With the NSA, CIA and whatever other agency watching you, you have to protect yourself. One option to protect yourself is by using a VPN. This will make your connection secure and nobody else should be able to spy on your connection.

Introduction

Surfshark shows that a good VPN service does not have to cost that much. For just $1.99 per month, you are protected and you can choose from a lot of premium features. I’ve personally used Surfshark in Asia a lot and it is just a great and very user-friendly VPN. Let’s have a look at the reasonable priced Surfshark VPN service!

What is a VPN?

A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is a tunnel between your device and the internet. This tunnel is secured with encryption. You use a VPN to protect your online activity from snooping, censorship and interference.

As soon as you start the VPN software, you are protected. It will encrypt your data and send your online requests through the VPN servers. With this method, your IP address and location are safe. The online service sees your request as coming from the VPN server and its location and not from your own device.

You can find more information on how a VPN works if you click on THIS LINK.

Software

As a VPN provider, you must be available on multiple platforms. Not only to reach more customer, but since other services (like PIA VPN) are doing it too. Surfshark is available on multiple different operating systems, which is a very good thing!

Even some unexpected operating systems are on the supported list on their website. Of course, Surfshark is available for iOS, Android, Windows, Linux and macOS, but did you know it is also available for your smart TV and Xbox or Playstation?! A great feature that makes Surfshark stand out from the others.

Usability (Android)

I have got the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 so I tested the software on Android. The app itself is updated regularly and improved a lot in the time I’m using it.

It is easy to use the app and navigating between the menus feels very natural.

At the bottom is a menu with some great shortcuts. You can enable or disable the whitelister, the CleanWeb or choose your VPN server. Handy to have it ready from the home screen and you don’t have to switch around between menus. On top, you can switch between the home page, the account page, and the support page. Overall, the app never crashed, looks good, works fast and is just really pleasant to use.

Features

Just security is not enough and Surfshark has some very good features. For example the MultiHop. This lets you connect via multiple countries and give you even more security! This is just one of the features, let’s have a look at the others.

Encryption

Using a VPN, you must have good encryption. With Surfshark, you get AES-256-GCM as default, but you can change it via the app to Chacha20Poly1035.

More info on AES-256-GCM? Click here!
More info on Chacha20Poly1035? Click here!

Besides choosing the encryption, you can also choose the protocol used. With Surfshark, you can choose from the following:

IKEv2

OpenVPN/UDP

OpenVPN/TCP

More info on IKEv2? Click here!
More info on OpenVPN/UDP or TCP? Click here!

Pricing

If the features of Surfshark are not going to surprise you, the price will! This VPN service is so well priced for what you get. It is amazing to see a company create a great working VPN app for a very good and competitive price.

There is a different option. If you choose the one month, you pay $11.95. This is not super cheap. If you go for the 12-month option, the price is $5.99, which is already better. The best possible deal is the 24-month option. For this package, you just pay $1.99!

Click Here for the most recent prices.

Simultaneous Connections

You probably share your VPN subscription with your partner, kids or family members. Some, like PIA, have a limited amount of allowed connections. For example, PIA VPN has a limit of 10 connections. If you want or need more, Surfshark is there for you! With Surfshark, you can have UNLIMITED connections! There are not many VPN providers who gives you this feature. A very useful feature provided by Surfshark.

Kill Switch

We talked about it in the PIA VPN review, but this is a great feature (a must if you ask me). The kill switch will turn off your internet connection when the VPN connection drops. This means that you are always protected if you have the kill switch enabled.

Your ISP (internet service provider) is not able to see if you are downloading torrent. Even if the VPN connection drops, it will completely turn off your internet so you are not exposed.

Read more about the Surfshark Kill Switch feature via THIS LINK.

No Log Policy

Surfshark is very clear on what they log and what they do not log. I really like the transparency of that! There are some things they log, but they clearly wrote it on their website, not hiding it for the public.

So, what do they log and what not? First of all, Surfshark does not log any information about your activity online. Whether it is your IP address, your network traffic or your connection timestamps, Surfshark does not log them.

