How Much Does Surfshark Cost?

Privacy isn’t something you can buy … or is it? With a premium VPN subscription, you can protect your online data and make sure no one is tracking your every move on the internet. And the truth is, you don’t have to pay a high cost to enjoy online privacy.

Surfshark is a prime example. It’s a well-rounded VPN with fast and secure servers, innovative features, and a wide-reaching server network. It’s also one the most affordable VPNs we’ve tested, with subscriptions that cost as low as just over $2 per month if you purchase a two-year subscription.

Is Surfshark worth it? It’s affordable, sure, but does it offer enough features to protect your privacy and online data? Does it work as a short-term VPN option? We answer all that and more as we unlock for you Surfshark’s pricing and subscription information.

Surfshark VPN Subscription Options

Simple is good, which is why we loved Surfshark’s easy-to-understand subscription model. You can choose from any of the three subscription plans, but whichever you go with, you’ll end up with the same features. The only difference between the plans is the length of the subscription and the cost. Basically, the longer the subscription, the lower the cost.

The most practical subscription is, of course, the 24-month plan, which breaks down to just $2.49 per month. One thing to note, though, is that that’s not the permanent price. Once the initial subscription is up, you will have to renew one year at the time at the current yearly rate. Right now, it’s $59.76, so about $5 per month.

Compared to some of the other top VPNs, Surfshark is affordable. Take ExpressVPN’s pricing, for instance. The best price for a subscription is $8.32 per month for the one-year plan. The cost of a Surfshark plan for the same time period is $3.99, less than half of what ExpressVPN charges.

Another advantage of Surfshark? You can connect unlimited devices simultaneously. With ExpressVPN, you can only connect five at a time, so if you’re part of a household with more than five devices, you might need to purchase more than one subscription. With Surfshark, one subscription is all you’ll need.

Surfshark’s Best Features

We think Surfshark is a great VPN, as detailed in our Surfshark review. If you’re not familiar with the VPN itself, here’s why we love it so much:

• Logging policy: Surfshark doesn’t log browsing activity and IP addresses. Period. If you use Surfshark, what you do online is between only you and your device. Nothing ever gets recorded, and that’s not just a promise, as the “no-logs” policy was recently confirmed by Deloitte, a third-party auditing firm that audited Surfshark.

• Split tunneling: When we needed to, Surfshark let us route some traffic through its VPN server and others through the public internet. This came in handy when using banking apps or accessing local news.
• Low prices: Starting at less than $3 a month, Surfshark ranks better than most VPNs with the same features (not to mention its seven-day free trial VPN).
• Torrenting: For the film buffs out there, you’ll appreciate getting to torrent movies and television shows using Surfshark to protect your identity. Read our guide on how to use a VPN to torrent.
• Netflix: We hopped over to the U.K. Netflix while connected to Surfshark, which allowed us to catch up on TV shows not available on the U.S version using a U.K. IP address.
• An effective app: We love that Surfshark has an app for both Android and iOS users that works just as effectively on each. Many other VPNs we’ve reviewed, like VPN Secure and Mozilla VPN, suffer from lower app ratings, as you can see in our VPNSecure review and our Mozilla VPN review. That’s not the case with Surfshark. Surfshark’s iOS app boasts a 4.4-star rating, and its Android app has a 4.0-star rating.

• Unlimited and simultaneous connections: Surfshark allowed us to connect to as many devices as we wanted, with no limit on simultaneous connections.
• GPS changing: Surfshark is the only VPN we’ve reviewed that allows us to change our Android’s location within the app. If you’re looking for a VPN that allows you to change your GPS location rather than just your IP address, look no further.
• Dynamic MultiHop: Multi-hop, otherwise known as double VPN, lets you connect to two VPN servers at a time to double down your encryption and protection. Usually, though, you can connect only to select server pairings. Surfshark’s Dynamic MultiHop feature, however, lets you customize your server pairings from a list of servers.
• NoBorders Mode: When traveling outside the country, Surfshark used NoBorders Mode to bypass censorship and restrictions set forth by the countries we were visiting, including China.
• Camouflage Mode: Additionally, it camouflaged our online traffic to make it look like normal traffic rather than VPN traffic. This helped draw suspicion away from our online data, particularly in countries where VPNs are illegal or frowned upon.

Surfshark One

Surfshark is turning into a cybersecurity powerhouse. In addition to its VPN, it now offers antivirus software, basic identity monitoring, and a secure search engine, but to get these extra features, you need a Surfshark One subscription or buy the features as add-ons to your existing VPN plan.

The Surfshark One subscription costs $95.52 for two years and includes the VPN and the extra features. Much like the two-year Surfshark VPN, Surfshark One renews yearly once the initial subscription is up for $95.52. If you choose to buy them as add-ons for an existing VPN plan, they cost $1.49 per month total.

Here’s a closer look at each service.

