Surfshark review [2024]

Surfshark is a VPN service based in the British Virgin Islands. It launched in 2018, which is late compared to competitors such as ExpressVPN, NordVPN, IPVanish, StrongVPN, and others. But does the young age of Surfshark impact the service negatively? Or does its young age give it a freshness that many others lack? Read this Surfshark review to learn more about the pros and cons of the service, and find other interesting information about the provider.

First, you will quickly notice that we sometimes write Surfshark and sometimes Surfshark VPN. What is the difference? There isn’t really a difference. Surfshark is the name of the company and they refer to themselves primarily as Surfshark at all times. But, since they have several services available, for example, Surfshark Alert, Surfshark Search, and Surfshark Antivirus, they sometimes like to use Surfshark VPN, to make the difference clear. We will tell you more about the differences between those products further down in this review. But, even though we write Surfshark in this review, you can know that we are discussing the VPN service (and not the other services provided by Surfshark).

Surfshark review in 1-minute!
– It is one of the cheapest VPN services on the market, especially if you buy a 24-month subscription.
– Surfshark has easy-to-use apps for all the big platforms/operating systems.
– If you need help, they have 24/7 live support available on their website.
– Most of their servers have great speeds, making them awesome for streaming.
– You can cancel your subscription and get a full refund for 30 days.
– Surfshark is probably the best VPN on the market for unblocking Netflix.
– It is possible to pay using cryptocurrencies, making it perfect for those who want to remain anonymous.

Surfshark VPNwith 30-day money back guarantee

Click the button above to visit the Surfshark website. Would you rather learn more about Surfshark before you continue? You can more more about this popular VPN by scrolling further down.

The Surfshark website

We shouldn’t judge people by their looks, but we still do. And that is why it is important to have a nice-looking website if you are a VPN provider. What’s up with the Surfshark website?

The website is really clean, and it is without lots of technical expressions that make the normal guy in the street run away. It is easy to understand what is written, and you will quickly find whatever you want. If you want to check the prices, you can find them with one mouse click. Would you like to learn more about the features of Surfshark instead? You can easily find it all on the website.

I should also mention that the content sounds convincing. They use that makes us feel impressed and believe that this is a service recommended by others and a service worth using. Is that really so?

The Surfshark price plans

SurfsharkVPN is among the cheapest VPN providers on the market, and you can see more about that as you look at a picture showing their price plans as of 2024. You should also notice their 30-day refund policy, meaning that you can get a refund of your money if you do not like their service or have something to complain about.

What you can see in the image above is the following prices:

	1 month	12 months	24 months
Price	11,95 USD	71,88 USD	47,76 USD

Looking at the prices above, you can surely say that one would be stupid to buy the one-year plan! But, I cannot promise you that these prices will remain the same as you look at the website, but no matter what, these are great prices, especially if you go for a two-year subscription! That will give you a solid VPN subscription for two years at a very low cost!

As you visit the website, I cannot guarantee that the prices in the screenshot above will be there. But, it is very likely that you will see something similar to what you see above. Surfshark has recently started offering free months as a gift if you purchase a 24-month plan. As a result, you might get one, two, or three months for free in addition to the 24 months you are paying for.

Surfshark features

This is one of the most interesting things when it comes to Surfshark. They do support some very cool features, and some of them are actually quite stand-alone features that you cannot find among other VPN providers. But, first, let me mention some of the standard features that can be found in Surfshark that you can find in most other VPN applications as well.

Kill Switch

The Kill Switch is a very basic feature, but still a very needed one. If you use a VPN to stay secure and safe online, it can be crucial to know if your VPN connection has suddenly dropped. Imagine believing that you are surfing safely and encrypted, only to find out after an hour of purchasing cryptocurrencies and fixing things in your Internet bank, that your VPN dropped out before you ever started. That is what the Kill Switch is about. It will automatically block all your Internet access the moment the VPN connection drops; thus, you can know that you are safe online and that your VPN is activated.

