Surfshark review 2026: Unlimited devices at a budget price

Is Surfshark good in 2026?

Surfshark is the VPN we recommend for households that want to protect every device without paying premium prices. One subscription covers unlimited simultaneous connections, the network runs 4,500+ RAM only servers in 100 countries on 10Gbps ports, and its no logs policy has been confirmed by Deloitte twice, in 2023 and again in 2025.

It also keeps adding genuinely new technology: the in house Dausos protocol, self healing Everlink connections and fully customizable Dynamic MultiHop. The trade offs are a Netherlands base inside the Fourteen Eyes alliance, an expensive monthly plan and a renewal price that has climbed. If you want to weigh it against every other provider first, see our best VPN rankings, or compare it directly with our NordVPN review.

Speed and performance

Surfshark is consistently one of the fastest VPNs in independent testing. It uses WireGuard by default, the lean open source protocol described on the official WireGuard site, and Mac users can now try Dausos, which Surfshark says is up to 30 percent faster on average.

Download and upload speeds

Across three major publications, Surfshark kept roughly 80 to 92 percent of base download speed, which is plenty for 4K streaming, gaming and large downloads. The table below summarises their published results.

Upload speed holds up well nearby, at roughly 84 to 95 percent on European servers in the Cybernews tests, but it drops sharply on intercontinental routes. Surfshark's FastTrack routing can help on selected locations: CNET measured about 20 percent faster speeds to Sydney with it switched on, below the 70 percent Surfshark advertises.

Latency and gaming performance

Latency is Surfshark's weak spot. PCMag measured a 201 percent increase in ping, far more than its small speed loss would suggest. On nearby servers ping stays low, around 2 ms locally and 13 to 44 ms to neighbouring European countries in the Cybernews tests, so online games feel normal. Cross an ocean and it climbs above 100 ms, reaching 268 ms to Japan and 292 ms to Australia.

• Connect to the server closest to the game server, not just the one closest to you
• Stay on WireGuard for the lowest latency; OpenVPN adds noticeable overhead
• Use Bypasser to keep voice chat or launchers off the VPN if they do not need it
• Avoid MultiHop while gaming, since two servers add even more delay

For competitive shooters, NordVPN adds less ping, which is why it leads our best VPN for Warzone list. Surfshark is the better pick if several consoles in one home need protecting, because a router install covers all of them.

Does Surfshark work with streaming services?

Yes, and very reliably. Cybernews unblocked each platform below 10 times out of 10, and PCMag reached Netflix in the US, UK, Japan, Australia and Canada without errors. Every Surfshark server is meant to work for streaming, so there is no special category to find.

Netflix recommends at least 15 Mbps for 4K in its internet speed guide, and Surfshark cleared that easily even on its slowest long distance route. If a stream still refuses to load, our guide on how to fix the HBO Max VPN error covers the cache and DNS steps that work for most services. Surfshark has native apps for Android TV, Google TV, Fire TV and Apple TV, and its light Android TV app runs well on budget boxes, as covered in our best VPN for onn 4K Pro guide.

Security and encryption

Surfshark uses AES 256 GCM on OpenVPN and IKEv2, ChaCha20 on WireGuard and AEGIS 256X2 on Dausos. It also adds a post quantum layer to WireGuard connections to protect today's traffic against future quantum attacks. No DNS, WebRTC or IP leaks were found in testing by PCMag, CNET or Cybernews.

Key security tools include:

• Kill switch on every platform, with a soft or strict mode on Windows
• Everlink, which repairs a broken server connection without dropping the VPN tunnel
• Dynamic MultiHop, which lets you pair any two server countries and save favourite routes
• Rotating IP, which changes your IP address every 5 to 10 minutes without disconnecting
• Camouflage mode, which disguises OpenVPN traffic as regular HTTPS on restrictive networks
• CleanWeb, which blocks ads, trackers, malicious sites and cookie pop ups

Privacy, logging and audits

Surfshark B.V. is registered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Dutch law has no mandatory data retention for VPNs, and Surfshark follows GDPR for all customers. The catch is that the Netherlands belongs to the Fourteen Eyes intelligence sharing alliance, which some privacy focused users will want to avoid. Since 2022 Surfshark has shared a parent company with NordVPN, although both say they run separate infrastructure.

The policy says Surfshark does not collect visited sites, browsing history, session information, bandwidth or traffic. A user ID and connection timestamp are processed during a session to manage unlimited connections and deleted within 15 minutes of disconnecting. Independent checks back this up:

Surfshark also publishes a quarterly transparency report. CNET notes that none of the roughly 350,000 requests received between April and June 2025 led to user data being handed over. Our main criticism is that the full Deloitte reports are only visible inside a Surfshark account rather than publicly. If jurisdiction is your top concern, our Proton VPN review covers a Swiss provider with open source apps.

Apps and devices

The headline feature is unlimited simultaneous devices, so phones, laptops, TVs and a router can all stay connected at once. Apps are clean and consistent across platforms, and the desktop app shows your protocol, kill switch, Bypasser and IP at a glance.

Split tunneling on Apple devices is rare, and it is a real advantage over NordVPN. Two small gaps: Windows dropped IKEv2 in 2025, and PCMag found that the Mac version downloaded from Surfshark's site lacks OpenVPN, which the App Store version includes. Setup on a Windows PC takes about a minute, as covered in our best VPN for PC guide.

Torrenting and P2P

Every Surfshark server supports P2P, so you never have to hunt for a torrenting category. In Cybernews torrent tests, Dausos was fastest at 25 MB/s but fluctuated, while WireGuard was nearly as quick at 24 MB/s and much steadier. Overall speed retention while torrenting averaged 78 percent. Bypasser lets you send only your torrent client through the VPN. As with NordVPN, there is no port forwarding, which matters to heavy seeders.

Extra features worth knowing

• Alternative ID creates a masked email address and a full fake persona for sign ups, on every plan
• Static IP servers are free, while a dedicated IP costs about $3.75 per month in 20 locations
• Alternative Number add on gives you a virtual phone number for services you do not trust
• Surfshark Antivirus on One plans scored 6/6 for protection from AV-TEST
• Alert on One plans warns you when your email, cards or ID appear in a data leak

Using Surfshark for travel and remote work

Surfshark is an easy travel companion. Hotel, airport and cafe Wi-Fi is often open, and the VPN encrypts banking, logins and work email on those networks. With servers in 100 countries and 19 US states, you can reach home streaming libraries and banking apps from abroad, and unlimited devices means a whole travelling family shares one plan.

For remote work, these features help the most:

• Auto connect on untrusted Wi-Fi starts the VPN before any traffic leaves your device
• Static or dedicated IPs keep the same address for company firewalls and fewer CAPTCHAs
• Bypasser keeps video calls or local printers outside the tunnel when needed
• LAN invisibility hides your laptop from other devices on shared networks

Travellers to heavily censored countries should treat Surfshark as a backup rather than a guarantee. Camouflage mode and NoBorders help, but results vary and change often. For open countries it works well; it is our top pick for expats in the best VPN for Japan guide.

Customer support

Support runs through 24/7 live chat and email, with no phone line. A bot answers first, but PCMag was handed to a human agent within seconds and got accurate troubleshooting steps. The help center is well organised, with setup guides for routers, TVs and consoles.