous auditing company.
Between these three audits, Surfshark has had all its infrastructure, apps and no-logs claims investigated and verified, so you don’t need to worry that Surfshark is selling your data or covertly gathering information on you. When it says it’s no-logs, it means it.
It’s not just the VPN that’s been audited to prove its credentials, Surfshark Antivirus has been put through its paces by German testing organization AV-Test who judged it a "top product". It was tested and scored in three main categories —
Protection: how well it fared off attacks and malware.
Performance: how the product affected the performance of the device it was installed on.
Usability: measuring any unwanted side-effects like false alarms and unnecessary internet restrictions.
With each category scored out of six, Surfshark Antivirus received top scores for Protection and Usability with a 5.6/6 for Performance. You can’t ask for much better than that.
Rating: 9/10
Surfshark review: History and the future
Compared to some cybersecurity companies out there, Surfshark is notable by how little controversy has followed it over the years. It remains a well-regarded and well reviewed company that has stood by its commitment to user security and privacy.
An example of this would be in 2022 when, in response to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-IN) mandating that all VPN providers in the country collect and store vast amounts of information about its users such as IP addresses and connection logs, Surfshark pulled all of its servers from the country. All its Indian servers remain virtual to this day.
The company is a founding member of the VPN Trust Initiative, and has joined the European Digital Rights organization (EDRi), the Global Encryption Coalition, and has worked with the Internet Society and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Rating: 10/10
Surfshark review: Customer support
Surfshark has a dedicated support site where you can get the answers to a number of queries. It includes FAQs, guides, and tutorials, which cover a decent range of issues, but it isn't entirely definitive, with most of the content focusing around issues you might encounter during setup.
The knowledge base appears to be mostly focused on guides for beginners, so power users or those with very specific setups might find it a little lacking, but for the average user its a great collection of advice that can solve most of the basic issues you might encounter getting started.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, there’s a very capable team of support engineers on hand through the live chat function that are prompt and helpful with their replies.
Rating: 8.5/10
Surfshark review: final verdict
Subscribe if:
✅ You're looking for a top VPN at a great price. Surfshark outdoes most other VPNs, and costs a fraction of the price. It's exceedingly good value.
✅ You want a built-in antivirus. Although it comes bundled in a more expensive tier, Surfshark's antivirus is the best of its kind offered by a VPN.
✅ You like simple apps. While not quite as basic as ExpressVPN's, Surfshark's apps are very easy to use, and perfect for beginners.
Don't subscribe if:
❌ You want tons of customization. Unlike Private Internet Access or Proton VPN, Surfshark doesn't have a huge amount of settings to tinker with.
❌ You hate price hikes. Surfshark's cheap when you sign up, but prices rise steeply if you auto-renew. Always cancel and subscribe to a fresh plan instead.
Alternatives to Surfshark
While an excellent product, Surfshark might not be right for everyone, and if there's something you need that it doesn't offer there are a few other VPN services that might fit the bill.
