Surfshark boasts a powerful suite of privateness and safety features, limitless simultaneous connections, easy-to-use interface and expansive world community. And it is nonetheless considerably cheaper than most of its opponents. That is what helped Surfshark earn CNET’s Editors’ Alternative for Finest Worth VPN in 2022.
Together with commonplace VPN options reminiscent of a kill swap and DNS leak safety, a few of the extra notable Surfshark options embody camouflage mode (which hides the very fact you are utilizing a VPN), split-tunneling, NoBorders mode (which helps you to use Surfshark in areas the place VPNs are restricted) and multihop VPN connections. You may additionally get entry to Surfshark’s CleanWeb expertise, which blocks advertisements and malware and helps you keep away from phishing assaults.
One innovation we’re excited to see Surfshark roll out over the subsequent yr is its Nexus community, which connects the VPN’s total community of servers collectively and permits you to select a number of servers to route your connection by. The performance is considerably much like Tor, however Surfshark says it is quicker. With its Dynamic MultiHop, IP Randomizer and IP Rotator capabilities, the Nexus community may give you just a few additional layers of safety whilst you use the VPN — which may be significantly helpful to customers with essential privateness wants.
Surfshark says it does not log any consumer exercise. And though no-logging claims are nearly not possible to show with 100% certainty, German cybersecurity agency Cure53 declared Surfshark’s safety to be “strong” in its 2021 safety audit of the VPN. Surfshark says a brand new audit is forthcoming by the tip of this yr.
As of February 2022, each Surfshark and NordVPN have the identical company guardian (Tesonet), however Surfshark mentioned it’s legally certain to not share any info between the entities that might go towards its privateness coverage or phrases of service. We did not discover any language in both doc that might point out Surfshark has any obligation to share consumer knowledge with its guardian firm or any sibling corporations, which embody NordVPN.
Surfshark charges constantly as one of many quickest VPNs accessible, which is why we had been stunned that one of many solely points we had with Surfshark got here in our velocity take a look at. Whereas it nonetheless ranks as one of many quickest VPNs we have examined — with an web velocity lack of simply 19% — we had been disillusioned with the inconsistent velocity outcomes we obtained to sure areas. Speeds to Europe and Singapore had been erratic (dipping as little as 9Mbps to Singapore), whereas speeds to New York had been slower than speeds to the UK and even Australia. Surfshark is within the strategy of considerably increasing its server community, now providing greater than 3,200 servers in 99 nations. The continued enlargement of its server community may doubtlessly assist convey some extra consistency to VPN speeds.
In our checks, Surfshark had no issues unblocking Netflix and Amazon Prime Video content material, however we did run right into a good bit of bother accessing Disney Plus. After testing varied servers within the US and different nations the place Disney Plus is offered, we had been lastly capable of entry the content material after we linked to a server in Boston. It’s possible you’ll want to check just a few servers your self earlier than having access to Disney Plus content material with Surfshark.
Surfshark gives cheaper introductory costs that bounce after the primary billing cycle. Even so, Surfshark manages to maintain its costs decrease than most different VPNs. The yearly plan begins out at $48 for the primary yr, then jumps to $60 for any further years of service. For those who go for the two-year plan, you will pay $60 upfront for the preliminary two years mixed, then $60 per yr for any further years. Surfshark’s month-to-month plan stays fixed at $13 a month. For those who’re not glad with the service for any purpose, Surfshark gives a 30-day money-back assure.
