Surfshark Review 2026: Great Value, but Watch the Renewal

Our verdict on Surfshark

In this Surfshark Review, three things stand out: an audited no-logs policy, unlimited simultaneous connections, and one of the lowest introductory monthly rates on a two-year plan. Deloitte verified Surfshark’s no-logs claims in 2023 and again in 2025, while Cure53 audited its infrastructure and the new Dausos protocol in 2026.

The catch is renewal pricing. Surfshark’s introductory rate covers the first 24 to 27 months, after which the subscription renews yearly at the standard rate: $79 a year for Starter, about 2.6 times the intro monthly price. If you’re choosing Surfshark for its low upfront price, factor that jump into the long-term cost.

Surfshark VPN at a glance

Pros and cons

Who should buy Surfshark, and who should skip it

Surfshark is a perfect option for large households and users who want to cover a laptop, two phones, a TV stick, and a router on one subscription. It handles streaming and everyday privacy well – pick the two-year plan for the low price.

This service is not for you if you need a SOCKS5 proxy for your torrent client, if you have to renew yearly and are looking for stability in pricing, or if you require a non-Nine Eyes VPN service.

Surfshark pricing: how much does Surfshark cost?

Surfshark VPN prices Starter at $2.49 per month, One at $2.79 ($2.49 during sales), and One+ at $3.99, for the 24-month plan with an additional three months, based on their pricing page in October 2026. Surfshark bills for the entire duration upfront: $67.23 for Starter, $75.33 for One, and $107.73 for One+ for 27 months.

Surfshark plans: Starter, One, and One+

You can get a range of Surfshark deals, depending on your requirements. Starter covers the VPN itself, unlimited devices, the ad and cookie pop-up blockers, Bypasser, Rotating IP, MultiHop, and Alternative ID. One adds Antivirus, the Alert breach monitor, and scam protection for texts and email. One+ adds Incogni data removal for residents of the US, UK, EU, Switzerland, and Canada. Each tier costs more than the last, so the right pick depends on which extras you actually want.

Renewal: the weak spot

Every plan renews at the full non-introductory rate, confirmed directly in Surfshark’s billing terms. Two-year subscriptions renew annually rather than for another two-year term, and Surfshark sends a renewal notice 30 days in advance (except on 1-month plans). The same page discloses that Surfshark runs A/B price testing on renewals, which is why the figure you’re quoted may differ from someone else’s. Check your account before the first term ends if you want to cancel or renegotiate.

Free trial and refunds

Surfshark VPN has no free tier, but 12- and 24-month plans bought on the website come with a 7-day free trial. You add a card, PayPal or Apple Pay, the trial covers three devices, and it turns into the paid plan unless you cancel within 7 days. Every plan also carries a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Surfshark privacy and logging

Surfshark follows an audited no-log policy from the Netherlands, and Deloitte examined this policy in 2023 and 2025. Yet, you should keep in mind that no-log doesn’t mean no data.

Who owns Surfshark?

Surfshark B.V.’s headquarters is located at Kabelweg 57, Amsterdam, company number NL 81967985. Nord Security, the company that developed NordVPN, merged with Surfshark in 2022 and continues running independent infrastructure and apps.

Netherlands provides GDPR compliance and no data retention requirements for VPNs. Nine Eyes surveillance program also comes into play depending on the preferences.

What Surfshark keeps

The privacy policy of Surfshark, updated in October 2026, indicates that the user ID, IP address, and timestamp will be kept during a session and deleted 15 minutes after its termination. The account data will be retained during the period of time you are using the service and two years after your last login. Payment records stay for ten years to satisfy tax law, and support conversations for up to six years.

Audits on record

Deloitte covered the no-logs policy in 2023 and 2025. Cure53 audited the infrastructure and the Dausos protocol in 2026, SecuRing tested the network and the apps in 2025, and Cure53 examined the browser extensions back in 2018. Surfshark publishes summaries in its trust center, putting it ahead of most rivals on documentation.

Security and features

Surfshark encrypts traffic with AES-256-GCM, uses ChaCha20 for WireGuard, and AEGIS-256X2 for its own Dausos protocol. The protocol list runs WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, and Dausos, with post-quantum key exchange rolled out across the network.

The kill switch and DNS leak protection cover the basics. NoBorders detects restricted networks and suggests servers that work through them. Bypasser handles split tunneling, and Reverse Bypasser sends only selected apps through the tunnel. CleanWeb blocks ads and trackers, Dynamic MultiHop routes through two servers of your choice, and Rotating IP changes your address every few minutes without dropping the connection. A Dedicated IP costs extra and is available in 20 locations.

Does Surfshark offer SOCKS5?

No. Surfshark retired its SOCKS5 proxy and Shadowsocks support years ago, and neither appears on its current protocol or feature pages. Torrent users who route their client through a proxy need a different provider.

Servers and network

Surfshark runs 4,500+ servers in 100 countries, all RAM-only, all on 10Gbps ports, with up to 100Gbps capacity in high-traffic locations. Servers get regularly wiped and rebuilt on a schedule, so configurations stay fresh, and nothing persists on disk.

Streaming and torrenting

Surfshark markets its network for Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, and BBC iPlayer, and independent reviewers report consistent unblocking. Treat those results as third-party findings, since streaming platforms rotate IP blocks constantly.

Torrenting works on P2P-friendly servers, and the kill switch plus RAM-only design cover the privacy side. The missing Surfshark SOCKS5 proxy remains the challenge for anyone who prefers proxy-only torrenting.

Speed

Independent tests put Surfshark’s WireGuard speed loss in the single digits on nearby servers – Cybernews measured 89-95% of baseline retained on UK, Netherlands, and Sweden servers, and PrivacyTestLab found 85-95% retention on nearby servers using the same protocol. Both labs report OpenVPN trailing WireGuard by a wider margin, consistent with OpenVPN’s heavier protocol overhead. Treat any of these figures as a snapshot tied to that lab’s date and route.

Apps and ease of use

Is Surfshark worth it in terms of platform coverage? Surfshark ships apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Android TV, Apple TV, and Fire TV, plus extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge and manual router setup. The interface stays close to identical across platforms, and features like Auto-connect, Quick-connect, and Pause VPN sit one tap away.

Surfshark for Linux gets a full graphical app, which is still uncommon among VPN providers. Feature parity trails the Windows build, so check the settings you rely on before committing.

Support

Surfshark offers 24/7 live chat, email support, and a searchable help center. Chat answers arrive quickly for billing and setup questions; deeper technical issues tend to move to email.

What users say

In this Surfshark review, we checked the ratings directly on its official Trustpilot and G2 pages.

Trustpilot: 4.3/5 (“Excellent”), 31,161 reviews. 84% of users rate it 4-5 stars, most often praising fast live chat support, easy server switching, and reliable day-to-day connections.

12% rate it 1-2 stars, mainly over unexpected renewal charges and a cancellation flow that takes several screens to get through.

On G2, Surfshark holds 4.0/5 from a much smaller pool of 22 business reviews – worth citing, but too small a sample to lean on heavily. Praise centers on unlimited simultaneous connections and price versus NordVPN and ExpressVPN; the lowest scores cite refund refusals outside the 30-day window and servers disabled without notice.

Alternatives

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