Surfshark VPN Evaluation (2024): Is It Price The Worth?

Surfshark VPN makes a compelling argument as a bang-for-buck VPN in 2024. It presents spectacular VPN speeds and quite a lot of security measures — all at pretty reasonably priced costs with its long-term plans.

It additionally helps limitless simultaneous gadget connections, including much more worth for customers with a number of gadgets. Even with out a devoted free model, there’s no denying Surfshark’s spectacular price-to-performance ratio.

Is Surfshark free?

No, Surfshark will not be free and doesn’t have a free model. There’s a seven-day free trial, however it’s only out there for Android, iOS, and macOS customers. Sadly, this leaves Home windows customers with out entry to the free trial — which I hope is resolved within the close to future.

SEE: Surfshark vs Norton Safe VPN (2024): Which VPN Is Higher? (TechRepublic)

Take notice that Surfshark’s seven-day free trial requires fee data to entry. So, you’ll have to present credit score/debit card, PayPal, or different fee information to check out Surfshark VPN.

For those who’re not eager on the free trial, Surfshark offers a 30-day money-back assure for all its subscription plans, on all platforms. This allows you to refund your preliminary subscription inside a 30-day interval. If this selection is offered to you, I feel this can be a good approach to check Surfshark’s service since you’ll be able to at all times refund your buy if it doesn’t suit your wants.

Surfshark VPN pricing

Surfshark has three subscription tiers: Starter, One, and One+. Every tier has a month-to-month, one-year, and two-year contract possibility. Beneath is a rundown of pricing and have variations for every plan:

By way of which subscription to go for, I like to recommend Surfshark One’s annual subscription. At $4.09 monthly, it presents steadiness between having further options whereas not going overboard with an extended contract.

SEE: AVG Safe VPN vs Surfshark (2024): Which VPN Is Higher? (TechRepublic)

It’s additionally very reasonably priced in comparison with the competitors. For instance, NordVPN’s 1-year Plus plan is priced at $5.99 monthly, whereas ExpressVPN’s annual subscription fluctuates between $6.67 and $8.33, relying in your location.

For those who’re particularly searching for a month-to-month subscription, I recommend wanting elsewhere. At $15.45 to $20.65 monthly, Surfshark’s month-to-month plans are on the costly aspect in the marketplace. My suggestion can be to think about both Proton VPN’s one-month Plus plan at $9.99 monthly or CyberGhost VPN’s month-to-month subscription at $12.99, particularly should you’re on a tighter finances.

One factor to look out for is Surfshark’s tough renewal pricing. Within the small print under its subscription costs, Surfshark states that costs will fluctuate after the preliminary subscription interval.

I might have most popular if Surfshark had secure pricing, even after the renewal interval. This may make the buying determination much less complicated and make its reasonably priced plans much more attractive.

To be truthful, Surfshark isn’t the one VPN asking for a distinct worth upon renewal. Nevertheless, it’s value looking at for the needs of this assessment.

Safety: Is Surfshark VPN protected?

Sure, Surfshark VPN is a protected and safe VPN. It makes use of top-tier AES-256 encryption — well known as one of the safe encryption algorithms out there.

For its VPN protocols, Surfshark carries WireGuard, IKEv2, and OpenVPN. I commend Surfshark for giving customers flexibility in having the choice between a security-focused tunneling protocol like OpenVPN and extra speed-oriented ones like WireGuard.

SEE: Surfshark vs IPVanish (2024): Which VPN Ought to You Select? (TechRepublic)

As well as, Surfshark has a no-logs coverage, which states that it doesn’t log any consumer’s on-line exercise akin to looking historical past or information transfers. Whereas it’s simple to make guarantees, Surfshark’s no-logs coverage has been independently audited by Deloitte in December 2022.

In keeping with Deloitte, Surfshark’s “configuration of IT systems and management of the supporting IT operations is properly prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with Surfshark’s description of its no-logs policy.”

Surfshark additionally makes use of RAM-only servers for its server fleet, which signifies that all information is wiped each time certainly one of their VPN servers is rebooted. This additional secures consumer information, lowering the danger of information breaches and unauthorized entry.

SEE: Why Your Enterprise Wants Cybersecurity Consciousness Coaching (TechRepublic Premium)

One small nitpick I’ve is how Surfshark’s most up-to-date audit was revealed again in 2022 — which is already two years outdated. It might be supreme if Surfshark adopted swimsuit with different distributors, like NordVPN or ExpressVPN, whose most up-to-date audits are from 2023. Nevertheless, I don’t fault them an excessive amount of, particularly contemplating how different VPNs outright don’t have a third-party audit to talk of.

Key options of Surfshark VPN

On high of having the ability to encrypt your web site visitors, Surfshark offers a wholesome quantity of options that cater to numerous wants and circumstances.

