Surfshark vs. NordVPN

There’s no easy way to compare VPNs. If you really want to see what VPN is best for you, you have to dive deep into their features, privacy practices, performance, and pricing. That’s especially true when you’re comparing top-tier VPNs, like Surfshark and NordVPN. Both can provide you ample privacy, protect your data, and give you access to a more open internet, but only by zooming in and paying close attention to details can you truly compare which is better.

On this page, we’ll do exactly that. We’ll compare NordVPN and Surfshark side by side, and then we’ll give you our recommendations based on our findings. Ready? Let’s start.

Servers

Let’s start with a general overview. Not surprisingly, NordVPN has a much bigger footprint than Surfshark, with 6,800 servers as opposed to just over 3,200. It’s a closer competition when it comes to server locations but NordVPN still wins by a hair. Surfshark offers servers in 100 countries while NordVPN offers servers in 111 countries.

What do those all mean? Well, with more servers, we expected NordVPN to provide better connections. Using Surfshark should be like driving down a three-lane highway, while NordVPN has six lanes. The latter is less likely to have a buildup of traffic, resulting in better speeds. We’ll find out later if there’s truth to that.

As for the server locations, NordVPN provides more options, which means it should be better for unblocking geo-restricted websites and accessing content not available in your region. Usually, a VPN with more server locations is a better option for streaming. That said, with both having servers in at least 100 countries, they both offer plenty of options.

Privacy

Given the ubiquity of security breaches and hackings, it’s no surprise that nearly 80 percent of Americans say they are concerned about how much personal data companies collect from them.1 If data collection is a bug, then VPNs are the bug spray meant to eradicate online tracking, allowing users to stay private online. How do Surfshark and NordVPN stack up in terms of privacy?

Privacy Jurisdiction

Where a VPN company is located can affect how well it protects your data. For example, NordVPN is based in Panama, which is known for its strict consumer privacy laws and lax data retention laws. On top of that, Panama is outside the jurisdiction of the Five, Nine, and 14 Eyes, which are multinational alliances that share communication intelligence with each other. (The U.S. is a prominent member of the alliance).

Surfshark, on the other hand, is based in the Netherlands. While it’s generally privacy-friendly, being under EU regulations, it’s part of the Nine Eyes. That means the government can ask Surfshark to provide customer data, and Surfshark will have no option but to comply. To combat this risk, Surfshark uses a no-logs privacy policy, which means they shouldn’t have any data to hand over if a government asks Surfshark for customer data. It’s outlined in their privacy policy.

Privacy Policies

That thing about Surfshark’s legal obligation to the Netherlands government can be quite concerning, but nonetheless, Surfshark can only provide data it has collected. So let’s see and compare what types of data Surfshark and NordVPN collect.

• What NordVPN and SurfShark both log: Email address, payment data, application diagnostics such as crash error reports
• What NordVPN logs that Surfshark doesn’t: IP address of the device used for payment, server load information, username, timestamp of last session status, whether or not the user has connected in the past 30 days, information about in-app events, device model, operating system version, device identifiers
• What Surfshark logs that NordVPN doesn’t: Encrypted password, IP address of devices used to access VPN service (but in an anonymized format)
• What neither logs: Web activity

While Surfshark logs fewer types of data than NordVPN, we found their policy about logging IP addresses concerning. Surfshark records the IP address of a device connected to its VPN service, but it also has a system in place that removes that data less than 15 minutes after disconnecting. In our book, that’s still secure. Surfshark’s subjected themselves to third-party audits confirming this practice as well. Moreover, since neither NordVPN nor Surfshark records web activity, your browsing history should still be safe with both providers.

Features

Now it’s time to see how Surfshark and NordVPN compare in terms of what we got with their VPN service. While our Surfshark review and our NordVPN review go into more detail, here’s a general overview.

Encryption Methods

Both VPNs used AES-256, the industry standard for encryption. On top of that, both services encrypted our web traffic multiple times through different servers, a process called multi-hop. This is really above and beyond when it comes to encryption, making NordVPN and Surfshark two of our safest options for the privacy-concerned.

Kill Switch

Both VPNs had kill switches, meaning when they inevitably got disconnected, our web browsers quit automatically. We like to think of kill switches as safety nets that hide our web traffic from our Internet Service Provider (ISP) even if the VPN fails.

Split Tunneling

Another area where there’s an overlap between Surfshark and NordVPN is split tunneling. Essentially, split tunneling creates two network connections. One passes through normal tunnels, as if you’re using the internet without a VPN.  The other is the VPN tunnel. Split tunneling is useful for multi-tasking – for example, we can check local weather updates even when using a VPN because the regular tunnel isn’t hiding our real IP address and location.

Torrenting and Netflix

Did you know that the average American spends nearly three hours a day watching television?2 We’ll be honest: that number sounded kind of low to us, especially with all of the streaming and torrenting options available.

When we wanted to hide our torrenting and Netflix activity by connecting to a VPN, Surfshark and NordVPN pulled through. That being said, Netflix may not always work on all servers, as the streaming giant works pretty hard to block VPN servers’ IP addresses. Both providers let us connect through a U.K. server to access all seasons of The Office which was taken off the U.S. catalogue.

