Surfshark Review: Is It Any Good?

Video Review

Surfshark Features

Now that you know Surfshark as a company, it’s time to get to know Surfshark as a VPN. We tested Surfshark on multiple devices, and we’re ready to break down to you the features that it offers.

Of course, as a VPN, Surfshark’s primary job was to hide our IP addresses and web activity, and we’ve proven that it does exactly that with our DNS and WebRTC leak tests below.

Aside from that, Surfshark had other features that made us giddy. Check them out below.

Torrenting and Streaming

We use VPNs primarily to protect our privacy, but there’s no harm in using them for a little entertainment, right? Surfshark let us torrent from our favorite torrent sites and stream on Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and a bunch more services.

Here’s why that’s important: Our government frowns upon the use of torrenting services because it’s used for piracy, so when you’re torrenting, using a VPN is necessary. It keeps your online activity hidden away from Big Brother’s watchful eyes, so you can download torrent files to your heart’s content.

On the other hand, streaming from a streaming platform with a VPN allows you to unlock regional libraries outside your own. For example, if you connect to a server in Australia, the streaming service will see your Australia-based IP address, so you’ll gain access to, let’s say, Netflix Australia.

Camouflage and No-Borders Mode

Back to the more serious stuff. Camouflage Mode and No-Borders Mode are both Surfshark settings that make it easier and safer to connect to a VPN when you’re in a more restrictive country. There are countries that ban the use of VPNs, and while using Surfshark can land you in jail in those countries, it has features that can help you evade detection.

Camouflage Mode, otherwise known as obfuscation, makes your VPN traffic look like normal traffic so that governments don’t detect that you’re using a VPN. This is helpful in countries or territories where using a VPN is illegal or frowned upon by the government.

No-Borders Mode, on the other hand, automatically kicks in when Surfshark detects that you’re in a restrictive country, and will limit your selection of servers to those designed to bypass censorship specifically.

Just remember that these features aren’t fool-proof, so use it at your own risk. Better still, stay on the good side of the law and don’t use a VPN when you’re in a restrictive country unless absolutely necessary.

Kill switch

No VPN is perfect, and dropping a connection unexpectedly every once in a while is normal. However, if that happens, it could expose your online traffic to your ISP. That’s where the kill switch feature comes in. It automatically disrupts all your internet traffic to prevent it from ever leaking out in case of dropped VPN connections. All online connections will only resume once Surfshark is up and running again.

Split tunneling

Through a feature called Whitelister, you can configure certain apps or websites to bypass Surfshark’s VPN tunnel. This is useful if you’re using services that don’t allow connections through a VPN, such as online banking. Instead of turning off Surfshark, which would compromise all the other tabs you have open on your browser, you can simply whitelist the online banking website to access it outside Surfshark’s VPN tunnel.

For Surfshark’s browser extensions, split tunneling is available through a setting called bypass list. There, you’ll list all the websites and domains you want to bypass Surfshark’s encryption, so that next time you open those sites, they’ll automatically connect outside the encrypted tunnel.

Dedicated IP Address

Normally, when you connect to a VPN, it changes your IP address to that of the VPN server you’re connected to. That’s advantageous for your privacy, but there are times when you’ll need a dedicated, unchanging IP address. For example, if you’re trying to use a website or service that identifies users based on IP addresses, such as P2P file-sharing services.

Surfshark recently added servers with dedicated IP addresses that users can connect to whenever they need a fixed IP address. These servers are located in the U.S, the U.K., and the Netherlands, with more locations coming soon.

Take note that dedicated IP addresses are considered as add-ons, so you’ll have to pay an additional monthly fee to maintain access to a fixed IP address. If you have a current SurfShark plan, you can buy a dedicated IP address for as low as $3.75 per month.

MultiHop and Dynamic MultiHop

Want some extra security and privacy? MultiHop, otherwise known as a double VPN, connects you to not just one but two VPN servers. That means twice the data encryption and double the privacy.

Surfshark’s Dynamic MultiHop feature goes the extra length to provide a pleasant experience. Most VPNs that offer multi-hop have limited and pre-selected server pairings that determine the first and second servers for you. That seriously limits your options. With Surfshark, you’re free to choose your server pairings from a list of servers that support Dynamic MultiHop. Not all its servers support Dynamic MultiHop, though, but it’s still a whole lot better than having a fixed menu of pairings.

Surfshark One

Lastly, Surfshark One is an all-in-one digital security subscription that includes access to the Surfshark VPN, antivirus software, secure search engine, identity monitoring service, and a feature called Alternative ID.

Surfshark One is designed to enhance your online privacy and identity protection using a combination of those features. The antivirus software protects you from malware that could be used to steal digital data. The identity monitoring service monitors the internet for breaches that contain your personal data. The secure search engine offers an alternative to popular search engines that can be risky to your privacy, such as Google.

We’d like to call out, however, the Alternative ID feature. It’s a new feature that essentially creates an alternative online identity for you to use on sites and online services that require you to provide your personal information. It generates an alias complete with a name, date of birth, valid home address, and email address so you can sign up for online accounts without giving up your actual personal information.

Surfshark One comes in two levels. The standard Surfshark One plan costs $3.49 if you pay for a two-year subscription. This plan includes all the features mentioned above. The advanced plan called Surfshark One+ costs $6.49 per month, again, if you pay for two years. It adds in personal data removal from people search sites and data broker lists, enhancing your identity protection.

