Surfshark VPN review – a fully-featured, low cost privacy solution

Even so, this unlimited connections policy is rare among the top VPNs and, for many, a good reason to choose it if you find the 10 device connections of NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Proton VPN, for example, not enough for your needs.

Like all VPNs, though, you do have to pay the total price for the entire length of and Surfshark plan upfront. The graph below is a good comparison of the total cost of each of the best VPN services we recommend at TechRadar.

Do be warned that unlike all other VPN companies (apart from NordVPN) Surfshark adds local tax to its advertised prices at checkout. So, if you’re in the UK, for example, you’ll have to pay VAT on top. And, of course, remember that these prices will fluctuate over the year.

Surfshark is considerably cheaper than its biggest rivals. NordVPN’s cheapest 2-year plan is about 50% more expensive than Surfshark's. ExpressVPN Basic is nearly twice the price!

Normally, Proton VPN is comparable with NordVPN but there's an excellent Black Friday Proton VPN deal on right now which brings the price right down to Surfshark's level, making a very tempting offer.

The table above shows the total prices for each Surfshark tier and plan length.

What sticks out to us from these totals are two things. First is that the 1-month prices are terrible. Given Surfshark has a 7-day free trial, we’d advise you to sign up for a week instead and decide in that time if you want to commit for longer. Then either go for the one or two-year plan.

The second, and more obvious, point on value is that the two-year plans are pretty tempting. You get the second year of Surfshark Starter, for example, for less than $10. That’s pretty compelling at that band but, arguably, it’s not quite as good for Surfshark One with the extra year only effectively half-price.

In other words, there's little point in going for 1-year Starter plan when the 2-year version isn't much more, but there's a decent argument for only shelling out for 12 months of Surfshark One.

If you’re looking for a real value proposition, though, it’s in the difference between Surfshark Starter and Surfshark One on the 1-year contract – just a couple of bucks, really which feels like a real no-brainer. There’s no point in going for the 1-year Starter when you can pick up Surfshark’s antivirus and ID breach alerts with the One plan instead.

Above is a table of the price per month for each Surfshark plan which is a slightly easier way to appreciate the value offer of each one.

There are cheaper VPNs out there – PrivadoVPN ($1.11) is a good option – but Surshark is an undeniable pound-for-pound sweet spot for price and features.

Score: 10/10

You get a randomly generated email address – to use to fill out online forms, or give to people you don’t like, or whatever your need – and it automatically forwards any mail it receives to your real email address. You then cut it off and generate another email alias when you’re done with receiving whatever marketing mail it’s now attracted.

Proton offers this too but Surfshark takes it further.

Alternative ID is, in fact, a broader ID. It’s a name, postal address, email and even phone number (US only) to plug in online and stop scammers, spammers, and everyone else seeing your real details.

Right now, for example, I’m Margarito Philip Leland of 21 North 28th Ave East, Duluth, Minnesota, DOB 07/26/2005. Don’t bother trying to contact me because I’ll have ditched this ID by the time you're reading this article.

I had a go at manually editing my Alternative ID persona. There are 10 email domains to choose from with options from the US, France, South Korea and Armenia, but I found I could write anything I wanted as the first part of the address.

For postal mail, the options I got were Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Germany Portugal and the US. Name and DOB can both be anything you want.

It's a great feature for signing up to services, giving to online stores and registering with news websites without having to worry about the spam. There's a handy quick-copy area on the homepage of the Surfshark app too which made filling in online forms all the faster. There's really very little not to love about it.

The only sad part is that the Alt number part is only in beta right now. It’s also only available in the States and you can’t use it to receive SMS verification codes, sadly, either. Still, I look forward to testing it out once it arrives in Europe.

Surfshark One

If you’re after antivirus too, then it’s time to step up to Surfshark One. PIA is the only other VPN we recommend to have a full antivirus built-in along with the VPN. (Although there are recognise AV brands, like Norton and Bitdefender, that also have separate VPN products.)

NordVPN's Threat Protection Pro does have some AV features but it won't scan any apps and files you download, install and use in real-time – and put a halt to any funny business before it’s too late – like Surfshark will.

The Surfshark antivirus ran daily scans of my entire device when I enabled it, and you can set to have it done at any time of day of your choosing. For obvious reasons, I opted for the dead of night.

You can toggle off either of these scans and you can even opt out of scans of your storage drives too.

None of these put our mobile battery life under any particular noticeable stress. With the real-time protection only kicking in when we installed apps and our daily scan set to night time when the phone was plugged in anyway, the extra processes were never a burden.

You can select to exclude certain apps if they keep pulling up false positives but it wasn't something I found I needed to do.

Surfshark One allows you to take the CleanWeb theme a little further with the Web Content Blocker tool, launched in October 2025. Still in beta, it still worked like a charm when I tried it.

It's very similar to Windscribe's content blocker. You choose from a list of eight different kinds of questionable content and decide what you don't want to be accessible through your browser. That includes adult sites, gambling, tobacco and vaping, hate and profanity, and others, as well as sites hosting phishing, scams, and malware.

What's really nice is that I was able to use it as a way of blocking access to these sites on my kids' phones without having to get involved with the often expensive and generally not particularly parental control apps.

That works because Web Content Blocker can be set up differently for each device you have and because you get unlimited devices connected to a single Surfshark account. I also really like that you don't have to have the VPN on to have Web Content Blocker activated, because I don't want the VPN masking my kids' browsing habits from me either.

Lastly, and definitely not least, is Surfshark’s own private search engine. It's a super-clean, advert and sponsored results-free experience. Apart from the fact that it didn’t rank TechRadar very high for the term ‘Surfshark review’, I loved using it.

you can search without seeing a single ad, with no cookies or trackers, and Surfshark promises that it won't store anything about your search habits

You can choose any search location you like from a list of about 40 different countries without seeing a single ad, with no cookies or trackers, and Surfshark promises that it won't store anything about your search habits. ‘The real incognito mode’ is how it describes itself. I found it useful for comparing prices of clothing between the US and UK.

