VPN Surfshark - Web Privacy Reviews

After trying a few VPN services I chose to go with Surfshark because it works mostly well and cost is very reasonable, especially if you have multiple devices. I have ran into a couple of issues, some which just involve turning the VPN off, others that seem to be developer bugs. As for the bugs - 1) my desktop has a lot of trouble connecting to the nearest/fastest server, which can take a good 10 minutes after booting up; but after it connects it works well. It’s weird because my mobile devices and laptop connect super quickly. 2) it can kill your phone/tablet battery quickly - if an app needs to remain running in the background (which is the case with some trackers, ie., COVID trackers that your school/employer may require), it may be unable to send/receive data while VPN is on, which leads to the battery draining within 4 hours or less. Which leads to improvements that would be awesome - like allowing some apps to be exempt from VPN, since some retail, banking, and even game apps don’t work while VPN is running. I don’t know if iOS would allow for app exceptions, so maybe just having the ability to turn VPN off for x-hours or minutes might be nice, vs having to remember to turn it back on. Anyways, no major issues and Surfshark works mostly well!!

I had wasted money on other VPN services out there, and my problem was they kept disconnecting. So I would spend hours on an open network possibly unsecured. So I sat down and just looked and looked, for me my phone is most important for me to secure. I do lots on it and have lots of sensitive info like everyone else. When surfshark popped it was perfect, 1st off the price was just the best I had seen. 2nd the amount of devices where even better unlimited (at least that’s how it was advertised a year ago I haven’t looked recently) 3rd it could virtually work with anything without the hassle of something going wrong. Over they every thing you need I even added the hacklock and blind search clean web. It makes such a difference for me, but what they supply is the monitoring aspect and actually alert you when oh let’s say your emails been compromised. I’ll keep on purchasing my subscription I purchased 3 years my firs go around.

Overall good VPN service. There are a couple of issues I had like using surfshark with a couple of routers that support VPN. XBOX & PlayStation as well as Roku devices I wish I could have connected those as well but has proven to be very difficult if not impossible. Minor bugs like being able to login from some of my other devices. When trying to login using the passwords given from surfshark VPNSurfshark will allow you to type in the password on certain browsers and sometimes the passwords don’t work at all. Also when using surfshark you have to be careful to remember to turn it off on cellular because I notice my iPhone and iPad Pro will go through data like crazy when I’m not even on my devices very much like overnight when I wake up my devices used up more data while I was asleep than when I was actually using them. So that’s something to look out for. On the plus side Speeds are fast compared to other providers and connection time is super fast. Whenever I checked my ip and dns, connection was 100% secure everytime. So surfshark is very secure once your able to setup all of your devices which can be a task. I’ve used 3 different name brand VPN providers and surfshark I put at the top of that list.

UPDATE: Sept 2021 VPNSurfshark slows my IPhone so much I must shut off the VPN. Not sure why… talking to a tech is nearly impossible:-(

EARLIER: Four days without data/internet

And four days of incompetence from ATT phone techs who twice lost me when doing tests and never called back, a tech who said she couldn’t help me because others had tried and a supervisor who called me Monday night at 10:30pm to assure me she would solve the problem and call me back... it’s now Thursday night and she never called back. On Wednesday an online ATT tech sent me to an ATT store and I git a new SIMS card that didn’t help but the guy went they all my settings and found nothing wrong... I went home, called again and ATT tech sent me to the Geek Squad at Best Buy’s a waste of time (100 mile round trip) who told me to go to an APPLE store but online it said ALL APPLE STORES CLOSED UNTIL JUNE 1 (today May 27). I called Apple support who gave an appointment to the ONE Apple store open in Michigan for repair only the next day. Another 100 mile round trip but they fixed it. The solution was very simple that every ATT knucklehead should have asked or realized... my VPN had crashed causing me to lose all data/internet connection. SO BEWARE your VPN might crash and cause you problems! JUST shut it off, update and reboot to save all the headaches I had.