How Fast Is Surfshark?

It’s no secret that using a VPN tends to slow down your internet speed, as your online traffic has to go through encryption and be routed through a VPN server. Fast VPNs, however, can keep the speed loss to a minimum.

To test Surfshark’s speed, we connected both a Macbook Pro running macOS and an Acer laptop with Windows 10 to the VPN and performed a few speed tests. It performed better on the Macbook, but its performance on Windows wasn’t half bad either.

However, speed is determined by a large number of factors, including your distance to the server, device make and model, operating system, browser type, and more, so take our speed tests with a grain of salt.

How Secure Is Surfshark?

If your VPN isn’t taking good care of your data, you may be experiencing a “the call is coming from inside the house” situation. But have no fear: we walked around this proverbial house checking under every bed frame, and here’s what we came out with.

Encryption Methods

Using outdated encrypted methods is kind of like using an old lock on a safe; sure, it’s better than nothing, but we want better protection for our valuables. So, after some digging, we found that Surfshark encrypted our information using AES 256-bit, which is what we expect from VPNs in 2023.

On top of that, Surfshark encrypted our traffic through multiple servers, hiding our web traffic even more. This isn’t usually the case for even the best VPNs on the market, so we feel good about Surfshark protecting our web activity.

Logging Policy

But that wasn’t enough for us. No, we wanted to actually read the fine print of Surfshark’s privacy policy to see what data of ours they kept and vice versa. Our findings?

• What Surfshark logs: Surfshark kept our account information like our email addresses, our passwords, although they were encrypted, billing information and order history, diagnostic reports, which we opted out of, as well as anonymized information from its website like what pages we visited and how long we stayed there. Also, it kept our IP addresses and unique device identifiers, but only from its website as opposed to the actual VPN app. Like most companies, Surfshark collected cookies, which we could opt out of, as well.

• What Surfshark doesn’t log: Surfshark didn’t keep our IP addresses, session information, browsing history, the times we connected, the amount of bandwidth we used while connected to the VPN, our network traffic, etc.

Compared to other VPNs we’ve tested, Surfshark keeps the minimal amount of data necessary to run its service, making it a great choice for privacy. In fact, it’s on our list of one of the best no-log VPN services out there.

DNS Leak Tests

A DNS is a domain name server, meaning, the common name that comes with an IP address; think Security.Org (our domain name) as opposed to 13.35.89.25, one of our website’s IP addresses.

Of course, if a VPN isn’t hiding our DNS when connected, something is off, which is why we tested it out. Fortunately for us, the test showed a different IP address when connected versus not connected. That means Surfshark hid our web activity when we tested it out on both our Mac and Windows computers. Checkmate!

WebRTC Leak Tests

Finally, we also performed a WebRTC leak test using Surfshark. A little background info: whenever we video chat with friends, transfer files, or live stream Netflix, our computers use something called WebRTC, which is basically a collection of technologies that let web browsers communicate directly with each other as opposed to going through a middle-man server.

Sure, this creates faster speeds and rids us of excessive lag, but it also requires the two devices to know each other’s private IP address; no thank you. The question remained: did Surfshark leak our private IP addresses?

The short answer is: no, it didn’t. Even while we chatted on video, Surfshark hid our real IP addresses. So as far as privacy and security are concerned, Surfshark is at the top of its game.

Surfshark Pricing Overview

After our seven-day free trial with Surfshark ended, we had several options when it came to paid subscriptions. In essence, all subscriptions gave us the same features, like being able to connect unlimited devices to Surfshark. The only thing that differs between the subscriptions is its term lengths, namely one month, one year, or two years.

Surfshark’s monthly rate is notably more expensive than NordVPN’s pricing, but if you plan to sign a longer subscription, you’ll eventually get more value from Surfshark.

For example, NordVPN’s two-year plan costs about $3.99 a month, while Surfshark’s costs $2.49. That means in two years, you’ll save nearly $30 if you go with Surfshark rather than NordVPN. Of course, there are other factors like features and performance, but price-wise, Surfshark comes out on top. Compare Surfshark vs. NordVPN VPN connections further.

Surfshark recently updated its price structure to give room for its Surfshark One and Surfshark One+ offers. The pricing above represents Surfshark Starter, the VPN-only package. Surfshark One (starts at $3.35) includes the VPN and the other digital tools offered by Surfshark. Surfshark One+ (starts at $6.23), on the other hand, offers the same features as Surfshark One plus a service that removes your personal data from data brokers and people search sites.

With prices as low as $2.49 a month for its two-year package, Surfshark isn’t only secure; it’s also about as cheap as VPNs come. For more information, read our Surfshark subscription page, or read about Surfshark deals and Surfshark Black Friday deals. For Black Friday last year, Surfshark added three months to its 24-month subscriptions at no added cost, bringing down the monthly cost to $2.21 per month.

Recap

Like any other VPN, Surfshark has its flaws, but they’re very minimal and the benefits definitely outweigh the costs, financial and otherwise. With military-grade encryption, an impressive privacy policy, and extremely low prices, Surfshark is a good fit for most people who want to hide their web activity.

Using a VPN isn’t the only way to protect yourself online. Check out our list of the best digital security practices for more tried and tested methods.