Surfshark Review 2023: Is It Actually Worth the Money?

If you’re looking for a VPN service that’s feature-rich, compatible with a wide range of devices and offers fast download speeds, go no further than Surfshark.

They have 3,200 servers, located in 160 data centers across 100 countries, Let’s get started with my comprehensive Surfshark Review.

Surfshark VPN is popular. It supports many devices, downloads quickly, and includes many useful functions. Surfshark is operational in 100-plus countries.

Mac, Android, Windows, and Linux support apps. Smart DNS, Edge, Firefox, and Chrome browser add-ons access geo-blocked material on smart TVs, gaming consoles, and other devices.

Surfshark can be installed on limitless devices without “simultaneous connection” constraints.

A kill switch prevents data loss if a VPN connection faces issues, and it supports many protocols, including the extremely secure AES-256-GCM.

🚀 My 1-Minute Surfshark Review

Surf Sharks pricing

Surfshark’s $12.95 monthly package is pricier than others.

Paying yearly reduces the monthly cost to $3.99 from $9.99 for the first year. Repeatedly costs $4.98.

Surfshark’s $2.05/month 24-month plan is the cheapest. For example, one-year membership is $47.88, and two-year membership costs $59.76. Only the first term applies. Your plan then becomes the $4.98-per-month regular annual plan.

Several solutions are cheaper, but most are more expensive. Private Internet Access’s three-year subscription, which includes a toggleable antiviral program, costs $2.03 per month for the first year.

Surfshark One includes all VPN features, Avira-powered antivirus, data breach monitoring, and a privacy-focused search engine. Turn it on monthly for $1.99. Cheap? The strategy’s simple. Antivirus this VPN software has improved greatly. It now protects you against webcam hackers. However, specialized AV equipment is more functional.

Surfshark gives Android, iOS, and Mac customers a free 7-day trial. Windows users would appreciate something, but many organizations don’t offer free trials.

With get a 30-day money-back guarantee, Surfshark accepts Amazon Pay, cryptocurrency, PayPal, and all types of credit cards.

Surfshark Speed Test

You can see how Surfshark stacks up against the other VPNs I tested in the table above. How I arrived at these speeds can be viewed in detail in our VPN testing methodology.

Time is required to download a 115 MB file on average from a legitimate BitTorrent service.

Surfshark Guideline on Privacy and Logging

Secure protocols (WireGuard, OpenVPN UDP, and TCP), AES-256 encryption, and a kill switch that prevents identity leaks and blocks internet access in the case the VPN connection drops are the foundation of Surfshark’s privacy features.

Each Surfshark server has its own private DNS, making it less likely that your online actions may be spied upon. You can make it much harder for anyone to track you by connecting to Paris before leaving the Surfshark network in New York, for example, and then making a second connection to your final destination.

Surfshark’s great privacy policy makes it quite clear that no logs are kept. It also includes detailed information on the data it does (and does not) collect, as well as succinct summaries for people who don’t want to read the entire text.

The most important fact to remember is that when you’re using Surfshark, the servers only store your user ID and the time you connected. Even these are deleted when you have not used the service for 15 minutes.

The service does not log any of your personally identifiable information that could be used to track your online activities, such as your IP address, browser type, visited websites, current session, or network traffic.

Surf Shark Windows app

While the Surfshark Windows client’s tabs, icons, and groups give it a more polished appearance than most VPN apps, its functionality is otherwise standard fare.

If you click the “Connect” button, you’ll be connected to the nearest server. Additional servers can be seen in the “Location” drop-down menu, and the “Settings” tab provides access to several customization options.

WireGuard connections are lightning fast, taking only a few seconds to establish as opposed to OpenVPN’s 8-10 seconds. But the app will always keep you updated. When you are in danger, you will receive an alert on your screen.

The well-designed location selector simplifies the process of locating a server by showing both countries and locations in the same list.

So, you may see certain cities without enlarging the list of nations or switching tabs. Instead, you can scroll down to view all available options at once. Surfshark performs a decent job in general, and even though it doesn’t list the places in alphabetical order, it’s still useful.

Location-specific ping times are not shown by default but can be uncovered via the ‘Refresh speed measurements’ option. You can use the search bar to look for certain places; for example, entering “atl” will bring up Atlanta. Favorite spots can be saved in the dedicated Favorites area.

Using a static IP list, you can connect to servers in any country and receive a permanent IP address from each one, including Germany, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This means your IP address will permanently trace its origin to the country of your choosing.

