There’s no doubt, we live in the tech era. Still, it seems that in the past year, we’ve been using the Internet more than ever. With increased usage comes the increased likelihood of cyber attacks, phishing, and other possible risks.
This detailed SurfShark review will help you understand how VPN’s work and how to use this fantastic service’s most notable features.
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What Makes SurfShark Stand Out
Surfshark stands out firstly because of its affordable prices, especially with its latest discounts. Besides that, it is simple to use even on multiple devices. Here are some of the remarkable conclusions of SurfShark reviews:
Pros
- Budget-friendly (especially if you subscribe for three years)
- Live chat support
- You can use it on mobile devices
- Fast connection (especially with WireGuard)
- Supports Netflix, YouTube, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Amazon Prime
- No-log policy
- Split-tunneling
Cons
- Some of the modes and features are poorly explained
- Kill Switch has faults that the company should resolve
What is SurfShark
SurfShark is a VPN that helps you keep your data protected while surfing the Internet. Their motto is ‘secure your digital life,’ and that is precisely what they are doing – helping you keep your data encrypted in a completely legal manner.
Reasons for using a secure VPN are numerous. Many websites, platforms, social networks, etc., are banned in certain countries, or their usage is restricted for licensing or other regulatory reasons. A secure VPN, however, allows you to bypass these restrictions, as well as surf carefree without worrying about hacking, malware, phishing, ad manipulation, and other pitfalls found online.
If you wonder how SurfShark VPN works, it is pretty simple – they encrypt all the traffic coming from and to your device, which prevents tracking of the information. Your IP address is hidden, and by that, malware and phishing attempts are stopped. Not to mention VPNs block ads, creating a serene online experience.
The company is under the jurisdiction of the British Virgin Islands, which means that they operate underneath their cybersecurity laws, ensuring a no-logs policy. In addition, they have more than 3200 servers in 160 different locations worldwide (in more than 65 countries). The variety of choices for servers and locations enhances the score of this SurfShark VPN review a lot!
They offer 24/7 customer support through live chat and provide helpful, cooperative operators to assist you. Above all, the live support is quick to respond, responding within a minute or so. Their support site additionally displays different tutorials on installing SurfShark and dealing with potential problems that may occur. Even though the explanations aren’t itemized, they can be handy in some situations.
How to Use SurfShark VPN
SurfShark is great for multiple-device usage since you can use the same account on various devices, all at the same time. Chrome and Firefox extensions are available, as well as mobile apps for Android and iOS phones. Of course, they support different operating systems – Windows, Mac, Linux, even Fire TV, Apple TV, and other smart TVs. Plus, for all the gamers out there, SurfShark supports PlayStation and Xbox, as well.
‘Shark VPN’ itself is pretty easy to use. Download it and choose your operating system (Windows, for example). Click on the signup option, and select one of the plans they offer (see more about the pricing later in the article). The payment is sent without the third-party browser directly interacting with the installer, ensuring additional security.
If you have ever used VPN services, you won’t have trouble managing this one either. Just click on the ‘Connect’ icon, and off you go. Besides that, you will see information about your status and, of course, the list of available locations. Desktop notifications will let you know when you are connected to a specific location, and you can view your new IP address, as well as the virtual site.
SurfShark offers different options when changing servers, such as looking for the fastest server or looking through recently used locations.
SurfShark Reviews of Security
Their no-log policy, along with strong encryption (AES-256-GCM), makes you feel undoubtedly protected online. They know that VPN users are looking to protect their privacy because they’ve included several more features to ensure your information stays safe.
Private DNS
To minimize the possibility of cyber spying, SurfShark has private DNS on every server. If you activate the option of VPN chaining, it becomes almost impossible to track your activity because you are basically using two servers at once.
No-log Policy
SurfShark has a no-log policy, which means that not even the company can track where you log in. This security perk is possible because ‘VPN Shark’, as it’s often called, is based in the British Virgin Islands, which has laws that ban the tracking of users’ account logs.
