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Surfshark alternatives for people who bought it on price
Surfshark sells on two promises: unlimited devices, and a two-year price of about $53. Both are real. The parts that send people looking for an alternative arrive later — a renewal near $158 for the same two years, a parent company that also owns NordVPN, and a Netherlands base inside the Nine Eyes.
Surfshark scores 72 on this page's weighting, owned by Nord Security. Every pick below beats it on the things this page weighs.
Why people replace Surfshark
The cheap price was for the first term only
Two years at $53.73 renews at $158.16, and a single year at $47.85 renews at $79.08. Surfshark is still cheaper than most rivals after the rise, but a bill that triples is the single most common complaint we read in its App Store reviews, and it is why people go looking.
It is not an independent company
Nord Security has owned Surfshark since the 2022 merger, alongside NordPass, NordLocker and Incogni. Readers who chose Surfshark specifically as the scrappy alternative to NordVPN were choosing between two brands that already shared an owner.
Netherlands is inside the Nine Eyes
NordVPN sits in Panama; Surfshark sits in the Netherlands, which is a Nine Eyes participant. It has one Deloitte no-logs audit, and like Nord's, the report is not published in full. Both facts cost it points in our privacy scoring.
Streaming gaps and no port forwarding
Amazon Prime Video is inconsistent on Surfshark, and there is no port forwarding at all, which rules it out for anyone seeding torrents. NoBorders mode in China gets mixed reports rather than good ones.
Weights on this page: Privacy & trust 30% · Price & renewal 20% · Features 14% · App quality 12% · Streaming 10% · Censorship bypass 6% · Speed (our tests) 4% · Support & refunds 4%. Formula.
Canadian, founder-owned, with a generous free tier and unusually flexible pricing.
66
Owner
Windscribe Limited
Jurisdiction
Canada · Five Eyes
No-logs audit
None found
Price
from $5.75/mo
Runs oniOSAndroidMacWindowsLinuxRouterBrowserTV
The closest match to what Surfshark actually sells: unlimited simultaneous connections, a flat $69 a year that does not rise, port forwarding included, and a free tier generous enough to test the network before you pay. Independent and founder-run, so no conglomerate sits behind it.
Canada is Five Eyes, there is no published no-logs audit, and the refund window is three days rather than thirty.
Swiss, non-profit-controlled, open source, with the only free tier worth using.
78
Owner
Proton Foundation
Jurisdiction
Switzerland · Outside the alliances
No-logs audit
None — apps audited by Securitum, 2025
Price
from $4.49/mo
Runs oniOSAndroidMacWindowsLinuxRouterBrowserTV
The upgrade rather than the sideways move: non-profit Swiss control, open-source apps with published Securitum reports, port forwarding, and streaming that holds up across more services than Surfshark manages. Ten devices instead of unlimited, which for most households is enough.
Costs more than Surfshark at every term, and its two-year plan does rise at renewal.
Privacy & trust
73
Price & renewal
77
Features
98
App quality
68
Controlled by a Swiss non-profit foundation since 2024
All apps open source and independently audited
Free tier with no data cap and no ads
Renewal is higher than the intro price
Free tier cannot choose a country
Speeds trail NordVPN and ExpressVPN in most tests
Lab test pending — scored on public dataiOS app score 68/100 from 101,311 ratingsFull reviewVisit Proton VPN
Swiss-registered budget option with a 10 GB free tier; young, and thinly audited.
59
Owner
Privado Networks AG
Jurisdiction
Switzerland · Outside the alliances
No-logs audit
None found
Price
from $1.99/mo · ~$3.49/mo over 3 yrs after renewal
Runs oniOSAndroidMacWindowsLinuxRouterBrowserTV
The pick if the two-year intro price was the entire appeal. Swiss-registered and independent, with a 10 GB free tier that is among the most usable in this market, ten devices, and an intro price below Surfshark's.
No independent audit, no obfuscation and useless in China, and its renewal multiplies by about two and a half — the same trap you may be leaving.
Malaysia-based with a real free tier and no-logs audits; lesser known, decent value.
71
Owner
eVenture Ltd
Jurisdiction
Malaysia · Outside the alliances
No-logs audit
Securitum, 2023
Price
from $2.69/mo · renewal price unconfirmed
Runs oniOSAndroidMacWindowsLinuxRouterBrowserTV
The value option with an audit attached: Securitum checked the no-logs claim and the report is public, port forwarding and multi-hop are both included, and the free tier needs no registration at all. Ten devices, $59.95 a year.
A Malaysian company that publishes little about who owns it, and the long-plan renewal price is unconfirmed, so we score its true cost as unknown rather than guessing.
Privacy & trust
74
Price & renewal
67
Features
81
App quality
62
Free tier with no registration
Securitum no-logs audit
Port forwarding and multi-hop included
Smaller brand with fewer independent tests
Long-plan renewal price not confirmed
Ownership detail is thin
Lab test pending — scored on public dataiOS app score 62/100 from 7,560 ratingsFull reviewVisit hide.me
When to stay with Surfshark Stay with Surfshark if you are still inside the intro term and the unlimited-device promise is doing real work — a large household, a shared family plan, a dozen devices on one subscription. At the intro price it remains the cheapest mainstream VPN with this feature set, and the alternatives that match it on devices give up something else in exchange. The right moment to act is before the renewal date, not the day after the larger charge appears.
What you were actually promised
Surfshark’s pitch is unusually clear: connect everything you own, pay about $53 for two years. For a household with a TV, two phones, a console, three laptops and a tablet, that was the best deal in this market, and it still is inside the first term.