It’s actually quite refreshing and a bit of a reminder of what search looked like back in the day. It’s pretty amazing to realise what all of Google’s small changes have done to its experience over time, in comparison, but that’s a discussion for another place.

Honestly, it would take a bit of a push for me to use Surfshark's search all the time – it's hard to break the habit of the last 25 years – but with tabs for Web, Images and Videos only and gloriously uncluttered results, I'll certainly make the effort every now and then.

ID breach alerts

Alerts is a section unto itself in the Surfshark app. It's available in Surfshark One and One+ but I wanted to draw special attention to it because of something that happened while I was writing this review. More on that in a moment

Alerts (or 'ID breach alerts' as you'll find it called in the literature) scans the internet for any data breaches featuring your email addresses, credit card numbers and ID numbers too. It felt a bit strange handing over my info to Surfshark so that it could run those checks but the company promises that it doesn’t retain it.

Now, here's the interesting thing: chance had it that I was the victim of an attempted scam as I was writing this very section. I got a phone call from someone very convincingly pretending to be my credit card provider. They knew my card details, my name, my home address and clearly my phone number too.

They claimed to be from the fraud department and were questioning two transactions apparently made on my card in the UAE for around 27,000 Dirhams, and was I aware of them? Clearly I was not. So, the well spoken operator said they would then refund the amount to my account.

He asked me to open the app where I'd see a request for the refund. I opened the app. There was a request. But it was not for a refund. It was to make a payment of 27,000 Dirhams, about £5000.

"Press Confirm," they said.

"This is asking me to confirm a payment," I replied.

"No, this is the refund. Press confirm."

"No. It says 'payment'. I don't trust you."

They hung up.

I froze my card. I contacted my issuer and, I'm still shaking a bit at how close I just came to being defrauded. With stories about different UK retail stores getting hacked popping up every week, perhaps it's of little surprise.

I'm also a little bit scared about my details too, and I'm pretty glad I'm writing reviews about products like Surfshark and that I've got the tools to help deal with this.

So, with that in mind, I put this particular bank card's details into Surfshark's credit card monitoring system. Sadly, Surfshark Alerts said No Leaks Found after scanning for a breach of this information. Hopefully, it will register it as exposed in the coming months but it's been a few weeks and I've seen no change yet.

It doesn't mean that Alerts doesn't work. It's very possible that my information was hacked and not exposed on the internet. It's just a pity that Alerts wasn't able to help in this instance.

Alerts did a lot better with my email address. When I put in my general junky email, used for online forms and shops and such – where was Alternative ID when I needed it years ago – I was unsurprised to see 25 leak alerts. Thanks Adobe, DuoLingo, Last.fm, Houzz, Kickstarter MyFitnessPal and a bunch of other sites and services that are lucky I don’t have time to name and shame.

Surfshark detailed what was leaked of mine in each breach and then makes recommendations of what to do next. Probably a good idea to do what it says but, quite honestly, with 25 breaches do deal with, there just isn't enough time in the day. Hopefully, I'll be able to lower that number with every update of this page.

Surfshark One+

Top of the Surfshark price plan tree is Surfshark One+ which adds the Incogni which is designed to prevent the misuse of your personal data online.

If Alerts is your data health examination, then Incogni aims to be the cure. It's a data removal service which is currently only available in the US, UK, Canada, EU and Switzerland because of legal reasons. Those reasons are that, in those regions, data brokers are legally required to remove your details from their records when asked. And that’s what Incogni does on your behalf.

I’ve actually been lucky enough to use Incogni on a long-term test now for over two years and apart from the odd email report, there’s not much visible that actually happens. I’ve definitely noticed getting less spam in that time but part of that has also been down to being more careful what I sign up for and whether I’m using my real ID or not.

Ultimately, it’s really difficult to evaluate and I wish I could give better advice here given that it's over 60% extra on top of the Surfshark One price.

While the effectiveness of all of Surfshark's tools is not crystal clear, it's obvious by looking at the VPN feature comparison table that customers get lots of them to use – more so than most other VPN service providers.

If you're looking for a VPN for a very complete set of privacy and security features, then Surfshark is a great option, and at an excellent price point too.

Score: 10/10

Surfshark states on its server list that some of the locations are virtual, and that’s refreshing given that other VPNs hide that. We spot checked the actual likely location of 25 servers on Surfshark’s list. It was accurate in all but one case where the company had accidentally marked Peru down as a virtual server when it really is based in Lima. If there are to be mistakes, then we’re certainly glad that they’re false positive ones.

Sever networks are about more than just quantity, though. Surfshark uses RAM-only servers which brings important benefits that we discuss in the Privacy section.

That's more or less a VPN industry standard but where Surfshark elevates itself is with how it connects those servers together. It's developed a holistic use of all of those pathways in what it calls its Nexus network infrastructure. It connects users to the entire network rather than the single VPN server they're choosing.

Through that system Surfshark can offer a fair few benefits, not least of which is FastTrack smart routing technology which aims to speed up connection by choosing the most time efficient pathways through the network.

Server Network Comparison

Subhead to describe the test and what's being measured and why

< Prev

Total countries

Next >

NordVPN

127

Surfshark

99

ExpressVPN

108

Proton VPN

126

Total countries Data

Product	Value (Number)
NordVPN	127
Surfshark	99
ExpressVPN	108
Proton VPN	126

NordVPN

17

Surfshark

6

ExpressVPN

6

Proton VPN

26

Africa Data

Product	Value (Number of server locations)
NordVPN	17
Surfshark	6
ExpressVPN	6
Proton VPN	26

NordVPN

38

Surfshark

31

ExpressVPN

36

Proton VPN

44

Asia Data

Product	Value (Number of server locations)
NordVPN	38
Surfshark	31
ExpressVPN	36
Proton VPN	44

NordVPN

53

Surfshark

54

ExpressVPN

59

Proton VPN

49

Europe Data

Product	Value (number of server locations)
NordVPN	53
Surfshark	54
ExpressVPN	59
Proton VPN	49

