Surfshark VPN Review 2025: Fishing for the Best Cheap VPN Service + Best Deal Inside

☑︎ This guide has been last updated in July 2025

Ahoy, digital voyager! If you’re reading this, you’re also wondering:

…is Surfshark just another flashy little fish in the VPN sea – or a true apex predator worth your money?

Having tested Surfshark for 6+ years 🤓 we’ve compiled everything you need to know to make an informed decision – let’s… dive in!

So come aboard: in this definitive guide, we will answer all key questions about Surfshark – with zero foam and minimum jargon:

• 🦈How is Surfshark different from other VPNs?
• 🔒How secure is your private data with Surfshark?
• 🏄How fast and reliable are its servers?
• 💰Which plan if any, should you choose?

And speaking of plans – there’s a bonus section at the end where we show you how to unlock the best possible Surfshark price.

To start, let’s look at the unique features:

How Is Surfshark Different from Other VPNs?

Let’s face it, most VPNs in 2025 look sleek, let you pay in crypto, and promise airtight security.

Surfshark? It delivers a bit more – and seems to be able to do it without inflating the price tag 🤑

Here’s what truly sets Surfshark apart from other VPNs:

• Super-low prices: their 2-year plan remains one of the cheapest among top-tier VPNs, often beating 3-year plans of competitors! And yes – you can unlock even more bonus months using a promo trick we explain later.
• Unlimited devices: unlike most other VPNs, Surfshark allows you to use its service not on 5, not on 7, but on any number of devices, simultaneously.
• Surfshark Nexus new in 2025 a unique architecture that routes your traffic through a full network of servers rather than a single location, rotating IPs in real-time. This improves stability and speed while making it even more difficult to track you:

  

• Surfshark Everlink new in 2025 a new feature that keeps selected websites continuously accessible – even during VPN reconnects or changes – without breaking your session. It’s like a private tunnel-within-a-tunnel for sites like your bank, crypto wallet, or Google Docs.

  

• Warrant canary: Surfshark is one of the very few VPNs that maintains a page explicitly stating that they have not received any official security letters or disclosure orders.

That last one is an interesting little feature that deserves a couple words:

…warrant canary 🐦 exists because in some countries (most notably the United States) companies are not allowed to talk openly about any disclosure orders they receive from the government.

As a response to that, some smarter companies maintain public statements saying they have NOT received any such orders – which is NOT prohibited.

In other words, if you see zeroes on Surfshark’s warrant canary page, you can be sure there have been no governmental meddling in their operations:

While we’re on the topic, let’s keep the course and see if we can trust Surfshark to protect our personal data:

Security and Privacy

Can Surfshark keep a secret? In 2025, talking about “military-grade encryption” is like a ship boasting a keel – every serious VPN comes with AES-256-GCM.

…WireGuard/OpenVPN protocols, MultiHop, and kill switches have also become industry standard at this point. So does Surfshark really pack any extra plating below the waterline?!

• Camouflage mode obfuscates packets so even your Internet Service Provider can’t tell you’re using a VPN – useful for bypassing VPN blocks, such as streaming services, work networks, and countries with Internet censorship, such as 🇨🇳 China, 🇹🇷 Turkey, 🇷🇺 Russia, and the 🇦🇪 UAE
• Nexus Dynamic IP 2025 rotates your exit IP mid-session while keeping connection stable – great for maximum privacy and bypassing IP filters; note that it’s ⚠️ not ideal for services that expect a persistent IP, such as online banking.
• Optional 2FA and passkeys 2025 allow you to lock down your account with a tap instead of a password – no more typing passwords, and no more panic if your inbox gets compromised.

In our 15+ years using VPNs, there’s nothing, really, that comes to mind.

Bottom line? When it comes to security, Surfshark doesn’t try to reinvent the sail – instead, they methodically tick all the boxes; a fortress for your digital life, nothing less.

That covers Surfshark’s defensive gear – now let’s see what kind of privacy compass they’re steering by.

Surfshark’s privacy stance comes down to three pillars:

1. No-logs policy: connection timestamps, IPs, browsing history – none of it is stored, period (section 1 of Surfshark’s Privacy Policy)
2. RAM-only servers: every Surfshark server uses an immutable image to initialize; no data is stored in permanent memory, i.e. everything is purged on reboot (rolled out across all Surfshark servers since 2023)
3. Independent audits: international big-4 auditor Deloitte last confirmed Surfshark’s no-logs claim in 2025. 🇩🇪 German cybersecurity firm Cure53 scrutinized and green-lit the new Nexus architecture in late 2024.