The problem is what the second term costs. $158.16 for the same two years is not a small adjustment; it is roughly three times the price, and it arrives on a card that has been quietly charged for two years. That is the single most common thing Surfshark users complain about in App Store reviews, and it is why “Surfshark alternatives” gets searched at all.
The ownership footnote
Surfshark merged with Nord Security in 2022. If you originally picked Surfshark because you did not want to give NordVPN your money, that reasoning stopped working four years ago. The NordVPN versus Surfshark comparison sets out how the two products differ; the ownership map shows what sits above them.
Jurisdiction differs, and it differs in Nord’s favour. Surfshark is a Netherlands company inside the Nine Eyes arrangement; NordVPN is Panamanian and outside every such grouping. For a provider selling on privacy, that is a real point against it.
What each alternative gives up
Windscribe matches the device promise and beats the price stability, and is independent — but Canada is Five Eyes and there is no no-logs audit to point at. It is a trade of jurisdiction for honesty about pricing.
Proton VPN is stronger on every privacy measure this site scores and weaker on the two things that sold Surfshark: it costs more and it caps you at ten devices. If your household really is under ten, that cap is not a cost at all.
PrivadoVPN is the cheapest way to keep spending less, with a Swiss base and a large free tier — and it repeats the pattern you may be escaping, with a renewal about two and a half times the intro and no audit yet.
hide.me is the one value pick here with a published no-logs audit, plus port forwarding and multi-hop that Surfshark does not offer. Its weakness is transparency about who owns the company.
There is no free swap. Every one of these fixes a specific Surfshark complaint and introduces a different one, which is why the reason you are leaving decides the answer.
The device count question
Before you rule anything out, count what is genuinely connected. “Unlimited” is a powerful word and most households never approach ten. If yours does not, the field opens up considerably and the strongest privacy options come back into play.
If yours genuinely does — a shared family plan, a house of five people, a lot of streaming hardware — then Windscribe is the direct replacement, and everything else on this page is a compromise.
Timing beats everything
The whole decision hinges on one date. Inside the intro term, Surfshark is excellent value and there is no urgency. Approaching renewal, it is an ordinary VPN at an ordinary price with a Nine Eyes address and one unpublished audit.
Find the date, disable auto-renew, and use the free tiers in the meantime. Nobody should pay $158 by accident.
iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, Router, Browser, TV
iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, Router, Browser, TV
iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, Router, Browser, TV
iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, TV · not Router, Browser
Devices
Unlimited
Unlimited
10
10
Countries
100
69
117
48
WireGuard
✓
✓
✓
✓
Kill switch
✓
✓
✓
✓
Obfuscation
✓
✓
✓
✗
RAM-only servers
✓
?
?
?
Open-source apps
✗
✓
✓
✗
Split tunnelling
✓
✓
✓
✓
Multi-hop
✓
✗
✓
✗
Port forwarding
✗
✓
✓
✗
Ad blocker
✓
✓
✓
✓
P2P allowed
✓
✓
✓
✓
Free tier
✗
✓
✓
✓
Netflix
Works
Works
Works
Works
BBC iPlayer
Works
Works
Works
Unreliable
Works in China
Unreliable
Unreliable
Unreliable
Blocked
Works in UAE
Works
Works
Works
Unreliable
Cash / crypto
crypto
crypto
cash, crypto
No
Live chat
✓
✗
✓
✓
iOS app score
66/100 (4.7★)
70/100 (4.6★)
68/100 (4.6★)
51/100 (4.0★)
Our lab test
Pending
Pending
Pending
Pending
How to switch without paying twice
Write down the renewal date and amount todaySurfshark's renewal is where the value disappears: roughly $158 for a second two-year term against $53.73 for the first. Everything else in this decision follows from whether that date is close.
Count the devices you actually connectUnlimited is the reason most people choose Surfshark, and most households use four to eight connections. If your real number is under ten, Proton VPN and hide.me are open to you and the unlimited constraint disappears.
Try the free tiers before paying anythingWindscribe, PrivadoVPN, hide.me and Proton VPN all have free tiers. Between them you can test speed and streaming from your own connection for a week without spending a cent.
Cancel in the place you actually bought itA subscription bought in the iOS app is cancelled in Apple's settings, not in the Surfshark dashboard. Cancelling in the wrong place is the reason people are billed after they believed they had left.
Reconnect the household before you delete anythingSet the new provider up on the router or on each device while the old subscription still runs. With unlimited devices you probably have a TV, a console and someone else's laptop on it that you have forgotten about.
Frequently asked questions
Is Surfshark owned by NordVPN?
They share an owner. Nord Security merged with Surfshark in 2022, and the group also includes NordPass, NordLocker and Incogni. The brands still run separately with separate apps and support, and both continue to publish comparison pages against each other without mentioning the relationship.
What is the best Surfshark alternative with unlimited devices?
Windscribe. It allows unlimited simultaneous connections, costs a flat $69 a year with no renewal jump, includes port forwarding, and is independently owned. The trade-offs are Canadian jurisdiction and no published no-logs audit.
Is there a cheaper VPN than Surfshark?
On the intro price, PrivadoVPN is cheaper. Over three years, Mullvad at a flat $5.40 a month and IVPN at $60 a year both end up cheaper than Surfshark once its renewal lands, because neither has a renewal step at all.
Why does my Surfshark bill keep going up?
Because the advertised price is an intro rate for the first term only. The second two-year term is around $158.16 against $53.73 for the first, and the yearly plan goes from $47.85 to $79.08. Nothing about the service changes; the discount simply stops.
Does Surfshark work with Amazon Prime Video?
Inconsistently, based on user reports rather than our own testing. Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+ and Hulu are reported as working; Prime Video is the one that fails often enough to be worth naming. Proton VPN is the more reliable pick if Prime Video is the reason you subscribe.