• Good
• Affordable
• Good Customer Service (responds to email quickly)
• Reliability...? and here’s why. Reasons why we use VPN is to hide our IP for security reasons. In addition, we use VPN to be able to access apps that is only available in other countries. Connecting to other states is no issue. Connecting to other countries is unstable. I tried to connect to an Asian Country coz VPNSurfshark is only available to this specific country only. At first it worked and I was so happy that I finally have found a VPN that’s affordable and had this specific country available. The next time I tried connecting again to this Asian country and it did connected then opened VPNSurfshark that allows only that specific country tells me that “ VPNSurfshark is not available in other countries “. ??? I toggled back to the VPN and it says I am still connected to that specific asian country. I verified the location that I’m connected with on IPlocation site and it’s telling me that the IP address that I’m connected to is in Europe when actually the VPN says I’m connected to an Asian country. So yes, the VPN is kinda unstable. From time to time VPNSurfshark recognizes that I’m connected to an asian IP address when at times I’m in Europe. I hope they fix this problem.

So yea it definitely works well, let’s me surf the web on my computer without any worries of someone tracking what I’m up to. It Let’s me access other regional content that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to watch, like advertised. That aspect of VPNSurfshark works great and I’m really happy with it. However the reason I only gave it 3 * was because of the way that it works on my iPhone. When I first turn VPNSurfshark on it works fine, if not a little slower then normal. When I put my phone away for a while and come back to it is usually when I start to have problems. Starts with the phone just being pretty slow, longer download speeds and webpage loading time. Then eventually after a handful of hours pages just will stop loading. I play Pokémon go and that app in particular seems to really hate when a VPN is running in the background. I think having so many issues with that specific app may have kinda soured me but I’m trying to be reasonable. It works for just regular browsing on your laptop without issues for sure and even to an extent on your phone. If you play Pokémon go however, I wouldn’t recommend it.

VPNSurfshark drains my battery. I previously reached out to support because I wasn’t able to toggle this VPN on and off. I was instructed to delete VPNSurfshark and re-install. This provided a brief fix. I have maintained the updates and now not only can I not toggle VPNSurfshark on/off, but it drains my battery. I have a paid subscription and VPNSurfshark for my Windows PC works well. On my Mac it’s kind of hit or miss regarding the connection. Doesn’t matter if I have a browser opened or closed sometimes the VPN stays connected and sometimes a reconnect is required. Will be looking at alternatives when renewal time approaches.

UPDATE: I received an email within 48 hours with an invitation to reach out and partner for a solution. I replied with more specifics and never heard back. When I noticed all of the developer replies to these reviews, I had a better opinion of this company. Now I’m thinking they make it a point to reply because it’s a good public relations tactic. It’s been about a week since I replied to their email and have not received a reply. Unfortunately for me, I bought the 2 year subscription. Lesson learned..

I have tried about 4 different VPN services to protect my online life but haven’t found one that works well on LTE/5G until now. ExpressVPN was my favorite everything except when i was connected to cellular networks. The transition from a cellular network to WiFi and vice versa caused major issues and had me constantly fiddling with my phone to reestablish connection after the kill switch had been tripped.

Enter Surfshark!

After some more googling to hopefully find a cheaper replacement for ExpressVPN, I stumbled across Surfshark. Their impressive price point packed in LOADS of features and I couldn’t wait to try it. I was more than surprised by its performance.

In the past i don’t think I held a stable mobile connection for more than a few hours before a handoff between cell towers or a WiFi router caused everything to come to a halt.

…with Surfshark, I ran my VPN for 30 hours once and didn’t even realize it was still on!

To me that’s the beauty of this service. It’s a set it and forget type of service that can do as little or as much as you want. You don’t want security to be a hassle, and Surfshark is the exact opposite. The speed is nothing to sneeze at either. I wouldn’t rank it at the tip top, but it is not slacking. At an average of 100Mb/s - 150Mb/s, this VPN is plenty fast and will easily stream 4K video. So far, I haven’t found anything to complain about. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

- Happy Customer

I looked at quite a few different VPN services and researched a bit, and Surfshark had everything I was looking for a fraction of the cost as other VPN services. They have an extremely friendly customer service division, they’re not owned by a conglomerate (like ExpressVPN is), and they’re one of the only VPN services that runs on RAM servers only (meaning they don’t store your data). I suppose the only complaint I have is that it’s somewhat unfriendly for beginners, at least on this iOS app (I haven’t tried using it on a PC). I had never heard of VPN services before, and once I did, I didn’t know how they worked at all. All I knew is that I wanted to watch shows that were unavailable where I live. I got the membership for Surfshark, downloaded VPNSurfshark , and was a little lost on how to go about streaming something from another country. I had to google how lol.