Torrenting should be fine on either VPN too, although with NordVPN, the Albania, Bosnia, Moldova, and North Macedonia servers do not support P2P connections which is what torrenting uses. All of Surfshark’s servers support torrenting.

Speed Tests

If you have a need for speed, this section is for you. While we use Macbooks in our day to day operations, we test all of our VPNs out on a Windows Vivobook as well. How much did NordVPN and Surfshark affect our speeds on both types of devices?

Mac

Neither VPN slowed us down too much on Macs, but Surfshark had less of an effect by 12 percent.

Windows

As you can see below, the differences in speeds with our VPNs connected and not connected on Windows were pretty staggering, but again, Surfshark fared better than NordVPN by 360 percent. Especially if you’re using a VPN for gaming, these numbers will be an important factor in your ultimate buying decision. When it comes to speed, it’s safe to say that Surfshark beats NordVPN, although these numbers will vary based on factors such as distance to the server, operating system, etc.

Security Tests

Another essential feature of our VPN tests regards security. Sure, we want our VPNs to hinder our browsing speeds as little as possible, but if they’re not really hiding our originating IP addresses, what good are they, anyway?

DNS Leaks

DNS, which stands for domain name server, is the name of a website. It’s the URL you type into your browser when navigating the web, such as security.org. That URL directs your traffic to a specific IP address. We like to think of a website’s DNS as the way we’d describe a house’s location like “the red house on the corner” while the IP address is the house’s mailing address.

Here’s the thing: Every search query you make passes through a DNS server. If you’re not using a VPN, that server usually belongs to your internet provider, which means they see what you’re searching. When you connect to a VPN, your queries should ideally go through the VPN’s private DNS server. Otherwise, your internet provider would still be able to see your activity, defeating the purpose of a VPN.

NordVPN and Surfshark both use private DNS servers, and to confirm this, we used a DNS leak test. The testing tool we used didn’t detect any leaks, meaning that those private DNS servers work.

WebRTC Leaks

As avid Chrome users, WebRTC leaks are of huge concern. WebRTC is the default on Chrome, along with Microsoft Edge, Opera and Firefox, and it’s used to create faster speeds for video chatting, file sharing and live streaming footage. Basically, browsers connect directly to each other, reducing bandwidth and requiring each other’s private IP address; no thank you. Fortunately, neither Surfshark nor NordVPN leaked this information, making them both secure VPN options.

Subscriptions

If you pay month-to-month like us, Surfshark costs a lot more than NordVPN at $15.45 per month instead of $12.99 per month. However, as the term length gets longer, Surfshark becomes cheaper, especially if you sign up for two years.

* but must choose different protocols for devices on the same server, no more than three devices connected to the same server at once.

Another advantage of Surfshark is that we could connect as many devices as we wanted to their servers at the same time, while NordVPN limited us to ten. So in terms of pricing and what you get, Surfshark actually takes the cake…or does it?

We prefer to bundle our digital security products. And when it comes to bundled protection, NordVPN gave us more options. While they don’t offer a full antivirus software like Surfshark does, NordVPN’s online malware protections paired with our devices’ built-in protections kept our devices virus-free. That comes with NordVPN’s Plus plan which starts at $4.49 per month. Surfshark One includes their antivirus and starts at $2.49.

But what sets NordVPN apart from Surfshark is their Prime plan which includes identity theft protection through NordProtect. It starts at $8.49 per month, which isn’t cheap, but is a lot less than buying Surfshark and one of our favorite identity theft protection services separately. Combining Surfshark One with IdentityIQ would cost at least $10.99 per month. Check out our IdentityIQ review to see what we think of this budget identity theft protection service.

Apps

Another thing to keep in mind before hitting purchase is device, operating system and browser compatibility. Both NordVPN and Surfshark can work on any device as they both support routers. Installing the NordVPN or Surfshark app on your devices is a lot easier though. Thankfully, they both offer wide support with native apps on all major platforms and devices.

Now, if we had to choose one type of device to use a VPN on for the rest of our lives, we’d choose routers. They’re sort of like umbrellas that cover all devices on the same Wi-Fi network. Connect a VPN to a router, and we’ve encrypted the web activity and IP addresses of the network’s devices. Setting up a VPN router takes some technical know-how and if done incorrectly can cause irreparable damage to your router. That’s why even though VPN routers are our preference, we recommend sticking to VPN apps for most users.

Recap

It’s clear that Surfshark has a few areas that are objectively better than NordVPN, from its lower pricing to its more strict privacy policy. That being said, for most people, NordVPN will make more sense. It has over three times the amount of servers, meaning more people will be able to connect to their VPN without a hitch. It’s also a better choice for users that want dedicated IP addresses (and are willing to pay a fee). While both offer a dedicated IP address, NordVPN charges less. Finally, if you want to bundle all of your digital protections into one service, NordVPN offers a comprehensive plan that includes everything from malware protection to identity theft protection and insurance.