Surfshark VPN is a commercial VPN service based in the Netherlands, initially released in 2018. Surfshark is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux, as well as browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. Fire TV 2 and later, and Android TV OS 5.0 and later are also available.
Surfshark at a glance
- Unlimited simultaneous connections with any device supported
- Static servers are available
- Multi-hop servers available
- IKEv2, OpenVPN, Shadowsocks and WireGuard protocols
- split tunneling
- RAM only servers
- kill switch
- GPS Spoofing for Android Users
Surfshark Features
Like other VPN services like IPVanish or NordVPN, Surfshark operates very similarly when it comes to offering, paying, and managing their services. No matter what plan or subscription period you have, all the features are the same, and the only differentiating factor is the price. There is no free version of the Surfshark VPN service.
A one-month subscription is the most expensive way to get a VPN, currently priced at $12.88 USD per month ($15.95 CAD, converted using Google) at the time of writing. If you choose to pay for two years at once, that price drops 81% to $2.49 USD per month, or there’s a third option for a 50% discount at $6.42 USD per month if you sign up for 6 months at once. The 2-year plan comes with a 30-day refund/guarantee option, but there is no mention of refunds or trials for the monthly or 6-month plans.
Surfshark offers a variety of payment methods, including:
- credit card
- Paypal
- on google
- on amazon
- Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Dogecoin.
Surfshark offers unlimited simultaneous connections regardless of what device is being used, unlimited bandwidth and unlimited P2P traffic, although it does not have specific servers for P2P and so speeds may vary depending on server load. However, something that is quite rare in commercial VPN services is the option to use a multihop connection, where first you connect to hop #1 in, say, the United Kingdom, and then connect to a server in France. Obviously, this is likely to reduce speeds, but it adds another layer of security. However, even when using multihop servers, one should not assume that their connection is bulletproof, or completely anonymous or protected, but it is a nice feature that definitely helps.
Surfshark: clients and supported protocols
The Surfshark client displays several different pieces of information on the front page, such as a list of preferred connections, all locations, static-IP specific locations, and multihop locations; As well as a connection button that changes to show information such as your IP address once you connect to the specified server.
There is no default protocol selected for Surfshark, rather the default is “Automatic”, which consistently selects the fastest and most stable option for you. However, you can easily change to other protocols through the drop-down box. Other options are also available such as “NoBorders” which is useful for bypassing internet restrictions such as the Chinese Great Firewall, as well as a built-in speedtest option to see what your connection to different servers will look like. When I connected using the “Automatic” setting, WireGuard was the one that customers often chose for me, and it’s becoming a popular and respected protocol to use, so I had no complaints on that decision.
Surfshark: Server
Surfshark has servers in over 65 locations, including Algeria, Canada, the US, Singapore, Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and other countries.
Surfshark does not have specific servers for things like P2P traffic or Netflix connections, so your performance for P2P traffic may vary depending on the connection, as it may depending on the connectivity of your streaming services.
Surfshark: Privacy and Security Features
On the security features side, Surfshark offers:
- Internet Kill Switch – When this is enabled, all networking and access to the public Internet is automatically turned off when disconnected from the VPN. It should be noted, that even if you turn off the VPN software; If you have enabled it and you forget to disable it, all internet access will be stopped until you disable the feature – this can be helpful for security, but if you suddenly find that you have no internet access while using this VPN service/feature, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.
- WireGuard Protocol – A new emerging protocol in the VPN world, open-source code, boasts of significantly faster speeds as well as more secure and more power saving than other protocols.
- Shadowsocks – mostly used to avoid firewalls and censorship, and not really designed for privacy or anonymity.
Surfshark: Speed Test
To test Surfshark’s speed, a base test was first run without service. The PC used was connected to a 250down/20up connection in Canada. When using speedtest.net for testing the results were as follows:
Connected to the fastest server in my city, without VPN:
- Ping – 12ms
- Download – 245.71 Mbps
- Upload – 19.60 Mbps
Next, connecting to the VPN and letting it use the server location it liked best, which was ultimately in my neighboring city, yielded the following results:
- Ping – 12 ms
- Download – 219.16 Mbps
- Upload – 18.61 Mbps
Result 2, I selected Iceland as my country of choice and once again ran Speedtest for the following results:
- Ping – 131 ms
- Download – 233.04 Mbps
- Upload – 9.06 Mbps
Overall, I actually thought the speeds were quite acceptable, and you can’t really complain about anything, a quick P2P test also confirmed that all of these speeds were spot on. Overall there was nothing that I had any issues with in terms of speed or connectivity. As I’ve written about other VPNs in the past, I personally wouldn’t use this VPN while gaming if I’m connecting to an international server of any kind, as the high ping (>100) would likely adversely impact my gaming experience, but if one needs to do so I wouldn’t see a problem with using a local server while gaming.
surfshark privacy test
Note: This section has been edited since first posting based on information provided in the comments section, and tests have been re-run with improved results!
If your VPN is leaking your IP address or any DNS information, it’s not doing its job, so two tests were used to see how Surfshark performed.
DNS Extended Version Leak Test: Passed (https://www.dnsleaktest.com)
I originally tested Surfshark while using Firefox, and I encountered a massive DNS leak…however, as a Ghacks commenter pointed out, the problem was caused by Firefox using DNS over HTTPS. After disabling this feature, I ran the DNS test again, and found no DNS leaks, which was quite a relief considering the high scores other sites gave Surfshark. However, it is important to note, as other Firefox companions having issues may have this DNS leak issue if they are using Firefox with default settings, and this DNS over HTTP feature is enabled!
IP Leak Test: Passed (https://ipleak.net/)
We have no issues when running the IP test, the IP address is showing as American.
Surfshark unblocks streaming platform testing
Surfshark has limited ability to unblock regionally locked content. There are no specific servers designed for this purpose, and many major streaming services have Surfshark IP addresses blocked or blacklisted.
When I tried Netflix I couldn’t watch any content on it… However, interestingly, it wasn’t like an error would pop up, or Netflix would ask me to use a VPN…rather, the videos would simply not load, and I would just be faced with a black screen.
I tried several servers, and the same thing happened; So I can only be led to believe that Netflix is still shutting down/breaking my connection/not giving me content because of the VPN. I didn’t try every server available to me, so others may have better results or luck; But after trying a few servers and only getting the same results, I considered it enough testing for this article, and moved on, considering it basically a failure.
A look at the Surfshark Windows desktop application
Interacting with the Windows client is pretty straightforward, although it took me a second to find the options menu by clicking the gear icon on the bottom corner of the UI. However, once I got the hang of it, it wasn’t a big deal and clicking through the menus got me everything I was looking for very quickly and easily.
decision
Surfshark is loved by many people because of its speed and ease of use, and with no glaring or obvious issues, I have no reason to say anything negative about this VPN; It’s cheaper than some of the others, though probably not the cheapest, has multihop connections available, and has multiple security protocols to choose from.
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