NordVPN

10

Surfshark

5

ExpressVPN

5

Proton VPN

14

Middle East Data

Product	Value (number of server locations)
NordVPN	10
Surfshark	5
ExpressVPN	5
Proton VPN	14

NordVPN

39

Surfshark

34

ExpressVPN

70

Proton VPN

32

North America Data

Product	Value (number of server locations)
NordVPN	39
Surfshark	34
ExpressVPN	70
Proton VPN	32

NordVPN

8

Surfshark

6

ExpressVPN

8

Proton VPN

6

Oceania Data

Product	Value (number of server locations)
NordVPN	8
Surfshark	6
ExpressVPN	8
Proton VPN	6

NordVPN

10

Surfshark

10

ExpressVPN

9

Proton VPN

7

South America Data

Product	Value (number of server locations)
NordVPN	10
Surfshark	10
ExpressVPN	9
Proton VPN	7

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Add your caption to explain the data, the learnings and the key takeaways of the data being visualized

It uses globally distributed probes which monitor the Surfshark network in real-time. They keep track of capacity and performance. That way the FastTrack system can figure out how to route VPN traffic to ensure that users get the fastest possible connections while still taking them to the end-point server that they've selected, and with an appropriate IP address.

FastTrack launched in August, 2025. Right now, it's only available on macOS and only when connecting to the Seattle, Vancouver or Sydney servers but Surfshark claims it's made up to 70% speed improvements for customers. We look forward to the company rolling it out across the board soon.

Something a little closer to home for those in Europe is the arrival of Surfshark's first 100 Gbps servers as unveiled in Amsterdam in October 2025. That's a 10 times improvement in server bandwidth designed to cope for the modern demands of 4K streaming, gaming, VR, and remote work.

It's certainly a good headline but, cynicism aside, it's an excellent sign. Surfshark has been a market leader when it comes to investing in the future of its server network in 2025.

Everlink, released in June, 2025, is another network quality boost from Surfshark. It's a patented backup system for your VPN connection. The idea is that if the VPN drops, your app doesn’t disconnect immediately. Instead, Everlink automatically connects you to a new and working server.

It might take a few seconds and, if you happen to be browsing at the time, it’s possible you’ll find a web page that doesn't download properly. But, for the most part, Surfshark says you won’t even notice anything.

We don’t have a test for Everlink yet, but it sounds promising. Dropped connections aren’t just a usability hassle, they also risk data and IP leaks. If Everlink can reduce unexpected disconnections then that’s very good privacy news.

The other big benefits of Nexus, and its flexible, multi-server pathways, are Surfshark's rotating IP tech and its excellent MultiHop system. You can read more about those in the Privacy section.

For now, suffice to say that Surfshark's server network is cutting edge and, from everything we've seen, we're only expecting improvements over the next 12 months.

Score: 9/10

Nonetheless, it still offers ‘Camouflage Mode’ which kicks into action whenever you choose OpenVPN. The company says that it hides your traffic to bypass content filters. OpenVPN also means you’ll be on Surfshark’s dedicated Obfuscated Servers which are designed to make it particularly hard for your ISP to see that you’re connected to a VPN.

You can use the OpenVPN protocol in both UDP and TCP form. The former is better when high speeds are important (streaming, gaming or VoIP) and TCP is good for the kind of reliability you need when web browsing, emailing or during P2P file transfer.

If you’d rather err on the side of speed, then just stick with Surfshark's default option of WireGuard. IKEv2 is also a choice on Android, Mac and iOS but not Windows.

Like most of the best VPNs, Surfshark uses RAM-only servers with no hard drives or SSDs where it could store data. That makes it both faster and safer, from the user's point of view.

Any time RAM-only servers are switched off, any data stored on them temporarily is lost. So, if those servers are seized, then the parties taking ownership of them get nothing but the hardware in their hands. Equally, changes from a malicious software attacks could be undone by Surfshark simply turning the servers off and on again – an IT help centre’s dream.

The effect here is that no user data is logged or kept in any way, so you can rest assure that your online activities are kept utterly private by Surfshark.

Surfshark received a number of user complaints when it changed its legal jurisdiction from the British Virgin Islands to the Netherlands, given that the Dutch are part of the Nine Eyes international information sharing agreement but given there are no logs to share, it's hard to see that there’s any real disadvantage here. Don't let it put you off unless you really feel like you need that double layer of protection.

Surfshark has some interesting options for the privacy-conscious when it comes to server connection. Normally, you connect to a server and it assigns you a random IP address until you disconnect and then a different one next time. But you can choose to maintain a static IP instead. This means that it remains the same throughout your session.

Now, in terms of privacy that’s maybe not great. It leaves more browsing behaviour connected to a single IP that a third party could trace from start to finish and therefore have a clearer picture about what a single user is doing. Keep up that browsing behaviour pattern long enough and they might even be able to figure out who you are.

At the same time, a static IP can be useful. There are web services that work by white listing IP addresses. A static IP that’s known and accepted is going to make it easier to access them wherever you are. It might remove a layer of authentication each time you access.

In general, though, static IPs aren’t a great idea for VPN traffic because it makes it easier to track you. So, we’d recommend enable the Rotating IP option, even if that makes for more CAPTCHAs.

That said, if you do often get blocked trying to access a certain site, and then find a Surfshark server that works, you might want add that location as a favourite and use it as a static IP.

Rotating IPs makes it harder for a website or web service to track you in its logs. In a single, long session, you’ll appear as multiple visitors. So, this is a definite boost to Surfshark’s privacy credentials. Only ExpressVPN offers something similar with its ShuffleIP.

Quite the opposite to a static IP, then, the system automatically connects you via a different IP address after 2-10 minutes – and all without the real world experience of a disconnection. (Streaming was a little more glitchy when using IP rotation, though, so do consider switching it off if you run into problems.)