Be aware — Surfshark falsely advertises on the free trial and makes canceling and getting a refund of their subscription extremely difficult. It’s been two months since my request, and I still haven’t got my refund to the subscription.

I downloaded Surfshark on Aug 1 and requested their team to cancel my subscription before the free trial ended on Aug 7. However their team kept postponing proper actions but suggesting what benefits their app could provide, which in the end caused a charge of an annual membership on my card. After multiple requests of a refund, they finally replied that they cannot process the refund as my subscription was made through my Apple ID. I proceeded to request a refund with Apple following the instructions provided by Surfshark support, only to find out that Apple support helps with Apple subscriptions such as Apple Music only.

Very frustrating experience overall. VPNSurfshark itself does seem to work as expected. It’s just not what I need on a regular basis. I also find the false advertisement disturbing and I have to share it here.

🤠Hey guys I got VPNSurfshark and after about two weeks it just quit working. 🤮After my free trial.! It just stopped no VPN protection at all‼️ I talk to customer support through chat and it was really good talking to a very nice human being but I’ve felt like I have to prove everything to them 👎 taking screenshots of everything I sent to them I had to prove I had an account with them. I had to prove I paid for a subscription that didn’t work. Not good at all. 🤢I went into it wanting help trying to get it fixed so I can use a VPN but after a lengthy discussion I felt like I was getting a runaround I decided I wanted a complete refund. Shop around there’s too many big glitches in the system I don’t think the developer really Recognize the existence of the problem. Even though I could prove it through screenshots. I would definitely have given them a higher review if they could have fix the problem to start with. I really wish I could help them fix the problem so other customers won’t have to go through what I went through. I guess part of the fix begins here with this review✍️. Seriously, Surfshark if I can help you just reach out to me.🌷

I’ve used this device on a personal computer of mine for the last year or so and there’s no doubt it’s one of the best vpn’s out there. But once I installed it on my mobile device( apple ), my experience and excitement for this product kind of withered. I first noticed that upon using, that it blocked access to my personal and business banking apps, which was really nerve wrecking but there’s ways to figure that out right( just turn off vpn once accessing my account). But what’s making me write this review is the fact that I noticed it’s really slowing down my phone. I run a business and anything that hinders my productivity is really a liability. What I believe, because of my experience using this with other devices, is that this vpn is so top of the line, that maybe a less intense and involved vpn will be more suitable for mobile devices. I’ll continue to using this for my personal and work computers, but for the reasons listed above, will stick to the more basic vpn I’ve used the last couple of years.

My subscription with NordVPN expired this month (August 2021) and I was looking for something new. I decided to try this service for the free 30 day trial period and so far it’s been good except for a couple of things.

1. No option to pause the VPN connection - NordVPN has an option to let you pause the VPN connection for something like 5, 15, or 60 minutes. This feature is VERY useful for accessing websites that may block or not work properly with a VPN.

2. The VPN service does NOT work with certain websites - This is a huge issue. I am using the trial period of both ExpressVPN and Surfshark and certain websites absolutely will NOT let me in with Surfshark VPN activated. Switching to ExpressVPN lets me in easy. Example: Try going to the GameStop website using Surfshark; you will get an “Access denied” page. Then switch to ExpressVPN and you get in easy. By the way, this access problem is also present in NordVPN. Yes I have tried switching the servers and protocols and nothing worked.

Conclusion: When the trial period ends I may end up switching back to Nord simply because of the pause connection feature. ExpressVPN is too expensive even though it lets me into the websites easily. Surfshark just needs a few more features that align with me personally. In actuality Surfshark is just as good as Nord from my experience but a personal pause connection feature is what’s keeping me from going all in.

