Surfshark VPN evaluation: Strong protection and performance with some drawbacks

Surfshark has a similar interface across all devices, making it easy to use on multiple platforms
Surfshark VPN offers a powerful and safe way to protect online data, while also being cost-effective. It has only minor drawbacks. Each computer that connects with the Internet has a unique Internet Protocol (IP), which is similar to a telephone number. These addresses are used to identify users and send the correct information. Caller ID can be used by your bank to identify you if you call them on your cell phone. Your cell phone provider knows that you called the bank as they log all your calls. It also knows when your mother calls you back and when you call the takeout pizza place. Your bank’s site is handling hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections. It uses IP addresses to send the information you requested, and not the information that someone else wanted, in all this web traffic. Your internet provider assigns an IP address to you, so it knows when you visit a site, make a video-call, check your emails, or even read this article. IP addresses can also be used to tell websites where a user is located. These providers often sell your information to advertisers and other companies for targeted advertising. Your internet provider knows not only your browsing history, but also sells it to advertisers. Private internet access is impossible without a VPN provider like Surfshark. A VPN offers several important online privacy protections. It gives users a different address that is not controlled by their internet provider. VPNs connect users to online tools and websites using their servers, protecting their data from prying eyes. VPNs rotate this IP address among multiple customers. A shared IP address could be used by you on one day, and then by someone from Albania the next. This is because sites like Amazon track browsing activity and purchases. Amazon is unable to track the history of a shared IP address because so many people use it. A VPN can also hide geographic information by routing traffic to servers in different cities and countries. You can ask your VPN provider to connect through a country or state where the site is not blocked by your government if your government blocks certain websites. By connecting through a VPN in another country, you can also access content that is only available in the area. A VPN server in France, for example, can be used to view content that is only available to French users. Privacy is sacrificed for speed when using a VPN. In general, speed is reduced when using a VPN. All traffic must travel further to pass through a VPN. This is especially true when connecting to a VPN in another country. Great VPNs go above and beyond to protect you. Surfshark says it offers basic protections, but also goes above and beyond to protect your entire digital life. We set out on a mission to test these claims. Surfshark VPN Review – What Is Surfshark? Surfshark VPN is a powerful, popular VPN that offers much more than protection from prying eye. Surfshark combines its VPN tools with privacy protections in order to mask your digital life and internet traffic. Surfshark offers more than 3200 servers, but the interface allows you to choose the best. Surfshark boasts more than 3,200 server in more than 100 different countries. This ensures connectivity in all regions. It boasts of the speed of its server and how easy it is to choose the best server for you. Surfshark is a top performer in our tests, excelling at interface, speed and ease of use. It also stands out for its unique privacy features that provide an additional layer of security and peace-of-mind. Surfshark’s plans are very affordable, especially if you purchase them with a quarterly or annual subscription. This affordability guarantees that you not only get a great deal, but also a quality VPN service. It is also one the most recognizable names in the VPN industry, and this visibility means that many customers rely on them for their data and privacy. These risks would be immediately revealed if any security lapses were detected. Surfshark is consistently ranked among the fastest VPNs that we have tested. This includes iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Surfshark VPN Review – Which Devices are Supported? Surfshark offers clients for Apple devices, including Apple TV, as well as Windows, Android and Linux solutions, Firefox, Chrome and Edge, and FireTV. Surfshark’s iPhone interface puts a lot of features at your fingertips.Surfshark’s Mac app looks like Surfshark’s Windows app. All of these look like Surfshark mobile apps including the iPhone, iPad and Android apps. There’s even a browser add-on that blocks IP addresses without requiring you to run desktop apps. More on extensions later. Surfshark is compatible with a wide range of devices for establishing an internet connection. The company claims that it supports dozens of devices from game consoles to VR head-sets and even Raspberry Pi, which is a favorite among makers. It’s important that you know that some of these connections require router support, or internet hotspots for desktop devices connected to VPN. Surfshark’s list of “supported” devices can be misleading as they often require a compatible router and most routers do not support this. Surfshark may claim that HomePod or a robot vacuum cleaner, or even a Samsung refrigerator with internet connectivity is supported. This is different from offering a dedicated app. Surfshark is not compatible with all routers, including the high performance router we use in the United States for testing. The only way to get PS5 support would be to purchase a new router, or connect via a hotspot. Support offered some suggestions on compatible routers but for most customers, buying a new one is not feasible. Surfshark VPN Review – Getting Started While some VPN providers limit simultaneous users, Surfshark allows unlimited device connections. Surfshark is available on Mac, iPad, iPhone and Apple TV. With just one account, you can protect the entire household. Surfshark for iPad has a similar interface to other supported