While this could be useful in some situations, it should be used with caution when dealing with sensitive data or when trying to get access to a network that requires a specific IP address. This is not a dedicated IP address, even though it has a static address. Because your IP address could be given to any other Surfshark user, it cannot be used to uniquely identify you.

If you use a MultiHop tab, your traffic will be split between two VPN servers, making it impossible for an attacker to determine your true IP address even if the exit server is compromised.

There are twelve potential paths to take. There are two types of servers: the one you connect to (which could be in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Germany, France, the Netherlands, or Australia) and the one the rest of the world uses to figure out where you are.

Using the VPN’s “Bypasser” panel, you may choose which programs, websites, and IP addresses do not connect through the VPN. This is an improved version of the “split tunneling” feature offered by several VPN services, such as ExpressVPN. Adding Surfshark to the list of allowed extensions should fix any issues that arise when using the extension.

In addition, the Bypasser can be set up to allow just selected applications to make use of the VPN. If you just use Surfshark for a single purpose, like torrenting, configuring your client to connect over the VPN will allow you to continue using your regular connection for anything else.

I tried many different configurations and they all worked perfectly. It’s great that a VPN service fully supports split tunneling on the desktop. ExpressVPN, Hotspot Shield, NordVPN, Private Internet Access, and ProtonVPN are just a few of the VPNs that support split tunneling on Windows, while others limit this feature to their mobile apps.

When testing Surfshark’s CleanWeb feature, I used a sample set of 100 tracker sites and found that it blocked 54 of them. While we’ve seen better results (Windscribe’s ROBERT tool removed 98, and ProtonVPN blocked 87), this is still a useful number.

The “NoBorders” feature allows you to bypass firewalls in China and other countries where VPNs are commonly restricted, and it will activate automatically if the program detects a network problem.

Surfshark recently removed IKEv2 from its Windows software because WireGuard and OpenVPN are preferable and it appears that almost no one used it. Additional features include the ability to start the VPN simultaneously with Windows or to switch the protocol to Automatic, WireGuard, OpenVPN UDP and TCP, or UDP and TCP.

Surfshark Kill Switch

A kill switch cuts network access if the VPN connection breaks. The setup has been simplified, only Surfshark allowed online access during the kill switch. It’s hard but safe.

“Soft” death switches are available. If the VPN connection is lost unexpectedly, this will work. Though risky, this lets you link or not.

Surfshark lets users choose a death switch, which is rare. (Even if you believe you know which choice you like, you may change your mind.)

Our main kill switch tests went smoothly. The program alerted us that our internet was banned and our traffic was never viewed when I tried to shut the VPN connection normally.

More extreme methods of testing are also used. In the worst situation, I found that the VPN stopped working when the Surfshark Windows service stopped, but the app had no idea this was happening.

The word “Protected” kept flashing on the screen. After hours of use, your device may give you a false sense of security that everything is fine, but in reality, the VPN connection has dropped and you are exposed.

The big picture must always be kept in mind. To verify a kill switch’s reliability, I employ stricter tests, but in practice, you’ll likely never face such extremes. You can use Surfsharp for years and never have a problem with the service.

This is a bug that shouldn’t be present in the app and might be partially fixed with enhanced programming. In the event of a crash, ExpressVPN’s Windows services, for instance, are instructed to restart automatically.

This gives it a fighting chance, even in the worst-case scenario. The fact that Surfshark does not make use of this standard restart capability is a major flaw.

The kill switch in Surfshark is reliable and will prevent any problems from occurring. It might be an improvement, but there are probably better options out there.

Surfshark for MAC OS

The Mac and Windows versions of Surfshark differ slightly in terms of appearance and functionality. For instance, you can’t make the program window bigger or smaller. Not showing the kill switch’s state in the app’s primary Connect pane is a major flaw.

However, arranging the cities in alphabetical order fixes a tiny problem I had with Windows applications.

When I put these apps to use in the real world, I didn’t notice any major differences. Quick and reliable service from the VPN connection at all times.

There are aspects of Surfshark that Mac users can’t access. There is no dedicated “Bypasser” tool that blocks VPN use by specific programs or websites.

Important functionality such as Static IP addresses, Multi-Hop VPN, WireGuard and OpenVPN compatibility, a kill switch, and ad and malware blocking from CleanWeb are still accessible.

An further, Windows-exclusive benefit is that the VPN will connect automatically whenever you connect to an untrusted network.

