$12.95/month
Surfshark has grown in reputation following its acquisition by NordVPN after which with its announcement of the Nexus VPN customary. Product bulletins apart, although, how good is Surfshark actually, and are there noticeable traces of the takeover by NordVPN? I’ll have a look on this full evaluation.
What Can Surfshark Do?
Total, Surfshark is an honest VPN. It does all the things you want a digital non-public community to do, together with encryting your connection and spoofing your location. It additionally does job of getting through to Netflix, although after all this may occasionally not stay the case eternally. You can even use it simply wonderful for torrenting. Nevertheless, it comes with some downsides, notably its mediocre speeds.
Tip: Try our information to what a VPN is if you happen to’d wish to know extra about VPN fundamentals.
In consequence, it’s laborious to position Surfshark. Whereas it’s among the many best VPNs due to the extraordinarily low value of its preliminary plan and it presently does nicely with streaming, I’m not completely certain if that weighs up in opposition to its low speeds. It additionally misses the mark in another areas, some extra necessary than others.
For instance, in June 2022, it has a widespread server community, with over 3,200 servers in 65 international locations. That is roughly on par with NordVPN, which has about 5,000 servers, albeit in fewer international locations (60).
Then once more, ExpressVPN serves over 90 international locations, whereas HideMyAss boasts servers in 210 international locations (which is extra international locations than are within the UN; it designates a number of dependencies as impartial international locations to make that math work). Whereas 65 international locations is okay and can do nicely for most individuals, it doesn’t make Surfshark stand out, both.
One other factor that irks us somewhat about Surfshark is its very lengthy connection instances. Whereas I recognize establishing a VPN tunnel between two servers isn’t instantaneous, I’m somewhat not sure why it takes Surfshark as much as ten seconds at instances. NordVPN, for one, solely takes just a few seconds to do that.
It’s little annoyances like this that make Surfshark really feel somewhat unpolished at instances.
Getting Into Netflix
Nevertheless, a number of these minor criticisms are made good by how nicely Surfshark handles Netflix, or at the least how nicely it really works on the time of writing, in June 2022. The straightforward reality stays that when using a VPN for Netflix, you’re by no means certain if it’s going to work or not. Up to now, for instance, Surfshark had nice bother cracking Netflix, as did different VPNs, like NordVPN and ExpressVPN.
Proper now, although, Surfshark is the place it’s at. After I examined, each single UK server I attempted labored instantly, as did those in the USA. The truth is, it went so nicely that I solely tried 3 times as a substitute of the traditional 5 or so. Hulu additionally appeared to work fairly nicely, although it appears Amazon Prime Video remains to be off-limits, which is regular.
I used to be very stunned at how nicely Surfshark manages streaming companies, to be sincere, because it used to have some bother on this division. Nevertheless, there’s one improvement which will maintain the reply: Surfshark Nexus.
Surfshark Nexus
Surfshark Nexus is a newly developed know-how that enables Surfshark to randomize IP addresses. Whereas I admit I used to be somewhat skeptical of this at first (VPNs make a number of guarantees they not often fulfill), it appears to be working fairly nicely, at the least for Netflix. The improved speeds promised by Nexus are nonetheless far-off.
That mentioned, the opposite rationalization might be that Surfshark managed to get its fingers on a lot of “clear” IPs to get into Netflix. Regardless of the case could also be, proper now it really works, and nicely.
Surfshark NoBorders
One other fascinating function Surfshark provides is NoBorders, which guarantees particular know-how to get previous web blocks. This will appear to be an amazing purchase if it’s good to escape censorship, however fortunately you don’t want something particular to take action. Any VPN can deal with this for you, so if you happen to don’t like Surfshark, you’ll be able to merely use one other service.
Like its vaunted multi-hop connections, that is only a little bit of promoting copy that Surfshark has put up to attract in prospects. On this case, and most others, all you really want to fret about are core options, which is one thing Surfshark handles nicely sufficient.
Worth: How A lot Does Surfshark VPN Value?
Although general I could appear lower than passionate about Surfshark, it has one enormous upside: it’s downright low cost. When you join the two-year plan, you pay slightly below $60, whereas the one-year plan is simply $48 (there will probably be a banner on the positioning that claims this provide is momentary; it’s not).
Nevertheless, there are just a few caveats hooked up to this value: it solely applies the primary time you enroll. Because it states within the wonderful print that may be a little too translucent for our style, after the preliminary interval ends, you’ll pay $96 per yr. Unsurprisingly, automated renewal has been switched on for the shopper’s comfort.
At $30 per yr, Surfshark’s teaser price is an okay purchase, however at virtually $100 as soon as the promo interval ends, I’m so much much less eager on it. For that cash, you’d be significantly better off signing as much as ExpressVPN—we examine the 2 suppliers in our ExpressVPN vs Surfshark piece if you happen to’d wish to know extra particulars.
NordVPN does a lot the identical, providing a really low price to start out with after which upping it dramatically when it’s time to signal on for actual. For our cash, I like to recommend you signal on to both one for 2 years, after which the opposite as soon as that interval is up. After 4 years have handed, you’ll be able to then go for one other, third, low cost service. I don’t advocate paying full value for Surfshark.
Surfshark Refund Coverage
When you’re not too certain about Surfshark however two years of service for $60 sounds good, then you definately’ll be comfortable to know that there’s a 30-day money-back assure in place. Nevertheless, you need to know that, whereas you’re going to get your a reimbursement, you’ll must put up with some shenanigans to take action.