devices, but it feels more sparse. Like many VPN companies Surfshark has its headquarters in a country where a government cannot legally access their servers or corporate records. It would be extremely difficult or even impossible for a government to force Surfshark into disclosing any information about its customers. Surfshark uses this security measure as well. A RAM-based system ensures that all data and the operating system disappear when the power is shut off. This makes any physical access impossible as soon as the server is disconnected. All information entering or leaving traditional servers is also logged. The log records information such as the IP address of a user, their internet provider, geographical region, etc. This information makes it easy to identify who the user is and what he or she is accessing. Surfshark’s “no-logs” policy makes it impossible to trace traffic on its network, especially when used in conjunction with a RAM server. For a no-logs claim to be trusted, the server infrastructure must be independently verified. Deloitte, a renowned security company, conducted the verification in the case of Surfshark. Deloitte auditing Surfshark is a significant endorsement for the company’s claims. Not all VPN providers allow auditors to inspect their infrastructure, so Deloitte’s audit is a major endorsement. Surfshark VPN Review – IP Address and Servers Since an IP address is a unique identifier used by sites and providers to track your online activity, Surfshark VPN masks it, ensuring that your online activities are private and secure. Surfshark automatically assigns shared IP addresses to users, which can be used by several users simultaneously. Surfshark combines the requests of each user into a shared IP address. This makes it difficult to track individual activities. Surfshark has an IP Rotator feature that enhances privacy. This tool changes your shared IP address while you remain connected. It makes it harder for trackers to track you. The IP Rotator masks your online activity, providing additional protection from surveillance. Surfshark provides dedicated IP addresses that you can use for connecting to the internet with the same IP address every time. Dedicated addresses can be useful for accessing secure systems or online banking. Surfshark provides static IP addresses to people or companies who need to configure a Plex Server or other service that requires unlimited connections. For example, many companies insist that employees access the network in order to maintain privacy. Server connections may fail if the address of a company or a user changes. This static IP address combines the anonymity of shared IP addresses with the stability needed for certain online services. This is a great option for users or companies who need a stable connection, but also need to maintain a level privacy that can’t be achieved with a non VPN connection. Surfshark security features include private DNS. Surfshark’s private servers handle DNS queries, ensuring that your browsing habits are kept confidential and not exposed to third party providers. This protects your data from leaks or tracking. Surfshark also offers split tunneling. This is another advanced feature which allows you to select which apps use VPNs and which don’t. Split tunneling allows you to protect sensitive activities with a VPN, but still access less sensitive data which requires faster speeds. You could, for example, stream Apple TV+ with the VPN turned off so that the video does not stutter but route your bank connection via Surfshark’s secure network. Surfshark can also accommodate the need for a constant IP address across sessions. For services that rely upon IP-based authentication, a consistent connection is essential. Surfshark guarantees access to services by using the same IP address, but with a fake address provided by Surfshark. This feature allows your bank to recognize you, making it easier to log in. However, the IP address still comes from Surfshark, not your internet service provider. Surfshark VPN Review – Surfshark Nexus Surfshark is a VPN that uses a set privacy and performance technologies known as Surfshark Nexus. Surfshark Nexus relies on a networking system known as Software-Defined Networking. Surfshark Nexus uses the latest technology to make browsing faster and safer. Most VPN providers disable all network traffic for a short time using a “Kill Switch”. The Kill Switch technique is used to stop traffic if your VPN connection drops. This will continue until you reconnect to a server. Surfshark is unique in that it routes users to a global network, and then routes traffic to the servers you select. Surfshark’s unique technology ensures that you remain connected to the main network even if you switch VPN servers. Kill switch technology is essential. Surfshark’s kill switch technology goes beyond the standard. Surfshark protects your data not only by a kill-switch, but also by an extra layer of security. Your traffic does not go directly from your client to a server. It is routed through the Surfshark Network and then to the server, giving you an extra layer protection. There’s no need to use a kill switch if one of the server connections drops. The same connection can route traffic to a different server without ever dropping your connection. Surfshark Nexus includes an IP randomizer. This feature is intended to enhance your privacy. Surfshark uses a random IP address to prevent you from being tracked between sites, even if the destination site has several servers. If you visit Eurosport, then go to Amazon, Amazon will not suddenly start selling sporting goods. Dynamic Multi-hop is another service that only the best VPN providers offer. It allows you to route your traffic through multiple countries. So, even if a malicious government, or hackers compromise one server, traffic is still protected at the other end. Surfshark, even with SDN technology offers a kill button to ensure that network disruptions do not compromise privacy. If the coffee shop’s WiFi is temporarily down, your data won’t be exposed. Surfshark VPN Review – Encryption Your data is not protected without encryption, even if your IP is