I’ve been using Surfshark for a little over a month so far, this vpn isn’t the best but reasonably priced in relevance to its performance, in the past few weeks, I’ve encountered many connectivity issues since I paid for a 24 months plan, they’re annoying indeed but most importantly it causes so much inconvenience to my daily basis like if I’m not at home I gotta reconnect to vpn servers for several times or some just won’t work due to the restrictive internet in China, it’s not only happening on my phone but also on pc which is even more annoying and more frequently, for instance if I connected to locations in United States, it would usually appear a red banner saying we’ve detected an issue on your internet or something every 30 minutes or less sometimes :(
Overall,it’s not working well in China I hope Surfshark team can help out the people like me in countries like China with internet restrictions.

Last year, I traveled to Mexico to visit some family members for the holidays (responsibly, of course) in December and Netflix showed me shows that were available there. And one of those shows is called “Yo soy Betty, la fea.” I got so hooked on it, but then I had to travel back to the US because I will start university again next week. Anyways, once I arrived to the US, I tried to keep watching the show but it is not available here. Because of that, I did some researched on some vpn providers and checked if they support Mexican Netflix regions so that I could continue watching the show and SurfsharkVPN has been the only vpn provider that I found that supports Mexican Netflix regions, finally! NordVPN, ExpressVPN, CyberghostVPN, and ProtonVPN are some vpn providers that don’t support Mexican Netflix regions as of now, so I was ecstatic when I found out that SurfsharkVPN does.

I replaced Disconnect Premium with SurfShark. I believe that Disconnect has a more robust advertising blocking experience since some apps that I used had zero advertising within it and SurfShark is letting quite a bit through.
I will continue to work with this due to the fact that Disconnect logs every click and website visited being based in the US. SurfShark contains no logs.
I’m not doing anything improper, but my browsing and operational data is mine to distribute, not someone else. Yes, I understand that I am writing this on a device that tracks everything that I do. But I must attempt to be mindful, and for that, I appreciate this particular app since they are the only other VPN that is making a try at providing good IP masking and adblocking device-wide.
I have not had challenges with the kill-switch like others but I can tell you that I put my connections through the wringer. I use SurfShark, Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 as my DNS server, three different blockers and have locked down Bluetooth and WiFi sniffing. Speeds are slower, but I can still stream.

This is the best personal VPN I’ve tried yet. I’ve used TorGuard, KeepSolid, and Private Internet Access and quit using all of them because they were causing problems with my internet usage or otherwise difficult to use. Surfshark is much better!! Rock solid performance - never drops the connection. Zero loss of connection speed (it’s actually faster than w/o VPN sometimes!). It’s super easy to use. The only problem I’ve had is with the browser extension interfering with my work VPN but that’s hardly a complaint. I just don’t use it on my work browser.
I’d like to see better ad-blocking as I’m still getting ads even with CleanWeb turned on, and an iOS 14 style widget would be a nice upgrade. Overall it’s an awesome VPN and I’m really pleased with the value for my money.

I am testing out different VPN service options and came across this one through a Top 10 online review.

Tried the iTunes download free trial for 7 days with the option to extend afterwards. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work! The settings on VPNSurfshark says there no subscription and asks to extend and then takes you to another page offerings you different subscription plans that don’t include 7 day free trial but 30 day money back guarantee’s on difference subscriptions. That’s called a bait and switch in marketing terms.

Customer service was immediate and really helpful to try and solve the problem but unfortunately the tech part of this product doesn’t match the quality of their customer service. I would like to give them an extra star for the customer service but it’s a tech company that doesn’t have an easy to use tech product so it’s hard to offer that and after reading some other reviews it seems like there are more tech issues with this product. It’s a shame, great name and logo, great customer service, just need a product to match.

Original:
So, I was looking for a VPN to use for about a day, as I am doing troubleshooting. Surfshark got great reviews on a lot of pages (though they all earn commissions probably, so idk how accurate those reviews are), so I decided to try it out. I’m a forgetful person, so as I do with most subscriptions with free trials, I activate them then cancel the subscription, keeping the free trial and then afterwards, deciding if I’ll continue or not. The second I cancelled the subscription’s renewal for after the week, I was hit with all kinds of notifications about how my plan had expired, and I couldn’t use the VPN without “an active subscription” - which goes directly against the idea of a free trial. So, as the title states - so much for a free trial. 1 Star.