• Surfshark Alert: Did you know that in 2020, it took an average of 280 days to identify and contain a data breach? That’s nearly a year of stolen credentials floating around the web.
  But we could have found out about data breaches sooner with Surfshark Alert, which would’ve scanned the entire internet for our email addresses. Sure, that’s not as comprehensive as the best identity theft protection services; it doesn’t offer credit monitoring, identity restoration, or dark web monitoring, for example. But it’s better than nothing.
• Surfshark Search: Advertisements above the organic search results can be annoying and can affect what we end up clicking on. In fact, the first link that appears in the search engine results page receives 28.5 percent of the clicks, and many times, that link is an ad. If you dislike ads as much as we do, consider Surfshark Search, which gets rid of ads so all the search results are as organic as your local farmer’s market.
• Antivirus: Another service we subscribed to is antivirus protection. We loved that this complete subscription package allowed us to protect our personal information and safeguard our devices.

Payment Options

Worried about secure online payments for your VPN connection? Consider which payment option is the best for your information security. Depending on the payment method, the company can get more or less information about the customers themselves. For example, Bitcoin would be a better option for the super privacy-concerned, as it doesn’t include any third-party financial institutions and uses cryptography to secure payments. We used a regular old Visa to pay for Surfshark, but here are some other options:

• Major credit cards including Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and Discover
• PayPal
• Google Pay
• Amazon Pay
• Cryptocurrency including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple

Cancelling Surfshark

Although we’re talking about VPN subscriptions, figuring out a VPN’s cancellation process should be on your checklist before you even purchase a plan. It’s important to know that you have the option and power to opt out of the service for whatever reason.

Cancelling a VPN subscription is typically headache-free. With Surfshark, you just email support@surfshark.com or contact customer support via live chat, and the rep will tell you how the cancellation process works. Plus, if you’re still within the 30-day money-back guarantee, they’ll initiate the refund process as well.

If you’re outside the money-back guarantee period, however, no refund will be issued. They’ll simply stop the recurring payments so that when your current subscription expires, it won’t renew automatically. That said, you can continue to use the VPN until the end of your subscription. You’ve paid for it, so why not?

Surfshark: Is There A Free Trial?

Let’s back up. If you want to try out Surfshark for free as we did, it offers a seven-day trial on iOS and Android; we didn’t even have to put a card down. Once we had created our account, we were able to log into it on our Mac and Windows computers using the same trial plan.

Once the trial ended, we bought a two-year subscription, which, by the way, comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. So all in all, we got 37 days to test out Surfshark virtually risk-free. During those 37 days, we got to enjoy all of Surfshark’s features with no limits. This is pretty generous, as some free VPNs have limits on the amount of bandwidth we could use, but not Surfshark.

Student Discounts

When it comes down to it, monthly subscriptions add up. This reminds us of another reason why we love Surfshark: it offers generous student discounts. Purchasing a VPN subscription is a good idea if you’re a student, and Surfshark is a great VPN for school.

Aside from protecting you from the insecure public Wi-Fi networks across campus, a VPN will allow you to bypass location-based pricing when you shop online, which could help you save money on books and back-to-school clothes. Plus, if you plan on studying abroad, Surfshark will allow you to access sites some other countries block, such as Wikipedia.

But we get it; between tuition and textbooks, most college students don’t have a pile of money lying around to spend on a VPN, which is why Surfshark offers an extra 15-percent off. This discount only applies to the two-year plan, though, but it brings the monthly cost of the two-year plan down to $2.11. Additionally, it includes three months of free service. It’s not much, but at least, it’s there.

Other Discounts

But even though we’re no longer students, we still got to enjoy discounted prices. Surfshark is one of the most active VPN companies when it comes to promotions; for instance, last time we reviewed Surfshark, it was offering three months of VPN use for free if we signed up for two years. We could have paid $59.76, the regular price of the two-year subscription, and gotten 27 months of Surfshark VPN. That’s equivalent to only $2.21 a month.

Before you subscribe to Surfshark, be sure to browse its website for its current deals, or check our pages on Surfshark deals and Surfshark Black Friday deals.

Referral Program

We’re always interested in freebies, which is why we took advantage of Surfshark’s referral program.

Here’s how it worked: first, we told all our friends and family about Surfshark and sent them referral links, which were easy to access in our app’s settings under Earn Free Months. If anyone signed up for more than 30 days and used Surfshark via a Windows, iOS, or Android app, we received free months of its VPN, which ranged anywhere from just a month all the way up to a year.

Server Locations

Before you test out any VPN, we recommend checking its list of servers to find one near you. The distance between the user and the server can greatly affect the internet connection speed, so make sure Surfshark has a server in your area:

Will My Device Work With Surfshark?

Another thing to check before you purchase a Surfshark subscription is the devices compatible with its VPN software. However, it’s highly unlikely that your device won’t work with Surfshark, as it’s compatible with all of the most popular consumer electronics brands like:

• Android
• Apple TV
• Fire TV
• iOS
• Linux
• macOS
• Playstation
• Samsung TV
• Windows
• Xbox

Surfshark Recap

Just because we like a VPN doesn’t mean it’s worth it, especially if the price isn’t right. However, Surfshark made our investment well worth it, with prices starting at just $2.49 a month or less with its generous student discount.

Still unsure? Try out Surfshark for seven days with no risk; you won’t even have to put a credit card down. And if you do decide to get a paid subscription, you’ll get 30 more days to test Surfshark or get your entire money back.