You get a little status message letting you know when your next IP rotation will be and what address you’re assigned, although, actually, in practice, the timing was often quicker than stated. And, when we checked with WhatIsMyIPAddress.com, the address reported by Surfshark was accurate every single time.

So, how does Surfshark manage to switch your IP without dropping the connection? That's down to its Nexus network infrastructure (see Server Network section) ensuring that there's always a server somewhere on the pathway to provide online access while the IP on the destination server is switched.

The other excellent privacy application of the Nexus structure is Surfshark’s brilliantly flexible MultiHop VPN system, which is one of the very best out there.

The joined up nature of the Nexus-powered servers means that, unlike other VPNs, you can create your own double jump server pathways between almost any locations available, instead of the small handful of pre-programmed routing options that most other VPN providers offer.

That allows users to design custom, faster MultiHop connections, with start and end point servers which aren’t too far away from you and from one another.

In fact, you can even choose Fastest Location or Nearest Country within the MultiHop menu for the Nexus system to make the best suggestion for you. We particularly like that you can see latency speeds next to the options on the list so that you can really aim for maximal performance.

We checked to see the kind of effect you can expect when using two servers per connection like this. Using a pathway of two servers nearby (in our case, two different Ireland server locations) produced speeds very similar a single hop transatlantic connection which we benchmarked at 391Mbps. It was only once we started picking huge journeys, around the word for the first hop and then back all the way for the second, that we noticed speeds dipping.

Of course, there’s no need to sacrifice speed on all your apps and services if you use Surfshark’s split-tunnel feature, Bypasser. It works on all four major platforms and allowed us to pick both individual apps and websites to either specifically exclude or include from the VPN tunnel.

This is a great way of working if you want to use Surfshark for something specific like torrenting, or if you want to watch your local streaming service without confusing it into thinking that you’re trying to tune in from somewhere else.

The only real privacy feature absent from the Surfshark roster is Tor Over VPN. We could still use the Tor browser manually after connecting to Surfshark on our Windows laptop but it’s not built into the app. If Tor's added layer of online anonymity is a feature you need, then you’ll want to use Proton VPN or NordVPN instead.

Surfshark’s CleanWeb function takes care of your search by stripping out as many trackers and ads as possible. There’s a bit of a slow down when it comes to page load time but the results are well worth it.

It took all of the cookie consent requests out of our browsing as we read the football pages of the UK and European news sites. And the grey blocks where adverts used to be were certainly less distracting than all the sticky videos and other images that usually get in the way.

If you want to go the whole hog, though, try Surfshark’s very own in-app private search, available on Surfshark One and One+ plans. More details on that in the Features section above.

Score: 9/10

Surfshark doesn’t have a huge amount to say about PQE on its website, just that “Surfshark has implemented post-quantum protection on top of the WireGuard protocol”.

Other than that, the company told Technadu, in May 2025, that it was “working on launching cutting-edge post-quantum protection for our VPN”, so we expect to hear something more about it in the coming months.

This is nothing out of the ordinary currently. PQE technology in VPNs is still very much in the embryonic stage.

Only ExpressVPN has gone further in its 1200-word blog post about its implementation of PQE in its Lightway protocol. We can’t imagine that Surfshark will be comfortable with appearing to be behind the curve for long.

Until then, there’s still plenty to keep you safe with Surfshark.

Auto-connect is a solid feature for anyone looking to stop any accidental leaks of their actual IP address. We like Surfshark’s very much.

Once activated, it automatically connected using the VPN on any network that I specifically didn't marked as Trusted. I didn't want it to auto-connect on my home Wi-Fi, for example, where I want to choose what my ISP does and doesn't see depending on what apps and services I'm accessing.

What I really like is that I can also choose which VPN server I want Surfshark to auto-connect to. I set it to auto-connect the 'Fastest connection' preset no matter what.

Auto-connect looks and works the same across iOS, Windows and Mac. The only exception is on Android which also allows you to use it on mobile networks too – great for privacy on the go.

The gold standard for IP leak safety, though, is the VPN kill switch and Surfshark’s got full marks in our tests. There’s a kill switch on all platforms, as we would expect.

It comes in two forms: Soft Mode, which blocks your internet access if the VPN unexpectedly drops; and Strict Mode which simply blocks any internet access unless the VPN is connected in the first place.

Strict Mode is certainly the more secure but I found it slowed down speeds a little and seemed to dig up a few more CAPTCHAs and blocked websites, and problems with apps which weren’t compatible with the VPN. Ultimately, Soft Mode feels like the better option on balance, particularly as the kill switch itself performs very well.

We tried breaking the VPN connection in a few different ways – turning the router on and off, walking out of range of a Wi-Fi hotspot, stopping services, closing processes and more – and Surfshark blocked the internet every time.

The only difference between Surfshark and the very best in this department, NordVPN, is that Surfshark didn’t always manage to recover the application and reconnect every time. NordVPN’s activated the switch, spotted the precise problem, resolved it, and then got us up and running again without us really noticing that anything had happened.

Surfshark still performed far better than most VPNs, and correctly blocked our internet in every test, though, and that’s what most matters for security.

Surfshark’s CleanWeb feature helps out for security, as well as its ad blocking and cookie consent pop-up blocking features we mentioned in the Privacy section. It cuts out phishing and malware websites too.

We tested CleanWeb with 50 up-to-date URLs for each, from the very newest phishing and malware sites sourced on the day of testing itself.

You can see by the bar chart below that its effectiveness for blocking sites that host phishing attacks is a little sub-par. It's around half as effective as ExpressVPN and Proton VPN and a long way behind NordVPN.

It's comparatively better for ad blocking and if you use the Surfshark browser extension (available on FireFox, Chrome and Edge) alongside your platform app, you'll maximize its chances of succeeding.

Surprisingly, ExpressVPN and Proton VPN didn't manage to detect and block access to any of the latest malware hosting sites in our last lab test. So, the fact that Surfshark score 68% is actually a pretty strong result.

