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In this Stellar Data Recovery review, we’ve examined every aspect of one of the best data recovery software programs in the world. Stellar Data Recovery is a popular data restoration application, around for more than two decades now.

It claims to help you recover lost or deleted files across various formats and devices. However, has the application evolved enough to fit modern data recovery needs? We’ve carried out detailed testing of the Stellar Data Recovery platform, highlighting its best features, pricing, installation and hands-on experience.

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Stellar Data Recovery: Plans & pricing

(Image credit: Stellar Data Recovery)

You get three plans to choose from, starting with the Standard plan costing $59.99 per year. This is the base plan, which allows you to recover lost, formatted, and deleted data from any storage media.

After this is the Professional plan at $89.99 per year, which also facilitates lost partition recovery, data recovery from unbootable systems, RAW hard drives, and damaged optical disks beyond basic recovery in the Standard plan.

The highest-tier plan is the Premium one, costing $99.99 per year, which, in addition to everything in the Professional plan, also allows you to repair corrupt videos and photos and extract thumbnails of images. All three plans can also be bought for a lifetime, costing $99, $149, and $199, respectively.

Besides this, you also get a limited free plan you can use to try out the product before committing to a purchase. It lets you recover 1GB of data, which is less than what EaseUS allows (2GB).

Stellar Data Recovery: Features

(Image credit: Stellar)

Stellar offers data recovery apps for Windows, Mac, iPhone, and Android – Linux is not supported yet. It supports a wide range of devices such as hard drives, SSDs, USB sticks, SD cards, external drives, and more.

However, I didn't find its supported file systems on its official product page. Only after digging into its documentation did we find that Stellar supports APFS, HFS+, HFS, along with NTFS, FAT (including FAT16 and FAT32), and exFAT.

Stellar also supports custom file types, allowing you to add raw file formats. You can upload a few files of the same format, and the software detects the file structure and extracts signature patterns to find similar files in your desired location. Alternatively, you can manually define the file extension, header, and footer, which allows Stellar to scan their binary structure and find byte patterns.

(Image credit: Future)

Saying that Stellar offers forensic-level data recovery would be an overkill. However, it does try to get close to such software through its byte-to-byte disk backup and restoration, which it calls disk imaging and recovery. This allows you to generate an image of an entire or a specific range of the hard disk, partition, or volume to recover data from it.

Instead of working directly on the storage device or drive, Stellar lets you perform recovery operations on this image file, reducing the risk of further damage. This comes in handy in case of failing hard drives and prevents permanent data loss.

Additionally, you can also scan encrypted storage as well as FileVault on Macs. Simply provide the password to unlock the drive for recovery.

Scanning

Stellar gives you two options: quick scan and deep scan, with a dedicated toggle button that you can select before starting the process. I chose the quick scan mode to scan an external NVMe hard disk, which took more than 25 minutes to complete, which is way longer than some competitors. As the scan goes on, you can see the list of all folders on your disk, as well as a dedicated file list that divides the data based on file type.

(Image credit: Future)

However, you cannot view the list of deleted items until the scan is complete, which is a bit disappointing. Competitors like EaseUS allow you to recover data while the scan is being run in the background. With Stellar, you have to wait until the scan is complete to be able to recover data.

That said, one good thing about Stellar is that it allows you to pause scans and resume them later. This comes in handy when you are scanning a bulky disk or working on an extended data recovery project.

(Image credit: Future)

Also, the software doesn’t consume a lot of CPU resources. The usage averaged 7-10% while the scans were running, which is pretty modest for a data recovery app.

Stellar Data Recovery: Installation and in-use experience

Installing Stellar is pretty simple. You'll find the free download button on its main website. Click on it and install the .exe file that downloads. Hit “Next” a few times and then click on “Finish” once the installation process is done. The whole process takes about 3 to 5 minutes, and the app launches as soon as installation is done.

(Image credit: Future)

The main interface is pretty modern, where you will find a list of all connected devices, physical disks, and common location addresses for you to recover data from. Since we had hooked up our external hard drive, we selected that location and ran a quick scan, which was a slow process as iterated above.

(Image credit: Future)

Now, the “pause” and “stop” features offered by Stellar are a bit buggy. If you click on “pause”, there is no way for you to go back to the main screen and scan any other drive. You must complete one particular scan first.

And if you click on “stop”, you will have to re-scan the whole drive from scratch the next time. Even if you want to recover a small 10 MB file, you will have to wait for the entire scanning process to complete before you can do that.

There’s also a bit of a learning curve involved with the software, which isn't ideal for beginners.

Stellar Data Recovery: How we tested

I first installed the free version of EaseUS on my Windows 11 system, with 16GB of RAM and a 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-12500H processor.

To test Stellar’s data recovery capability, I first downloaded an album of Mozart's music from the Internet Archive, which consisted of 22 files – 13 JPG files, 4 PNG files, 2 MP3 files, 2 FLAC files, and 1 torrent file. I copied this folder onto a 1.36 TB NTFS hard drive and connected it to my Windows 11 system.

I then deleted this folder and emptied the Recycle Bin. After this, I ran a scan with Stellar to find and recover the folder. Although the scan took longer than expected, Stellar was able to recover all the files in question.

Stellar Data Recovery: Support

Stellar Data Recovery users have access to phone, live chat, and online ticket support. Phone support is available worldwide, but only in English. We tested the live chat briefly and were connected with a friendly, knowledgeable agent within a minute.

There are also a few different self-help options available. The FAQ section provides simple answers to common questions, and the comprehensive knowledge base contains excellent step by step instructions on how to perform basic tasks like data recovery as well as helpful information like which file formats are supported by preview.

Stellar Data Recovery: The competition

There are numerous alternatives to Stellar Data Recovery which could better fit your needs. For example, the Ashampoo Undeleter is significantly cheaper (just $14.99 for a lifetime license) and is great for simple file recovery.

Data Rescue 5 is a more expensive alternative (starting at a $99 one-off payment for five recovery drives), but it comes with a selection of powerful features comparable to those of Stellar Data Recovery.

Stellar Data Recovery: Final verdict

Overall, Stellar does a pretty good job at its core function, which is recovering deleted or lost files. While the app experience is a bit buggy and scans take longer than expected, Stellar still offers decent value for money, considering you can get an annual plan for $59.99.

Features like disk imaging and recovery, which facilitate byte-to-byte disk backup and recovery, and the ability to pause and resume scans are an absolute win. The software is also not heavy on your computing resources, allowing you to go about your work while scans run in the background. All in all, Stellar Data Recovery stands as a reliable and well-rounded data recovery solution.

Check out the best free data recovery software and the best data recovery services.

How we tested Surfshark

There are two parts to our Surfshark review testing: lab testing and real world user experience. We do this to combine objectivity and subjectivity in our VPN reviews.

When I talk about “we” in this review, I’m referring to how Surfshark has performed in our VPN lab testing, as undertaken by TechRadar’s VPN Technical Editor, Mike Williams.

When I say that “I” did something in this review, I’m referring to me, Dan Sung, Editor in Chief of VPN at TechRadar, and I’m offering real world examples and insights from what I’ve learned using this product over many months.

Read more about our Surfshark testing methodology below▼

Surfshark review scores

Below is a breakdown of our Surfshark review scores for each category of testing. Click on the links in the Comments column for a deeper read on our thoughts.

Category

Score

Comments

Total

85 / 100

Excellent value with plenty of feature choice. One of the best value VPNs available. Read more ▼

Price plans & value

10 / 10

Surfshark is the best cheap VPN available. Choose the Surfshark One tier, which includes a full antivirus product, for the best value price plan. Read more ▼

Features

10 / 10

Surfshark’s Alternative ID fake profile feature is one of many useful in-app products in this very well put together VPN. Read more ▼

Server network

9 / 10

Surfshark is slightly lower on server locations than some but its global reach is excellent and the Nexus infrastructure brings huge network benefits. Read more ▼

Read all of Surfshark's review scores ▼

Privacy

9 / 10

Surfshark has very high standards of privacy and extensive privacy features. This is only slightly tarnished by its choice of jurisdiction. Read more ▼

Security

9 / 10

Surfshark scores well for security thanks to its built-in antivirus and its near-flawless kill switch. Its PQE could be more developed though. Read more ▼

Speed

8 / 10

Still the fastest VPN at full tilt but the connection is less consistent than others, and speeds are more average using distant servers. Read more ▼

Unblocking streams

7 / 10

Surfshark unblocks Netflix libraries, Disney Plus, Prime Video and BBC iPlayer but it struggles with some niche streaming services where rival VPNs don't. Read more ▼

P2P & Torrenting

4 / 5

Torrenting is solid and seamless with Surfshark but there's no help from the company itself on how to do it. There's no port forwarding either. Read more ▼

Apps & Compatibility

5 / 5

Surfshark has excellent apps covering all modern platforms. Its iOS app is uncommonly good; iPhone users should definitely consider Surfshark. Read more ▼

Usability

4 / 5

Surfshark is easy on the eye and a pleasure to use. Any quibbles we have on the kill switch toggle are really very minor. Read more ▼

Accessibility

2 / 5

Surfshark is a reasonable choice for partially sighted users but there are better VPNs for accessibility. Language support is average and keyboard-only access is poor. Read more ▼

Customer support

4 / 5

Surfshark has excellent customer service. Its support site is one of the best out there its live chat and email channels bring timely solutions. Read more ▼

Track record

4 / 5

Surfshark has a clean record for data breaches. It passed a no-logs audit in 2025 but that ought to be repeated annually, and we'd like apps and infrastructure audits, too. Read more ▼

Surfshark price plans

• Surfshark starts at $1.99 per month and is the best cheap VPN.
• Surfshark One is the best value of the three plans.
• Surfshark is the only premium VPN company with a 7-day free trial.

Surfshark normally starts at $1.99 per month, which is an excellent price for a top VPN, but there are actually three different Surfshark plans to choose from – Starter, One and One+.

This week, Surfshark is offering TechRadar readers exclusive access to its lowest-ever price. That means you can pick up a 2-year deal for just $1.78 a month, bringing the total cost for 28 months protection to less than $50.

You can sign up for just 1 month, 1 year or 2 years. Obviously, the longer you commit to, the cheaper the price you can get.

Whichever you choose, you get unlimited device connections, i.e. you can install a Surfshark app on as many different devices as you like on a single Surfshark account. There is a fair usage policy you can read on this but you'll be fine with 10-15, or even more devices, unless they’re all on, constantly, and downloading all the time.

Read more about Surfshark's price plans ▼

Even so, this unlimited connections policy is rare among the top VPNs and, for many, a good reason to choose it if you find the 10 device connections of NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Proton VPN, for example, not enough for your needs.

Like all VPNs, though, you do have to pay the total price for the entire length of and Surfshark plan upfront. The graph below is a good comparison of the total cost of each of the best VPN services we recommend at TechRadar.

Do be warned that unlike all other VPN companies (apart from NordVPN) Surfshark adds local tax to its advertised prices at checkout. So, if you’re in the UK, for example, you’ll have to pay VAT on top. And, of course, remember that these prices will fluctuate over the year.

Total price of each Surfshark plan (without tax)

Surfshark Starter

Surfshark One

Surfshark One+

1-month total price

$15.45

$17.95

$20.85

1-year total price

$47.85

$50.85

$94.35

2-year total price

$53.73

$67.23

$113.13

Surfshark is considerably cheaper than its biggest rivals. NordVPN’s cheapest 2-year plan is about 50% more expensive than Surfshark's. ExpressVPN Basic is nearly twice the price!

The table above shows the total prices for each Surfshark tier and plan length.

What sticks out to us from these totals are two things. First, the 1-month prices are terrible. Given Surfshark has a 7-day free trial, we’d advise you to sign up for a week instead and decide in that time if you want to commit for longer. Then, either go for the one or two-year plan.

The second, and more obvious, point on value is that the two-year plans are pretty tempting. You get the second year of Surfshark Starter, for example, for less than $10. That’s pretty compelling at that band, but arguably, it’s not quite as good for Surfshark One with the extra year only effectively half-price.

