One of the best on the market, according to its long-standing community of users, is Surfshark VPN.
It’s one of the original VPNs that actively sought to market itself based on the quality of its features and not solely on an overwhelming marketing budget and flashy advertisements.
Its most notable features include a built-in antivirus, unlimited device usage, ad blockers, 24/7 support, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
These benefits, and the many more the service offers, help to retain monthly subscribers like myself and so many others online.
Pros & cons of Surfshark VPN
Pros
- Affordable pricing with significant discounts when you pay for a 12-month or 24-month subscription, with a free month as a bonus.
- A comprehensive private network with safety features, such as real-time credit card, ID, and email breach alerts.
- Ad Blocker ceases intrusive ads, pop-ups, and videos ruining your browsing experience.
Cons
- The service is based in the Netherlands, part of the Nine Eyes Jurisdiction, which may request user information.
- Does not offer an outright free version with reduced features or capabilities
- Mixed streaming performance with occasional interference and connection difficulties.
Key Surfshark VPN Features
Surfshark VPN, in a bid to outdo its competitors, offers countless unique features that, personally, enticed me to sign up for a subscription.
With so many add-ons as part of the package, the monthly subscription was worth every penny.
First and foremost, let’s explore CleanWeb. CleanWeb is Surfshark VPN’s answer to an ad-free browsing experience, which most of us strive to achieve.
If you want to remove intrusive pop-ups, advertisements, cookie requests, and those cumbersome and downright annoying television ads on your Smart TV, then CleanWeb can help.
It even works with your browser via a convenient extension. You can download that on Chrome, Firefox, or Edge.
Surfshark VPN would still be a steal if the unique features ended there. But it doesn’t because they also include unlimited devices.
How often have you signed up for a subscription to discover they limit you to one or two devices unless you upgrade?
I know a few streaming services do precisely that, and Surfshark VPN is the outlier by offering total connectivity throughout your home or office.
You can connect any number of devices simultaneously, and it doesn’t slow your connection.
But what’s browsing online from any device without proper safety protocols? Surfshark VPN has a strict no-logs policy, so it will never track your connection or activity logs.
If that wasn’t good enough, they also have a kill switch in case the VPN connection drops. A kill switch automatically activates, and everything you do, including sensitive data and activities, is protected.
And lastly, private DNS and leak protection security are in place each time you use the VPN.
The amount of value Surfshark VPN includes in a single monthly subscription price tag is astounding!
How many servers does Surfshark VPN have?
Surfshark VPN invested in its network from the get-go, keeping it ahead of the curve and the competition.
The service offers over 3,200 servers in 100 countries across the globe, and you can connect to any of these locations anytime from anywhere.
Surfshark VPN does utilize virtual servers, which typically offer slow response times. Unless you’re actively searching whether the VPN utilizes these servers, you won’t find much information on their server locations landing page.
It’s buried within the FAQs.
Is it a big deal, though? I never dealt with severe latency or hangups, even after using Surfshark VPN for a few weeks. I lost connection, perhaps once overall.
Even with virtual servers, the sheer number of available servers Surfshark VPN runs across the globe far outweighs any concerns, as you can simply connect to another nearby server without interruption.
How much does Surfshark VPN cost?
One of the core features that draw in so many users to Surfshark VPN, myself included, is the company’s affordable pricing structure.
Under a subscription-based pricing model, you gain access to a comprehensive VPN with a built-in ad blocker and other critical features.
In comparison, the same type of plan at the top VPN competitors will cost you $1 or $2 more per month.
Although Surfshark does not offer a free version of its VPN, it offers a money-back guarantee to those who do not wish to continue their use of the service.
A 7 day free-trial is available to those who download the VPN on Android, iOS or macOS.
Despite already being an affordable service, Surfshark also occasionally run coupons and promos on their plans.
Privacy and security
Your privacy matters. Too many take their privacy, security, and personal information for granted when using the internet today.
You have folks signing up to stream on Twitch or Kick, and they leave so much information out in the open for anyone to find.
With a VPN, many of those concerns fly out the window. Surfshark VPN, for instance, includes a kill switch, private DNS and leak protection, camouflage mode, encrypted internet usage, IP masking, and secure protocols.
It’s all one step over the top to keep you safe.
It’s easier than ever for someone to track your IP. A kid in grade school can find such information without expelling too much effort.
With IP masking, you can protect your privacy significantly by altering your IP address. It keeps your digital identity a secret, protecting personal information such as your full name, address, and more.
Then, of course, there is the ability to browse privately.
Who has a right to your internet history and usage? You! Your ISP shouldn’t have such information, so Surfshark VPN offers private browsing by encrypting your internet activity.
That way, no one can follow or steal your data.
Their strict no-logs policy takes it further by ensuring that not even Surfshark monitors or stores your browsing logs or history.
And lastly, let’s talk about camouflage mode. It’s a cool feature that adds security and privacy to your browsing sessions.
Camouflage Mode will mask your VPN usage from everyone, including your ISP, so no one can block you.
It’s common practice in most universities in North America to block VPNs altogether. Camouflage Mode prevents such harsh methods from taking hold.