What's more, CleanWeb is available with all Surfshark plans which start as low as $1.99 per month. NordVPN's high scores come courtesy with Threat Protection Pro technology which is not included in its entry level tier. To get the benefits of Threat Protection Pro, you'd need to pay a minimum of $3.89 per month – nearly double the price.

Phishing, malware and ad blocking

Surfshark CleanWeb compared to similar tools from other VPNs

Prev

Phishing sites blocked (%)

Next

Performance data for Phishing sites blocked (%)

Item	Series	Value
NordVPN	Phishing sites blocked	91
Surfshark	Phishing sites blocked	38
ExpressVPN	Phishing sites blocked	76
Proton VPN	Phishing sites blocked	88
Surfshark browser ext.	Phishing sites blocked	8

NordVPN

91

Surfshark

38

ExpressVPN

76

Proton VPN

88

Surfshark browser ext.

8

023466891

Percentage

Performance data for Malware sites blocked (Percentage)

Item	Series	Value
NordVPN	Malware sites blocked	86
Surfshark	Malware sites blocked	68
ExpressVPN	Malware sites blocked	0
Proton VPN	Malware sites blocked	0
Surfshark browser ext.	Malware sites blocked	8

NordVPN

86

Surfshark

68

ExpressVPN

0

Proton VPN

0

Surfshark browser ext.

8

022436586

Percentage

Performance data for Ads blocked (Percentage)

Item	Series	Value
NordVPN	Ads blocked	54
Surfshark	Ads blocked	50
ExpressVPN	Ads blocked	86
Proton VPN	Ads blocked	88
Surfshark browser ext.	Ads blocked	66

NordVPN

54

Surfshark

50

ExpressVPN

86

Proton VPN

88

Surfshark browser ext.

66

022446688

Percentage

Surfshark currently lags on phishing site blocking but works well for malware sites and for blocking adverts, when the browser extension is used in combination with the app.

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Also, bear in mind that the bar we set for the test above is a high one. The figures above would be considerably higher if we tested CleanWeb, and the others, against threats that were even just two days old. Nonetheless, the biggest names in antivirus, such as Norton, Bitdefender, and Avira deliver results to the same tests that are up above 90%.

So, is Surfshark’s CleanWeb a replacement for the very best dedicated AV? Not quite, but it’s well worth using and, like most of Surfshark's features, a bargain. More to the point, it will protect users against most of the nasties out there. So, do switch it on if you have it.

Score: 9/10

As it turns out, it's Surfshark's fastest protocol, WireGuard – available on all Surfshark apps – that clocked the top download speed when we connected to the nearest server to our lab's speed rig. At a median average of 1615 Mbps, it bested Lightway Turbo's 1479 Mbps.

Over long distance (Europe to the US) Surfshark didn't look so great, though. Its 355 Mbps score is considerably lower than the competition. That's something to consider if you're set to be accessing far flung servers on a regular basis.

We were pleased to see download speeds are good with the more privacy-focused OpenVPN protocol on Surfshark but, again, it dropped to about half that of NordVPN and ExpressVPN over long distance.

And Surfshark's speed claims start to look pretty thin when you consider overall performance. For almost all distances and protocols, we recorded latency and jitter rates than were pretty much twice as bad as the other top VPNs.

OpenVPN performance

Average download speeds, latency and jitter rates on local and long distance server connections.

< Prev

OpenVPN speed (local)

Next >

Surfshark

978

NordVPN

974

ExpressVPN

1038

Proton VPN

240

03757501,1251,500

Mbps

OpenVPN speed (local) Data

Product	Value (Mbps)
Surfshark	978
NordVPN	974
ExpressVPN	1038
Proton VPN	240

Surfshark

430

NordVPN

857

ExpressVPN

808

Proton VPN

173

02505007501,000

Mbps

OpenVPN speed (long distance) Data

Product	Value (Mbps)
Surfshark	430
NordVPN	857
ExpressVPN	808
Proton VPN	173

Surfshark

33.4

NordVPN

14.6

ExpressVPN

15.5

Proton VPN

14.7

010203040

ms

OpenVPN latency (local) Data

Product	Value (ms)
Surfshark	33.4
NordVPN	14.6
ExpressVPN	15.5
Proton VPN	14.7

Surfshark

174

NordVPN

83

ExpressVPN

73.5

Proton VPN

73.8

050100150200

ms

OpenVPN latency (long distance) Data

Product	Value (ms)
Surfshark	174
NordVPN	83
ExpressVPN	73.5
Proton VPN	73.8

Surfshark

9.8

NordVPN

4.2

ExpressVPN

6.8

Proton VPN

7.3

02.557.510

ms

OpenVPN jitter (local) Data

Product	Value (ms)
Surfshark	9.8
NordVPN	4.2
ExpressVPN	6.8
Proton VPN	7.3

Surfshark

15.9

NordVPN

4.7

ExpressVPN

11.5

Proton VPN

8.1

05101520

ms

OpenVPN jitter (long distance) Data

Product	Value (ms)
Surfshark	15.9
NordVPN	4.7
ExpressVPN	11.5
Proton VPN	8.1

1 of 6

Surfshark is performs well on OpenVPN when connecting to a local server.

In real terms, that means we would expect higher levels of lag than usual when gaming and more buffering than most when streaming, the latter of which was certainly true in my home streaming experience. (More on that in the Streaming section just below.)

High jitter can lead to poor quality real-time applications, although I didn't notice any problems when I used Surfshark during WhatsApp voice calls or when video conferencing on Google Meet for work.

All in all, though, it's a mixed picture and not quite what we were hoping for.

A VPN engineer once said to me that, beyond certain speeds, it's really latency that's more important when considering VPN performance. If that's true, then Surfshark's fast download data feels a bit hollow.

Of course, speed testing is only ever a snapshot of a moment, with little regard for comparative server network conditions. All the same, despite the headline figures, we'd hope for a better show from Surfshark next time.