Surfshark does collect some “non-sensitive data”. They collect your email address and your encrypted password. They might need your email to send you deals or help you if you have any issues. They also log your billing information. If you don’t want your billing information registered, you can purchase Surfshark with CryptoCurrency and stay anonymous.

Surfshark also log some information anonymously. This is diagnostic information and that is unrelated to your account and completely anonymous. The following diagnostic information is collected anonymously:

Aggregated performance data

The frequency of use of our services

Crash reports on apps

Unsuccessful connection attempts

Find more on the strict no log policy and why Surfshark logs some information via THIS LINK.

Refund Policy

A 30-day refund policy! Surfshark keeps getting better. You can now test Surfshark for a month and, even if you are 100% satisfied, get your money back if you want to. (I can’t think of any reason though).

You have to buy a plan and sign up for it, which makes sense. This way you keep out people who just make fake accounts to use the free VPN option. 30 days is a long time, it gives you the option to test the functionality and if you like the software. So far, I have nothing to complain about Surfshark.

MultiHop

This feature ensures your internet traffic is encrypted through two different VPN servers. This feature is recommended for the most security-focused users. I love this feature. It gives you double the protection and that makes it even harder to track you down if someone wants to.

You can not randomly choose two servers, but Surfshark set up some pre-configured MultiHop servers. Handy! Here is a list of the available MultiHop servers:

CleanWeb

The web (yes, Techrvw too) has annoying ads. With Surfshark, you can enable the CleanWeb mode. This mode blocks ads, malware, and trackers. With this one feature, you can make your browsing experience so much better and faster!

Whitelister

Sometimes you don’t want all your apps to go over the VPN. For example, your bank app might not work if you are connected to a VPN server somewhere in the world. With Surfshark, you can whitelist apps. Those apps will not use the VPN connection and just use your normal connection. It might be unsafe, but sometimes it is necessary.

Camouflage Mode

Using the incognito mode on your browser, it says that your ISP (internet service provider) is still able to see what you are doing. With the camouflage mode, even your ISP is not able to see what you are doing. Talking about absolute privacy!

NoBorders Mode

Everybody should be able to use the internet without restrictions. Some countries have some strong blocks or restrictions on websites. With the NoBorders Mode, you are able to bypass those “borders” and go visit the blocked websites like Facebook, Wikipedia or other blocked sites. If WhatsApp or Telegram is blocked, turn this mode on and you can use those too!

Unfortunately, I was not able to test these features as I’m not in a country where there are restrictions (luckily). If I ever go there, I will definitely test this and update the review.

Want to read more about this mode? Click Here.

Surfshark Servers

Surfshark is the cheapest option we’ve seen so far, but the doesn’t mean you get fewer servers to connect to. Right now, Surfshark has over 800 servers in over 50 countries! It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, there is a server nearby to connect with.

To see the complete list of servers, CLICK HERE. This list is actively updated by SurfShark.

Surfshark Speed Test

Speed is a vital requirement for a VPN service. If your connection gets super slow, nobody is willing to use it. I first did a “base test”, an internet speed test without the VPN service running. After the base test, I did a speed test on several servers. Here are the results: (please keep in mind that these are not the maximum speeds of the servers. The higher your base speed, the higher the server speed!)

Base test:

Germany:

Italy, Rome:

America, New York:

Australia, Melbourne :

Vietnam:

Netherlands:

MultiHop America – Portugal:

MultiHop Singapore – Netherlands:

Support

To get a quick answer to your question is always great. With some VPN services, you have to wait really long before you get an answer. (I’m still waiting for a reply by PIA VPN….)

At Surfshark, you don’t have to worry about waiting long for an answer. There is a 24/7 chat support which works great! I’ve tested it and I think I had an agent ready for me within 2 minutes. They were very friendly and knowledgeable about Surfshark. Just a great experience.

Conclusion

Looking at the features, the price, the privacy, and the looks and feels of the (Android) app, I can not say anything that I don’t like. They are transparent on what they collect and whatnot, the servers work and are fast and they keep updating the app with new features (like the extra security option!)

Surfshark might not be as well known as NordVPN or any other VPN service, but they are just as good (if not better). I’m sticking to Surfshark for now!

Like another review? Click here for the TP-Link M7200!