Update:
Spoke to support about the issue, and was given a new account with the week’s free trial. Upping to 3 stars, had an excellent support experience. However, I think the problem I described shouldn’t have existed in the first place.

Speeds were not slow or fast, just right in the middle. I couldn’t see server loads, and the vpn would disconnect when changing to another location, or even in the same location. What I mean is this, let’s say I was connected to Seattle, and I wanted to connect to Phoenix, it would attempt to connect, then it just stopped. WiFi is still running. So, I had to press the connect button again, finally connecting afterwards. But, it was the call interruptions to regular cell and FaceTime calls that did it for me. Sometimes it would do great, calls were clear. Other times, they were p.o.s.. It also would drop connection when switching from WiFi to data. I did like that it blocked some ads, though not as much as NordVpn. Unfortunately, there’s more bad than good here.

Update: I bought the 1 year by accident, but ultimately said, well lets see, maybe it’ll get better. Nope. I pay for 400mbps, and this slows it down to 17-29mbps. Doesn’t matter what day or time, it slows my internet down. HORRIBLE! No one should invest in this or put up with it. Would not recommend it to anyone.

Surfshark is hands down the best VPN I have used. And I have used quite a bit. Hola, Betternet, Hotspot Shield, ExpressVPN, you name it. Not one of them comes close to Surfshark! The servers are speedy. Your privacy is real. I looked up my IP several times and I am most definitely in the country I selected.

And privacy is what you really want these days. And Surfshark gives you that. Customer service? Are you kidding me? They answer immediately in chat and are extremely helpful? I don’t think I have ever had this much help from a VPN company. When I asked questions in chat over at ExpressVPN all they wanted to do was sell me an extremely expensive subscription. Surfshark takes the time to help you, guide you through the process, even if you know next to nothing about WiFi, VPN’s or are not really tech savvy.

Hands down, Surfshark is the best VPN I have ever used. I stated as much above and I will stand by it. And it really is very affordable. It works every single day, every single time you connect. And they are constantly making it better and updating VPNSurfshark . If you have an issue, which has been rare for me, they are on top of it. Very helpful. Very friendly. Very knowledgeable. I will definitively continue being a subscriber.

VPNSurfshark is nicely designed and intuitive. Unfortunately the service just doesn’t work making VPNSurfshark almost useless. After a while the VPN will block all your data and you will need to manually switch it off, and that’s incredibly annoying. I spent a week going back and forth with support (very responsive folks). However, after trying everything and switching off all features from VPNSurfshark (kill switch, no borders, protocol, etc), their suggestion was to use an OpenVPN configuration, which I needed to set manually trough another app. In my opinion this means going around the problem rather then solving it but I tried it anyway. Well, I never managed to connect so I just had to give up. I hope they get a grip, as of today Surfshark is basically not an iOS product.

This VPN seems to work fine as long as it connects. It’s supposed to auto connect to WiFi networks and disconnect when on LTE but this seems to be unreliable at best. There have been many times where it should have auto connected when my phone connected to a WiFi network but it didn’t and I’m left unknowingly unprotected. The same happens when you expect it to be disconnected because the phone is on an LTE connection but low and behold the VPN is connected. So when it’s actually in the state you expect it to be in (connected/disconnected) it’s fine. The real problem is when it leaves you unprotected on a public WiFi network because the auto connect didn’t work.

every time I restart my computer , I face problems of the connection. Most of the times VPNSurfshark doesn’t get the net connection.. in setting it shows unknown subscription .... but sometimes connected... I have to say that the speed is fast... but the vpn is problematic because it waste lot of time for connection which is stressful... and there website’s chat box is not working last 48 hours ; no chance to email them.. you can’t submit the problem because they use captcha security ; every time you enter correct captcha but it shows wrong .. finally very depressed with this vpn .. hope that your team will fix it soon

I had expressvpn until I came across and did research on Surfshark vpn. I have around 232 mbps download with my wifi and I get 220 with the vpn, which is just like expressvpn but cheaper! Only downside is the optimal location VPNSurfshark finds is not truly the best location so you will have to jump around locations near you to find the best one. Once you found it, just turn on killswitch and you’ll always be on it. I have not noticed and interference with apps and the customer support team is great. Glad i signed up with the promotion.