Score: 8/10

We also found that Surfshark servers couldn't be used to unblock Amazon Prime Video in the US or UK, no matter how we tried. This is a change from our last test when Surfshark saw success with this service.

YouTube US is one that none of our VPN services managed to unblock this time. We choose a licensed US-geo-locked test video and we weren't able to stream it from the UK with Surfshark or any of the others. This is worth considering if you tend to watch YouTube more than any other platform, although most videos tend not to be geo-specific.

Surfshark proved useful at unblocking all of the free streaming services we tried in the UK and Australia, though. It has a cross next to ITV in the table below because Surfshark didn't manage to unblock it at the first attempt but, again, it did succeed after a server switch.

Surfshark had previously had similar issues when trying to access 10Play in Australia but there were no troubles in this round of tests.

It's worth noting that you may need to disable CleanWeb when trying to watch shows on ad-funded streaming services such as Channel 4 and ITV. CleanWeb's built-in ad-blocker, and the streamer's need to serve reels of ads before and between the programming, don't work well together and cause things to grind to a halt.

The only downside, of course, is that it does leave you without web-based malware blocking for a time. So, make sure you're watching a trusted service. And make sure to turn CleanWeb back on after.

When we tested Proton VPN we found the same problem but the significant difference there is that we could turn off just the ad-blocking of NetShield while leaving the malware protection running. We also didn’t have to disconnect and reconnect to change the setting, unlike with CleanWeb.

Ultimately, if you're not prepared to tinker – and why should you – then NordVPN is the best streaming VPN but let Surfshark's results in this department put you off. It's still good for unblocking streams.

Score: 7/10

There are also Chrome, Edge and Firefox browser extensions and these are more important than you might think.

We’d recommend using Surfshark from within your browser to get the most out of the CleanWeb phishing, advert and malware blocking abilities of your VPN, for example. It’ll keep you a little safer online even if the VPN itself is turned off. See the Security section for more details.

But, there's more. Surfshark's browser extensions can mask your real location better than using just using your device's VPN app alone. That's because some websites can ask your browser its country-level location. That’s not something that’s related to your IP address.

We found we got fewer CAPTCHAs when we tried it. Searching Google for VPN-related terms often digs up request for bicycles, buses and road crossing identifications but it was a rare event with Surfshark's Chrome extension on.

The browser extension doubles down on protecting your real location with its ‘Block WebRTC’ feature too. WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) is another internet technology which can be used by websites to find your real IP address. Surfshark’s browser extension should stop any red flags by making sure WebRTC doesn’t run on your device.

Putting a VPN onto your router is never a piece of cake but, like most good VPNs, it is possible with Surfshark. It requires a manual installation of the software but, beginners, be not afraid – there is an excellent post on the Surfshark blog of how to get this done, and a supporting article with information for specific routers, protocols (WireGuard/OpenVPN/IKEv3 and firmware (OpenWRT / OPNsense / TP-Link).

Surfshark does a good job of maintaining all of its apps with regular updates to many of them throughout the year.

We took a look at the number of updates that the big VPN providers made to their iOS apps between January and December 2025 for an indicator of how well they support their software. iOS apps are often the least well maintained.

iOS app updates in 2025

This is the number of updates the iOS apps of each of these VPNs has had in 2025

iOS app updates

NordVPN

23

Surfshark

21

ExpressVPN

25

Proton VPN

22

PureVPN

18

Mullvad

9

IPVanish

10

Windscribe

11

CyberGhost

0

Private Internet Access

3

iOS app updates Data

Product	Value (number)
NordVPN	23
Surfshark	21
ExpressVPN	25
Proton VPN	22
PureVPN	18
Mullvad	9
IPVanish	10
Windscribe	11
CyberGhost	0
Private Internet Access	3

Surfshark's apps are well cared for by the development team. The real outliers here are CyberGhost and PIA, neither of which appear to be putting much into app development right now.

Looking at the table above, Surfshark is certainly one of the better companies for this with it pretty much on a par with other top VPNs Proton VPN, NordVPN and ExpressVPN.

The overall story for us here is that Surfshark has done a really good job, and we’re confident that it will continue to do so on whatever platform you wish to use.

Score: 5/5

The only thing to watch out for is that we got a little confused by the Windows app installer. It said “Welcome to Surshark One Security Suite Setup Wizard”, when we’d only purchased Surfsharker Starter originally. Sadly, it wasn’t a free upgrade. Ignore it. That’s how the standard installer lookers.

You can access the help center, view the length left of your subscription and, of course, upgrade to a dedicated IP address and an Alternative ID phone number while you're there, should you wish.

Our top tip of all, though, is to head immediately to the Payments tab in the Your Subscriptions section of the My Account menu where you can switch off auto-renew and avoid a nasty price hike once the term of your original subscription ends. Ignore this at your peril, or face paying about twice what you did originally per month on a 12-month contract.

If you do get stung by Surfshark’s auto-renewal, though, don’t panic. The company cares about its reputation and its customers. A little sweet talk to the customer support within a week and you’re highly likely to get a refund.

User Experience

The Surfshark user experience is pretty much identical across the range. There are differences – Android has a home tab, Windows and iOS don’t, for example – but the look and feel is consistent and all the features and settings are in very similar places.

Like all good VPN apps, there are short explainers next to most of the settings and that’s important because it’s by far and away the easiest way to learn about the product. Only Proton VPN stands out as superior on this front with an info button that opens up some really clear pop-up explainers, that are as easy to understand as they are to dismiss.

There’s no map on any Surfshark app. All server locations are listed in alphabetical order and that’s perfectly sensible and easy to navigate. There’s also a search bar to stop you having to scroll to the bottom for UK, US and everything else that’s useful down there.

You can even search for the kind of server you want, instead of the location. Type in ‘P2P’ if you want one for torrenting, for example. We typed in ‘Frank’ and got not only the main Frankfurt server but also a list of those with static IPs as well as the preset MultiHop route of Frankfurt via the GB-London server.

