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Surfshark review

Unlimited devices, an audit you can read, and a renewal price it will not name.

BRecommended with a reservation

The verdict

A capable product with an unusually open audit and unusually closed pricing, which is a strange combination to defend.

Surfshark homepage with the headline "Online security starts with a VPN"
The Surfshark homepage as it looked on 1 September 2026.

How the 7.6 is built

Score breakdown for surfshark, criteria set Software and apps
CriterionWeightScore
Capability

Unlimited devices on every plan, Dynamic MultiHop, rotating IP, split tunnelling and a bundle that reaches into antivirus and data removal, which is a lot of product for one subscription.

30%8.5
Usability

Clean apps across an unusually wide platform list including Fire TV, and unlimited devices removes the one decision most VPN buyers get wrong.

20%8.2
Value

Impossible to score properly, which is the point: the introductory rate is aggressive and the renewal rate is not published, so nobody buying this knows what year two costs.

20%6.5
Integrations

Browser extensions, router support, smart TV and console coverage, and a device story with no limit to plan around, which Windscribe and PIA also offer.

10%8.0
Support

Twenty four hour live chat and a solid knowledge base, in line with the other mainstream brands.

10%8.0
Trust

The Deloitte ISAE 3000 report is published in full as a PDF, which is better than NordVPN manages, and against that the renewal price is not published anywhere, which is worse than anyone else here except PIA.

10%5.5
Weighted total100%7.6

Pros and cons

What works

  • Unlimited simultaneous devices on every plan, with no household maths to do
  • The Deloitte ISAE 3000 audit report is published in full, not gated behind an account
  • Dutch jurisdiction with no data retention obligation
  • App coverage that reaches Fire TV, which nothing else in this comparison lists

What does not

  • No renewal price is published anywhere, only a promise of the then-applicable rate
  • The pricing page shows only the local currency it detects, with no way to switch
  • Shares a parent with NordVPN, so two of the seven brands here answer to one owner
  • Apps are closed source and signup requires an email address

What Surfshark costs

No published price · 30-day money back

Surfshark pricing tiers
PlanMonthlyAnnual, per monthWhat you get
StarterUnlimited devicesNot publishedVPN, ad blocker, cookie pop-up blocker, split tunnelling · Sold on 24, 12 and 1 month terms with three extra months on the longest · No renewal price published
OneUnlimited devicesNot publishedAdds antivirus, data leak alerts and personal data masking · The most heavily promoted plan · No renewal price published
One+Unlimited devicesNot publishedAdds Incogni data removal · Available to US, UK, EU, Swiss and Canadian residents · No renewal price published

This entity carries no figure, for two separate reasons and both of them belong to the vendor. First, the pricing page renders only the local currency of the country it detects and offers no way to switch, so from where we checked it quotes Czech koruna and neither the pricing page nor the checkout will show dollars. That is the same limitation Brevo has in the email category and it is a limitation of our vantage point as much as of the vendor. Second, and more importantly, Surfshark publishes no renewal price at all. The checkout says the subscription "will automatically renew every 12 months at the then-applicable renewal price" and never states what that is. This comparison anchors on renewal prices, so a vendor that does not publish one cannot be placed on the scale, and we would rather say that than quote the introductory figure as though it were the cost.

Key specs

Surfshark key specifications
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, FireTV
Support channelsChat, Email, Knowledge base
JurisdictionNetherlands
Countries100
Devices at onceUnlimited
Independent auditDeloitte ISAE 3000 reasonable assurance, June 2025
Audit report public
Anonymous signup
Kill switch
Open source apps
Renewal price published

Who it is for

Best for

  • Households and shared accounts where the device count is the binding constraint
  • People who want a security bundle rather than a VPN alone

Not for

  • Anyone who wants to know what the second year costs before buying the first
  • Buyers who need a price in their own currency to compare against rivals

In more detail

What Surfshark does better than anyone here

Unlimited devices. Not ten, not twelve, no number at all.

That sounds like a marketing line until you try to buy a VPN for a household and discover that the device count is the constraint that actually bites. Two adults with a laptop and a phone each, a tablet, a television and a games console is seven connections before anyone has a guest. Mullvad gives you five. Proton VPN and NordVPN give ten. Surfshark, Private Internet Access and Windscribe stop counting.