Unlimited devices

Most VPN providers will let you use your subscription on a couple of devices at the same time, but with SurfShark VPN they do not put a limit on this. They will let you use your VPN subscription on an unlimited number of devices simultaneously. That is awesome, but I guess there are some limits out there somewhere (meaning that you shouldn’t share your login name and password in a forum online for the entire world to use it). But still, this is a great feature.

No-logging policy

Surfshark VPN doesn’t have any activity logs or logs of what you are doing online in any way. As a result, you should be safe and no ISP or anyone else can get hold of your activity logs later. Since the service is registered in the British Virgin Islands, they do not have any data-sharing agreements with other countries. As a result, they will not hand over any data to governments asking for such. Since you can pay for your VPN subscription using cryptocurrencies, it is possible to remain 100% anonymous while using Surfshark.

Multihop

This is one of the cooler functions with SurfsharkVPN. It might slow your VPN connection down, but who cares if security is of the essence? This feature might remind you of the Double VPN service provided by NordVPN, as you will run your connection through several VPN servers after one another, making sure your digital footprint is a complete mess and impossible to follow.

Whitelister

In the Surfshark VPN client, you can use the so-called Whitelister function. Here you can tell the application NOT to use the VPN when visiting certain websites or IP addresses. If you want to watch your local TV station online without the VPN, simply add that website to the whitelist, and you will be able to visit it without the VPN, while you will use the VPN connection to all other websites. I just tried whitelisting www.whatismyipaddress.com, and as I visited the site, I could see my original IP address, while I could see the IP address of the VPN connection as I checked my IP address here in the IP Address Guide.

CleanWeb

This is a function you must manually activate in the application, but it is well worth the few mouse clicks. With the CleanWeb feature activated, your surfing experience will be smoother as ads will be removed (most of them), and you will also be protected from malware and trackers. That is very neat, and a feature you should activate if you first have a Surfshark subscription.

Surfshark applications for all platforms

You can use one Surfshark subscription on all your devices simultaneously. That is awesome. And since Surfshark has applications for all the big platforms and operating systems, this is actually a nice gesture.

It is evident that a serious VPN provider has to have easy-to-use VPN applications for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Since most people use the VPN on their computer, telephone, and/or tablet, these are the most important devices to cover. But, it is worth knowing that Surfshark also supports Linux-based computers. They have an app for Linux, and it was the first VPN to create a GUI-based application for Ubuntu. As a result, you can use the VPN without typing commands in the command line all the time. You can read more about the Surfshark application for Ubuntu right here.. Surfshark also has a FireTV application, and the Android application can be used with Android TVs.

Would you rather use Surfshark directly on your router? They have installation guides for this as well. It might be a little bit more complicated than just running the VPN on your computer. But, it is possible if you have such a desire.

Many people use a VPN to stay hidden online. Other people use the VPN only to bypass certain geo-blocks. For those who only use the VPN to access streaming services and TV networks elsewhere, Surfshark has browser extensions available for Firefox, Chrome, and Edge. These only run in your browser and will only encrypt the activities done in your browser windows. As a result, your email program such as Thunderbird or Outlook will use your standard Internet connection, and so will your operating system in general. But, when you do something in your browser, the traffic there will use your VPN.

All in all, Surfshark has made life easy for us all. You don’t need any technical insight to use their VPN service, due to the nice-looking applications available for all the big operating systems and platforms.

Surfshark download speeds

It doesn’t matter if a VPN provider has all the greatest functions in the world if it is slow. So, what are the Surfshark VPN speeds like? I have made quite a lot of speed tests of Surfshark VPN, and at first, they weren’t good at all. As a result, I waited a couple of months to write this Surfshark VPN review. But, since then I have given Surfshark VPN more tries, and things have gotten way better. By the start of 2019, the speeds were already better, and during the most recent SurfsharkVPN speed test in 2022, we got some very good download speeds. Beneath, you can see some examples from the speed test.