If that’s not fast enough for you, there are connection shortcuts with buttons for your recently used servers, your fastest available connection and your nearest country too. There are also stars next to each server in the list so that you can favourite ones that you like or use most often.

We prefer the tabbed layout on the Windows app compared to the mobile versions but then that’s not a huge surprise given that there’s more space to play with on a laptop screen. The tabs make a bit more sense on a computer (VPN, Alternative ID, Alerts, Antivirus, Search and Settings). It’s quick access to pretty much everything you need right there.

Compare that to the four tabs on Android – Home, Products, News, Settings. News doesn’t really offer much but head to Products and you’ll find a list of the same tabbed sections as on the Windows app. In other words, access to the same areas is one step removed. It’s not a big deal and it still works fine.

The desktop apps are still actually quite small – more than the budget mobile port look and feel of cheaper VPNs like Hide.me, Windscribe and PrivadoVPN but nothing like the luxury of space you get with NordVPN, Proton VPN or ExpressVPN.

We don’t really mind that. It’s still attractive, tidy and maybe a massive VPN software windows is exactly the kind of getting-in-the-way that VPNs shouldn’t do. It’s also kind of fitting of Surfshark’s more reasonable price point.

It’s also a misnomer to think that its size means less complexity. The Surfshark Windows app has 23 buttons, icons and other areas where you can click something. NordVPN’s Windows app also has 23. Proton VPN comes in at a similar 19.

If you want something really stripped back but still nicely put together, then go for ExpressVPN with its 8 – but then that does mean fewer functions at your fingertips. It depends what you’d rather trade off.

Probably the only part of the Windows UX that we find a bit odd is the VPN home page itself, or, more specifically, the information that’s on there. There’s data on connection time, VPN IP address, up and download data so far, what protocol you’re using and whether or not CleanWeb is on.

It’ll also tell you when the kill switch is enabled, but, the strange part is that it says nothing about the kill switch at all when it’s off – and that’s exactly when you need to know about the kill switch: when it’s not protecting you!

Oddly, Android users can tell if it’s off because it’s displayed as a toggle rather than the word On or Off.

Is it a problem? Well, potentially but you can avoid it by making sure your kill switch is activated by default. Otherwise, it would be a concern if your real IP was leaking and you didn’t know about it.

That aside, we really have no complaints to make about how Surshark has put its apps together. They’re easy on the eye and generally a pleasure to use.

Score: 4/5

Equally, the site uses an appropriate color scheme, and text with strong contrast, even though it didn’t match color contrast standards across a few elements.

VPN Accessibility

Accessibility score for the website home page of each VPN

Accessibility score (%)

NordVPN

83

Surfshark

41

ExpressVPN

23

Proton VPN

35

PureVPN

35

Mullvad

89

IPVanish

71

CyberGhost

17

AdGuard VPN

17

PrivadoVPN

10

Hotspot Shield

23

TunnelBear

74

Accessibility score (%) Data

Product	Value (Percentage %)
NordVPN	83
Surfshark	41
ExpressVPN	23
Proton VPN	35
PureVPN	35
Mullvad	89
IPVanish	71
CyberGhost	17
AdGuard VPN	17
PrivadoVPN	10
Hotspot Shield	23
TunnelBear	74

We used AccessibilityChecker to score each VPN's website. It's a single score for a single page but certainly an indicator of whether each VPN has considered the accessibility needs of their customers. Surfshark's accessibility score looks good but it isn't at the same levels of top performers.

There’s clearly room for improvement here, but this isn’t a bad score. If you’re partially sighted, then, there are better options out there than Surfshark.

Looking at Surfshark’s desktop apps, we found that the Windows application supports 13 languages including common options such as English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional.)

But it’s missing others – Arabic, Norwegian, Swedish, Turkish – and many VPNs provide more. Norton VPN supports 26 languages, for instance, and Proton VPN has 28. So, if you would rather have a VPN that talks your native tongue, you might find more luck elsewhere.

Next we tried ditching our mouse. If a user can’t operate a mouse, they should be able to access every feature of the app from the keyboard. Sadly, Surfshark has extremely poor keyboard support.

Pressing Tab allowed us to move around the window, but in many cases the app didn’t highlight the current element (the button, the list, or whatever else we were accessing), leaving us with no idea where we were.

Language support

Language options available in the Windows apps of each of these VPNs.

no. of languages available

NordVPN

13

Surfshark

13

ExpressVPN

17

Proton VPN

31

PureVPN

12

Mullvad

20

IPVanish

8

Windscribe

20

CyberGhost

12

Private Internet Access

18

010203040

number

no. of languages available Data

Product	Value (number)
NordVPN	13
Surfshark	13
ExpressVPN	17
Proton VPN	31
PureVPN	12
Mullvad	20
IPVanish	8
Windscribe	20
CyberGhost	12
Private Internet Access	18

Very average levels of language support for Surfshark. Worth checking to see if the languages you need for your VPN are included before you subscribe.

Even when we could see we had reached an important element, like the location list, it turned out not to be optimized for keyboard use.

For example, PIA’s Windows app allowed us to scroll up and down to highlight a country, and connected as soon as we hit Enter. That’s easy and intuitive, we figured it out right away.

With Surfshark, we could browse up and down the location list with the keyboard, but hitting Enter did nothing. Experimenting, hitting Tab and then Enter allowed us to connect some of the time, but we regularly got lost and had to use our mouse to start again.

Overall, if you need keyboard support then Surfshark’s Windows app isn’t a good choice. Check out PIA instead.

Score: 2/5

Most Surfshark support users won't need the search, though, because the site is very well organised.

It displays links to its most important articles on the front page, grouped into topics such as ‘Getting Started’, ‘Fixing Issues’, ‘Billing’ and ‘Account’. It’s likely that many visitors will find the article they need in a couple of clicks.

We noticed that some of the support articles were a little out-of-date. Screenshots didn’t always match the latest version of the app, for instance. But that’s not unusual with VPNs that have a large number of articles, and we didn’t spot any guides where this genuinely had a significant negative result, like telling us to take an action which was no longer possible, for instance.