Around that sits a wide product: Dynamic MultiHop, a rotating IP, split tunnelling, an ad and cookie blocker, and on the higher tiers an antivirus and a data removal service. App coverage reaches down to Fire TV, which nothing else here lists. It is in the Netherlands, which has no data retention obligation for providers.

Surfshark scores 7.6 under how we rate and sits in the also considered group of our comparison.

The price we cannot tell you, and why

You will notice this page carries no figure. There are two reasons and only one of them is Surfshark's fault.

The first is ours. From where we checked, the Surfshark pricing page renders in the local currency of the country it detects and offers no way to switch. The checkout does the same. We could not read a dollar price, and this site does not publish a conversion it did not read. That is a limitation of our vantage point, and a reader in a dollar region may well see dollars.

The second is not ours. Surfshark publishes no renewal price at all. The checkout says the subscription "will automatically renew every 12 months at the then-applicable renewal price", and nowhere on the pricing page, the checkout or the terms does it say what that renewal price is.

Our whole comparison is anchored on what a VPN costs from the second term onwards, because that is what you pay for as long as you keep it. NordVPN advertises $3.49 and renews at $11.59, and it says so. ExpressVPN prints both numbers on the plan card. Proton VPN prints both on the pricing card.

A vendor that publishes no renewal price cannot be placed on that scale. We could have quoted the introductory rate instead, which is what every competing page does, and it would have made Surfshark look like one of the cheapest options here. We do not know whether it is.

The audit it publishes, and the sibling that does not

The frustrating thing about the pricing opacity is that on disclosure of the thing that actually matters most, Surfshark is better than its own corporate sibling.

Deloitte completed an ISAE 3000 reasonable assurance engagement on the no-logs policy, and Surfshark publishes the report as a public PDF that anyone can download. NordVPN has six such engagements and shows the full report only to logged-in account holders.

So on this page you have one company publishing its audit and hiding its price, and a related company publishing its price and hiding its audit. Neither is the whole picture a buyer needs, and between the two the audit is the harder thing to get, which is why Surfshark scores as well as it does on capability and as poorly as it does on trust.

Who owns what

Surfshark merged with Nord Security in 2022. The two state that they continue to run separate infrastructure and separate product development, and there is no reason to doubt it, but they share a parent.

Set against the rest of the field: two of the seven VPNs in our comparison belong to Kape Technologies, two belong to Nord Security, and Proton VPN, Mullvad and Windscribe are independent of both.

Who should buy it

Buy Surfshark if the device count is your binding constraint and you want a security bundle rather than a VPN alone. It is a genuinely capable product with a published audit and a good jurisdiction, and for a household of eight devices there are three answers on this page.

Buy it with your eyes open about the second year, and set a calendar reminder for the month before your term ends, because you will not find out what it costs until it charges you.

Do not buy it if you want to compare like for like on ongoing cost, because you cannot. Private Internet Access has unlimited devices and exactly the same disclosure problem. If you want unlimited devices and a price you can actually see, Windscribe has both, at $5.75 a month renewing at the same figure.

Plan contents, audit details and the renewal wording on this page were read from the vendor pricing page, checkout and trust centre on .

Alternatives to Surfshark

Where Surfshark appears

Surfshark questions

Why does this page not show a Surfshark price?
Two reasons. The pricing page renders only the currency of the country it detects and offers no control, so we could not read a dollar figure. And Surfshark publishes no renewal price at all, only a reference to the then-applicable rate, and this comparison is anchored on renewal prices. We publish the pricing model and no number rather than quote an introductory rate as though it were the cost.
Is Surfshark the same as NordVPN?
They share a parent since the 2022 merger and state that they run separate infrastructure and separate product plans. Two of the seven brands in this comparison belong to Nord Security and two belong to Kape Technologies.
Has Surfshark been audited?
Deloitte completed an ISAE 3000 reasonable assurance engagement on the no-logs policy, and Surfshark publishes the report as a public PDF rather than restricting it to account holders.
What does unlimited devices actually mean?
One subscription covers every device in a household simultaneously, with no per-connection limit. Surfshark, Private Internet Access and Windscribe all offer it among the seven here.

Ready to try Surfshark?

Unlimited devices, an audit you can read, and a renewal price it will not name.

Sources