Surfshark VPN
Surfshark is a reputed company that provides VPN services through its wide and established network across the world and is one of the costlier ones around. Perhaps the higher pricing is due to the plethora of features, higher customer privacy, and enhanced and useful apps. Well, let me run you through the company and we’ll see what’s on offer here. All Virtual Private Networks or VPNs improve your privacy online by routing your traffic to a remote server through an encrypted connection. One of the features that stands out from the other VPN providers is that Surfshark allows you to connect to an unlimited number of devices, simultaneously. Surely this is a boon to large households with numerous devices connected to the internet. At $12.95 per month, it is also the most expensive of those I have come across during the testing. However, like all providers, Surfshark too has incentives for long-term subscribers. But what puzzled me is the absence of an annual pricing plan. Instead, we have a six-month subscription and a two-year plan! You pay $38.94 for six months (at $6.49 a month) and $59.76 for the two-year plan (at just $2.49 a month). Now, after 2 years, it renews every year at the same $59.76 ($4.98 a month) which makes the service cheap compared to others! Whew! I daresay that Surfshark is great value for money. Surfshark VPN is indeed a winner but even so, I recommend that you start on the shortest plan just so you can evaluate the service and compare it with other VPN providers.
How does the service measure up?
Surfshark has many features that are seldom seen elsewhere. Its split tunneling tool ‘Whitelister' allows you to choose which websites or apps can use the VPN connection. It also has multi-hop which is a security enhancer- it reroutes your traffic through a second VPN server! The service also allows customers to use static servers without any additional charges but the IP address is shared with other users on the same server. Surfshark provides: Smart DNS, a custom DNS service; Cleanweb, an ad-blocker; BlindSearch, for privacy; and HackLock that alerts you of compromised accounts. However, BlindSearch and Hacklock cost an additional $0.99 per month each. Surfshark has employed WireGuard for its Windows, Android, macOS, and iOS apps in recent times. I would add here that Surfshark has its servers located in 65 countries, which is great. This gives the user many options while choosing servers closer to your home. Another great feature is that Surfshark provides services in China, Turkey, Russia, and Vietnam besides great coverage to Africa and South America, these being normally ignored by other providers. In all, Surfshark has over 3,300 servers across the 65 countries it is present in. Another practice Surfshark follows is that it has labeled its virtual server locations, a practice other providers have avoided. As for privacy, Surfshark has done well in protecting user privacy and has explained the same in simple terms in its privacy policy and terms of service. The company does not log your IP address, browsing history, network traffic, bandwidth used, or connection timestamps. That's very reassuring. Surfshark does follow best business practices and this shows in its work.