hidden. Encryption protects your data from being seen by others. Non-encrypted data is problematic in many ways. VPNs encrypt traffic. Double encryption is always better than no encryption. There are several encryption technologies, and they are not all the same. OpenVPN, as its name suggests, is open source. This means that any user can inspect and improve the code. OpenVPN, however, is not optimized for speed. It’s optimized for security. Surfshark offers not only the OpenVPN protocol, but also several other types of VPN protocols to encrypt. Most of these protocols are proprietary and therefore not available to the wider security community. They are instead developed by standard bodies or private companies. WireGuard, the latest of these encryption technologies, is available for Windows, MacOS, and Android. It is not yet available on iOS and Apple TV clients. Surfshark offers the industry standards IKEv23, and L2TP which offer the best balance between security and speed. OpenVPN is likely to be the only VPN you’ll ever need, but the ability to change encryption with a single button makes it easy to find connections that meet your needs. Surfshark’s unlimited connections allow you to use OpenVPN for a device on which speed is not important, but another device that uses a faster protocol. Surfshark VPN Review – Speed Tests Surfshark claims SDN technology increases connection speed. This is difficult to verify. It’s difficult to determine whether the server infrastructure or the technology used by a company, such as SDN, is responsible for the speed of a VPN. Surfshark is consistently one of the fastest connections we tested, so it doesn’t really matter how fast the speeds are. Upload speeds are slower than download speeds, but this is common with VPNs. It’s not uncommon to see providers with slower upload speeds, as users are more concerned about download speeds. Upload speeds were lower than the other providers tested, but only a few percentages. This may seem impossible. Wouldn’t a non-VPN local connection always be faster than a VPN? When you use an application like Speedtest, it connects you to the best server available, which is not always the fastest. It’s the one that is available at the time the test was conducted. VPN servers are optimized for performance. A server in Canada that is well optimized may be faster than one in your locality, even if you consider the time it takes to send the data so far. One of our iPhone VPN single-hop tests, for example, had speeds of 545 Megabits Per Second Down and 158 Megabits Per Second Up when connecting to Paris. Our local server test showed speeds of 425 Megabits per Second up, which is more than twice as fast as the server in Paris. The download speed of the non-VPN server on our test was 495 megabits/second, which is a lot slower than Surfshark’s server in Paris. Multi-hop performance was also excellent. When connecting to Australia as the first destination and Singapore as the final destination, speeds were 250 megabits/second down but only 15 Megabits/second up. These speeds are impressive, even for multi-hop connections. Surfshark multi-hop connections were faster than those of other providers with single-server connections. Surfshark VPN review – Alternative ID
Surfshark offers a unique service among VPN providers: Alternative ID. Alternative ID is more about protecting real-life information than protecting data. Surfshark users can create a fake email address and user name with Alternative ID. Alternative ID is an online persona created to prevent online stalkers from finding out your details. You can create a new persona at any time to change your identity. Alternative ID may seem like a gimmick, but it is a valuable service for everyone. It allows high-profile individuals, such as politicians and celebrities, to participate in online forums without having to reveal personal information. It protects the average user from harassment and threats. Surfshark recently launched a companion service called Alternative Number. Alternative Number is similar to Alternative ID in that it provides a fake number for online use. It’s an extra cost and still in beta but it’s a next step to protect users both in the virtual and real world. Surfshark VPN Review – Surfshark One Surfshark One offers more protection than Surfshark VPN, offering several tools on top of VPN protection and AlternateID. Surfshark includes antivirus software, an ad-free search tool, and a search engine that does not leave traces behind. Surfshark One includes Surfshark Alert which alerts users if they find their email address in online data theft or if any of their personal information is leaked online. Surfshark One+, an optional (and expensive) product, also removes personal information from online databases and websites that list phone numbers and addresses. Surfshark Review – Browsers There’s no real extension for VPNs. Surfshark does offer a Chrome Extension, but like all VPN extensions, it doesn’t offer full VPN protection. The plug-in relies upon a proxy server which is not the equivalent of a VPN. VPNs provide anonymous IP addresses that hide your activities. They also encrypt data and let you choose the server location to connect to. These obfuscated server locations help to keep your data secure. With a browser extension your identity is not completely hidden. Cookies and other online advertising tools can create a unique profile which your provider uses to determine who is behind an IP address. A VPN extension will only hide your IP address. Traffic is still routed through the DNS servers of your internet provider. Browser extensions don’t protect your data. They only hide your IP address. This isn’t protection at all. This limitation is not a criticism against Surfshark. No matter how you configure your VPN, there are no browser extensions that can completely hide your data. Surfshark Review – Additional Features Surfshark’s features set it apart from other VPN providers. These include GPS spoofing, and an “invisible device” mode which hides traffic for other users on the same network. GPS spoofing allows you to make an iPhone or iPad appear to be in a different location. This