Surfshark re-incorporated in the 🇳🇱 Netherlands in 2021, moving from British Virgin Islands. Yes, it’s one of the 14-Eyes countries –

…so why, by Neptune’s beard, did they do that?!

This seemingly weird decision boils down to a combination of two factors:

• Firstly: of all developed countries, the Netherlands maintains the most favourable privacy legislation which does not require companies to log or retain user data – supporting Surfshark’s no-logs commitment.

  And without logs there’s nothing to hand over, even if authorities come knocking.

• Secondly: being in the EU, it also falls under the GDPR regulation – the strongest user-centered privacy law in the world.

  Especially relevant is the so-called “right to be forgotten”, which applies to all clients of Surfshark regardless of location – now that the company itself is based in one of GDPR-enforcing countries.

In other words,

Dutch domicile combines the stability and international reputation with supportive privacy laws and golden-standard EU privacy protection.

To add to that, Surfshark offers several more handy privacy tools that go beyond industry standard:

• Every plan comes with an 🥸 alternative ID generator that can create masked email addresses and random personal details, to be used on websites you don’t completely trust.
• Higher plans offer 🚨 personal data leak alerts that monitor the web for any incidents involving your ID, credit card, and other sensitive data becoming public.
• The One+ plan also bundles 🕵️‍♀️ Incogni – a service that automates personal data removal from company databases and “people search” sites; no more random sales calls and creepy emails.

Bottom line? Surfshark’s motto could be summarized as “the only personal data that bears zero risk is NO personal data AT ALL”. And they are pretty meticulous about following that philosopy. This ship’s tight.

So, privacy and security: ✅

…You can build the sturdiest privacy ship in the world – but if it crawls like a sea turtle or can’t dodge digital icebergs, it won’t get you far.

Let’s see how Surfshark actually fares in the real world:

Performance: Speed and Unblocking

Ever since its launch back in 2018, we’ve been regularly testing Surfshark VPN across key dimensions:

Below is the summary of our findings, based on real-life VPN use-cases such as streaming, torrenting, and gaming:

Connection Quality and Speed

First, let’s take stock: per their website, Surfshark has 3200+ servers offering 100+ locations.

45 of these locations (such as 🇨🇷 Costa Rica, 🇬🇭 Ghana or 🇬🇱 Greenland) are virtual, which means that the server itself is situated in a nearby country with more stable infrastructure.

This allows keeping connection quality uniformly good, while you still get the IP of the desired country (yes, why not Greenland!?)…

…however, bear in mind that geo-targeted services (banking, streaming) might work inconsistently.

In late 2024 Surfshark upgraded all its servers to ultra-fast 10 Gbps (gigabit/second) ports, and we were excited to test how these bad boys handled actual VPN speeds.

So, over the course of several months, we’ve run 500+ tests via SpeedTest and Fast.com simulating various setups: laptops (wired and wi-fi) as well as smartphones (5G and 4G). Here’s a typical test on a 50 Mbps connection:

We ran hundreds of those at various times of day.

(yes, it’s the web interface representation – we obviously didn’t run each one of these 500+ by hand; there are APIs for that 😉)

Here’s a summary of the most important parameters:

Translation:

Surfshark delivers speeds that feel indistinguishable from your base connection in most regions – fast enough to stream, upload, videocall, and game without any noticeable lag. Unless you’re on a multi-gigabit line, Surfshark won’t be the bottleneck

💡 Some tips to help you get the most out of Surfshark in terms of speed and connection quality:

• Stick with WireGuard for everyday use: this protocol is ~40 % quicker than OpenVPN in most tests; fall back only if your network blocks WireGuard packets (e.g. some university campus Wi-Fi). You can select protocols in Settings → VPN Settings → Protocol drop-down:

  

• Bookmark low-latency favorites: you can run a quick ping test right inside the app by pressing the dial icon next to the search bar (lower is better!) then hit the ⭐ to save your fastest servers so you’re never guessing when you need a speedy hop:

  

• Quickly find torrenting servers by simply typing “2p2” into the search box; not all Surfshark servers are intended for P2P software.

  

• Disable battery-saver on mobile: iOS and Android de-prioritize background network tasks when power-saving is on, which can halve VPN speeds.
• Avoid multi-hopping unless you must: MultiHop chains add encryption layers but shave 15-30 % off raw speed. Reserve them for high-risk browsing or public Wi-Fi.