Dynamic MultiHop

A spotlight characteristic from Surfshark is Dynamic MultiHop. That is Surfshark’s double VPN characteristic that allows customers to attach by way of two VPN server areas, including an additional layer of safety to your information. In essence, this hides your information and on-line exercise behind two servers — providing double the safety you’d in any other case get from a single VPN server.

I significantly like how Surfshark offers concrete cases the place MultiHop is usually a great tool. In keeping with the VPN supplier, MultiHop could be helpful for individuals like political activists or journalists who need elevated on-line anonymity as they reside in additional restrictive areas of the world.

Whereas these are extra area of interest use circumstances, I applaud Surfshark for bringing distinctive options like this alongside its principal VPN.

Surfshark Search

As a author who does a ton of on-line analysis, Surfshark Search is my private favourite amongst Surfshark’s options. It offers a custom-made search engine that robotically blocks all focused adverts and trackers in your search outcomes.

SEE: Surfshark vs CyberGhost (2024): Which VPN Is Higher? (TechRepublic)

Usually, should you search one thing like “best password manager” on a search engine, you’re greeted with a ton of sponsored posts, like within the picture under.

With Surfshark Search, all of the sponsored posts and adverts are faraway from the search outcomes solely. This offers a a lot cleaner and fewer intrusive looking expertise. Beneath is a glimpse of me wanting up the identical “best password manager” — however now utilizing Surfshark Search.

As soon as I clicked search, I used to be redirected to a Surfshark Search web page with a cleaner set of queries, all full of extra natural posts and internet pages.

I envision this to be helpful to those that do a number of analysis and are bored with sifting by tons of adverts to get to a high quality webpage.

Limitless gadget connections

With Surfshark, you get limitless simultaneous gadget connections that enable customers to attach a limiteless variety of gadgets to a VPN server on the similar time.

This enables households or small companies to attach as many gadgets as they need to a VPN server with out having to buy an extra subscription.

Whereas not the flashiest characteristic, I discover limitless gadgets to be a big value-add. That is very true should you use numerous laptops, computer systems, and smartphones and want to join all of them to a safe VPN server.

Efficiency: How briskly is Surfshark VPN?

I used to be completely impressed with Surfshark’s VPN speeds, as they had been each quick and dependable throughout my testing. This concerned doing my standard workflow as a author: having a number of tabs open for analysis, doing work on Google Workspace apps like Drive and Docs, and attending the occasional on-line video assembly.

Whereas linked to Surfshark servers, I skilled nearly zero lower in real-world velocity. Websites and webpages loaded shortly and looking on-line felt snappy. I additionally didn’t encounter any drops in connectivity, as my VPN connection remained secure from begin to end.

The story was the identical when it got here to hurry testing. For downloads, Surfshark solely recorded a lower of about 12.5% in comparison with my web service supplier — which is great since round a 20-30% drop is taken into account good. For uploads, Surfshark really offered quicker speeds, having a 49.6% improve when in comparison with my ISP.

With this, should you want a fast-performing VPN that provides high velocity and reliability, I’m assured Surfshark will do the job nicely.

Surfshark VPN servers and areas

With regards to VPN servers, Surfshark is available in with a stable 100-country server fleet of three,200+ servers. By way of the variety of servers, Surfshark’s 3,200-server community is above common in comparison with the competitors.

What’s extra attention-grabbing to me is the variety of VPN server areas or nations. At 100 nations, Surfshark stands on par with different high VPN suppliers in 2024. Simply to check, CyberGhost VPN additionally presents a 100-country server fleet, whereas NordVPN has servers throughout 111 nations.

In 2024, having round 100 nations in a VPN server community is seeking to be the usual. Personally, I assist this development because it provides shoppers extra alternative by way of unblocking geo-restricted content material. It additionally presents advantages by way of velocity, because it will increase the chance of getting VPN servers nearer our location — lowering latency and rising general velocity.

Thankfully, Surfshark offers a publicly out there abstract of all its energetic VPN server areas. This lets you verify if their VPN has the server areas you intend to make use of.

Surfshark on-line server community overview. Picture: Surfshark

You’ll be able to go to the server record right here.

Surfshark VPN app expertise

For in-app expertise, I had a principally optimistic expertise with Surfshark’s software. For this assessment, I examined Surfshark’s desktop app for Home windows. General, I discovered the Surfshark app to be well-designed and simple to make use of.

The app itself felt trendy, and I respect the trendy strategy it took by way of design. I additionally thought all the pieces was nicely organized, as I had no points searching for options or necessary settings whereas testing.

One space of enchancment I’ve for Surfshark is that a few of its options had been a bit clunky at first use. Specifically, I had some bother getting Surfshark’s Bypasser cut up tunneling characteristic to work for the primary time.

Bypasser helps you to select particular apps or web sites to route by way of the VPN or to bypass the VPN altogether.