More to the point, all the articles we read were well written, clear, nicely laid-out and very, very non-threatening. Most people will feel confident of following the advice of this resource and rightly so.

Surfshark’s live chat appears to be well staffed. We were able to talk to helpful agents within a couple of minutes of opening a session. Getting some information about how to set the VPN up for P2P seemed like a good idea and the online agent did not let us down.

They said that all of their servers were fit to use for P2P, they suggested OpenVPN, with UDP for better speeds, and to make sure we had the kill switch on. All pretty sage stuff. And the whole chat took less than 5 minutes once we’d gone through a couple of layers of AI bot automation.

Email support isn’t as speedy. Proton VPN replied to a test question in minutes during its last review; Surfshark says it will reply in 24 hours, and our 21-hour wait suggests that’s about right.

Our reply was short, but friendly, accurate, and with an invitation to keep asking if we needed more help, and that earns a thumbs up from us.

Score: 4/5

For sure, the biggest uproar, though, was when the company decided to switch its legal HQ from the British Virgin Islands to the Netherlands, as we mentioned in the Privacy section of this review.

Audited, but not as well or regularly as Proton VPN

Surfshark has had all the significant parts of its processes and infrastructure audited by third parties over the years but it could do with ramping up the frequency.

Surfshark had its no-logs policy reviewed by Deloitte in 2022. The report was released in January 2023 and agreed that Surfshark’s claims matched its real-life user data procedures. More recently its no-logs claims were audited in June, 2025, and, again, everything was found to be ship shape. (The full report is available to Surfshark users.)

It’s good to see any VPN provider have the courage to put itself through a public audit, but we'd like to see Surfshark do this a little more regularly.

Proton VPN has a no-logs audit every year, and Surfshark needs to do something similar. We’d like to see regular audits of the apps, too.

You’ll have to go back to April 2021 for Surfshark’s last VPN servers and infrastructure audit. That was undertaken by Cure53 and was broadly positive with only some minor “security-relevant discoveries” which were identified as possible weaknesses at the time.

In 2018, the same external team described Surfshark’s apps as “robust” for both privacy and general security with particular praise for the Chrome and Firefox extensions.

Again, though, this was seven years ago now, and it may bear little resemblance to the current state of affairs.

Score: 4/5

Each VPN is put through full lab testing every six months. As with all the VPNs, Surfshark has been tested for speed, ad-blocking, anti-phasing and malware, streaming service unblocking, local IP address leaks and the server network has been spot-checked to confirm that the VPN server locations are accurate.

As well as this, Surfshark’s privacy and security credentials have been checked in-lab by reading through the company’s privacy policy in detail and by looking through VPN configuration files and monitoring connection logs to ensure that each VPN protocol will operate appropriately.

I have subjectively user tested the rest of Surfshark’s in-app privacy and security features on my own devices in real-world situations – on my mobile connection, on public Wi-Fi and on my home network too. These include Search, Autoconnect, Alert, and Alternative ID. You can read our findings in the Privacy and Security sections.

As with all of our VPN lab tests, Surfshark’s speed testing took place on our cloud PC set-up over a 10 Gbps line. We took 10 measurements from two different server locations (Dublin and Los Angeles) and recorded both local and transatlantic VPN connection speeds. We did this on both WireGuard (for a measure of the fastest speeds) and on OpenVPN (for those who wish to use a more secure connection).

Our final scores are a median average of each set of 10 to avoid any skew from outlier data points. As with all VPN speed testing, it only provides a snapshot in time but, in our experience, it’s representative of average performance.

I’ve added my real-world user experience of Surfshark's speed performance to Mike’s results. You can read about both in the Speed section of this review

Mike tested Surfshark’s CleanWeb tool (anti-phishing and anti-malware) by exposing it to the 100 latest phishing and malware websites and seeing what percentage of these it could detect and block. You can see results in the Security section where I’ve added my thoughts on what it’s like to browse websites using CleanWeb, whether it makes a difference to the number of ads seen on pages, and whether it was able to reduce cookie consent pop-ups.

To test streaming service unblocking, Mike built a tool to sequentially run through a series of streaming platforms, as accessed from a different set of global locations. These include Netflix access to content libraries in Japan, the US, UK, Australia and Canada, access to Prime Video, Disney Plus, and local free streaming services such as BBC iPlayer, ITV, Channel 4, 10Play, 9Now and more.

The streaming tool checks whether or not Surfshark is able to access these services from abroad. If it fails, we try to access these services using different servers or by making tweaks to Surfshark’s set-up. For us, there’s a big difference in usability between a VPN that we need to tweak and one which will offer access first time.

I do a lot of streaming from abroad using VPNs – particularly with services such as Peacock, Sling and FuboTV. I regularly use Surfshark on my Windows PC for this. You can read my thoughts about Surfshark’s streaming quality and consistency, as well as Mike’s lab results, in the Streaming section of this review.

Finally, and certainly not least for the lab testing, is kill switches. This is arguably the most important feature we test in the lab. Mike sets up software to record the reported IP address of his test devices and switches on the VPN. He then performs a series of ways to break the VPN’s operation and checks that the kill switch kicks in without registering any leaks of the lab’s actual IP address.

The last port of call in our Surfshark testing was to test out its customer support. Mike puts his VPN knowledge to some pretty fiendish use and approaches live chat and email support with a complicated but not impossible technical query. You can see how Surfshark did in our Customer Support section.

Do take a look at our VPN lab testing methodology for a more detailed idea of Mike’s process.

This review has been fact checked across the VPN team, as well as with information provided by Surfshark. We update this review each month to include any new Surfshark features, or information about the product, to make sure that what you’re reading is 100% up to date and as you would find the product if you downloaded and used it today.

If you notice anything in your experience of using Surfshark that does not tally with what you read on this page, please let us know in the comments, or by emailing us direct, and we will endeavour to provide you with product support information or include corrections and warnings to other users, depending on which is appropriate.