Per month cost of the three Surfshark plans

Surfshark Starter

Surfshark One

Surfshark One+

1-month price

$15.45/month

$17.95/month

$20.85/month

1-year price

$3.19/month

$3.39/month

$6.29/month

2-year price

$1.99/month

$2.49/month

$4.19/month

In other words, there's little point in going for 1-year Starter plan when the 2-year version isn't much more, but there's a decent argument for only shelling out for 12 months of Surfshark One.

If you’re looking for a real value proposition, though, it’s in the difference between Surfshark Starter and Surfshark One on the 1-year contract – just a couple of bucks, really which feels like a real no-brainer. There’s no point in going for the 1-year Starter when you can pick up Surfshark’s antivirus and ID breach alerts with the One plan instead.

Above is a table of the price per month for each Surfshark plan which is a slightly easier way to appreciate the value offer of each one.

There are cheaper VPNs out there – PrivadoVPN ($1.11) is a good option – but Surshark is an undeniable pound-for-pound sweet spot for price and features.

Score: 10/10

Features: What can Surfshark do?

• Alternative ID is a superb email and postal address protection tool.
• Surfshark is one of very few VPNs with a full antivirus included.
• ID breach alerts didn't spot my leaked credit card information.

Don’t be fooled by the price. Surfshark Starter is a very well stocked bundle.

Alongside the VPN product itself, the most significant feature is CleanWeb. It’s a catch-all name for Surfshark’s advert and cookie consent pop-up blocking system which aims to allow you to surf the web in relative peace.

I've used similar systems from competitors, like NordVPN’s Threat Protection and Proton VPN’s NetShield. You can read more about CleanWeb in the Privacy section of this review.

Margarito Philip Leland – my Surfshark Alternative ID profile. Easy to edit. Ready to copy and paste. Available on all Surfshark plans. (Image credit: Future Publishing)

Alternative ID is an important feature to pay attention to. Other VPN providers, such as Proton VPN, offer fake email addresses that will front for your own while still allowing emails to get through.

Read more about Surfshark's features ▼

You get a randomly generated email address – to use to fill out online forms, or give to people you don’t like, or whatever your need – and it automatically forwards any mail it receives to your real email address. You then cut it off and generate another email alias when you’re done with receiving whatever marketing mail it’s now attracted.

Proton offers this too but Surfshark takes it further.

Alternative ID is, in fact, a broader ID. It’s a name, postal address, email and even phone number (US only) to plug in online and stop scammers, spammers, and everyone else seeing your real details.

Right now, for example, I’m Margarito Philip Leland of 21 North 28th Ave East, Duluth, Minnesota, DOB 07/26/2005. Don’t bother trying to contact me because I’ll have ditched this ID by the time you're reading this article.

Surfshark Starter

Surfshark One

Surfshark One+

VPN

✅

✅

✅

Ad blocker

✅

✅

✅

Cookie pop-up blocker

✅

✅

✅

Alternative ID

✅

✅

✅

Search

❌

✅

✅

Web content blocker

❌

✅

✅

ID breach alerts

❌

✅

✅

Antivirus

❌

✅

✅

Email scam checker

❌

✅

✅

Incogni data removal

❌

❌

✅

Identity theft coverage

❌

❌

✅

I had a go at manually editing my Alternative ID persona. There are 10 email domains to choose from with options from the US, France, South Korea and Armenia, but I found I could write anything I wanted as the first part of the address.

For postal mail, the options I got were Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Germany Portugal and the US. Name and DOB can both be anything you want.

It's a great feature for signing up to services, giving to online stores and registering with news websites without having to worry about the spam. There's a handy quick-copy area on the homepage of the Surfshark app too which made filling in online forms all the faster. There's really very little not to love about it.

The only sad part is that the Alt number part is only in beta right now. It’s also only available in the States and you can’t use it to receive SMS verification codes, sadly, either. Still, I look forward to testing it out once it arrives in Europe.

Surfshark One

If you’re after antivirus too, then it’s time to step up to Surfshark One. PIA and Norton are the only other VPNs we recommend to have a full antivirus built-in along with the VPN.

NordVPN's Threat Protection Pro does have some AV features but it won't scan any apps and files you download, install, and use in real-time – and put a halt to any funny business before it’s too late – like Surfshark will.

The Surfshark antivirus ran daily scans of my entire device when I enabled it, and you can set to have it done at any time of day of your choosing. For obvious reasons, I opted for the dead of night.

You can toggle off either of these scans, and you can even opt out of scans of your storage drives, too.

None of these put our mobile battery life under any particular noticeable stress. With the real-time protection only kicking in when we installed apps and our daily scan set to nighttime when the phone was plugged in anyway, the extra processes were never a burden.

The clean look and feel of Surfshark Search – no sponsored links, no ads, just the search results you're looking for. Available with Surfshark One and One+. (Image credit: Future Publishing)

You can select to exclude certain apps if they keep pulling up false positives but it wasn't something I found I needed to do.

Surfshark One allows you to take the CleanWeb theme a little further with the Web Content Blocker tool, launched in October 2025. Still in beta, it still worked like a charm when I tried it.

It's very similar to Windscribe's content blocker. You choose from a list of eight different kinds of questionable content and decide what you don't want to be accessible through your browser. That includes adult sites, gambling, tobacco and vaping, hate and profanity, and others, as well as sites hosting phishing, scams, and malware.

What's really nice is that I was able to use it as a way of blocking access to these sites on my kids' phones without having to get involved with the often expensive and generally not particularly parental control apps.

That works because Web Content Blocker can be set up differently for each device you have and because you get unlimited devices connected to a single Surfshark account. I also really like that you don't have to have the VPN on to have Web Content Blocker activated, because I don't want the VPN masking my kids' browsing habits from me either.

The menu of content you can prevent access to with Surfshark's new web content blocker tool. (Image credit: Future Publishing)

Surfshark also launched Email Scam Checking for One (and One+) plans at a similar time. The tool uses AI to scan your emails for signs of a scam and flags any concerns found. Right now, it's only available for Gmail, but Surfshark is planning to extend support for the tool in future.

Lastly, and definitely not least, is Surfshark’s own private search engine. It's a super-clean, advert and sponsored results-free experience. Apart from the fact that it didn’t rank TechRadar very high for the term ‘Surfshark review’, I loved using it.

you can search without seeing a single ad, with no cookies or trackers, and Surfshark promises that it won't store anything about your search habits

You can choose any search location you like from a list of about 40 different countries without seeing a single ad, with no cookies or trackers, and Surfshark promises that it won't store anything about your search habits. ‘The real incognito mode’ is how it describes itself. I found it useful for comparing prices of clothing between the US and UK.

It’s actually quite refreshing and a bit of a reminder of what search looked like back in the day. It’s pretty amazing to realise what all of Google’s small changes have done to its experience over time, in comparison, but that’s a discussion for another place.

Honestly, it would take a bit of a push for me to use Surfshark's search all the time – it's hard to break the habit of the last 25 years – but with tabs for Web, Images and Videos only and gloriously uncluttered results, I'll certainly make the effort every now and then.

ID breach alerts

Alerts is a section unto itself in the Surfshark app. It's available in Surfshark One and One+ but I wanted to draw special attention to it because of something that happened while I was writing this review. More on that in a moment

Alerts (or 'ID breach alerts' as you'll find it called in the literature) scans the internet for any data breaches featuring your email addresses, credit card numbers and ID numbers too. It felt a bit strange handing over my info to Surfshark so that it could run those checks but the company promises that it doesn’t retain it.

Now, here's the interesting thing: chance had it that I was the victim of an attempted scam as I was writing this very section. I got a phone call from someone very convincingly pretending to be my credit card provider. They knew my card details, my name, my home address and clearly my phone number too.

They knew my card details, my name, my home address and clearly my phone number too.

They claimed to be from the fraud department and were questioning two transactions apparently made on my card in the UAE for around 27,000 Dirhams, and was I aware of them? Clearly I was not. So, the well spoken operator said they would then refund the amount to my account.

He asked me to open the app where I'd see a request for the refund. I opened the app. There was a request. But it was not for a refund. It was to make a payment of 27,000 Dirhams, about £5000.

"Press Confirm," they said.

"This is asking me to confirm a payment," I replied.

"No, this is the refund. Press confirm."

"No. It says 'payment'. I don't trust you."

They hung up.

I froze my card. I contacted my issuer and, I'm still shaking a bit at how close I just came to being defrauded. With stories about different UK retail stores getting hacked popping up every week, perhaps it's of little surprise.

My compromised credit card showing as 'no leaks found' according to the Surfshark Alert credit card monitoring system. Not a feature that's worked for me. Available with Surfshark One and One+. (Image credit: Future Publishing)

I'm also a little bit scared about my details too, and I'm pretty glad I'm writing reviews about products like Surfshark and that I've got the tools to help deal with this.

So, with that in mind, I put this particular bank card's details into Surfshark's credit card monitoring system. Sadly, Surfshark Alerts said No Leaks Found after scanning for a breach of this information. Hopefully, it will register it as exposed in the coming months but it's been a few weeks and I've seen no change yet.

It doesn't mean that Alerts doesn't work. It's very possible that my information was hacked and not exposed on the internet. It's just a pity that Alerts wasn't able to help in this instance.

If you're looking for a VPN for a very complete set of privacy and security features, then Surfshark is a great option

Alerts did a lot better with my email address. When I put in my general junky email, used for online forms and shops and such – where was Alternative ID when I needed it years ago – I was unsurprised to see 25 leak alerts. Thanks Adobe, DuoLingo, Last.fm, Houzz, Kickstarter MyFitnessPal and a bunch of other sites and services that are lucky I don’t have time to name and shame.

Surfshark detailed what was leaked of mine in each breach and then makes recommendations of what to do next. Probably a good idea to do what it says but, quite honestly, with 25 breaches do deal with, there just isn't enough time in the day. Hopefully, I'll be able to lower that number with every update of this page.

Surfshark One+

Top of the Surfshark price plan tree is Surfshark One+ which adds the Incogni which is designed to prevent the misuse of your personal data online.

If Alerts is your data health examination, then Incogni aims to be the cure. It's a data removal service which is currently only available in the US, UK, Canada, EU and Switzerland because of legal reasons. Those reasons are that, in those regions, data brokers are legally required to remove your details from their records when asked. And that’s what Incogni does on your behalf.

I’ve definitely noticed getting less spam in that time

I’ve actually been lucky enough to use Incogni on a long-term test now for over two years and apart from the odd email report, there’s not much visible that actually happens. I’ve definitely noticed getting less spam in that time but part of that has also been down to being more careful what I sign up for and whether I’m using my real ID or not.

Ultimately, it’s really difficult to evaluate and I wish I could give better advice here given that it's over 60% extra on top of the Surfshark One price.

Thankfully, you can also get up to $1 million in identity theft coverage if you get a One+ plan in the US. A bit like Incogni, it's difficult to tangibly assess the benefits of this without having my identity stolen, but it certainly adds value to the plan, given the massive price jump from a One plan.

While the effectiveness of all of Surfshark's tools is not crystal clear, it's obvious by looking at the VPN feature comparison table that customers get lots of them to use, more so than most other VPN service providers.

If you're looking for a VPN for a very complete set of privacy and security features, then Surfshark is a great option, and at an excellent price point too.

Score: 10/10

Server network and locations

• 100 countries with servers, 142 server locations, over 4,500 total servers.
• Very few servers in Africa but that's similar to other VPNs.
• FastTrack technology to bring higher network speeds in coming months.

Surfshark doesn’t cover quite as many countries (100) and locations (142) as the server network market leader NordVPN (135 countries and 211 locations), but it still gets top marks in this department.

That’s because its global spread is well chosen. It largely keeps up with just as many server countries in the traditionally less well-covered continents of Asia, South America and Oceania as most of its rival VPNs.

In fact, the European server network is as robust as the rest of the pack, too. It’s only Africa and the Middle East where, like ExpressVPN, it's noticeably shorter than NordVPN and Proton VPN.

Server list on the Surfshark Windows app. Plenty of US server locations available. (Image credit: Future)

Surfshark's 34 North America server locations are fine, just short of Proton's 35. But recent improvements to other VPNs mean its far below the likes of NordVPN (74) and ExpressVPN (71).