Now let’s look at Surfshark’s 🐙 mimicry skills: how good is it at bypassing location- and IP-based restrictions.

Streaming and Bypassing Geo-Blocks

Next we tested how well Surfshark can navigate through digital blockades – specifically, content-restricted services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer.

Here’s the summary based on 150+ latest tests in July 2025:

• Netflix ✅ US, UK, Europe, Japan, and Canada libraries streamed in Ultra HD with zero proxy errors.
• Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video ✅ all passed our weekly binge-watching tests without issues.
• BBC iPlayer and other regional services ✅ will work if you switch to a local server, e.g. 🇬🇧 London for iPlayer.
• Banking sites ℹ️ may balk at Nexus Dynamic IP rotation – toggle it off or add the site to your Everlink list for a persistent session.
• Virtual locations ℹ️ 45 of the 100+ countries are virtual; content language may differ, but speeds stay solid.

Here’s a more detailed Netflix availability map for your convenience:

General rule: if you hit the dreaded “Whoops…” just hop to another server in the same region. 💡 More tips for smarter streaming with Surfshark:

• Still seeing your local content? Reset the session to ensure Netflix and others don’t store your original IP: first, disconnect Surfshark and sign out of the streaming service, clear cookies and cache, and close the streaming tab/app. Then connect to a fresh Surfshark node and log into your streaming service again.
• Toggle Nexus Dynamic IP off for streaming: rotating IPs are great for privacy but can interrupt long video sessions. A static exit node keeps Netflix happy.
• Ask Surfshark live chat for the current Netflix-optimised servers; they maintain an internal list that changes weekly (read more about support in the following section).

Finally, let’s discuss whether Surfshark makes sense when browsing from internet-restricted countries:

Bypassing Internet Censorship

As for restrictive countries including 🇨🇳 China, 🇹🇷 Turkey, 🇷🇺 Russia, and 🇮🇷 Iran, Surfshark has several cards up its sleeve:

• No Borders mode, available in Settings → VPN Settings automatically activates a special list of servers that are designed to operate under government blocks. A great substitute for Shadowsocks, which hasn’t been supported by Surfshark since 2023.
• OpenVPN interface (Windows) or IKEv2 (MacOS) allows connecting via Surfshark’s servers in countries with internet censorship.
• Camouflage mode is enabled by default for OpenVPN protocol – which means even your Internet Service Provider won’t know you’re using a VPN

Overall, while it’s practically impossible to predict whether a VPN will work in all locations across a country like China – even if it does work a specific city – Surfshark gives you a toolkit to maximize your chances of success.

IMPORTANT! we highly recommend setting up the above options before you set sail towards an internet-restricted land.

Overall, hundreds of tests over many years suggest that Surfshark cruises through most real-world tasks with ease.

…but if you ever hit choppy waters – will their support crew be ready? 🛟

Surfshark Customer Support

There are 3 ways you can get help with your VPN issues as a client of Surfshark (or even if you’re just considering a subscription):

• Live chat available 24/7 on their website and inside the app (we will focus on this below)
• Contact form for non-urgent questions; you will receive a reply to your query via email
• Help Center for cases when you feel that your problem/question is a fairly standard one

Let’s zoom in on the most important one – the live chat experience:

The live chat is available from the “Help Center” link in the “My Account” top-right menu (from your Surfshark account) as well as via the Settings → Get Help → Get Help Now menu in the app or browser extension:

It’s 2025, so of course you’ll first be greeted by a bot, which will ask for your name, email, and a short description of your issue.

…but after that you will be given the “Live chat” option so you can talk to a human right away – which is a rarity even for large multinationals.

Live humans appear surprisingly quickly – often within seconds after requesting live chat. And boy did we test their patience!

We tried asking everything, from “Which server works best for Netflix US this week?” to “How do I disable Dynamic IP for one site?”:

(we even witnessed a support rep ending their shift and immediately forwarding us to their colleague)

Here’s our impressions:

• Response time: 10-30 seconds per answer on average ⚡ even during weekend evenings
• Accuracy: support reps provided 🎯 clear, technically sound answers
• Attitude: friendly, patient, and even humorous 😄 though sometimes they did sound a bit tired (we don’t blame them)

Apart from live chat, we found community forums quite useful – Surfshark has an active subreddit r/Surfshark with 20K+ members and a Discord server with 4K+ members as of July 2025.

