Surfshark boasts a powerful suite of privateness and security measures, limitless simultaneous connections, easy-to-use interface and expansive international community. And it is nonetheless considerably cheaper than most of its opponents. That is what helped Surfshark earn CNET’s Editors’ Selection for Greatest Worth VPN in 2022.

Together with commonplace VPN options comparable to a kill swap and DNS leak safety, a few of the extra notable Surfshark options embody camouflage mode (which hides the very fact you are utilizing a VPN), split-tunneling, NoBorders mode (which helps you to use Surfshark in areas the place VPNs are restricted) and multihop VPN connections. You may additionally get entry to Surfshark’s CleanWeb expertise, which blocks adverts and malware and helps you keep away from phishing assaults. 

One innovation we’re excited to see Surfshark roll out over the following yr is its Nexus community, which connects the VPN’s whole community of servers collectively and permits you to select a number of servers to route your connection via. The performance is considerably just like Tor, however Surfshark says it is quicker. With its Dynamic MultiHop, IP Randomizer and IP Rotator features, the Nexus community can provide you a couple of further layers of safety when you use the VPN — which will be significantly helpful to customers with important privateness wants. 

Surfshark says it does not log any person exercise. And though no-logging claims are just about unattainable to show with 100% certainty, German cybersecurity agency Cure53 declared Surfshark’s safety to be “strong” in its 2021 safety audit of the VPN. Surfshark says a brand new audit is forthcoming by the tip of this yr. 

Since February 2022, each Surfshark and NordVPN have the identical company mother or father (Tesonet), however Surfshark mentioned it’s legally certain to not share any data between the entities that may go towards its privateness coverage or phrases of service. We did not discover any language in both doc that may point out Surfshark has any obligation to share person information with its mother or father firm or any sibling firms, which embody NordVPN. 

Surfshark charges constantly as one of many quickest VPNs obtainable, however we have been upset with its inconsistent speeds just lately. The 40% velocity loss we measured in February and March of 2023 was greater than double the 19% velocity loss we measured in 2022. Although speeds via WireGuard had been spectacular, registering solely an 8% velocity loss, the 76% velocity loss we registered via OpenVPN dragged Surfshark’s general velocity ranking down significantly. The corporate tells us that it’s engaged on resolving the OpenVPN velocity points.

In our assessments, Surfshark had no issues unblocking Netflix and Amazon Prime Video content material, however we did run right into a good bit of hassle accessing Disney Plus. After testing numerous servers within the US and different international locations the place Disney Plus is obtainable, we had been lastly in a position to entry the content material once we linked to a server in Boston. It’s possible you’ll want to check a couple of servers your self earlier than getting access to Disney Plus content material with Surfshark.

Surfshark affords cheaper introductory costs that leap after the primary billing cycle. Even so, Surfshark manages to maintain its costs decrease than most different VPNs — serving to it earn CNET’s Editors’ Selection for Greatest Worth. The yearly plan begins out at $48 for the primary yr, then jumps to $60 for any further years of service. For those who go for the two-year plan, you will pay $60 up entrance for the preliminary two years mixed, then $60 per yr for any further years. Surfshark’s month-to-month plan stays fixed at $13 a month. For those who’re not glad with the service for any motive, Surfshark affords a 30-day money-back assure.