Surfshark vs. Ivacy: Comparing Affordable but Feature-Rich VPNs

VPNs are generally affordable, but some are simply more budget-friendly than others. Surfshark and Ivacy are two of the most economical VPNs, but don’t be fooled by their low prices — they are packed with useful privacy and digital security features. After all, both Surfshark and Ivacy made our list of the best VPNs of 2024, finishing with a 9.5 and 9.2 Editor’s Rating, respectively.

With such close scores, we decided to put Surfshark and Ivacy head to head to finally determine which of the two is better. Keep reading to find out our final verdict, but brace yourself: We’re going to have to dig deep, since Surfshark and Ivacy are both excellent VPN options.

How Affordable Are They?

We’ll let you in on a not-so-secret trick when it comes to buying a VPN: If you want to save, buy a longer subscription. A monthly VPN subscription can run $10 or more per month. By simply choosing a subscription of a year or longer, you’ll be able to cut the VPN’s cost down to as low as $3 per month. The catch is that you’ll have to pay in advance, so that would be $36 for a year.

The same trick applies to Surfshark and Ivacy. A monthly Surfshark subscription costs $12.95. A one-year subscription costs $47.88, which is $3.99 monthly. A two-year subscription costs $59.76, or $2.49 if you average the monthly cost.

On the other hand, Ivacy has a record-setting $1 per month subscription. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen in a top-tier VPN, but there’s a catch: You’ll be buying a five-year subscription. That’s $60 in total. That’s a great price for sure, but think long and hard before buying a five-year subscription. Ivacy’s money-back guarantee is only good within 30 days after your purchase. If it doesn’t work out and you cancel after 30 days, you’re not getting a refund.

Are They Privacy-Friendly?

The main concern with affordable or free VPNs is usually whether they’re safe. A look into free VPNs in 2021 revealed that user data from 21 million people may have been compromised — all because they used a free VPN.1

Fortunately, there are no such concerns with Surfshark and Ivacy. Both VPNs met our standards for privacy, since they’re both “no-logs” VPNs. They collect information about users during the signup process, but browsing data, IP addresses, browsing histories, and downloads are not recorded. Whatever you do while connected to either VPN will remain between you and your device.

That said, Surfshark gets extra points for using RAM-only servers. Surfshark’s servers run on random access memory (RAM) instead of the traditional hard drives found in servers. Data stored on RAMs are temporary; once a server is rebooted, all residual data stored in it is removed. That gives Surfshark users extra peace of mind that their browsing data is not being logged.

How Do They Perform?

Now that we know they’re safe to use, let’s discuss Surfshark and Ivacy’s performance as VPNs.

Server Network

Ivacy has a slightly larger server network, with over 5,000 servers in its fleet versus Surfshark’s 3,200. They are, however, evenly matched in terms of server locations. Each VPN has servers in around 100 countries.

The server network affects the VPN’s performance to some extent. A network with 10 servers shared among 1,000 users (100 users for each server), for example, is more likely to bottleneck than a network with 100 servers (10 users per server).

Aside from the number of servers, we have to consider their quality. Ivacy has more servers, but it uses plain ol’ VPN servers. They’re fast and they get the job done, but there’s nothing special about them. Surfshark, on the other hand, has invested a lot in improving the quality of its network. It upgraded to RAM-only servers a few years ago, and upgrades to 10 Gbps server ports are ongoing.2

This is an area where the phrase “quality over quantity” applies. You won’t be able to use all the extra servers Ivacy has, but you’ll enjoy Surfshark’s new-generation servers every time you connect to the service. Surfshark wins.

Encryption and VPN Protocol

It’s also important to understand how a VPN works under the hood — the processes happening in the background that give you enhanced privacy.

VPNs scramble your online traffic to protect it from anyone who may be interested in your browsing activity. That process is called encryption. Ivacy and Surfshark both use the highest encryption standard in VPNs, which is 256-bit AES.

After encrypting your data, VPNs will route it through a secure tunnel to get it to the VPN server. They follow a set of protocols, also known as VPN protocols. We don’t want to get into too much detail about VPN protocols, but in essence, the gold-standard protocols are OpenVPN and WireGuard.

Surfshark offers both protocols, whereas Ivacy offers only OpenVPN. That doesn’t make Ivacy subpar — OpenVPN is versatile and it’s enough to meet the needs of most users — but having options is simply better. It’s even better if the other option is WireGuard, since it has proven faster than OpenVPN in several studies.3

Speed Comparison

Speaking of speed, let’s see how Surfshark and Ivacy perform in the real world. Are they as fast as they claim to be?

Using a VPN will almost always slow down your internet speed, because it adds a few extra steps — encryption and routing — to your connection. Fast VPNs, however, should not cause your internet to screech to a halt.

When we tested Surfshark, we were able to conduct our day-to-day online activities without problems. We recorded an average download speed of 173 Mbps and upload speed of 159 Mbps on our 200 Mbps network. That’s a speed of loss of less than 20 percent, which is pretty good.

There was a noticeable decrease in speed with Ivacy, but not so much that it interfered with our browsing. We recorded a download speed of 164 Mbps and an upload speed of 162 Mbps.

In this category, we’d say Surfshark and Ivacy are on equal grounds.

Features

There are certain features we look for in a VPN, principal of which is a kill switch. A kill switch is a backup layer of protection that switches off your internet connection if the VPN unexpectedly fails. It’s to stop you from unknowingly browsing the web without a VPN cloaking you. Surfshark and Ivacy both have a kill switch.

Another feature we like to see is split tunneling, which creates two tunnels for your online traffic. One is the encrypted VPN tunnel for web activities that require some privacy, while the other is an unencrypted tunnel for sites or apps that don’t work well with VPNs. You can, for example, use one tunnel to access mobile banking apps — known for not being VPN-friendly — while keeping all your other online connections private through the other.

Outside those features, some VPNs offer extra functionalities that can make your life easier and improve your online security. Surfshark is one of those VPNs. A Surfshark subscription also includes the following features:

• Camouflage Mode: Best used in restrictive countries such as China and Russia, this mode helps you hide the fact that you’re using a VPN.
• NoBorders Mode: For maximum privacy, NoBorders Mode connects you only to servers in privacy-friendly countries such as Switzerland.
• Multihop: This enhances your privacy and security by connecting you to a VPN server twice.
• CleanWeb: It monitors the websites you visit and automatically blocks malware, ads, and trackers.

Ivacy doesn’t offer much in terms of extra features. It comes with a free password manager if you sign up for five years, but that’s all. It’s an excellent VPN, of course, but Surfshark is simply better.

Which Is Better Overall?

Surfshark and Ivacy earned their respective spots on our list of the best VPNs. Both are excellent at protecting users’ privacy while offering low-cost subscriptions. If you want to safeguard your online data, you can’t go wrong with either VPN.

But our hands-on tests repeatedly showed that Surfshark has a slight edge. It has better-quality servers, offers more VPN protocol options, and has extra features that may not be necessary but can help you further lock down your digital security.