For instance, after I went to get our refund, I needed to ship a complete of 4 emails to Surfshark help. Every time I despatched our well mannered request for them to honor their money-back assure, I acquired one thing again asking us to rethink, normally reciting certainly one of their advertising and marketing claims about how Surfshark is the perfect, and so forth, and so forth.
Once more, I acquired our a reimbursement in the long run, it simply wasn’t precisely a clean course of.
The Best VPN Services of 2022 
ExpressVPN
SurfShark
Windscribe
ProtonVPN
Conceal.me
ExpressVPN
Personal Web Entry
NordVPN
CyberGhost
VyprVPN
Mullvad VPN
Interface: Simple-to-Use on Any System
Utilizing Surfshark is a breeze. The interface has been put collectively very well and also you received’t have any bother determining find out how to use it. It eschews NordVPN’s graphical interface (take a look at our Surfshark vs NordVPN article to see the place else it differs) for a easy one which has an inventory of servers on the left and a join button on the suitable.
It’s easy and provides you an amazing overview, so that you by no means really really feel misplaced. The worst factor I can say about it’s that the interface stuttered somewhat at instances, although that may be as a result of I examined it on a virtual machine operating Home windows 10. In addition to that and the lengthy connection instances, Surfshark is straightforward to make use of.
Be aware: Surfshark VPN has purposes out there for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad, and Android, with extensions/add-ons for Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.
I additionally just like the settings display screen, accessed by means of the vertical bar on the far left. It clearly lays out all of your choices, which is nice since you’ll want to vary just a few to take advantage of Surfshark, one thing I’ll discuss subsequent.
Safety and Privateness: Improbable After Some Tweaks
With regards to how protected Surfshark is, the information is blended. With regards to your non-public data, the service claims to be a no-log VPN, so it doesn’t hold a ledger of your on-line exercise whereas linked. In the long run, you all the time must take these claims at face worth, however to date there’s no purpose to not imagine Surfshark’s assertions.
With regards to how protected you might be, although, there are some things you need to remember. The primary is that Surfshark will, except you alter this, mechanically assign you a VPN protocol when it connects to a server. Loads of VPNs do that, however Surfshark has the disagreeable behavior of defaulting to the IKEv2 protocol, which is quick, however not as safe.
I think Surfshark does this to make up for its modest speeds, however we actually don’t like IKE and advocate that you just change the protocol to one thing else—OpenVPN-TCP is all the time good. I did so and, in consequence, my pace check ends in the subsequent part are fairly a bit decrease than in most different opinions.
The opposite oversight on Surfshark’s half is that it has its kill switch off as a default, one thing else it shares with NordVPN. I actually don’t perceive why it does this, as a kill swap is a reasonably necessary a part of your safety setup as it’s going to shut down your web connection if the VPN fails. Fortunately, you’ll be able to simply swap it on, however I feel it’s an odd factor to have off by default.
Naturally, we ran safety checks on just a few of Surfshark’s connections, and all got here up clear as a whistle. So far as we are able to inform, Surfshark is completely safe.
Web Speeds: Much less Than Nice
With regards to web speeds, Surfshark normally does nicely, so long as you employ its protocol switching technique which, as talked about earlier, I think normally defaults to the marginally dodgy IKEv2. Nevertheless, when set to OpenVPN, Surfshark’s speeds are abysmal, taking a success of over 80%, even on comparatively shut places.
I performed checks from Cyprus and linked to servers in Israel, the UK, New York Metropolis, and Japan utilizing OpenVPN-TCP. Our base pace with no VPN engaged was simply north of 100Mbps. I took every studying 3 times to verify there weren’t any anomalies; in every case, I took the perfect end result. Under you could find a desk with my readings.
As we advocate in our VPN speed testing information, I used speedtest.net for our measurements.
As you’ll be able to see, these outcomes are fairly unhealthy. Usually talking, a server as shut by because the one in Israel (roughly 300km or 200 miles away) ought to give us respectable speeds as distance is the largest issue when calculating VPN pace loss. Nevertheless, I acquired speeds as poor as these connecting to New York Metropolis, which is greater than 5,000 miles away.
Usually, you’d ascribe this to the server having a nasty day, however the truth that the server in London (3,000km or 2,000 miles away) nonetheless solely will get 17 p.c of the unique pace reveals that the difficulty is probably going systemic. Even contemplating how far Japan and the U.S. are from Cyprus, these speeds are nonetheless fairly unhealthy.
| Location | Ping | Obtain (Mbps) | Add (Mbps) |
| Unprotected (Cyprus) | 4 | 102 | 31 |
| Israel | 264 | 8 | 10 |
| United Kingdom | 131 | 17 | 11 |
| NYC | 267 | 8 | 6 |
| Japan | 604 | 3 | 3 |
The underside line is that if you’d like a connection that’s each quick and protected, it’s possible you’ll need to look additional than Surfshark.
Ought to You Select Surfshark Over Different VPNs?
Surfshark is somewhat laborious to position: whereas I like how nicely it handles Netflix and the way low cost it’s for first-time patrons, it lacks a sure panache that different companies have. Add to that its mediocre speeds—which can influence your Netflix expertise—and general I’m going to provide it a go.
Nevertheless, if Netflix is your principal precedence and also you don’t thoughts utilizing Surfshark’s default protocol, then it could be definitely worth the purchase, particularly on the introductory value.
$12.95/month
Right here’s What We Like
- Nice for Netflix
- Low-cost when on sale
- Simple to make use of
And What We Do not
- Gradual
- Costly “actual” value
- Defaults to poor protocol
- Lengthy connection instances
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