Read more about Surfshark's server network ▼

Surfshark states on its server list that some of the locations are virtual, and that’s refreshing given that other VPNs hide that. We spot checked the actual likely location of 25 servers on Surfshark’s list. It was accurate in all but one case where the company had accidentally marked Peru down as a virtual server when it really is based in Lima. If there are to be mistakes, then we’re certainly glad that they’re false positive ones.

Sever networks are about more than just quantity, though. Surfshark uses RAM-only servers which brings important benefits that we discuss in the Privacy section.

That's more or less a VPN industry standard but where Surfshark elevates itself is with how it connects those servers together. It's developed a holistic use of all of those pathways in what it calls its Nexus network infrastructure. It connects users to the entire network rather than the single VPN server they're choosing.

Through that system Surfshark can offer a fair few benefits, not least of which is FastTrack smart routing technology which aims to speed up connection by choosing the most time efficient pathways through the network.

It uses globally distributed probes which monitor the Surfshark network in real-time. They keep track of capacity and performance. That way the FastTrack system can figure out how to route VPN traffic to ensure that users get the fastest possible connections while still taking them to the end-point server that they've selected, and with an appropriate IP address.

FastTrack launched in August, 2025. Right now, it's only available on macOS and only when connecting to the Seattle, Vancouver or Sydney servers but Surfshark claims it's made up to 70% speed improvements for customers. We look forward to the company rolling it out across the board soon.

Something a little closer to home for those in Europe is the arrival of Surfshark's first 100 Gbps servers as unveiled in Amsterdam in October 2025. That's a 10 times improvement in server bandwidth designed to cope for the modern demands of 4K streaming, gaming, VR, and remote work.

It's certainly a good headline but, cynicism aside, it's an excellent sign. Surfshark has been a market leader when it comes to investing in the future of its server network in 2025.

Everlink, released in June, 2025, is another network quality boost from Surfshark. It's a patented backup system for your VPN connection. The idea is that if the VPN drops, your app doesn’t disconnect immediately. Instead, Everlink automatically connects you to a new and working server.

It might take a few seconds and, if you happen to be browsing at the time, it’s possible you’ll find a web page that doesn't download properly. But, for the most part, Surfshark says you won’t even notice anything.

We don’t have a test for Everlink yet, but it sounds promising. Dropped connections aren’t just a usability hassle, they also risk data and IP leaks. If Everlink can reduce unexpected disconnections, then that’s very good privacy news.

The other big benefits of Nexus, and its flexible, multi-server pathways, are Surfshark's rotating IP tech, new multi-IP tech, and its excellent MultiHop system. You can read more about those in the Privacy section.

For now, suffice to say that Surfshark's server network is cutting-edge and, from everything we've seen, we're only expecting improvements over the next 12 months.

Score: 9/10

Privacy

• Super clear, user-friendly privacy policy; no-logs system.
• Top privacy features: Camouflage Mode, MultiHop & Rotating IP.
• Subject to possible 'Nine Eyes' international information sharing agreement.

Surfshark operates using a no-logs system. Its servers do record some information to check user access (encrypted credentials, timestamps and billing information) but it’s lost around 15 minutes after each user session. It never stores anything to do with traffic data such as destination IPs, DNS queries, data transferred, downloaded files or browsing history.

This is exactly how a secure VPN should operate and, having read through Surfshark’s privacy policy, we’re satisfied that there’s nothing else amiss here either. Surfshark uses standard good practice all the way.

As privacy policies go, it’s actually incredibly user friendly and worth taking a look at for yourself. It’s organised into a set of easily digestible questions and answers rather than swathes of contract-style legalese.

Surfshark doesn’t have its own, proprietary obfuscation technology like Proton VPN’s Stealth protocol. So, if it’s vital that you’re not spotted using a VPN, Surfshark probably isn’t the best option.

Read more about Surfshark's privacy credentials ▼

Nonetheless, it still offers ‘Camouflage Mode’ which kicks into action whenever you choose OpenVPN. The company says that it hides your traffic to bypass content filters. OpenVPN also means you’ll be on Surfshark’s dedicated Obfuscated Servers which are designed to make it particularly hard for your ISP to see that you’re connected to a VPN.

You can use the OpenVPN protocol in both UDP and TCP form. The former is better when high speeds are important (streaming, gaming or VoIP) and TCP is good for the kind of reliability you need when web browsing, emailing or during P2P file transfer.

If you’d rather err on the side of speed, then just stick with Surfshark's default option of WireGuard. IKEv2 is also a choice on Android, Mac and iOS but not Windows.

Like most of the best VPNs, Surfshark uses RAM-only servers with no hard drives or SSDs where it could store data. That makes it both faster and safer, from the user's point of view.

Any time RAM-only servers are switched off, any data stored on them temporarily is lost. So, if those servers are seized, then the parties taking ownership of them get nothing but the hardware in their hands. Equally, changes from a malicious software attacks could be undone by Surfshark simply turning the servers off and on again – an IT help centre’s dream.

The effect here is that no user data is logged or kept in any way, so you can rest assure that your online activities are kept utterly private by Surfshark.

Surfshark received a number of user complaints when it changed its legal jurisdiction from the British Virgin Islands to the Netherlands, given that the Dutch are part of the Nine Eyes international information sharing agreement but given there are no logs to share, it's hard to see that there’s any real disadvantage here. Don't let it put you off unless you really feel like you need that double layer of protection.

no user data is logged or kept in any way, so you can rest assure that your online activities are kept utterly private by Surfshark

Surfshark has some interesting options for the privacy-conscious when it comes to server connection. Normally, you connect to a server and it assigns you a random IP address until you disconnect and then a different one next time. But you can choose to maintain a static IP instead. This means that it remains the same throughout your session.

Now, in terms of privacy that’s maybe not great. It leaves more browsing behaviour connected to a single IP that a third party could trace from start to finish and therefore have a clearer picture about what a single user is doing. Keep up that browsing behaviour pattern long enough and they might even be able to figure out who you are.

At the same time, a static IP can be useful. There are web services that work by white listing IP addresses. A static IP that’s known and accepted will make it easier to access them wherever you are. It might remove a layer of authentication each time you access.

In general, though, static IPs aren’t a great idea for VPN traffic because it makes it easier to track you. So, we’d recommend enable the Rotating IP option, even if that makes for more CAPTCHAs.

That said, if you do often get blocked trying to access a certain site, and then find a Surfshark server that works, you might want add that location as a favourite and use it as a static IP.

Rotating IPs makes it harder for a website or web service to track you in its logs. In a single, long session, you’ll appear as multiple visitors. So, this is a definite boost to Surfshark’s privacy credentials. Only ExpressVPN offers something similar with its ShuffleIP.

Multihop (available on all Surfshark plans) is fully customisable. Create a connection to travel through any pair of Surfshark servers to help maximize privacy. (Image credit: Future Publishing)

Quite the opposite to a static IP, then, the system automatically connects you via a different IP address after 2-10 minutes – and all without the real world experience of a disconnection. (Streaming was a little more glitchy when using IP rotation, though, so do consider switching it off if you run into problems.)

You get a little status message letting you know when your next IP rotation will be and what address you’re assigned, although, actually, in practice, the timing was often quicker than stated. And, when we checked with WhatIsMyIPAddress.com, the address reported by Surfshark was accurate every single time.

So, how does Surfshark manage to switch your IP without dropping the connection? That's down to its Nexus network infrastructure (see Server Network section), ensuring that there's always a server somewhere along the path to provide online access while the IP on the destination server is switched.

The other excellent privacy application of the Nexus structure is Surfshark’s brilliantly flexible MultiHop VPN system, which is one of the very best out there.

The joined up nature of the Nexus-powered servers means that, unlike other VPNs, you can create your own double jump server pathways between almost any locations available, instead of the small handful of pre-programmed routing options that most other VPN providers offer.

That allows users to design custom, faster MultiHop connections, with start and end point servers which aren’t too far away from you and from one another.

In fact, you can even choose Fastest Location or Nearest Country within the MultiHop menu for the Nexus system to make the best suggestion for you. We particularly like that you can see latency speeds next to the options on the list so that you can really aim for maximal performance.

We checked to see the kind of effect you can expect when using two servers per connection like this. Using a pathway of two servers nearby (in our case, two different Ireland server locations) produced speeds very similar a single hop transatlantic connection which we benchmarked at 391Mbps. It was only once we started picking huge journeys, around the word for the first hop and then back all the way for the second, that we noticed speeds dipping.

Surfshark also launched Multi IP for Mac users in November 2025. This slightly differs from rotating IP, in that it gives you a new IP for every new website or session you start, but consequently serves the same goal of retaining a connection while reducing the ability of third parties to track what you do. Similarly, it also offers slightly less robust protection than a multihop connection. Regardless, it's a super handy feature for Mac users if you're looking to remain secure without risking sacrificing speed.

Of course, there’s no need to sacrifice speed on all your apps and services if you use Surfshark’s split-tunnel feature, Bypasser. It works on all four major platforms and allowed us to pick both individual apps and websites to either specifically exclude or include from the VPN tunnel.

This is a great way of working if you want to use Surfshark for something specific like torrenting, or if you want to watch your local streaming service without confusing it into thinking that you’re trying to tune in from somewhere else.

The only real privacy feature absent from the Surfshark roster is Tor Over VPN. We could still use the Tor browser manually after connecting to Surfshark on our Windows laptop but it’s not built into the app. If Tor's added layer of online anonymity is a feature you need, then you’ll want to use Proton VPN or NordVPN instead.

Unlike other VPNs, you can create your own double jump server pathways between almost any locations

Surfshark’s CleanWeb function takes care of your search by stripping out as many trackers and ads as possible. There’s a bit of a slow down when it comes to page load time but the results are well worth it.

It took all of the cookie consent requests out of our browsing as we read the football pages of the UK and European news sites. And the grey blocks where adverts used to be were certainly less distracting than all the sticky videos and other images that usually get in the way.

If you want to go the whole hog, though, try Surfshark’s very own in-app private search, available on Surfshark One and One+ plans. More details on that in the Features section above.

Score: 9/10

Security

• Excellent kill switch available on all major platforms.
• Decent phishing and malware protection boosted by a browser extension.
• Post-quantum encryption not available on all platforms

Surfshark's choice of VPN encryption, and it's platter of security features, give us plenty of reasons for confidence. It doesn't hit the same heights as the other top VPNs in all of our results below but then it's a fraction of the price of most of them and our tests are pretty exacting.

Surfshark’s AES-256-GCM and ChaCha20 encryption algorithms are pretty standard, solid stuff when it comes to incredibly hard to crack encoding of your internet traffic.

The company uses 2048-bit RSA encryption keys which is easily enough safeguarding. Proton VPN takes things a little further with 4096-bit keys just in case you have extreme security demands.

Kill switch warning on the Surfshark Windows app explaining how kill switches work. (Image credit: Future)

A more pressing for issue for Surfshark is its post-quantum encryption (PQE) credentials. It deserves increasing attention as quantum computers, and their extreme number crunching powers, arrive on the scene.

Read more about Surfshark's security credentials ▼

Surfshark doesn’t have a huge amount to say about PQE on its website, just that “Surfshark has implemented post-quantum protection on top of the WireGuard protocol”.

Not wanting to remain behind the curve as we head into 2026, Surfshark recently announced that post-quantum cryptography (PQC) has been integrated into the WireGuard protocol for more devices.

The measure will enhance user security when it comes to quantum computing threats, like breaches and "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks, and is enabled by default on most platforms. These include Mac, Linux, and Android.

Although iOS and Windows are two big omissions from that list, getting them covered, too, should be the next step in Surfshark's plan of post-quantum protection.

This is nothing out of the ordinary currently. PQE technology in VPNs is still very much in the embryonic stage.

Only ExpressVPN has gone further in its 1200-word blog post about its implementation of PQE in its Lightway protocol.

Surfshark recently announced that post-quantum cryptography (PQC) has been integrated into the WireGuard protocol

Until then, there’s still plenty to keep you safe with Surfshark.

Auto-connect is a handy feature that prevents accidental leaks of your real IP address. It's a great privacy-boosted, and we really like Surfshark's version of it.