Bought this vpn n everything was great now I’m getting nuthin . My other devices are working that I know of n I can’t log in to my account. Then it says I call chat with someone n that’s not true,I press support can’t put in a ticket neither will my messages go thru to there team. So frustrating. My iPhone WiFi is fine n now vpn doesn’t work tried to see if it was password n that wasnt it. Got a new one when it was correct the whole time. I wanna know wth my vpn isn’t working on my iPhone all of a sudden. I got VPNSurfshark from AppStore I couldn’t send pics says there’s an error n contact customer support??? There isn’t one!!

I had Cyberghost,Aloha,ExpressVpn,Nord,and several others. First off this VPN in comparison to the others I have tried can go head to head with any of them as far as speed. Shark loses about 10 megabytes when set to optimum for me which is nothing compared to some of the others. Some of the other features Serious AD Blocker . Unlimited devices!!! The promotion is awesome. You can’t beat this VPN for the features or the price. The AD Blocker alone is worth the subscription fee to me. Privacy policy is very good.

Warning to other on experience with SurfShark's "7-day free trial"--gave it a try, but after 1 day realized this service did not match my needs. Followed their instructions to cancel: contacted their customer support, asked to cancel, and was told "ok, done, your subscription is canceled; you will not be charged." Surprise: 6 days later I get email confirming they went ahead and charged me for one year anyway. Contact SurfShark "customer service" to ask why, was told it was not their department, they could not do anything--talk to Apple (who, to their credit, did intervene and reverse this unauthorized charge). Hope this doesn't happen to others...and surprised that a VPN provider that is on the AppStore would behave in this way.

I mean look at the features... Unlimited devices allowed for real!!! Who else provides that?? You really can link unlimited devices to one single account with such a low price and such a great quality of service...
Absolutely love it.
I used many different vpns and I'm telling you,there isn't any other service that could be compared with this one.
Connections speed is good. Supports all the possible platforms with great apps. It has all the possible locations. White list feature which is awesome (not available in ios though). Low price and unlimited simultaneous connections. What else you can expect??
I'm totally surprised with this brand new vpn service. And I'm totally happy with it.
I checked unlimited devices linking and it works just fine.
Best vpn service in my opinion...

The service runs pretty well and the speeds are decent but the problem I have is that VPNSurfshark wakes up and runs in the background for minutes every hour or so while the device is unattended with screen off without any input from me. Draining battery randomly is not cool, nor is waking up to collect any data “anonymously”. If I close you (force close while everything is off in iPhone settings > Surfshark), you need to stay closed until I want to use you again. Period. This happens on my iPhone X, iPad mini, and iPad Pro.

If I have WiFi & Data turned on along with VPN, then turn data off...the VPN turns off with it. I have to go into settings and turn it back on.

In the meanwhile the WiFi still functions normally so the "kill switch" isn't working.
.if I turn data back on before the VPN, again...it still functions normally so no kill switch...

This VPN is very inconsistent (I been costumer for about 6 months). I connect with the Ike2 protocol with a p2p server and I get horrible laggy/speeds. I switch to the TCP and the same deal. I get on the UDP I get less then 5mps down and up is 20mps with 70ms of latency (still on p2p LA in udp protocol). Once I switch off the VPN I got over 300mps up and down with 6ms of latency (I have fiber)So it’s not my hardware.. also sometimes the vpn doesn’t even work at all. So I really don’t understand at this point what I need to do because I contacted customer support and they gave me the run around. Switch the protocols.

Price is cheaper compared to other similar services but quality is almost as good. Most servers have a pretty good speed and they rarely disconnect. App is easy to use and works perfectly. Location list is not exhaustive but most of the location you will likely need are present. Definitely the best value on the mark, highly recommended! Hope they can keep it up!