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Surfshark VPN Review

Mitch Avatar By: Mitch | Last updated October 21, 2020

Shield with VPN protection and lock.


Introduction

It is a widely known fact in the Virtual Private Network (VPN) world that if you want a truly reliable VPN then you gotta pay for it. Free VPN providers would usually use your data for their own interest. Just like the old saying goes, if you don't pay anything for the product then you are the product.  

Of course, there's always an exception to the rule but for the most part, that general rule of thumb is true. That doesn't mean you have to pay a hefty price for your internet freedom. As the market keeps on expanding each year, many companies began to offer low-cost plans for their VPN services.  

This is one of the strategies that newcomers like to use to have an edge over more established brands in the industry. One such company is Surfshark VPN. We are going to take a deeper look in our review of SurfShark VPN  to find out whether or not their cheap price reflects their capabilities and reliabilities as a VPN provider. 

About Surfshark VPN

Even though Surfshark began to venture into the VPN industry only in 2018, they've managed to slip past their peers and even catching up with popular brands that have been in the industry for decades. If you look up the list of best VPN from various reputable online publications, you'll find Surfshake in that list alongside established companies such as NordVPN and ExpressVPN. 

Founded and led by Par Kaz in the British Virgin Islands, Surfshark has surpassed everybody's expectation by its performance and overall features for the price that they charged to the users. They received universally glowing reviews and have now become one of the top players in the industry just in two years time. 

Surfshark used the same strategy that was implemented by Amazon in its early years, which is sacrificing profit for a greater market share. By lowering the price, they are willing to reduce the amount of money they'd earned for the sake of attracting new customers.  

And judging by how they are amongst the top echelon of VPN companies now while providing world-class services for its customers, it looks like their approach paid off big time.  

Basic features of Surfshark VPN
  • Absolute Anonymity. Other than masking your IP address, Surfshark VPN also has a strict zero-logs-policy which means that they won't keep any records on whatever activities that you might do while connecting through their network. The fact that they are also based in a privacy-friendly place like the British Virgin Islands also ensures the safety of your personal data.
  • Absolute Security. Surfshark VPN uses a 256-bit AES encryption that is often used by the military and banking industry. As a fail-safe, they also implemented a kill switch feature that would automatically suspend your internet connection if you suddenly lost connection to their VPN network.
  • Absolute Protection. Surfshark offers multiple tunnel protocols that users can easily choose and change, including the industry-standard OpenVPN and IPSec. They also have DNS and IPv6 leak prevention features in place to further enhance your protection while using their services.
  • Great Accessibility. With more than 1700 servers in 63 countries and growing, you can be sure that Surfshark has a spot in any major place that you want to be connected to. They also available through every major platform of computers, smartphones, tablets, smartTV, and even some selected routers. And the greatest part is you can use an unlimited amount of devices simultaneously with just one account. 
  • High speed and unlimited bandwidth. Every VPN would decrease your base internet so the most important thing is how fast your connection gonna be despite all of those limitations. Surfshark remains relatively fast across its multiple servers with stable connectivity and unlimited bandwidth to do whatever you want on the net. 
  • Affordable pricing. Surfshark has three pricing plans you can choose from. A one month plan for USD12.95, a three-month plan for USD38.94 which translate into USD6.49 per month. And the most popular one, the two years plan for USD59.76 which translates into just USD2.49 per month. And although they don't have a free trial program, they do have a 30-day money-back guaranteed so you don't have to worry when you want to try their services.
  • Ease-of-use. Upon downloading Surfshark client for any platform, you will see a very sleek, modern, and straightforward user interface that is easy to use even by people who never use a VPN in their life before. 
  • Excellent customers support. The first place to visit when you have any problem with their product is the extensive FAQ section on their official website. You could also contact them via live chat, contact form, and email. You can expect to hear back from them within 24 hours. 
  • Unblock Geo-restricted contents. Surfshark boasts fifteen dedicated servers just for streaming geo-restricted content from Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc. That's more than any other VPN providers out there.
  • P2P capabilities. Surfshark allowed its user to use Peer-to-peer connection. Not only that, but they also have a dedicated fast server for torrenting for you. 
Unique features of Surfshark VPN

Other than some fundamental features that I mention above, Surfshark also has other unique features that ranging from a custom version of familiar technology to something that uniquely theirs. 

  • Whitelister. This is the Surfshark version of Split Tunneling. With this feature, you can split the VPN connection for a specific purpose while others could connect to the internet as usual. This is especially useful when you use the safety from VPN to torrenting while at the same time using the unprotected yet faster connection for online gaming. 
  • Camouflage mod. This is the Surfshark version of the obfuscated VPN. With this handy feature, nobody, not even your ISP, even knows that you use a VPN. To any third party watching, all they see is you simply accessing the internet through the usual, unprotected method.  
  • Multi-Hop. This is the Surfshark version of Double VPN. With this feature, your connection would be directed through multiple VPN servers to hide your connection and improve your anonymity and security even further. But you should be aware that this added privacy comes at the cost of reduced speed. 
  • No borders mode. If you live in a country with a government that heavily restricted your internet access, Surfshark would automatically present you with a list of the best available servers that you could use right away.  
  • Clean web. The clean web is a feature that would block ads and malware from your browsers so you could have a better, safer, and faster browsing experience. By default, this option is disabled in Surfshark client so you have to manually enable it if you want to try this nifty feature. 
  • GPS spoofing. Some apps would identify your device not through its IP address but through its GPS location. In that case, you could use this feature to hide your real location and choose other available locations to be shown instead. This feature only available in Android for now and just like Clean Web, you have to manually enable it if you want to play around with it. 
  • Trust DNS. If all you want is simply to mask your IP address then you could temporarily change your Domain Name System (DNS) instead of having to use a full-blown VPN. Although this method lacks the security and protection offered by a real VPN, the overall connection would be faster because all it does is simple masking. It is a stand-alone app from Surfshark so you have to download it if you want to try this neat feature. Don't worry, it's free and there are no ads on it. 
  • Surfshark search. This feature is a part of their Privacy Beyond VPN optional package. For an additional USD0.99 per month, you will be able to access their private, secured, and ads-free search engine. 
  • Surfshark alert. Another component of their Privacy Beyond VPN package, this feature will immediately alert you if your registered email address appears in any leaked databases.  
Should you use Surfshark VPN

Yes, you should absolutely use Surfshark VPN. All of those rich and unique features that I just mentioned above would be available in the palm of your hand for as little as USD2.49 per month.  

Even if you take their optional Privacy Beyond VPN package, it would only gonna cost you USD3.48 per month. That is the price of a cup of coffee for your total anonymity, security, and protection on the net. If that's not the definition of a bargain then I don't know what is. 

The only concern I have over Surfshark is the fact that they are still a relatively young company. Many changes could happen in the coming years. Do you know that the same two years plan cost just USD1.99 per month in 2019? So yeah, there is a lot of uncertainty for the future.  

But worrying too much about the future won't change your present so once again I implore you to grab the opportunity that you see in front of you right now. If you are wondering if going

then don't worry as our reviews gives this VPN provider thumbs up.

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