Once activated, it automatically connected using the VPN on any network that I specifically didn't mark as Trusted. I didn't want it to auto-connect on my home Wi-Fi, for example, where I want to choose what my ISP does and doesn't see, depending on what apps and services I'm accessing.

What I really like is that I can also choose which VPN server I want Surfshark to auto-connect to. I set it to auto-connect the 'Fastest connection' preset no matter what.

Auto-connect looks and works the same across iOS, Windows and Mac. The only exception is on Android which also allows you to use it on mobile networks too – great for privacy on the go.

The gold standard for IP leak safety, though, is the VPN kill switch and Surfshark’s got full marks in our tests. There’s a kill switch on all platforms, as we would expect.

It comes in two forms: Soft Mode, which blocks your internet access if the VPN unexpectedly drops; and Strict Mode which simply blocks any internet access unless the VPN is connected in the first place.

Strict Mode is the more secure option, certainly, but I found that it slowed my speeds a little. I also encountered more CAPTCHAs and blocked websites during my day-to-day browsing, as well as issues with apps that aren't compatible with the VPN.

Soft Mode is the better option for most people, especially as Surfshark's kill switch performs well by itself.

Surfshark is one of the only VPNs with a full antivirus built in. This is the desktop version. It's available on Surfshark One and One+. (Image credit: Future Publishing)

We tried breaking the VPN connection in a few different ways – turning the router on and off, walking out of range of a Wi-Fi hotspot, stopping services, closing processes and more – and Surfshark blocked the internet every time.

The only difference between Surfshark and the very best in this department, NordVPN, is that Surfshark didn’t always manage to recover the application and reconnect every time. NordVPN’s activated the switch, spotted the precise problem, resolved it, and then got us up and running again without us really noticing that anything had happened.

Surfshark still performed far better than most VPNs, and correctly blocked our internet in every test, though, and that’s what most matters for security.

Surfshark’s CleanWeb feature helps out for security, as well as its ad blocking and cookie consent pop-up blocking features we mentioned in the Privacy section. It cuts out phishing and malware websites too.

We tested CleanWeb with 50 up-to-date URLs for each, from the very newest phishing and malware sites sourced on the day of testing itself.

Surfshark's effectiveness for blocking sites that host phishing attacks is a little subpar, blocking only 48%. It's around half as effective as ExpressVPN (76%) and Proton VPN (88%), and a long way behind NordVPN (92%).

It's also adequate forad blocking, blocking 44% of ads, and if you use the Surfshark browser extension (available on Firefox, Chrome, and Edge) alongside your platform app, you'll maximize its chances of succeeding.

Surprisingly, ExpressVPN and Proton VPN didn't manage to detect and block access to any of the latest malware hosting sites in our last lab test. So, even the fact that Surfshark score 28% is actually a pretty strong result.

What's more, CleanWeb is available with all Surfshark plans, which start as low as $1.99 per month. NordVPN's high scores come courtesy with Threat Protection Pro technology which is not included in its entry level tier. To get the benefits of Threat Protection Pro, you'd need to pay a minimum of $3.89 per month – nearly double the price.

Also, bear in mind that the bar we set for the test above is a high one. The figures above would be considerably higher if we tested CleanWeb, and the others, against threats that were even just two days old. Nonetheless, the biggest names in antivirus, such as Norton, Bitdefender, and Avira deliver results to the same tests that are up above 90%.

So, is Surfshark’s CleanWeb a replacement for the very best dedicated AV? Not quite, but it’s well worth using and, like most of Surfshark's features, a bargain. More to the point, it will protect users against most of the nasties out there. So, do switch it on if you have it.

Score: 9/10

Speed

• Among the fastest WireGuard VPNs to local servers.
• OpenVPN speeds are good too, and long-distance performance has improved.
• Surfshark has considerably higher latency and jitter than other top VPNs.

Previously rated as the fastest VPN available, Surfshark has taken a bit of a dip in our latest round of speed testing but still has a strong claim to that title.

What’s more, we still think Surfshark is a good performer in the gran scheme of things. Anyone looking for a fast VPN should not be put off.

We’ve recently broadened our VPN lab speed testing process. We take even more data points than before and have increased our maximum speed capacity from 1 Gbps up to 10 Gbps.

Read more about Surfshark's speed ▼

Surfshark's fastest protocol, WireGuard – available on all Surfshark apps – clocked the second-fastest download speed when we connected to the nearest server to our lab's speed rig. At a median average of 1021 Mbps, it's fractionally bested by NordVPN's NordLynx, which achieved 1249 Mbps

Over long distance (Europe to the US) Surfshark looked much better than previously, though. Its 935 Mbps score is considerably higher than the competition. That's something to consider if you're set to be accessing far-flung servers on a regular basis.

We were pleased to see download speeds are good with the more privacy-focused OpenVPN protocol on Surfshark, achieving 825 Mbps. This is also more than NordVPN's mere 688 Mbps.

However, Surfshark's speed claims take a further knock when you consider overall performance. For almost all distances and protocols, we recorded latency and jitter rates than were pretty much twice as bad as the other top VPNs.

In real terms, that means we would expect higher levels of lag than usual when gaming and more buffering than most when streaming, the latter of which was certainly true in my home streaming experience. (More on that in the Streaming section just below.)

High jitter can lead to poor quality real-time applications, although I didn't notice any problems when I used Surfshark during WhatsApp voice calls or when video conferencing on Google Meet for work.

All in all, though, it's a mixed picture and not quite what we were hoping for.

A VPN engineer once said to me that, beyond certain speeds, it's really latency that's more important when considering VPN performance. If that's true, then Surfshark's fast download data feels a bit hollow.

Of course, speed testing is only ever a snapshot of a moment, with little regard for comparative server network conditions. All the same, despite the headline figures, we'd hope for a better show from Surfshark next time.

Score: 8/10

Unblocking streaming services

• Surfshark unblocks Netflix libraries, and other services, but with major inconsistency.
• Struggles to unblock US-only YouTube content from other countries.
• CleanWeb needs disabling to stream ad-funded streaming services.

Surfshark isn’t quite in the same league as NordVPN when it comes to unblocking streaming services but it’s mostly a good choice on this front.

Like NordVPN, and most of the best VPN services, all of Surfshark’s servers are optimzed for streaming. I didn’t need to waste any time trying to find lists of streaming servers. I just found the country I wanted and connected to any server on the list.

We tested Surfshark to see if it could unblock Netflix in five different locations and it struggled. It took several attempts to access the US library, and failed entirely in the UK and Australia. That said, we had no issues in Canada or Japan.

Amazon US/UK

Disney+ US/UK

YouTube US

NordVPN

✅

✅

❌

Surfshark

❌

❌

❌

ExpressVPN

❌

✅

✅

Proton VPN

✅

❌

❌

Read more about Surfshark's streaming service unblocking ▼

We also found that Surfshark servers couldn't be used to unblock Amazon Prime Video in the US or Australia, Canada, or Japan, no matter how we tried, though the UK was fine. This is a change from our last test when Surfshark saw success with this service.

YouTube US is one that none of our VPN services managed to unblock this time. We choose a licensed US-geo-locked test video and we weren't able to stream it from the UK with Surfshark or any of the others. This is worth considering if you tend to watch YouTube more than any other platform, although most videos tend not to be geo-specific.

Peacock was another US service Surfshark struggled with. While it would access the site successfully, the stream would then drop out on several instances during a one to two hour watching session. This is something we never experienced with other providers.

Surfshark proved useful at unblocking all of the free streaming services we tried in the UK and Australia, though. It has a cross next to ITV in the table below because Surfshark didn't manage to unblock it at the first attempt but, again, it did succeed after a server switch.

Surfshark had previously had similar issues when trying to access 10Play in Australia but there were no troubles in this round of tests.

BBC iPlayer

ITV

Channel 4

TVNZ Plus

NordVPN Plus

✅

✅

✅

✅

Surfshark

✅

✅

✅

✅

ExpressVPN

✅

✅

✅

✅

Proton VPN

✅

❌

❌

❌

It's worth noting that you may need to disable CleanWeb when trying to watch shows on ad-funded streaming services such as Channel 4 and ITV. CleanWeb's built-in ad-blocker, and the streamer's need to serve reels of ads before and between the programming, don't work well together and cause things to grind to a halt.

The only downside, of course, is that it does leave you without web-based malware blocking for a time. So, make sure you're watching a trusted service. And make sure to turn CleanWeb back on after.

When we tested Proton VPN we found the same problem but the significant difference there is that we could turn off just the ad-blocking of NetShield while leaving the malware protection running. We also didn’t have to disconnect and reconnect to change the setting, unlike with CleanWeb.

Ultimately, if you're not prepared to tinker – and why should you – then NordVPN is the best streaming VPN but let Surfshark's results in this department put you off. It's still good for unblocking streams.

Score: 7/10

P2P and torrenting

• Torrenting supported at all of Surfsharks server locations.
• Search for P2P optimized servers for best performance.
• No port forwarding.

Surfshark works well for torrenting thanks to its high download speeds and reliable privacy.

I opted for the OpenVPN protocol using TCP to be doubly sure my ISP wouldn't be able to see what I was up to. Sure enough, I've had no nasty letters through the post.

Using uTorrent, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary as I chose a selection of different file sizes to download. Knowing that Surfshark performs significantly better over short connection distances (see Speed section) I made sure to choose the closest server possible.

All of Surfshark’s locations support torrenting but only some are optimised for P2P use and they’re not so easy to find as with Proton VPN or NordVPN, both which have P2P filters on their server choice lists in the apps.

We figured out that you can type ‘P2P’ into the search field of the server location list with Surfshark and the system will narrow to include only the torrenting optimized servers, but even then it’s very hard to tell that that’s what you’re looking at. There’s nothing in the knowledge base or help sections about it. How most people are supposed to discover this is a bit of a mystery.

The actual torrenting experience, though, once connected, is very similar to any of the top VPNs. My connection speed was limited more by the number and quality of peers for the file I tried to download.

Like many VPNs these days, Surfshark does not support port forwarding for reasons of security – understandable given that’s a VPN’s prime function. You can read Surfshark’s take on it here.

The article even suggests a way you can set up port forwarding manually but, if that’s really something you want that much, then you’re best off choosing Proton VPN which supports the feature directly in its apps.

Score: 4/5

Compatibility

• Surfshark is compatible with all modern platforms.
• Exceptionally large feature set available for iPhone users.
• Use browser extensions for maximum privacy.

Surfshark does a good job of keeping consistency in look, feel, and functionality across its suite of apps. In fact, it scores better than most top VPN vendors with almost all of its features supported on mobile as well as desktop.

iPhone users should take particular notice. Surfshark’s iOS app is exceptionally well stocked compared to the normally underpowered versions peddled by most VPN companies. Split tunneling, auto connect, and use of all three of Surfshark’s VPN protocols are present and correct on both major mobile operating systems.

Like all the very top VPNs, Surfshark is compatible with every modern platform you’d care to mention. There are apps for the likes of Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Linux as well as the usual big four of Windows, Mac, Android and iOS.

Features available on iPhone

Surfshark

NordVPN

ExpressVPN

Proton VPN

Kill switch

✅

✅ (automatic)

✅

✅

Autoconnect

✅

✅

❌

❌

Split tunneling

✅ (websites only)

❌

❌

❌

Protocols

WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2

NordLynx, OpenVPN

Lightway, OpenVPN, IKEv2

WireGuard, Stealth

Malware blocking

✅

❌

✅

✅

GPS spoofing

❌

❌

❌

❌

Custom DNS

❌

❌

❌

❌

Read more about Surfshark's compatibility ▼

There are also Chrome, Edge and Firefox browser extensions and these are more important than you might think.

We’d recommend using Surfshark from within your browser to get the most out of the CleanWeb phishing, advert and malware blocking abilities of your VPN, for example. It’ll keep you a little safer online even if the VPN itself is turned off. See the Security section for more details.

But, there's more. Surfshark's browser extensions can mask your real location better than using just using your device's VPN app alone. That's because some websites can ask your browser its country-level location. That’s not something that’s related to your IP address.

We found we got fewer CAPTCHAs when we tried it. Searching Google for VPN-related terms often digs up request for bicycles, buses and road crossing identifications but it was a rare event with Surfshark's Chrome extension on.

