In this article, I am going to present you with my SurfsharkVPN review and talk in-depth about its features.
What is a VPN?
VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a private network that works across public networks, in simple terms, a VPN connects your device through the internet by routing you through a server this help in increasing web security and privacy. VPN works as a private tunnel between your computer and the Internet which passes through a server, that server is located in some other country. No one even not your ISP can know about your surfing, whatever you are doing over the web is only up to you.
How VPN works?
The VPN service changes your IP address with the server (IP address of some other country, where the server is located), so when you visit any site using VPN your changed IP address is being received by that site, and which means you are in that country but in actual you are not. For example: – If you are in Russia and using a VPN service of the USA, so if you visit any site your IP address will tell your location somewhere in Russia.
Why VPN is necessary?
VPN (Virtual Private Network) is necessary to secure your online privacy. Isn’t it awkward if you get to know that someone is spying on you, whatever you do over the Internet is being tracked and recorded by someone, this is cheap and awful? But many of the leading organizations even our government, our ISPs keep an eye on us always. Nothing is secret in the world of the Internet. If you need to protect your privacy, so you should use a VPN service. How cheap it will be when you are using some platform over the Internet to consult with a doctor, you need to protect your privacy that’s why you used the Internet, but here also everything is been recorded. Similarly, we have various doubts which cannot be asked of anyone and we search them on the Internet but here people are spying on us, that’s why you need a VPN.
Surfshark VPN
SurfsharkVPN is one of the most renowned and trusted VPN providers in the game. They have over 3,200 servers globally and have the most advanced encryption which makes SurfsharkVPN very secure and reliable. It also has features like Kill Switch and Split Tunneling which just adds more to the service.
SurfsharkVPN Review
Setting Up Process
First things first, setting up Surfshark VPN in India takes some extra steps, you just can’t simply download SurfsharkVPN from the Google Play Store or App Store. You will have to go to their official website, then tap/click on ‘Get Surfshark VPN’, choose a plan, create an account, complete payments, then, you can use the app for different platforms. For other countries, you can just simply go to the Google Play Store or App Store to download the app and then use it. You see the setup process has some steps and I had to follow them too. After logging in with my account, I had to download the APK file for my Android smartphone by tapping on ‘Apps & extensions’. I installed the app, logged in with my account and that was it. On the welcome screen, you have the button which reads, ‘CONNECT’, you just have to tap it and it automatically connects you to the fastest server. As soon as you tap on CONNECT, you get connected to the fastest VPN. In my case, it often connected me to a different state in my same country which is not very useful when you have to bypass country restrictions. So you have the option to connect to other countries’ servers as well, by tapping on ‘Locations’ in the bottom menu. By tapping on Locations, you can connect via a lot of different countries. The feature I liked the most is ‘MULTIHOP’, which connects you via two different servers from two different locations. I personally prefer to use the US for my use and my location was listed and easy to find on the list. In terms of setting up, it is not one of the most fun parts, but after the setup, it’s a smooth sail.
Speed Loss and Battery Usage
Speed Loss is a real thing when it comes to using VPN and what you want is a low-speed loss when using a VPN. So I performed a speed test without VPN and with SurfsharkVPN and I share the results below: As you can see from the figures above, I saw a drop of 35% in my download speed and a drop of 41% in my upload speed when I was connected to the US servers. This makes the average speed loss of about 38% and after conducting multiple tests, the average speed loss was about 35% which is actually a bit disappointing. Also, a lot of people have concerns related to significant battery loss when they use a VPN. Well, in my case I didn’t see any drastic battery drain when I used SurfsharkVPN.
Features
Kill Switch: This feature blocks internet connection automatically when the system’s connection is not connected to the VPN. Whitelister: This feature is very useful for apps that work on geolocation like banking apps. If you take the example of India, several apps won’t work if you are outside of India. With this feature, SurfsharkVPN will bypass and turn off for such apps. Unlimited Simultaneous Connections: This is one of the features that sets SurfsharkVPN from every other competitor in the town. You can have unlimited simultaneous connections via SurfsharkVPN. MultiHop(aka Double VPN): Double VPN enables you to connect via two different VPN servers. Most of the time, these are located in different countries. As an example, make your VPN connection even more secure and private by connecting through Canada and Germany, instead of just a Canadian server.
Streaming Services Optimization
I also use VPN to access movie downloading sites and for that SurfsharkVPN did a pretty good job although I faced a few quality issues because of the speed loss.
Gaming Performance
The gaming performance using SurfsharkVPN was surprisingly good I would say. As all of you would know that it is really important to have low ping or latency while gaming. Low ping means better and smoother gameplay. Using the SurfsharkVPN, my pings didn’t go that much high and my gameplay was mostly smooth so yeah in terms of gaming performance, I would say that SurfsharkVPN really impressed me. Obviously, the pings were high when I used VPN compared to when I didn’t use it but it didn’t annoy me much for the most part.
Security
SurfsharkVPN comes under the jurisdiction of the British Virgin Islands which is a British overseas territory. That means its sovereign state in the United Kingdom. The UK has some good privacy protection laws which makes ideal place and the Data Protection Act of 2018 states that everyone responsible for using personal data has to follow strict rules called ‘data protection principles’. When it comes to security, SurfsharkVPN uses the most advanced 256-bit AES encryption. So to give you an idea, a hacker will have to use 2^256 unique combinations to crack a 256-bit encrypted message and it is hypothetically impossible.
Compatibility
In terms of compatibility, I would say that it lies somewhere in the middle as it offers compatibility with pretty much all the major OS like iOS, Android, macOS, Linux, and Windows, and offers extensions for Chrome and Firefox. It also supports Fire TV and Android TV. So in terms of compatibility, it is decent enough.
Pricing
In terms of pricing, I would say that SurfsharkVPN offers one of the best pricing and the plans are listed below: 1-Month Plan: This will cost you INR 944.72 which is roughly about USD 12.95. 6-Months Plan: This will cost you about INR 2,840 which is INR 473.45 per month and will be around USD 38.99 for a 6-month plan and will cost USD 6.50 per month effectively. 2-Year Plan: This will cost you about INR 4359.57 which is INR 181.65 per month and will be around USD 59.80 for a 2-year plan and will cost USD 2.49 per month effectively. So the best plan which will save you good money is the 2-year plan and the amount is worth the services that they are providing.
