- Jurisdiction
- Netherlands (nine eyes)
- Founded
- 2018
- Owner
- Surfshark B.V.
- Best price
- $1.99/mo
- Devices
- unlimited
- Free tier
- No
Best for
- · Households (unlimited devices)
- · Budget buyers
- · Streaming and travel
Not ideal for
- · Open-source advocates (closed apps)
- · Anonymous signup
- · Avoiding 9-Eyes jurisdictions
Strengths
- ✓Unlimited simultaneous connections
- ✓Cheap multi-year pricing (~$2/mo)
- ✓RAM-only servers; Deloitte no-logs audit
- ✓Obfuscation and multi-hop included
Weaknesses
- ✗Netherlands sits within the 9 Eyes alliance
- ✗Apps are not open source
- ✗Email required; no cash payment
- ✗Now under the same parent as NordVPN (less brand diversity)
Protocols & encryption
The tunnelling protocols this service offers and the cryptography behind them.
WireGuard
ModernA modern, lean protocol (~4,000 lines of code) that is fast and easy to audit. Its cryptography is fixed and state-of-the-art, with no weak options to misconfigure.
- Data cipher
- ChaCha20-Poly1305
- Key exchange
- Curve25519 (ECDH)
- Integrity
- BLAKE2s
OpenVPN
TrustedThe mature, widely-trusted open-source standard. Flexible and heavily audited over two decades, though slower than WireGuard.
- Data cipher
- AES-256-GCM
- Key exchange
- RSA-4096 / ECDH
- Integrity
- SHA-256 / SHA-512 HMAC
IKEv2 / IPsec
TrustedA fast, stable protocol that reconnects quickly when you change networks, so it is popular on mobile. Built natively into most operating systems.
- Data cipher
- AES-256-GCM
- Key exchange
- Diffie-Hellman (ECP)
- Integrity
- SHA-256 / SHA-384
- Stated data cipher
- ChaCha20 / AES-256
- Stated handshake
- Curve25519
- Perfect forward secrecy
- Yes
- Post-quantum resistant
- Yes
- RAM-only servers
- Yes
- Kill switch
- Yes
- First-party DNS (leak protection)
- Yes
- IPv6
- Unknown
Post-quantum: WireGuard hardened with NIST-selected Kyber/ML-KEM (hybridized with Curve25519 + pre-shared key), enabled by default; proprietary Dausos protocol (macOS) also uses post-quantum crypto with AEGIS-256X2.
Full data sheet
Every attribute we track, coloured by whether it helps or hurts your privacy.
| Based in | Netherlands |
| Eyes alliance | 9 Eyes |
| Enemy of the Internet | No |
| Owner | Surfshark B.V. |
| Conglomerate | Nord Security |
| Founded | 2018 |
| Traffic / activity | None kept |
| DNS requests | None kept |
| Timestamps | None kept |
| Bandwidth | None kept |
| Source IP address | None kept |
No-logs policy audited by Deloitte (ISAE 3000) in 2025; the entire fleet is RAM-only.
| Anonymous signup | No |
| Accepts cash | No |
| Accepts crypto | Yes |
| PGP key | Unknown |
| OpenVPN | Yes |
| WireGuard | Yes |
| Proprietary protocol | n/a |
| Multi-hop | Yes |
| Obfuscation | Yes |
| Kill switch | Yes |
| First-party DNS | Yes |
| RAM-only servers | Yes |
| Port forwarding | Unknown |
| P2P / torrenting | Unknown |
| IPv6 | Unknown |
| Data cipher | ChaCha20 / AES-256 |
| Handshake | Curve25519 |
| Open-source clients | No |
| Independent audits | 2 |
| Transparency report | Yes |
| Court / seizure-tested | Unknown |
| Simultaneous devices | Unlimited |
| Countries | 100 |
| Servers | n/a |
| Linux support | GUI app |
| Month-to-month | $15.45 |
| Best $/mo | $1.99 |
| On plan | 2-year (Starter) |
| Free trial | n/a |
| Refund window | 30 days |
| Free tier | No |
| Logging policy | Consistent |
| Marketing honesty | No overclaiming |
Independent audits
- Deloitte· 2025 · no-logs (ISAE 3000)
- Cure53· 2021 · apps + infrastructure
Merged under Nord Security's parent company in Feb 2022 but runs separate infrastructure and audit cycles.
Sources
- Security.org, Surfshark review ↗
- Surfshark vs NordVPN (official, merger + 2025 audit) ↗
- Surfshark (official) ↗
Last verified 2026-06-17. Point-in-time data, so always confirm on the provider's own site.