We’d recommend using Surfshark from within your browser to get the most out of the CleanWeb phishing, advert and malware blocking abilities of your VPN

The browser extension doubles down on protecting your real location with its ‘Block WebRTC’ feature too. WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) is another internet technology which can be used by websites to find your real IP address. Surfshark’s browser extension should stop any red flags by making sure WebRTC doesn’t run on your device.

Putting a VPN onto your router is never a piece of cake but, like most good VPNs, it is possible with Surfshark. It requires a manual installation of the software but, beginners, be not afraid – there is an excellent post on the Surfshark blog of how to get this done, and a supporting article with information for specific routers, protocols (WireGuard/OpenVPN/IKEv3 and firmware (OpenWRT / OPNsense / TP-Link).

Surfshark does a good job of maintaining all of its apps with regular updates to many of them throughout the year.

We took a look at the number of updates that the big VPN providers made to their iOS apps between January and December 2025 for an indicator of how well they support their software. iOS apps are often the least well maintained.

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The real outliers here are CyberGhost and PIA, neither of which appear to be putting much into app development right now.", "keywords": [ "NordVPN", "Surfshark", "ExpressVPN", "Proton VPN", "PureVPN", "Mullvad", "IPVanish", "Windscribe", "CyberGhost", "Private Internet Access", "iOS app updates", "benchmark", "comparison", "performance", "review", "TechRadar" ], "measurementTechnique": "Performance Benchmarking", "variableMeasured": [ { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "NordVPN – iOS app updates", "value": 23, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "Surfshark – iOS app updates", "value": 21, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "ExpressVPN – iOS app updates", "value": 25, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "Proton VPN – iOS app updates", "value": 22, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "PureVPN – iOS app updates", "value": 18, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "Mullvad – iOS app updates", "value": 9, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "IPVanish – iOS app updates", "value": 10, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "Windscribe – iOS app updates", "value": 11, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "CyberGhost – iOS app updates", "value": 0, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "Private Internet Access – iOS app updates", "value": 3, "unitText": "number" } ]} iOS app updates in 2025

This is the number of updates the iOS apps of each of these VPNs has had in 2025

iOS app updates NordVPN 23 Surfshark 21 ExpressVPN 25 Proton VPN 22 PureVPN 18 Mullvad 9 IPVanish 10 Windscribe 11 CyberGhost 0 Private Internet Access 3 iOS app updates Data ProductValue (number) NordVPN 23 Surfshark 21 ExpressVPN 25 Proton VPN 22 PureVPN 18 Mullvad 9 IPVanish 10 Windscribe 11 CyberGhost 0 Private Internet Access 3 Surfshark's apps are well cared for by the development team. The real outliers here are CyberGhost and PIA, neither of which appear to be putting much into app development right now. 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Looking at the table above, Surfshark is certainly one of the better companies for this with it pretty much on a par with other top VPNs Proton VPN, NordVPN and ExpressVPN.

The overall story for us here is that Surfshark has done a really good job, and we’re confident that it will continue to do so on whatever platform you wish to use.

Score: 5/5

Usability

• Make sure to disable the auto-renew function on set-up.
• Clear and consistent UX across all major Surfshark apps.
• Kill switch mode should be clearer on the UI.

After signing up for a Surshark account (don’t forget to take advantage of the Surfshark 7-day free trial while it’s here), the Surfshark online dashboard is a good place to start.

There’s a handy set-up guide to make sure you get the best of all the features – connecting to the VPN, setting up Antivirus, data leak alerts, Surfshark’s search and how to use Alternative ID. All well worth your time.

It’s also a good place to download your apps and extensions. The Download apps panel is surprisingly complete. There are QR codes to scan and buttons both of which offer direct links to the relevant app stores for smart TVs, browser extensions and Linux as well as the big four laptop, phone and tablet apps. You can even pick up the Android APK for any side-loading you might need to do.

Read more about Surfshark's usability ▼

The only thing to watch out for is that we got a little confused by the Windows app installer. It said “Welcome to Surshark One Security Suite Setup Wizard”, when we’d only purchased Surfsharker Starter originally. Sadly, it wasn’t a free upgrade. Ignore it. That’s how the standard installer lookers.

You can access the help center, view the length left of your subscription and, of course, upgrade to a dedicated IP address and an Alternative ID phone number while you're there, should you wish.

Switch off auto-renew and avoid a nasty price hike

Our top tip of all, though, is to head immediately to the Payments tab in the Your Subscriptions section of the My Account menu where you can switch off auto-renew and avoid a nasty price hike once the term of your original subscription ends. Ignore this at your peril, or face paying about twice what you did originally per month on a 12-month contract.

If you do get stung by Surfshark’s auto-renewal, though, don’t panic. The company cares about its reputation and its customers. A little sweet talk to the customer support within a week and you’re highly likely to get a refund.

User Experience

The Surfshark user experience is pretty much identical across the range. There are differences – Android has a home tab, Windows and iOS don’t, for example – but the look and feel is consistent and all the features and settings are in very similar places.

Like all good VPN apps, there are short explainers next to most of the settings and that’s important because it’s by far and away the easiest way to learn about the product. Only Proton VPN stands out as superior on this front with an info button that opens up some really clear pop-up explainers, that are as easy to understand as they are to dismiss.

There’s no map on any Surfshark app. All server locations are listed in alphabetical order and that’s perfectly sensible and easy to navigate. There’s also a search bar to stop you having to scroll to the bottom for UK, US and everything else that’s useful down there.

You can even search for the kind of server you want, instead of the location. Type in ‘P2P’ if you want one for torrenting, for example. We typed in ‘Frank’ and got not only the main Frankfurt server but also a list of those with static IPs as well as the preset MultiHop route of Frankfurt via the GB-London server.

Surfshark home page running on Android. It's a very clear interface easy access to VPN server selection and connection. There is tabbed access to the settings and product features at the bottom. (Image credit: Future Publishing)

If that’s not fast enough for you, there are connection shortcuts with buttons for your recently used servers, your fastest available connection and your nearest country too. There are also stars next to each server in the list so that you can favourite ones that you like or use most often.

We prefer the tabbed layout on the Windows app compared to the mobile versions but then that’s not a huge surprise given that there’s more space to play with on a laptop screen. The tabs make a bit more sense on a computer (VPN, Alternative ID, Alerts, Antivirus, Search and Settings). It’s quick access to pretty much everything you need right there.

Compare that to the four tabs on Android – Home, Products, News, Settings. News doesn’t really offer much but head to Products and you’ll find a list of the same tabbed sections as on the Windows app. In other words, access to the same areas is one step removed. It’s not a big deal and it still works fine.

The desktop apps are still actually quite small – more than the budget mobile port look and feel of cheaper VPNs like Hide.me, Windscribe and PrivadoVPN but nothing like the luxury of space you get with NordVPN, Proton VPN or ExpressVPN.

We don’t really mind that. It’s still attractive, tidy and maybe a massive VPN software windows is exactly the kind of getting-in-the-way that VPNs shouldn’t do. It’s also kind of fitting of Surfshark’s more reasonable price point.

Surfshark's desktop application is not a full screen desktop experience but I don't have a problem with that. It's neat, tidy, easy to use and doesn't get in the way of your other apps and files. (Image credit: Future Publishing)

It’s also a misnomer to think that its size means less complexity. The Surfshark Windows app has 23 buttons, icons and other areas where you can click something. NordVPN’s Windows app also has 23. Proton VPN comes in at a similar 19.

If you want something really stripped back but still nicely put together, then go for ExpressVPN with its 13 – but then that does mean fewer functions at your fingertips. It depends on what you’d rather trade off.

Probably the only part of the Windows UX that we find a bit odd is the VPN home page itself, or, more specifically, the information that’s on there. There’s data on connection time, VPN IP address, up and download data so far, what protocol you’re using and whether or not CleanWeb is on.

It’ll also tell you when the kill switch is enabled, but, the strange part is that it says nothing about the kill switch at all when it’s off – and that’s exactly when you need to know about the kill switch: when it’s not protecting you!

Oddly, Android users can tell if it’s off because it’s displayed as a toggle rather than the word On or Off.

Is it a problem? Well, potentially but you can avoid it by making sure your kill switch is activated by default. Otherwise, it would be a concern if your real IP was leaking and you didn’t know about it.

That aside, we really have no complaints to make about how Surshark has put its apps together. They’re easy on the eye and generally a pleasure to use.

Score: 4/5

Accessibility

• Middling accessibility score for the Surfshark website.
• Average language support.
• Extremely poor for keyboard-only use.

Surfshark's accessibility credentials are so-so, at best with both the website and number of languages available in-app about average. Keyboard support is really quite poor but Siri voice commands for VPN functionality save the day for iOS users.

We used AccessibilityChecker to scan Surfshark’s home page and it came out with a score of 23%. It’s only a single page but it’s a good indicator of what to expect across its website.

That’s a long way behind the likes of Mullvad (95%) and NordVPN (65%), but in the same ballpark as providers like Proton VPN (35%), ExpressVPN (32%) and Private Internet Access (10%).

The audit report showed that Surfshark’s website passed all navigation tests. It was deemed to also have increasing issues surrounding screen reader support.

Read more about Surfshark's accessibility ▼

Equally, the site uses an appropriate color scheme, and text with strong contrast, even though it didn’t match color contrast standards across a few elements.

There’s clearly room for improvement here, but this isn’t a bad score. If you’re partially sighted, then, there are better options out there than Surfshark.

Looking at Surfshark’s desktop apps, we found that the Windows application supports 13 languages including common options such as English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional.)

There are 13 languages supported on Surfshark. Not as many as other VPNs and a few key options missing. (Image credit: Future Publishing)

But it’s missing others – Arabic, Norwegian, Swedish, Turkish – and many VPNs provide more. Norton VPN supports 26 languages, for instance, and Proton VPN has 28. So, if you would rather have a VPN that talks your native tongue, you might find more luck elsewhere.

Next we tried ditching our mouse. If a user can’t operate a mouse, they should be able to access every feature of the app from the keyboard. Sadly, Surfshark has extremely poor keyboard support.

Pressing Tab allowed us to move around the window, but in many cases the app didn’t highlight the current element (the button, the list, or whatever else we were accessing), leaving us with no idea where we were.