What protocols does Surfshark VPN use?
To remain the most comprehensive provider for modern usage, Surfshark VPN goes above and beyond when it comes to its protocols.
They utilize WireGuard, IKEv2, and OpenVPN.
The names may not mean much to most people, but these three offer the most valuable and safest browsing experience, with the fastest connections.
First and foremost, you have WireGuard. It’s the most modern of all VPN protocols, with significantly less code than most, making it sleek and responsive. It is suitable for Windows, macOS, Android, and iPhone.
Then, there’s IKEv2, the fastest VPN choice if you’re exclusively using a mobile device, like your android or iPhone.
Lastly, OpenVPN is the most reliable. It’s the old-school protocol of the bunch, with plenty of code to back up its security features, and it’s open-source. This is compatible with Linux, Windows, Android and iPhone.
That’s a massive boon for many!
Logging Policy
One of the key selling points of Surfshark VPN is its strict no-logs policy, which means you can browse the internet in complete privacy and with security to back up everything you do.
Surfshark VPN ensures that no one, not even your ISP, can access your browsing history.
Plus, they have tools that enable you to pay using cryptocurrency to remain completely anonymous, even to them.
But what precisely does “no-logs” mean to Surfshark VPN?
It implies that while you’re browsing the web with their VPN active, they don’t keep track of your online activity. Absolutely nothing! Not your history, bandwidth, IP address, or DNS queries; nothing is held in the background for later use by anyone.
If privacy is important to you, then opting for a VPN with a no-logs policy is crucial.
How fast is Surfshark VPN?
When considering the speed of a VPN, several factors come into play.
You must consider your internet speed, the distance to server locations, and the server hardware used by your chosen VPN. The last one is arguably one of the most important.
Regarding speed, Surfshark VPN ranks among the top contenders in the industry.
First and foremost, Surfshark VPN guarantees servers worldwide with a 1Gbps port connection. They do not offer anything less.
Their servers reach as high as 10GBPs on rare occasions, making them lightning quick.
Why does this matter? If you intend to stream your favorite show from Japan, it won’t lag or buffer. For an avid fan, that matters.
A bit of lag or stuttering can seriously ruin the viewing experience, and that’s not what you’re paying for.
Then, of course, you have the various VPN protocols. Some were explicitly designed with speed in mind, like WireGuard.
It’s one of the top choices when using Surfshark VPN. WireGuard t acts as its own VPN, with less than 4,000 lines of code to reduce bloat.
It utilizes predefined configurations to help receive data with fewer wasted resources.
Is Surfshark VPN a good option for gaming?
Today’s most popular video games, such as Fortnite, Call of Duty, Minecraft, and League of Legends, rely on a stable internet connection.
With a solid and secure connection, you can avoid losing a match or, worse, losing your data to someone on the other end.
A stable VPN designed with gaming in mind should help, and Surfshark VPN proves most effective.
I connected Surfshark on Windows and hopped into a round of League of Legends with zero lag or worries about my personal information leaking over the game.
Surfshark VPN claims it is the number one VPN for gaming, and it certainly does support plenty of modern systems, such as:
| iOS | Android | Linux |
| PlayStation 5 | Xbox Series X/S | Xbox One |
| PlayStation 4 | Nintendo Switch |
Surfshark VPN Customer support
Surfshark has an exceptional support center, with numerous guides and blog posts on fixing many of the most common VPN problems.
For example, by visiting the Surfshark VPN help center, you can search for specific topics and how-to guides, ask questions, or sort through numerous articles.
These range from billing and account management and installation to connection issues, invoices, and cancellations.
You can access a live chat feature run by Zendesk in the bottom right of their support center.
It’s pretty helpful if their extensive documentation doesn’t answer your question. But if you don’t mind waiting for a response from an experienced tech or support personnel, you can submit a request to Surfshark VPN.
Honestly, the amount of available information this VPN offers to not just its subscribers but to everyone is quite refreshing. You don’t need an active monthly subscription to access their wealth of information!
How We Test VPNs
At Insider Gaming, we measure the overall quality of each VPN we review against the following key elements;
- Server network
- Security and privacy features
- Speed and performance
- Pricing
In order to provide an authentic, valuable evaluation, our writers conduct independent research on each brand, gather insights from real users and spend time testing the VPN for themselves.
With a particular focus on speed and security, writers assess the capabilities of each VPN across a number of activities, including downloading, uploading, streaming and gaming.
This is first carried out on a wi-fi network to determine the performance, and compared to when connected to various servers, in several locations, and using different protocols with a VPN.
From here, the security of a provider is examined as the protection of your data whilst online is paramount. We account for the jurisdiction of each brand, their standard and advanced privacy features and third-party audits.
Final thoughts
You’re likely looking into a VPN for several reasons, such as safety, security, and the ability to browse movies and television series from anywhere in the world with no restrictions.
I initially signed up for Surfshark VPN because I wanted to watch my favorite shows that weren’t available in North America.
However, I’ve remained a subscriber because the security and anonymity offered by this provider prove unmatched. With Surfshark VPN, users will be protected online no matter where or what they search. For that peace of mind, the low monthly subscription cost proves trivial.
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