Surfshark’s Mac program provides a terrific blend of power and usability, and its feature set is significantly more extensive than what I usually see.

Surfshark Mobile apps

The effectiveness of Surfshark as a mobile VPN is impressive. While it seems like some VPN service providers don’t really care about their mobile apps, Surfshark’s iPhone VPN and Android VPN are both incredibly functional and loaded with a wide range of cutting-edge features.

The apps are easy to use and have a very minimalist appearance. Small changes make it seem as if it has been carefully developed and is enjoyable to use, such as the dark mode (shown on iOS above).

I tried the Windows client in order to prepare for this review, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover how similar the Android app was. The list of server locations is the same, the UI is very similar to the one that is utilized, and the split-tunneling, MultiHop, blocking, and whitelisting features can all be used.

In addition to the kill switch that is offered in the desktop version, users of mobile devices can benefit from a number of additional support protocols, including OpenVPN/IVEv2 and WireGuard. On the other hand, the tragic discontinuation of Shadowsocks.

Additionally, you may enhance mobile network performance, have the VPN connect automatically in certain situations, and choose between a number of encryption algorithms, like AES-256-GGM and Chacha20Poly1305 with the Surfshark Android app.

If you encounter any issues with the application, you won’t need to visit the main help page because you may report bugs, open support tickets, or search for solutions to support queries.

This functionality is also replicated in the iOS app, although without Android-only features like split tunneling and adjustable encryption options (both of which are absolutely inaccessible in any manner on iOS).

Surfshark Customer Support

Surfshark offers its own help center where you can find solutions to various problems. There are frequently asked questions, guidelines, and tutorials, and while they cover a wide range of topics, they aren’t exhaustive.

The bulk of the material is devoted to discussions of configuration, while the basics of performing queries are also covered. Most articles, however, are too short and lack the necessary detail.

However, when some design changes were made, the search feature became much more efficient. No longer will you have to waste time digging through obscure submenus to find the data you require.

Live chat agents are also available and are both quick and helpful if you’re in a pinch and can’t find the information you need. I was pleasantly surprised by how helpful the live chat was, especially considering the low cost of Surfshark, so that should be your first point of contact if you run into any issues.

Surfshark Reviews by Users

Surfshark Altetnatives

When it comes to finding a Surfshark alternative with pricing, there are plenty of options out there. However, not all VPNs are created equal, and some may offer better value for money than others. Here are our top picks for Surfshark alternatives with pricing:

1. NordVPN

NordVPN is a well-established VPN service that offers a great balance between price and features. With over 5,500 servers in 59 countries, NordVPN is a great choice for accessing geo-restricted content from around the world.

It also offers strong encryption and a range of advanced features, such as a kill switch and double VPN. NordVPN is slightly more expensive than Surfshark, with prices starting at $3.71 per month on a three-year plan. However, it’s still very affordable for the level of service you get.

Click Here to read my Comprehensive NordVPN Review.

2. ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is another popular VPN service that offers a high level of security and privacy. With servers in 94 countries, ExpressVPN is great for accessing content from around the world.

It also offers strong encryption, a kill switch, and split tunneling. However, ExpressVPN is more expensive than Surfshark, with prices starting at $6.67 per month on a 15-month plan. While it’s more expensive, it’s still a great option for those who need a high level of security and privacy.

Click Here to read my Comprehensive NordVPN Review.

3. CyberGhost VPN

CyberGhost VPN is a budget-friendly VPN service that offers a lot of features for the price. With over 7,000 servers in 91 countries, CyberGhost VPN is great for accessing geo-restricted content from around the world.

It also offers strong encryption, a kill switch, and a range of advanced features. CyberGhost VPN is slightly cheaper than Surfshark, with prices starting at $2.25 per month on a three-year plan. If you’re looking for a great value VPN, CyberGhost VPN is definitely worth considering.

Quick Links:

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Conclusion: Surfshark Review – SHOULD YOU BUY SURFSHARK?

Surfshark is a really remarkable service, with a ton of features and performance that leads the pack in its category. When you take into account how affordable the initial package for two years is, any minor drawbacks, such as the slow OpenVPN connection speeds or the kill switch’s occasional inability to function properly, begin to lose their significance.

Surfshark is an extremely enticing choice if all you need is a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service that will protect your online anonymity, is compatible with a large number of different devices, and gives you access to a wide variety of streaming websites from across the world.