@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Open+Sans:wght@400;700&display=swap'); #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x *, #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x *:before, #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x *:after { box-sizing: border-box !important; margin: 0; padding: 0; border: 0; font-size: 100%; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x { font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif !important; } /* Main Wrappers */ #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x { position: relative !important; overflow: visible !important; --riv-primary: #2E6E93; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-inner-wrapper { color: #1F2937 !important; background-color: #ffffff !important; padding: 1.5rem 1.5rem 2rem !important; border-radius: 0.5rem !important; box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) !important; margin: 1rem 0 !important; display: flex !important; flex-direction: column !important; } /* Typography */ #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-chart-title { font-weight: bold !important; text-align: center !important; margin-bottom: 0.5rem !important; color: #1F2937 !important; font-size: 1.5rem !important; line-height: 1.2 !important; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif !important; text-transform: none !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-chart-subhead { font-size: 1.1rem !important; font-weight: 500 !important; text-align: center !important; margin-bottom: 2rem !important; color: #6B7280 !important; line-height: 1.7 !important; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif !important; display: block !important; text-transform: none !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .rv-chart-caption { font-size: 15px !important; color: #6B7280 !important; text-align: center !important; font-style: normal !important; font-weight: normal !important; line-height: 1.7 !important; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif !important; display: block !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .sr-only { position: absolute !important; width: 1px !important; height: 1px !important; padding: 0 !important; margin: -1px !important; overflow: hidden !important; clip: rect(0,0,0,0) !important; white-space: nowrap !important; border: 0 !important; } /* Footer */ #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-bottom-bar { display: flex !important; flex-direction: column !important; align-items: center !important; margin-top: 0.5rem !important; gap: 1rem !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-footer-content { text-align: center !important; width: 100% !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-logo { display: block !important; margin: 0 auto !important; width: 120px !important; max-width: 120px !important; height: auto !important; object-fit: contain !important; } /* Display Mode Controls */ #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-dropdown-container { text-align: center !important; margin-bottom: 16px !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-dropdown { width: 100% !important; max-width: 350px !important; padding: 8px 12px !important; font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 1.2 !important; border: 2px solid #d1d5db !important; border-radius: 8px !important; background-color: #ffffff !important; color: #374151 !important; cursor: pointer !important; appearance: none !important; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' fill='none' viewBox='0 0 20 20'%3e%3cpath stroke='%236b7280' stroke-linecap='round' stroke-linejoin='round' stroke-width='1.5' d='m6 8 4 4 4-4'/%3e%3c/svg%3e") !important; background-position: right 12px center !important; background-repeat: no-repeat !important; background-size: 14px !important; padding-right: 35px !important; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-dropdown:hover { border-color: var(--riv-primary) !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-carousel-title-controls { display: flex !important; justify-content: space-between !important; align-items: center !important; margin-bottom: 16px !important; width: 100% !important; gap: 12px !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-carousel-nav-btn { background: transparent !important; border: 1px solid #d1d5db !important; border-radius: 6px !important; padding: 6px 10px !important; cursor: pointer !important; font-size: 13px !important; color: #6b7280 !important; display: flex !important; align-items: center !important; gap: 4px !important; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-carousel-nav-btn:hover { border-color: #9ca3af !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-carousel-counter { font-size: 14px !important; color: #6b7280 !important; text-align: center !important; margin-top: 1rem !important; } /* Legend */ #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-legend { display: flex !important; justify-content: center !important; flex-wrap: wrap !important; gap: 8px 16px !important; margin: 0 !important; padding: 0 !important; margin-top: 1rem !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-legend-item { display: flex !important; align-items: center !important; gap: 6px !important; font-size: 14px !important; color: #4B5563 !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-legend-color { width: 12px !important; height: 12px !important; border-radius: 3px !important; } /* Chart Core Styles */ #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-benchmark-group { margin-bottom: 1rem !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-benchmark-title { font-size: 18px !important; font-weight: 600 !important; margin-bottom: 16px !important; margin-top: 0 !important; padding: 0 !important; text-align: center !important; color: var(--riv-primary) !important; flex: 1 !important; min-width: 0 !important; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif !important; line-height: 1.3 !important; text-transform: none !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-bar-row, #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-stacked-product { display: flex !important; align-items: center !important; width: 100% !important; margin-bottom: 0.75rem !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-bar-label { width: 150px !important; flex-shrink: 0 !important; font-size: 14px !important; color: #4B5563 !important; padding-right: 10px !important; text-align: right !important; font-weight: 500 !important; display: block !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-bar-container { flex-grow: 1 !important; background-color: #E5E7EB !important; border-radius: 4px !important; height: 25px !important; border: 1px solid #D1D5DB !important; position: relative !important; display: flex !important; align-items: center !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-bar { height: 100% !important; border-radius: 3px !important; display: flex !important; align-items: center !important; transition: opacity 0.2s ease, width 0.8s ease-out !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-bar:hover { opacity: 0.8 !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-bar-inner-content { display: flex !important; justify-content: space-between !important; align-items: center !important; width: 100% !important; height: 100% !important; padding: 0 8px !important; color: white !important; font-size: 14px !important; font-weight: bold !important; text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0.3) !important; overflow: hidden !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-bar-inner-label { white-space: nowrap !important; overflow: hidden !important; text-overflow: ellipsis !important; padding-right: 8px !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-bar-inner-value { flex-shrink: 0 !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-bar-value-outside { padding-left: 8px !important; font-size: 14px !important; font-weight: bold !important; color: #4B5563 !important; white-space: nowrap !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-bar-label.fv-primary-product { font-weight: bold !important; color: var(--riv-primary) !important; } /* Stacked Bar */ #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-stacked-bar { display: flex !important; overflow: hidden !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-stacked-segment { height: 100% !important; display: flex !important; align-items: center !important; justify-content: flex-end !important; padding-right: 8px !important; border-right: 1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.3) !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-stacked-segment:last-child { border-right: none !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-segment-value { font-size: 14px !important; font-weight: bold !important; color: white !important; text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0.3) !important; } /* Grouped Bar */ #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-grouped-bar-product { display: flex !important; flex-direction: column !important; width: 100% !important; margin-bottom: 1.25rem !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-grouped-product-title-wrapper { padding-left: 150px !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-grouped-product-title { width: 100% !important; text-align: left !important; padding-right: 0 !important; margin-bottom: 0.5rem !important; font-weight: 700 !important; font-size: 14px !important; color: #4B5563 !important; text-transform: none !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-bar-cluster { width: 100% !important; flex-grow: 1 !important; display: flex !important; flex-direction: column !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-bar-cluster .fv-bar-row { margin-bottom: 3px !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-bar-cluster .fv-bar-container { height: 20px !important; } /* Line Chart Grid */ #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .riv-grid line { stroke: #D1D5DB !important; stroke-dasharray: 3 3 !important; } /* X-Axis */ #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-x-axis-wrapper { display: flex !important; width: 100% !important; margin-top: 0.5rem !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-x-axis-label-space { width: 150px !important; padding-right: 10px !important; flex-shrink: 0 !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-x-axis-chart-space { flex-grow: 1 !important; padding-right: 8px !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-x-axis-wrapper.fv-grouped-x-axis { margin-left: 0 !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-x-axis-line { border-top: 1px solid #D1D5DB !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-x-axis-ticks { display: flex !important; justify-content: space-between !important; padding-top: 4px !important; font-size: 13px !important; color: #6B7280 !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-x-axis-unit { text-align: center !important; font-size: 14px !important; color: #6B7280 !important; margin-top: 8px !important; display: block !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-x-axis-title { text-align: center !important; font-size: 15px !important; color: #6B7280 !important; margin-top: 8px !important; margin-bottom: 16px !important; line-height: 1.5 !important; padding: 0 1rem !important; display: block !important; font-weight: bold !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-y-axis-title { font-size: 15px !important; color: #6B7280 !important; line-height: 1.5 !important; text-align: left !important; padding-left: 5.83% !important; /* Aligns with Y-axis line inside SVG (35/600) */ margin-bottom: 4px !important; display: block !important; font-weight: bold !important; } /* Mobile / Forced Mobile View */ #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-pie-container { flex-direction: column !important; gap: 1rem !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-grouped-product-title-wrapper { padding-left: 0 !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-bar-row, #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-stacked-product, #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-grouped-bar-product { flex-direction: column !important; align-items: flex-start !important; margin-bottom: 1.25rem !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-bar-label, #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-grouped-product-title { width: 100% !important; text-align: left !important; padding-right: 0 !important; margin-bottom: 0.25rem !important; font-size: 14px !important; font-weight: 700 !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-bar-container, #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-bar-cluster { width: 100% !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-x-axis-wrapper { margin-left: 0 !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-x-axis-label-space { display: none !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-x-axis-chart-space { padding-right: 0 !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-benchmark-title { font-size: 16px !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-logo { width: 60px !important; max-width: 60px !important; } #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x.mobile-view .fv-carousel-nav-btn { padding: 6px 8px !important; font-size: 11px !important; } @media (max-width: 500px) { #fv-chart-1762344716262-c2xu98f4x .fv-pie-container { flex-direction: column !important; 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Worth checking to see if the languages you need for your VPN are included before you subscribe.", "keywords": [ "NordVPN", "Surfshark", "ExpressVPN", "Proton VPN", "PureVPN", "Mullvad", "IPVanish", "Windscribe", "CyberGhost", "Private Internet Access", "Languages supported", "no. of languages available", "benchmark", "comparison", "performance", "review", "TechRadar" ], "measurementTechnique": "Performance Benchmarking", "variableMeasured": [ { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "NordVPN – Languages supported", "value": 13, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "Surfshark – Languages supported", "value": 13, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "ExpressVPN – Languages supported", "value": 17, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "Proton VPN – Languages supported", "value": 31, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "PureVPN – Languages supported", "value": 12, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "Mullvad – Languages supported", "value": 20, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "IPVanish – Languages supported", "value": 8, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "Windscribe – Languages supported", "value": 20, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "CyberGhost – Languages supported", "value": 12, "unitText": "number" }, { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "Private Internet Access – Languages supported", "value": 18, "unitText": "number" } ]} Language support

Language options available in the Windows apps of each of these VPNs.

no. of languages available NordVPN 13 Surfshark 13 ExpressVPN 17 Proton VPN 31 PureVPN 12 Mullvad 20 IPVanish 8 Windscribe 20 CyberGhost 12 Private Internet Access 18 010203040 number no. of languages available Data ProductValue (number) NordVPN 13 Surfshark 13 ExpressVPN 17 Proton VPN 31 PureVPN 12 Mullvad 20 IPVanish 8 Windscribe 20 CyberGhost 12 Private Internet Access 18 Very average levels of language support for Surfshark. Worth checking to see if the languages you need for your VPN are included before you subscribe. 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Even when we could see we had reached an important element, like the location list, it turned out not to be optimized for keyboard use.

For example, PIA’s Windows app allowed us to scroll up and down to highlight a country, and connected as soon as we hit Enter. That’s easy and intuitive, we figured it out right away.

With Surfshark, we could browse up and down the location list with the keyboard, but hitting Enter did nothing. Experimenting, hitting Tab and then Enter allowed us to connect some of the time, but we regularly got lost and had to use our mouse to start again.

Overall, if you need keyboard support then Surfshark’s Windows app isn’t a good choice. Check out PIA instead.

Score: 2/5

Customer support

• Surfshark has 24/7 live chat, email and site customer support.
• Handy and easy to use on-site knowledge base.
• Email support will reply with a solution within 24-hours.

Surfshark offers customer support via a support site, live chat (24/7) and email (24/7).

We test VPN support sites by searching for common technical terms and issues, and exploring what comes up. Surfshark’s support site scores well for its vast number of articles.

When we searched for ‘DNS’, for instance, the site gave us 120 results including plenty of useful guides. That compares to 60 for ExpressVPN, and only 5 for Hotspot Shield (and only one of those was useful for setup or troubleshooting).

The only subject area almost completely absent was P2P and torrenting but perhaps for obvious thorny legal reasons.

Read more about Surfshark customer support ▼

All the help articles we read were well written, clear, nicely laid-out and very, very non-threatening.

Most Surfshark support users won't need the search, though, because the site is very well organised.

It displays links to its most important articles on the front page, grouped into topics such as ‘Getting Started’, ‘Fixing Issues’, ‘Billing’ and ‘Account’. It’s likely that many visitors will find the article they need in a couple of clicks.

We noticed that some of the support articles were a little out-of-date. Screenshots didn’t always match the latest version of the app, for instance. But that’s not unusual with VPNs that have a large number of articles, and we didn’t spot any guides where this genuinely had a significant negative result, like telling us to take an action which was no longer possible, for instance.

More to the point, all the articles we read were well written, clear, nicely laid-out and very, very non-threatening. Most people will feel confident of following the advice of this resource and rightly so.

Surfshark’s live chat appears to be well staffed. We were able to talk to helpful agents within a couple of minutes of opening a session. Getting some information about how to set the VPN up for P2P seemed like a good idea and the online agent did not let us down.

Surfshark’s live chat appears to be well staffed, and we were able to talk to helpful agents within a couple of minutes.

They said that all of their servers were fit to use for P2P, they suggested OpenVPN, with UDP for better speeds, and to make sure we had the kill switch on. All pretty sage stuff. And the whole chat took less than 5 minutes once we’d gone through a couple of layers of AI bot automation.

Email support isn’t as speedy. Proton VPN replied to a test question in minutes during its last review; Surfshark says it will reply in 24 hours, and our 21-hour wait suggests that’s about right.

Our reply was short, but friendly, accurate, and with an invitation to keep asking if we needed more help, and that earns a thumbs up from us.

Score: 4/5

User reviews

Like all user reviews, you should take Surfshark's scores on the Trustpilot and the mobile app stores with a pinch of salt, but they do paint the picture of a VPN that you can trust.

Across Google Play and the Apple App Store, it holds ratings on par with the very top VPNs. It's 4.3/5 Trustpilot rating is based on over 27,000 reviews. Around 9% of those are 1-star reviews.