• Canadian VPN server – 186 Mbps
• French VPN server – 219 Mbps
• Canadian VPN server – 186 Mbps
• Brazilian VPN server – 117 Mbps
• Indian VPN server – 41 Mbps

With such speeds, you can do all your favorite activities online while enjoying military-level encryption, as Surfshark supports all the important VPN protocols.

Above, you can see two pictures. The first shows my download speed during a recent test before I connected to the Sursfhark server. The second image shows my download speed after I connected to the Surfshark server. As you can see, the difference is minimal. This tells us that you don’t have to worry about download speeds and that the VPN will slow down your Internet connection.

Is Surfshark good for unblocking?

Some people purchase a VPN subscription to protect themselves, their data, and their privacy online. Others purchase a VPN to unblock websites and streaming services. If that is your intention with Surfshark, this is a section that you need to read carefully. After all, it is important to know whether or not Surfshark is a good VPN for unblocking websites.

Would you like to read the short version? Surfshark is awesome for unblocking TV networks, streaming sites, and social media sites.

That was the short version. But, maybe you are interested in a longer version with more information? Let me try to wrap it up for you.

Surfshark and Netflix

Surfshark is currently the best VPN for Netflix. That is something they should be very proud about. Most VPN providers have servers that will allow you to watch American Netflix, and maybe Netflix content in a few other countries. Surfshark is way better. You can currently use this VPN service to watch Netflix content in more than 15 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Sweden, Germany, France, Netherlands, Japan, Australia, Italy, United States, United Kingdom, Spain, and others. In other words, Surfshark and Netflix is an awesome combination.

Surfshark and other streaming services (Paramount+, PeacockTV, Hulu, ESPN+, Disney+, Amazon Prime)

I have tested Surfshark with Paramount+, PeacockTV, Hulu, ESPN+, Disney+, and Amazon Prime, and I am glad to report that I could stream content on every single platform using Surfshark. Disney+ is the easiest platform since it is available in so many countries. You do not even need to connect to a server in the USA to watch Disney+, it is enough to connect to a server in any country in which Disney+ is present.

There have been times when different streaming services have blocked Surfshark. But, they have always been quick to come up with fixes, meaning that this hasn’t caused much trouble for me.

What about TV networks in the UK?

Many people love a good TV series on BBC and ITV. Can you use Surfshark to unblock BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub (ITVX)? I was easily able to watch content on BBC iPlayer with Surfshark. As I tried to watch ITVX, the new service from ITV (taking the place of ITV Hub), I met some trouble. I was unable to login to my account using my credentials. I was further unable to reset my password. I wasn’t sure what caused this, but I had a feeling that Surfshark might be the problem.

As a result, I tried with ExpressVPN (a VPN I know is supposed to work properly with ITVX). As I connected to one of their servers in London I was able to login to my ITV account and watch the ITV live stream. In other words, Surfshark seems to have trouble with ITVX at the moment. I guess, however, this is a temporary problem that they will fix in the near future.

Surfshark is, in general, great for streaming and helps you access many streaming services and TV networks worldwide. I cannot test every single TV network out there, but I do know that it works amazingly with DR in Denmark, SVTPlay in Sweden, NRK in Norway, ZDF and DasErste in Germany, RTVE in Spain, RAIPlay in Italy, MTV in Hungary, TF1 in France, and lots of others.

Surfshark review conclusion

If you are in need of a well-working VPN provider, Surfshark VPN might be exactly what you are looking for. They have great prices, a nice 30-day full refund policy, and with all those extra features available, it is well worth the money.

Visit the website ofSurfshark

We can warmly recommend their services based on our tests, but we would also love to hear your thoughts. Have you tested Surfshark VPN? Did you like the results you got? Did you like their clients? We would love to hear your thoughts, so please write a comment and share what’s on your mind regarding SurfShark VPN.

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