stops location-sniffing applications from knowing where you’re at. Invisible devices mode allows you to share the same IP address and connection, but users of your WiFi or LAN network won’t know that you are connected. Surfshark VPN Review – Data Leak Testing When analyzing VPNs, two tools are used in order to determine if data is accidentally exposed. The first test is a DNS leaked test. This checks if a user’s address is visible by any servers on the Internet. A VPN connection’s core feature is DNS leak protection. If a VPN service provider doesn’t protect your VPN traffic, and its DNS access then the connection is not working. Surfshark allows you to test its protection by testing for DNS leaks. VPN security is a hallmark feature of Surfshark, along with independent security audits. These independent auditors confirm the encrypted servers of Surfshark. Surfshark didn’t leak DNS information during our tests. Most video chat applications use WebRTC technology to provide faster connections for video calls. These connections can also expose data. Surfshark offers WebRTC leak tests as well, and there were no leaks found. Surfshark VPN Review – Support We look at a company’s support pages, and then chat with a representative to gauge the support. Surfshark has good support documents, but they are not very detailed. Chat support was excellent. We were greeted first by a bot as is standard for online chats. After a few moments, the bot offered us support documents or a connection with a chat agent. The agent who joined the chat within a minute was friendly and efficient. When we asked if they supported game consoles, the agent explained that consoles need to be configured through a router or a hotspot. Surfshark is a powerful tool, but most of its features are hidden within settings. Surfshark’s rep asked us what router were using. Surfshark does not maintain a list of supported routers. However, they checked ours and found that it would not work with Surfshark. The rep gave us a list with several routers that they had tested and recommended. These routers were divided into two categories: high-performance and low cost. They offered to help with configuration if you bought a router that was supported. We also asked them about the Nexus features that were rolled out in the last few years. Their website still states that Nexus will be finished — in 2023. The agent informed us that all features were now active, and that they would send the message to their site that it needed updating. It is rare that a VPN requires this level of support, as they work from the start. However, having friendly and accurate support is important. Surfshark VPN Review – Pricing Prices for VPN services can change over time due to competition and special offers. This information is not guaranteed to be accurate. Surfshark offers excellent pricing, particularly with its 12-month and 24-month packages. Surfshark’s unlimited simultaneous connections make the plans particularly attractive. One plan can cover all devices in a home, so you don’t need to purchase multiple subscriptions. With the simultaneous connection feature, you can protect your iPad, Apple TV and Mac with one plan. Surfshark offers competitive pricing, particularly with long-term plans. Single-month plans begin at around $16. Surfshark’s One+ plan costs up to $18. The Surfshark VPN plan costs less than $3 per month with a one-year subscription. Surfshark Plus is only $5. The price drops are less dramatic at 24 months. Therefore, the Surfshark subscription for a year is the best option. Surfshark offers a 30-day refund policy, as do most VPN providers. This allows you to test the features and performance of the VPN before committing. Surfshark VPN Review – Pros Affordable annual Surfshark Plans
Knowledgable tech support
Shared or static IP address
A robust network of virtual servers, server locations, and servers
Unlimited simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
Surfshark VPN Review – Cons Expensive monthly plans. Consider yearly instead
Misleading claims about supported devicesSurfshark VPN Review – Rating 4 Out of 5 Surfshark was among the top performers during our VPN tests. It had impressive speeds on all the servers that we tested. As a VPN user for many years, I am not usually impressed by claims of speed or functionality. Most VPN providers look so similar, they are hard to distinguish. Surfshark impressed me in many ways. The speed of the VPN is among the fastest that I’ve ever experienced. This is the second most important factor for me when choosing a VPN, right behind privacy. The customer service was excellent. I wish my bank took a few tips from Surfshark. I was disappointed with the claims that multiple devices were supported, when in fact most of these devices are protected by router support and not by dedicated clients. I have a performance-driven router that is expensive. Buying a new router to support PS5 was not something I would do. Surfshark has some great features. Its features, such as dedicated IP, split-tunneling, simultaneous connections, virtual server, IP rotator, and lack of a need for a Kill Switch (and yet it still has one), make it an excellent VPN. Split tunneling is also a powerful feature for online gamers. VPNs sacrifice speed for security. But when you’re playing Call of Duty or Helldivers 2, the fastest speeds matter. Spit tunneling allows games to be unencrypted while email and browsing remain encrypted. Surfshark is one of the easiest VPN apps to use. The interface is easy to use on all platforms, including desktop apps, mobile apps, Android apps, and Windows apps if you are in a multiplatform environment. Surfshark’s unlimited simultaneous connections are especially great, since many VPNs have a limit on the number. Surfshark VPN was clearly one of the top providers when we tested it. How much does Surfshark cost per month? Surfshark offers specials on its 1-year or 2-year plans. Discounts of up to 86% are available, and there is a 30-day refund guarantee. Prices for Surfshark VPN start at $2.19 a month. Surfshark offers the latest VPN deals, and we have a dedicated roundup that breaks down the current offers.