Read them, and you'll most likely find that they're complaints over the auto-renewal system that most VPNs use, and it's easy to make sure that you don't become one of those statistics. You can turn auto-renew off from any point after signing up. Please do it.

Google Play

App Store

Trustpilot

NordVPN

4.6

4.7

4.2

Windscribe

4.6

4.6

4.7

Surfshark

4.6

4.7

4.3

Proton VPN

4.6

4.6

2.0

ExpressVPN

4.7

4.7

4.0

Track record: can you trust Surfshark?

• Surfshark has never suffered any hacks or data leaks.
• Apps, logging policy and server infrastructure has all been audited.
• We'd like to see audits undertaken on an annual basis.

Surfshark has not had to suffer the ignominy of any major hacks or bugs that have gone public, and the NIST Vulnerability Database doesn’t have a single item with the keyword 'Surfshark'. That’s quite unusual.

Proton VPN has three old bugs in the database; ExpressVPN has three; NordVPN also has three old vulnerabilities (all from 2018.) Surfshark does have the advantage of being the youngest of all of these VPNs, though, launched, as it was, in 2018. For the record, Proton VPN is only one year older.

It’s a positive sign that hackers and security researchers haven’t found any major issues in Surfshark’s apps.

The biggest uproar was when the company decided to switch its legal HQ from the British Virgin Islands to the Netherlands.

Surfshark did cause controversy when it added a ‘fake news detector’ feature to its browser extension. The idea was to highlight sources of misinformation, but the feature falsely flagged too many legitimate sites. It also raised a few eyebrows for privacy issues with the idea that this automated feature would decide, on its own, whether a particular source was trustworthy or not. Surfshark removed the feature in 2022 and the company hasn’t tried anything similar since.

Read more about Surfshark's track record▼

For sure, the biggest uproar, though, was when the company decided to switch its legal HQ from the British Virgin Islands to the Netherlands, as we mentioned in the Privacy section of this review.

Audited, but not as well or regularly as Proton VPN

Surfshark has had all the significant parts of its processes and infrastructure audited by third parties over the years but it could do with ramping up the frequency.

Surfshark had its no-logs policy reviewed by Deloitte in 2022. The report was released in January 2023 and agreed that Surfshark’s claims matched its real-life user data procedures. More recently its no-logs claims were audited in June, 2025, and, again, everything was found to be ship shape. (The full report is available to Surfshark users.)

It’s good to see any VPN provider have the courage to put itself through a public audit, but we'd like to see Surfshark do this a little more regularly.

Proton VPN has a no-logs audit every year, and Surfshark needs to do something similar. We’d like to see regular audits of the apps, too.

Thankfully, Surfshark has had another infrastructure audit now as of the start of 2026. Conducted by SecuRing, the testing wasn't as intensive as other audits we've seen, but found no major concerns.

It’s good to see any VPN provider have the courage to put itself through a public audit, but this can’t be a one-off event.

So, while it's not doing quite as much as other top VPNs in this regard, there's not a great deal to flaw Surfshark on here either.

Score: 4/5

Final verdict

(Image credit: Future / Gemini)

Surfshark is an excellent VPN. We rate it as the second best VPN for overall use. We also rate it as the best cheap VPN available.

We recommend the Surfshark Starter plan (from $1.99 per month) or Surfshark One (from $2.29 per month) which comes with antivirus built in. Both offer a 7-day free trial.

Surfshark is an excellent VPN. We rate it as the second best VPN for overall use. We also rate it as the best cheap VPN available.

We recommend the Surfshark Starter plan (from $1.99 per month) or Surfshark One (from $2.29 per month) which comes with antivirus built in. Both offer a 7-day free trial.

Who should use Surfshark?

✅ Anyone looking for cheap VPN: You can get two years of service for less than $70 total and there's a 7-day free trial which means you can try it out for nothing.

✅ People who want an antivirus product with their VPN: Surfshark is one of the few VPNs with a full antivirus system. None of NordVPN, Proton VPN nor ExpressVPN offer this. Make sure to sign up to Surfshark One or One+ for antivirus.

✅ P2P users looking for a good torrenting VPN: Surfshark gave us fast speeds when torrenting and is very easy to use.

Surfshark One – get the 7-day free trial

We rate Surfshark One as the best Surfshark plan. It's only a few dollars more than Starter and brings some worthwhile benefits:

✅ Full antivirus
✅ Data leak alerts
✅ Ad-free Surfshark search engine

Best of all, there's currently a 7-day free trial of Surfshark.View Deal

Who should try a different VPN instead?

❌ Streamers: Surfshark can certainly unblock most streaming services from abroad but it can be a little fiddly for some important ones like Disney Plus and ITV. NordVPN is better for streaming.

1. NordVPN – from $2.99 per month
The best VPN overall and best for streaming
If watching geo-blocked streaming services is the main reason you want a VPN, then NordVPN is a better choice than Surfshark. It's our #1 rated VPN overall and unblocked every streaming service in our tests at the first attempt. It's easy to use and excellent at everything else too. The only downside is that it's more expensive than Surfshark but you get what you pay for. Try it for yourself with a 30-day money-back guarantee.View Deal

Surfshark FAQsDoes Surfshark have a free trial?

Yes, a free 7-day trial is available to new users signing up to 1 and 2-year contracts for any of Surfshark's plans.

Is Surfshark VPN owned by China?

No. Surfshark was founded in 2018 by Vytautas Kaziukonis. It has offices in Lithuania and Poland, where the company remains today. Surfshark was registered in the British Virgin Islands until 2021 when its legal home was switched to the Netherlands.

Surfshark merged with NordVPN in 2022. The company offices are on the same campus in Vilnius, Lithuania, but remain separate from one another.

Is Surfshark VPN trusted?

Yes. Surfshark operates according to secure and trustworthy VPN practices. It uses a RAM-only server network and has an audited no-logs policy to prove that it does not collect of store user data. Surfshark has never had a hack or data leak. You can read more about this in the Track Record section of this review.

Is Surfshark blocked by Netflix?

No. We were able to access five different global Netflix libraries. These were Japan, USA, Canada, UK and Australia. Surfshark was able to unblock Netflix in these locations at the first time of trying – so without switching to any different servers and without changing any settings. (Read more about it in the Streaming section of this review.) We recommend Surfshark as a good VPN for watching Netflix wherever you go.

What are the downsides of Surfshark?

Even though Surfshark is excellent for unblocking Netflix streams, it's not quite as great for streaming as some other VPNs, such as NordVPN and ExpressVPN.

Is Surfshark legal in the US?

Yes. Surfshark is legal to use in the US and in all other locations where VPN use is not banned. VPN bans exist in countries such as Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, India, Saudi Arabia and a few other places. Find out more about where VPNs are banned.

Surfshark testing methodology

I’ve tested and written about VPNs for over five years. I’ve had Surfshark installed on my Windows PC and my mobile phone during that time along with nine other VPNs. Of those, Surfshark is my go-to VPN for my phone even when I'm not reviewing it.

I like the Android app and I particularly like having my Alternative ID at hand to copy into registration fields when I’m signing up for new sites and services. You can read my thoughts on Alternative ID in the Features section.

I use Surfshark most days and I update this review with my thoughts on the service and new Surfshark features each month. The latest this time is the Web Content Blocker tool which you can read about in the Features section too.

Our VPN test lab is where we put all VPNs through the same battery of tests to ensure a level playing field. Mike has been lab testing VPNs for over 11 years and has developed TechRadar’s VPN testing methodology over that time.

Read more our Surfshark testing methodology ▼

Each VPN is put through full lab testing every six months. As with all the VPNs, Surfshark has been tested for speed, ad-blocking, anti-phasing and malware, streaming service unblocking, local IP address leaks and the server network has been spot-checked to confirm that the VPN server locations are accurate.

As well as this, Surfshark’s privacy and security credentials have been checked in-lab by reading through the company’s privacy policy in detail and by looking through VPN configuration files and monitoring connection logs to ensure that each VPN protocol will operate appropriately.

Surfshark is my go-to VPN for my mobile phone even when I'm not reviewing it.

I have subjectively user tested the rest of Surfshark’s in-app privacy and security features on my own devices in real-world situations – on my mobile connection, on public Wi-Fi and on my home network too. These include Search, Autoconnect, Alert, and Alternative ID. You can read our findings in the Privacy and Security sections.

As with all of our VPN lab tests, Surfshark’s speed testing took place on our cloud PC set-up over a 10 Gbps line. We took 10 measurements from two different server locations (Dublin and Los Angeles) and recorded both local and transatlantic VPN connection speeds. We did this on both WireGuard (for a measure of the fastest speeds) and on OpenVPN (for those who wish to use a more secure connection).

Surfshark apps running on the four major operating systems in the TechRadar VPN lab. (Image credit: Future)

Our final scores are a median average of each set of 10 to avoid any skew from outlier data points. As with all VPN speed testing, it only provides a snapshot in time but, in our experience, it’s representative of average performance.

I’ve added my real-world user experience of Surfshark's speed performance to Mike’s results. You can read about both in the Speed section of this review

Mike tested Surfshark’s CleanWeb tool (anti-phishing and anti-malware) by exposing it to the 100 latest phishing and malware websites and seeing what percentage of these it could detect and block. You can see results in the Security section where I’ve added my thoughts on what it’s like to browse websites using CleanWeb, whether it makes a difference to the number of ads seen on pages, and whether it was able to reduce cookie consent pop-ups.

To test streaming service unblocking, Mike built a tool to sequentially run through a series of streaming platforms, as accessed from a different set of global locations. These include Netflix access to content libraries in Japan, the US, UK, Australia and Canada, access to Prime Video, Disney Plus, and local free streaming services such as BBC iPlayer, ITV, Channel 4, 10Play, 9Now and more.

The streaming tool checks whether or not Surfshark is able to access these services from abroad. If it fails, we try to access these services using different servers or by making tweaks to Surfshark’s set-up. For us, there’s a big difference in usability between a VPN that we need to tweak and one which will offer access first time.

Surfshark has been tested for speed, ad-blocking, anti-phasing and malware, streaming service unblocking, local IP address leaks and the server network has been spot-checked

I do a lot of streaming from abroad using VPNs – particularly with services such as Peacock, Sling and FuboTV. I regularly use Surfshark on my Windows PC for this. You can read my thoughts about Surfshark’s streaming quality and consistency, as well as Mike’s lab results, in the Streaming section of this review.

Finally, and certainly not least for the lab testing, is kill switches. This is arguably the most important feature we test in the lab. Mike sets up software to record the reported IP address of his test devices and switches on the VPN. He then performs a series of ways to break the VPN’s operation and checks that the kill switch kicks in without registering any leaks of the lab’s actual IP address.

The last port of call in our Surfshark testing was to test out its customer support. Mike puts his VPN knowledge to some pretty fiendish use and approaches live chat and email support with a complicated but not impossible technical query. You can see how Surfshark did in our Customer Support section.

Do take a look at our VPN lab testing methodology for a more detailed idea of Mike’s process.

This review has been fact checked across the VPN team, as well as with information provided by Surfshark. We update this review each month to include any new Surfshark features, or information about the product, to make sure that what you’re reading is 100% up to date and as you would find the product if you downloaded and used it today.

If you notice anything in your experience of using Surfshark that does not tally with what you read on this page, please let us know in the comments, or by emailing us direct, and we will endeavour to provide you with product support information or include corrections and warnings to other users, depending on which is appropriate.

Leica is co-developing a bespoke 'true Leica sensor' with Chinese sensor manufacturer Gpixel for the next generation of Leica cameras. Here's what we can expect.

If you’re a small business looking for a reliable data backup and data recovery software, CrashPlan might be what you’re looking for. It allows you to take periodic backups of all system files with unlimited storage, with an option to recover data if you end up accidentally deleting it from your system.

In this article, we’ll discuss the various features CrashPlan offers, along with its pricing, installation, and in-use experience. Stick around till the end to find out if CrashPlan is what you’re looking for.

 CrashPlan: Plans and pricing

(Image credit: CrashPlan)

For small businesses, CrashPlan’s pricing starts at $8/user/month for up to 249 employees. The platform also offers longer-term plans, with its annual cost at $88/user/year and $158/user for a two-year period.

