Surfshark VPN is quickly gaining popularity in the crowded VPN market due to its guarantees of security, privacy, and unrestricted internet access. In this review, we will go over Surfshark VPN‘s features, functionality, and pricing in detail to help you decide whether it is the right choice for you.
Surfshark VPN Review Overview
| Kill switch | Available |
| Split tunneling | Available |
| Servers | 3,200+ in 100 countries (all RAM-based) |
| Obfuscation | Camouflage Mode and NoBorders Mode |
| VPN protocols | WireGuard and OpenVPN |
Is Surfshark safe?
Surfshark is secure, yes. Being one of the safest VPNs out there, Surfshark is loaded with great security features. It provides several features for user privacy and security, including RAM-only servers, a kill switch, and encryption with AES-256 and ChaCha20. Additionally, Surfshark has undergone four independent audits for server infrastructure, app security, including the Android app, and the no-logs policy. Compared to other VPN services like NordVPN or ExpressVPN, this one is undeniably among the most dependable and secure currently available, having passed every audit with flying colors.
| Encryption | AES-256-CBC with SHA-512 hash function |
| Tunneling protocols | WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2 |
| Kill switch | Yes, on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows |
| Ad blocker | Yes |
| 100% RAM-only servers | Yes (all servers) |
| Dark web monitoring | Yes |
| Privacy policy | No logs, independently audited once by Deloitte |
| Security audits | Extensions, app, and infrastructure penetration tests by Cure53 |
Encryption
With the OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols, Surfshark employs AES-256-GCM encryption; with the WireGuard protocol, it uses ChaCha20 encryption. The vast majority of cases have demonstrated that these industry-standard encryption ciphers are secure, reliable, and fast. Surfshark also employs SHA-512 encryption, which outperforms the industry standard SHA-256 used by most other VPN providers, for secure authentication—the process of verifying users and devices attempting to connect to the VPN network.
All things considered, Surfshark protects both your data and its VPN network by utilizing the most recent encryption and authentication technologies. You shouldn’t worry if you’re concerned that your online activities and information may be exposed or compromised because Surfshark is skilled at protecting your data.
Privacy and Security
The foundational VPN features of Surfshark include AES-256-GCM encryption, secure protocols (WireGuard, OpenVPN UDP, and TCP), and a kill switch to prevent identity leaks and block internet access if the VPN connection fails. Surfshark’s use of encryption is not well described on the website, but our system’s OpenVPN connections provided good protection using AES-256-GCM on the data channel and an RSA-2048 handshake with a powerful ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 cipher for Perfect Forward Secrecy on the control channel.
Surfshark’s excellent privacy policy provides detailed information about the data it does (and does not) collect, as well as an explanation of its no-logging policy. If you would prefer not to go through the specifics, there are also summaries available. The most important things for you to be aware of are that your user ID and connection time are the only two pieces of data that Surfshark’s servers gather during a session. The service does not log your visited IP addresses, browsing history, session information, network traffic, or anything else that might connect you to an online action. These are removed within 15 minutes of your disconnecting.
I checked the trackers and third-party cookies on a provider’s website using the Blacklight privacy inspector to get a sense of how they handled privacy. Nine trackers and ten third-party cookies—mostly from Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Microsoft—were discovered by Blacklight. Hide.me, Mullvad, and Proton VPN all used no trackers at all in their most recent tests, so that’s far above average.
How Fast is Surfshark?
| Devices tested on | MacBook Pro 2011 | Acer Aspire 5 (Windows 10) |
| Ping without VPN (in ms) | 54 | 7 |
| Ping with VPN (in ms) | 53 | 199 |
| Ping difference | 2% | 2742% |
| Macbook Install speed without VPN (in Mbps) | 16.21 | 23.69 |
| Install speed with VPN (in Mbps) | 11.87 | 19.61 |
| Install speed difference | 31% | 17% |
| Upload speed without VPN (in Mbps) | 22.01 | 24.09 |
| Upload speed with VPN (in Mbps) | 24 | 10.58 |
| Upload speed difference | 9% | 56% |
Surfshark Features
- Alerts: receive immediate notifications about breaches involving your credit card, ID, and email data. To add someone to the monitoring list is all that is required.
- GPS Spoofing: GPS spoofing lets you pretend to be somewhere else, even when it comes to your IP address. If you swipe through dating apps or play Pokemon Go, this is useful.
- Smart DNS: aids in unblocking streaming media on gadgets incapable of running VPN apps. If you use a PlayStation, a smart TV, or any other smart device or streaming box, this is especially useful.
- Bypasser: an option to split tunnel apps, allowing you to control which ones use the VPN connection and which don’t. You can accomplish that by deciding which apps to allow through the VPN or by blocking them altogether.
- Incogni: A tool for removing personal data. On your behalf, Incogni will get in touch with online data brokers and demand that they delete your personal information (name, phone number, address, and more) from their databases.
- Pause VPN feature: With the help of this feature, you can turn off the VPN connection for two, thirty, or five minutes. During the pause, you can also quickly enable the VPN connection once more.
Conclusion
Surfshark VPN Review, With its strong security features, such as AES-256 encryption, RAM-only servers, and independent audits, Surfshark VPN stands out in the crowded VPN market. The user experience is improved by its quick speeds and many features, such as Smart DNS and GPS spoofing. Enjoy safe and unrestricted internet browsing with Surfshark.
