Surfshark was founded in the British Virgin Islands – one of the rare havens of privacy with no data retention laws. The company currently offers anonymity services on 800+ servers on six continents, and is one of our recommendations for the best VPN in 2019.
Plans and pricing
Surfshark's services can be purchased under three plans. The one-month subscription plan comes at the price of $12.95 (about £12). It is followed by the one-year option at $5.99 (about £5) per month, while the price drops even further for the two-year plan and amounts to $2.49 (about £2) per month.
However, when you first visit the page, you’ll be offered a coupon that changes the pricing a bit. Namely, you are then offered the one-month plan at $12.95 (about £12), the two-year plan at $2.49 (about £2) per month, as well as the three-year option at as little as $1.94 (about £1.50) per month. This occasionally changes.
Accepted methods of payment cover credit cards, PayPal, Google Pay, and major cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple).
Should you need to test out the service before making a final decision, you’ll have access to a generous, risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee that allows you to get a refund regardless of the reason. This isn't exactly the free trial we were expecting as you still need to pay for a plan, but is certainly better than nothing.
Features
Surfshark has a decent server coverage, with over 800 servers scattered across more than 50 countries. It supports VPN connections on a virtually unlimited number of devices at the same time, putting it at the top of the VPN providers in this regard.
It deploys some of the usual VPN mechanisms, including a kill switch and split-tunneling. A kill switch is a must-have in the industry, as it provides protection of your private information when the VPN connection is terminated. When such a situation happens, a kill switch shuts down the device's internet access completely.
The extended split-tunneling technology, or as Surfshark calls it, the Whitelister, allows specific apps and websites to bypass the VPN should you choose so. Others are directed through the secure VPN tunnel.
As for the less common features, there's the MultiHop feature that allows connection to multiple locations at once, adding another layer of anonymity and footprint masking.
Surfshark's proprietary CleanWeb feature blocks ads, trackers, malware, and phishing attempts. More than the simple ad blocker, CleanWeb is useful for saving mobile data, facilitating a smooth browsing experience, and general peace of mind regarding your safety and privacy.
The Camouflage Mode prevents any outsiders from learning that you’re even using a VPN client.
Privacy and logging
Specific privacy features include the strong encryption ensured by the AES-256 algorithm, accompanied by the IKEv2/IPSec transfer protocol as default and, if you prefer, the optional OpenVPN protocol.
Surfshark also has zero-knowledge DNS on all of its servers, as well as a DNS leak protection when using the IPv4 stack.
The company clearly lists all the information it will never collect from you. This includes IP addresses, browsing activities, connection timestamps, bandwidth used, session information, network traffic, and so on. It does collect some other, albeit non-sensitive data needed to create your account, including your basic billing information and email address.
Although the no-logs policy hasn’t been verified yet, the provider has hired an independent auditor to confirm the security capabilities of its browser extensions. The results were satisfactory.
On top of that, your privacy is guaranteed by the fact that the company is registered in the British Virgin Islands, a place with no laws requiring organizations to retain any of their data logs.
Performance
Surfshark delivers excellent results for connection times, connection stability, and download/upload speeds. We did, however, notice that some of the servers don’t appear to be on their advertised location. That said, this minor issue doesn’t affect the general experience.
Netflix
One of the most demanded VPN features is the access to geographically restricted websites and services, especially the ever-popular streaming giant Netflix. Surfshark will not disappoint you in this area, as it supports a long list of such services and websites, as well as providing access to Netflix libraries in eight locations, providing smooth streaming of your favorite shows.
Torrents
Another box to tick is torrenting capabilities. Unlimited sharing of large files via torrenting clients is allowed and supported, and explained in detail on Surfshark's website.
Client setup
Surfshark can be installed on a wide array of platforms such as Windows, Android, iOS, Mac, Linux, routers, select smart TVs, and even gaming consoles. There are also browser extensions available for Chrome and Firefox.
Support
Detailed information about every part of Surfshark's service is available on the company’s blog and searchable help page, which is divided into categories according to your area of interest.
If, after consulting the website, you still can't find the information you’re looking for, then we suggest contacting Surfshark's friendly staff, who are available 24/7 via the live chat button or email. Instead of going to your email provider’s website or app, you can simply send an email by filling out the form on the website.