Whitelister
Even though everyone uses a VPN for apparent reasons, we still want to approach some websites using our actual location and IP address (such as online banking). For these purposes, use Whitelister. It allows you to choose which websites will bypass your VPN connection. (This feature is known as split-tunneling at ExpressVPN and others).
Kill Switch
Kill Switch is a rather desirable feature that provides complete protection at all times and makes SurfShark one of the best VPN providers. Namely, it disables your internet connection in case of a VPN connection drop.
Their Kill Switch is pretty radical since it doesn’t allow the user to use the regular internet connection at all in case of a connection drop. Another drawback is that SurfShark doesn’t notify you about this, and you will probably be sitting around wondering what went wrong with your Internet connection.
Furthermore, it seems like there isn’t a way to stop this since complications occur even if you turn off the Kill Switch. In that case, if the VPN drops, you will stay ignorant of it since the connection will remain active, jeopardizing your identity and IP address since you may be exposed without even knowing. Still, it seems like this setback is the only minus in this SurfShark review.
SurfShark CleanWeb
SurfShark CleanWeb blocks ads (this is a beloved detail, just because we are overwhelmed with unwanted ads everywhere online), trackers, and other possibly harmful links.
There is a NoBorders mode that allows you to go online in other countries that are otherwise blocked. This function, however, is somewhat poorly explained, so we are not really sure how they do it.
What Information Does SurfShark Collect?
Another plus in this SurfShark review – the SurfShark system collects only the minimal data – your billing information (obviously), email address, and some other anonymous material, such as usage frequency, crash reports, etc. Still, even this information can be limited. For example, you can disable crash reporting. However, their privacy policy remains a little shady when it comes to the information they collect and should be a bit more specified.
The Other Features
Mobile App
The SurfShark app functions very similarly to the desktop application possessing almost all of the desktop mode features and even some restricted just to the mobile app. For example, you can choose different encryption methods such as AES-256-GGM as in the desktop mode, or Chacha20Poly1305.
Static IP List
This peerless feature allows you to connect to a specific country (UK, US, Germany, Japan, or Singapore) and get a fixed IP. That means that you will get the same IP address every time you connect to that specific country.
Netflix Libraries
SurfShark Netflix is one of their best attributes, especially for people living in countries where Netflix is unavailable or restricted. You can use it as if you were in the US or fifteen other countries. Besides that, SurfShark also allows using other services, such as YouTube, the BBC iPlayer, Disney+, and Amazon Prime.
MultiHop Tab
The multiHoptab adds to SurfShark’s rating as the best VPN for privacy. It allows you to connect to two different VPN servers, ensuring that the raider won’t know your genuine VPN in case of a possible cyberattack. Here is how it works – you choose one location as your initial connection and the other as a faulty location (this is where you will appear to be to the outside world). This function minimizes the chances of an online attack.
SurfShark VPN Pricing
As we have already mentioned, SurfShark attracts attention mainly because it is affordable and cost-effective. Every plan offers a thirty-day free trial and includes a money-back guarantee for a month.
SurfShark One Month Subscription
If you want to pay for the service each month or just give it a go before you subscribe for a more extended period, it will cost you 12.95$ a month.
SurfShark Six Month Subscription
You can pay for a six-month subscription with one payment, and it will cost you 38.94$ or 6.49$ monthly. This plan is a great deal, with a discount of 50% compared to the single monthly fee option.
SurfShark 36 Month Subscription
This type of subscription is the cheapest, especially at the moment, since they are offering a colossal discount. Instead of paying 12.95$ each month, you can pay 59.76$ for a whole year (that means that it will cost you 2.49$ monthly, which is an outstanding bargain). The subscription is automatically renewed until you explicitly cancel it, however, so be mindful of your credit card bill.
SurfShark Performance
SurfShark supports four different protocols, WireGuard, OpenVPN UDP, OpenVPN TCP, and IKEv2.
Connection time is excellent, even when using servers labeled as distant and overcrowded (Argentina, for example). Of course, your personal VPN experience depends on the location and the protocol you’ve chosen.