Once I first tried Bypasser, it initially didn’t have Microsoft Edge bypass the VPN server as I supposed. Nevertheless, a fast restart of the app and Bypasser did the trick. I additionally had the identical expertise after I first used Surfshark’s Dynamic MultiHop characteristic, the place it appeared a bit clunky to make use of initially.

Surfshark does inform the consumer {that a} restart of the connection or the app itself is required. Nevertheless, I selected to notice it right here because it form of breaks the in any other case seamless app expertise I had with Surfshark for many of my testing.

Surfshark VPN buyer assist

Surfshark VPN has quantity of buyer assist choices. It offers electronic mail assist, a ticketing system, stay chat, an AI chatbot, and a information base with intensive guides and tutorials.

Once I tried Surfshark’s AI chatbot, it offered first rate solutions to easy questions pretty shortly. Nevertheless, it did wrestle with extra sophisticated queries, so it’s a must to set expectations when utilizing it to resolve a problem.

In different information, I discovered their assist articles to be legitimately useful. The content material and guides had been in-depth, and so they even provided articles for particular working programs and gadgets.

I personally respect how the assist articles, just like the above relating to setup, had screenshots for every step — not assuming the technical information of the reader. It even has a video tutorial alongside the article, offering an impressively complete information.

Surfshark VPN professionals

• Limitless gadget connections.
• Very reasonably priced long-term plans.
• Intuitive and well-designed interface.
• Quick and dependable VPN speeds.
• Dynamic MultiHop double VPN.
• Servers throughout 100 nations.
• Advert-free search engine software.

Surfshark VPN cons

• Some options could also be clunky initially.
• Renewal pricing is a bit complicated.
• No Home windows free trial.
• Month-to-month plans are costly.

Who’s Surfshark VPN for?

Surfshark is for customers who desire a value-laden VPN that provides nice efficiency and quite a lot of considerate security measures — at reasonably priced costs.

To me, Surfshark’s spectacular VPN speeds are its most noteworthy characteristic. All through testing, it offered quick speeds and a secure connection throughout a number of VPN servers and areas. For those who’re particularly searching for a fast-performing VPN, Surfshark is a superb choose.

As well as, Surfshark is an effective alternative for small groups that want a VPN that may accommodate a number of gadgets. With its limitless simultaneous gadget connections, Surfshark can deal with numerous computer systems, smartphones, and different gadgets with out requiring an extra subscription for all of them.

Options to Surfshark VPN

Whereas Surfshark is a superb VPN, there are different choices that provide completely different options chances are you’ll need to contemplate. I’ve listed three VPN alternate options you’ll be able to discover:

NordVPN

For safety fanatics, I recommend taking a look at NordVPN. NordVPN has constructed a status for providing a variety of safety capabilities with its VPN. It contains built-in internet safety in opposition to trackers, adverts, and malware; a singular encrypted file-sharing system; and a devoted darkish internet monitor to maintain observe of leaked credentials.

To study extra, learn our full NordVPN assessment.

CyberGhost VPN

For those who’re searching for optimized servers, I like to recommend CyberGhost VPN. CyberGhost VPN neatly categorizes its servers relying on what you’ll use them for — whether or not it’s for streaming, torrenting, or gaming. With its massive server fleet that spans 100 nations, it’s a stable choose in case your main use for a VPN is unblocking geo-restricted content material on-line.

To study extra, learn our full CyberGhost VPN assessment.

ExpressVPN

With regards to having a easy consumer expertise, I discover ExpressVPN to be the most effective. It makes use of a clear UI that’s well-designed and simple to navigate. ExpressVPN additionally boasts a formidable quantity of third-party safety audits, exhibiting its dedication to providing high-quality safety to its customers.

To study extra, learn our full ExpressVPN assessment.

Evaluation methodology

My assessment of Surfshark VPN concerned a complete analysis of its options, value, and real-world efficiency. I had hands-on time with Surfshark VPN by a one-year Surfshark Starter subscription.

To evaluate Surfshark VPN, I scored it on all the pieces from its server community to pricing. Specifically, I took into consideration 5 principal pillars, every having corresponding weights:

• Pricing (20%).
• Core VPN options (30%).
• Ease of use (15%).
• Buyer assist (30%).
• Professional evaluation (5%).

From this rubric, Surfshark VPN acquired a score of 4.6 out of 5 stars. I additionally appeared into consumer testimonials and different respected opinions to spherical out my ultimate suggestions for this assessment.

For velocity and efficiency, I used Ookla’s public Speedtest to measure obtain and add speeds. I additionally ran Surfshark VPN by DNSLeakTest a number of occasions to verify for any DNS leaks. Lastly, I took into consideration which kinds of companies or particular person customers would finest profit from utilizing Surfshark VPN.

To study extra about how we assessment VPNs, learn our full VPN Evaluation Methodology.