Before diving into the live chat, it’s really worth taking a peek over yonder –

90% of issues already have a community-tested solution, so odds are your question has already been answered by a helpful stranger 🫰

Bottom line? Surfshark’s crew knows what they’re doing. Whether you’re a novice or a hardened pirate, their support options won’t leave you adrift.

Pricing and Refunds

While Surfshark seems to work hard to deliver on all fronts that are important for a VPN service, their strongest card in this game is undoubtedly the price.

How do we know that?

Easy – we constantly watch VPN prices across the market. A picture is worth a lot of words, so here’s a little chart we’ve compiled, showing the prices of the cheapest plans for the most popular VPN services:

Indeed, Surfshark seems to “swallow its competitors whole” when it comes to pricing…

It outperforms even those competitors which offer a 3-year plan, while its own cheapest offer is for a 2-year billing cycle, meaning you need to pay even less upfront, for a lower per-month price.

* * *

At this point you might be wondering:

Does it make sense to pay for 2 or 3 years in advance for a service which I haven’t even tried yet?!

Fair point. Unfortunately, VPNs typically don’t offer free trials – but you can still try a service like Surfshark without any risk.

Here’s how their 30-day money-back guarantee works:

1. Log in to your account on Surfshark’s official website and click on the blue chat button in the bottom right corner.
2. Type anything and hit “Enter” – you will see some suggestions from their knowledgebase as well as a “Live chat” button. Click on it.
3. Write a message to the support team saying that you’d like to cancel your account based on their 30-day money-back guarantee.

(and yes, we’ve successfully obtained a full refund for a cancelled account as part of our tests)

Regardless of whether you provide a specific reason for leaving Surfshark, the support team representative will probably try to persuade you to stay – it’s their job, after all 🦸‍♀‍

Just reiterate that you’d like your account closed and refunded – and as long as it’s less than a month old the support team will eventually grant your request.

Expect 5-7 business days for the money to reach your account. Done!

Given what we’ve found about Surfshark so far, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever need to use the money-back guarantee – but it’s nice to know that you have this option, right?

Speaking of options: here’s neat little trick for those who do decide to try Surfshark.

BONUS: Surfshark coupon

Did you know that it’s possible to 👑 get an 20% better price at Surfshark using a simple trick?

Follow these steps to unlock the extra discount:

1. To start, visit the official Surfshark order page by clicking the button below (the direct link will open in a new window):

   Get 1 extra month free at Surfshark ›

2. Choose any plan you like, as long as it’s a 12-month or 24-month billing cycle.
3. On the next screen, click ‘x” to remove the surfsharkdeal coupon that’s applied automatically:

   

   Then paste this code into the coupon field:

   COMEBACK_89DYE
4. Click “Apply”, and you should see the price drop 🤑 You can use the code SATORI as a backup.

In case the coupon code doesn’t work for you, please let us know in the comments below!

Alright, that’s done – it’s time to sail for shore…

Surfshark FAQ

Before we wrap up with our final verdict, here are answers to some of the most common questions people have about Surfshark VPN in 2025:

Our Verdict + User Reviews

Security breaches, malicious agents, regional content filters, governmental restrictions, hyper-targeted ads based on your private information…

Is Surfshark VPN a worthy ally in navigating the murky waters of the modern Internet? 🌊

Here’s the TL;DR:

If you’re tired of overpriced VPNs with clunky apps, random disconnects, and limits on how many devices you can use – Surfshark feels like a breathe of fresh salty (encrypted) sea air:

• Top-tier security: AES-256 encryption, Kill Switch, Everlink MultiHop, Camouflage mode — it’s all here, plus new toys like Nexus and Everlink.
• No-logs policy + RAM-only servers: Even if someone asked for your data, there’d be nothing to hand over.
• Vast server network: 100+ countries, great speeds worldwide, solid streaming access.
• Ridiculously good pricing: Cheaper than most — and with extra months if you follow our coupon trick.

Plus, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can test-drive it completely risk-free.

Conclusion?

Surfshark gives you 110% of what other “big” VPNs offer – at about 30% of the price. And you can use it on as many devices as you want ;)

(If you do decide to try Surfshark, be sure to check out our step-by-step instructions on unlocking an even better deal in the previous section)

Get Surfshark at the Best Price ›

…still unsure about Surfshark? Have suggestions for improving our analysis? Or maybe you’ve already tried this VPN and would like to share your experience?

In any case, leave a review or take part in the discussion below – let’s help each other make reasonable decisions!

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Affiliate disclosure:

some links in this review are affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you buy through them — at no extra cost to you. It helps keep our ship afloat, arrr!