WireGuard is more than impressive, with up to 200Mbps in US and UK locations. The bottom line is you should test all of the available options (we have already mentioned that you can choose from different servers judging by their stability and speed) and see which one suits you the best.
SurfShark vs. ExpressVPN
Without a doubt, SurfShark and its features take the win compared to ExpressVPN. The second one offers only five devices, while the number of devices is unlimited with SurfShark. They also include an ad blocker, which doesn’t exist in the ExpressVPN package. In the end, the pricing is almost four times lower for SurfShark – 2.49$ a month, compared to 8.32$ for ExpressVPN.
SurfShark vs. NordVPN
The situation is similar if we compare SurfShark to NordVPN. While SurfShark provides access to an unlimited number of devices, NordVPN restricts it to only six devices. SurfShark brings fifteen Netflix libraries compared to just seven from NordVPN. Finally, the pricing differs as well – 2.49$ is a SurfShark monthly fee, while it is 3.71$ for NordVPN.
Final Verdict
Our opinion on SurfShark and experience while using it has been more than pleasant. If you’ve been wondering, “is SurfShark a good VPN for me?” It is a great VPN server that offers exquisite service for a minimal amount of money, especially if you are interested in purchasing an annual subscription. Besides that, SurfShark has many other useful traits that ensure top-notch online security (such as no-log policy, kill switch, SurfShark CleanWeb, etc.) and promises that your identity will stay hidden.
People Also Ask
A company named SurfShark Ltd. owns SurfShark. They are based in the British Virgin Islands, and they obey their cyber laws, which are pretty loose. It is a relatively young company, founded in 2018, and yet, they have managed to gather over two million active users and have over two hundred employees in multiple countries.
Once you have installed SurfShark, you shouldn’t have problems with controlling it. The app will start working as soon as you click ‘Connect.’ Once you have activated it, you will see your status information alongside the list of the available locations.
SurfShark will notify you as soon as it has established a connection to a specific location. Apart from that, your new IP address and the virtual location will be visible, as well.
It would be derogatory to label SurfShark as just good. It offers excellent service for a minimal amount of money. Not only can you choose from a large number of VPN locations, but you can use different streaming services, such as Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Amazon Prime… Other than that, their customer support is agile and helpful, so there aren’t many things we could find faulty when it comes to SurfShark.
Yes, SurfShark hides your IP address alongside all the other data. Actually, it encrypts all the traffic that comes from and to your device. This way, it is impossible to track the information. Since it hides your IP address, you are safe from malware, phishing, and other security issues online. Aside from all that, it also disables unwanted ads.
Judging by objective parameters, SurfShark is proven better. In the first place, it is much cheaper – the monthly subscription costs 2.49$, while the NordVPN subscription is much higher, at 8.32$. Aside from that, SurfShark allows an unlimited number of devices, and ExpressVPN permits the simultaneous use of only five devices. Finally, ExpressVPN doesn’t include an ad blocker, as opposed to SurfShark, which does.
SurfShark is more than able to be used for Netflix. It unblocks the platform in the US and 15 other countries (for example, Italy, France, Japan, etc.). Besides Netflix, it successfully unblocks other sites, such as YouTube, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, and Amazon Prime. The speed of connection is pretty astonishing, ensuring an adequate experience. (Try using WireGuard for the fastest experience.)
Yes, SurfShark works on smart TVs, but it is also easy to use, like a desktop or a mobile device. All you have to do is go to the Play Store on your Android TV and download the app.
Open the SurfShark icon, connect to the desired location, and that’s it. Even though Apple TV doesn’t support VPN software, you can connect SurfShark to the Wi-fi router and then connect your Apple TV to your Smart DNS address.
The speed of the SurfShark service depends on the server location and the protocol you are using. Furthermore, you can choose from different servers, judging by their speed and stability.
Four protocols are available, WireGuard, Open VPN UDP, Open VPN TCP, and IKEv2. WireGuard has shown remarkable impressive results, with up to 200Mbps in US and UK locations.
(Most users operate on this protocol anyway.) The bottom line is, Wire Guard has marked our SurfShark review in the most positive way.