There's also a Microsoft 365 plan which lets you back up Exchange Online, SharePoint, and OneDrive, with pooled cloud storage of 50 GB, costing $4/user/month, or $44/user/year, or $79/user for two years. You can also get additional storage at a cost of $1/month for 100 GB.

The best thing about CrashPlan is that it offers a fully functional 14-day free trial with access to all features it has to offer, including unlimited storage. This allows you to test out the software before purchasing a subscription.

CrashPlan: Features

CrashPlan is primarily a backup solution that lets you take periodic backups of important files and drives on operating systems such as Windows, Mac, and Linux.

CrashPlan uses a time-based versioning system that saves multiple versions of files as they are updated, based on preset time intervals such as 15 minutes, 60 minutes, daily, weekly, or monthly. This allows you to get a more granular history for recent edits, along with all versions stored in backup archives.

(Image credit: Future)

Data recovery is only an additional feature offered by the platform, which works very differently from other data recovery software we have seen.

The likes of EaseUS and Stellar Data Recovery scan for file system metadata to look for files that may have been deleted but not removed from memory. This is possible only if the data has not yet been overwritten. The longer the time elapsed from the point of deletion, the more difficult the recovery becomes.

(Image credit: Future)

However, CrashPlan adopts a very different approach. It first lets you back up files from your system to remote cloud storage and then allows you to download data from that storage even if you have deleted the original files on your system. So this works as long as the data exists in the backup. However, one major downside to this is that there is a hard upper cap limit of 90 days for restoration.

CrashPlan: Installation and in-use experience

CrashPlan is fairly easy to install – you will find a free download button on its website for that. I found the interface to be pretty clean and modern, with a bit of a learning curve involved. There are a fair deal of settings you need to play with to strike the perfect balance between backup and productivity.

(Image credit: Future)

For example, there's an exclusive ‘Backup Sets’ option, which lets you configure which files, locations, and drives you want to be backed up regularly. You can also choose the backup schedule, either keeping it up to date at all times or running backups only at specified times. Besides this, there's also an option to exclude certain files from the backup selection.

(Image credit: Future)

Under the ‘Usage’ Settings section, you'll find other preferences, such as sending alerts when devices are not backed up for a certain number of days or logging you out after a certain period of inactivity. This option is set at 15 minutes by default, which I found to be quite low. We recommend setting it at least 60 minutes so that you don't have to log in repeatedly.

Overall, the in-use experience is pretty good and intuitive with zero lags. That said, you might need a bit of time to get a hang of the platform. There are tons of user guides and YouTube videos to help you around.

CrashPlan: Efficiency 

One of the biggest advantages to CrashPlan is that not only can you set the software to continuously back up files from your computer to the cloud, but also schedule periodic transfers, seamlessly incorporating the application into your workflow.

(Image credit: CrashPlan)

It’s also worth noting that CrashPlan gives you the option to throttle your file transfers to save bandwidth. This setting is sensitive to when your computer is idle, so it’s easy to have the bulk of your uploads take place overnight.

CrashPlan: Support 

If you’re having trouble figuring out how to recover deleted files, you can get in touch with CrashPlan’s support team by live chat, email, or phone. Phone and chat support are only available during normal US business hours Monday to Friday.

Email help is available 24/7, although you may wait several hours for an answer if you send a request during the middle of the night in the US.

For questions about the software and data restoration, CrashPlan also has an extensive online documentation library. Most of the help articles come with walkthrough videos, which is helpful when you’re first learning the software.

How we tested CrashPlan's performance

To test out CrashPlan's capabilities, we signed up for their 14-day free trial and installed the application on our Windows 11 system with a 12th Gen Intel i5 processor. We then chose an MP4 file of around 840 GB to back up on the cloud server. The whole process took 10 minutes.

After this, we went ahead and deleted the file from our system and emptied the Recycle Bin. Then, we restored the same file from the cloud server, which took another 10 minutes or so. The file was not damaged and was restored with all its contents intact.

We repeated the same process with some other files and folders, and each time, CrashPlan was able to restore the files perfectly.

CrashPlan: Final verdict

CrashPlan is a data backup software first, with recovery as an ancillary feature. It is ideal if you are a small business that wants to regularly back up sensitive business data and recover it in case of accidental loss. However, recovery only works for 90 days, beyond which the files may be permanently lost.

The pricing is fairly affordable compared to other backup software, with a modern and sleek interface. However, there is a bit of a learning curve involved, and it would take a few days to get a hang of the platform.

If you're only looking for a dedicated data recovery option, platforms like EaseUS, Wondershare Recoverit, and Stellar Data Recovery might be better options.

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If you’re looking for a data recovery tool, especially for your Mac device, Disk Drill can be a good choice. Its deep KEXT-level Mac scans work even on newer versions, along with a very robust Windows, Android, and iOS platform.

Disk Drill's website boasts that any lost data file type can be recovered, from almost any data loss scenario you can think of. But does Disk Drill rediscover the deleted data you're expecting? We’ve put Disk Drill to the ultimate test to find out.

(Image credit: Disk Drill)Disk Drill: Plans and pricing

Disk Drill's pricing is slightly on the higher side, especially its one-year subscription, which costs $89 per year. In comparison, EaseUS costs $69.95/year. That said, you can install Disk Drill on up to three devices, whereas EaseUS offers only a single-device license.

However, you get the best value with Disk Drill if you get its lifetime license, which costs only $149. The prices also remain the same for both platforms: Windows and Mac.

Disk Drill: Features

The best thing about Disk Drill is that it is very inclusive in nature, since it supports both Windows and macOS, and a wide variety of file systems such as FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, HFS, APFS, EXT 2/3/4, and RAW disks.

The application can recognize around 400 file signatures on a host of devices such as SSDs and HDDs, USB flash drives, NAS devices, software RAID arrays, smartphones, and memory cards. This is by far one of the widest coverage ranges offered by any data recovery software.

(Image credit: Future)

Besides simple data recovery, Disk Drill also offers a byte-by-byte backup option, which allows you to clone each sector of your device one by one while dealing with failing hard drives. You also get several ancillary tools, such as SMART monitoring, which checks your device health, and a built-in disk cleanup tool that looks for useless files on your drives.

I really loved its Advanced Camera Recovery feature, which makes it easy to restore fragmented and lost video footage from devices such as drones, DVRs, or cameras. There's also a nifty recovery chance calculator, so that you can check the probability of a file being successfully recovered before attempting to do so.

(Image credit: Future)

Data recovery software usually requires direct access to storage devices to properly scan and recover data. However, this is not possible on newer macOS versions with T2 and Apple Silicon M1 to M5 chips.

This is where Disk Drill comes in handy. It deploys its own kernel extension, known as a KEXT, which allows it to cooperate with the macOS kernel and bypass standard OS-level limitations to access internal drives. Since Apple has been slowly phasing out KEXTs, Disk Drill’s ability to perform deep macOS scans is a significant advantage.

Scanning

The scanning speed with Disk Drill depends on the type of drive you are scanning. If it’s an external hard disk, it can take more than 10 hours to scan 1TB of data, which is way more than other platforms we’ve tested. However, internal drive scans are pretty quick – I was able to scan around 600GB of data within a matter of five minutes.

While the scan is in progress, you can review items that have already been found, including deleted files. This allows you to start the recovery process even before the entire scan finishes.

(Image credit: Future)

You will see a color-coded dashboard that segregates each scan into various file types such as pictures, videos, audio, documents, archives, and so on. There’s also an option to view the files in a standard tree view, just like the file explorer on your PC. You can simply click on any one of them to view scan results and recover them.

However, one issue with Disk Drill is that it doesn’t allow you to save scans. If you head back to the homepage before recovering anything, you’ll have to run the scan all over again.

Installation and in-use experience

While Disk Drill is easy to install, compared to other software we have reviewed before, the process took longer than expected, and the application requires a system reboot before you can start using it. In comparison, other software we have tested launches directly upon completion of installation.

(Image credit: Future)

That said, the interface itself is pretty modern and sleek, with a pitch-black design. On the homepage, you will find a side panel that allows you to access all software features, including data recovery and extra tools.

Once you finish a scan, you’ll see two options at the top: Recover All or Review Lost Data. The Review option lets you look for the exact files and folders you want to restore in an easy-to-view, tree-style format. You also have the option to filter results based on file type, size, date modified, and recovery chances.

(Image credit: Future)

Simply check the box next to the file you want to recover and click ‘Recover’ at the bottom right of your screen. Once you choose a destination, the file is recovered within a matter of a few minutes.

The whole process is seamless and pretty beginner-friendly. We didn’t face any lags or unusual delays throughout the process.

Disk Drill: How we tested

To test Disk Drill thoroughly, I installed the free version of the software on my Windows 11 system with 16GB of RAM and a 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-12500H processor. Then, I downloaded an album of Mozart's music from the Internet Archive. This consisted of 22 files – 13 JPG files, 4 PNG files, 2 MP3 files, 2 FLAC files, and 1 torrent file.

I transferred the folder to a 1.36 TB NTFS hard drive and connected it to my Windows 11 system, after which I deleted it and emptied the Recycle Bin. Then, I ran a scan with Disk Drill, and within a matter of minutes, it found the deleted folder. I simply clicked on it and hit Recover, and all 22 files were recovered in our chosen destination within a few seconds. I repeated this test with local drives on my PC, and the results were similar.

Disk Drill: Support

Disk Drill is easy to use and it's fast. But what happens when you run into problems?

To help you out, a comprehensive selection of tutorials is provided on the website, covering everything from recovering data from specific device types, platforms, and file types. If these documents don't solve your problem, the detailed Lost file recovery university (Disk Drill's knowledge base) almost certainly will.

(Image credit: Disk Drill)

As readers have seen, we were particularly impressed by the knowledge base suggesting that users try to use their own OS built-in utilities to recover data before buying Disk Drill. The support section also provides balanced reviews of other data recovery tools. We particularly recommend the 'Understanding' section of the Knowledge Base, which contains some tutorials on basic subjects like how to recover just one lost file, as well as providing an overview of all Disk Drill features.

Failing that, a live chat service is available, and you can also get in touch with Disk Drill on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and LinkedIn.

Disk Drill: Final verdict

Disk Drill for Windows has lived under the shadow of the macOS “original” for quite some time, but based on our testing, this seems unfair. Disk Drill delivers an impressive data recovery experience, supported by features like deep macOS scanning via KEXT, byte-by-byte backups, and a host of free drive maintenance tools.

Its complete collection of features across platforms and scenarios is impressive, including the ability to mount and read previously unmountable virtual hard drives and recover data from them within a comparatively short timeframe.

Disk Drill spotted all the deleted test files and recovered them quickly, reinforcing its reliability as a recovery tool worth considering. The performance is a bit mixed, with external drive scans turning out to be slower than most of its peers. That said, its interface is a clear winner, thanks to its visually appealing and well-segregated scan results.

Pricing for the PRO version isn’t ideal for home users, although there are discounts for users of existing tools, as well as students and charities. While the pricing is on the higher side, the software delivers good value for those looking for a reliable data recovery option and who prioritize usability over cost.

• Also check out our complete list of the best data recovery software

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EaseUS is one of the biggest names in the world of data recovery software, and its Data Recovery Wizard has been around since 2005. After such a long time, you'd hope it's a top option for reliable data recovery. Is it?

Its set of features certainly suggests that it'll get the job done. It claims that it can help you recover lost or deleted files and folders from 2,000+ device types in 1,000+ formats. It can hunt through conventional hard disks and even damaged operating systems, and it supports more file and device types than virtually every rival. It's even got a generous free version alongside powerful paid options.

To find out whether these are simply claims or if EaseUS can actually bring back deleted system data, we’ve put the platform to the test in this detailed review.

(Image credit: EaseUS)EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard: Plans & pricing

EaseUS's pricing tiers are pretty straightforward. You can choose the one-month plan at $69.95 or the one-year plan at $99.95, with the latter being the better choice. Alternatively, you can purchase the lifetime upgrade for $149.95.

There’s also a free version available on its website, which allows you to recover up to 2GB of data at no cost.

Pro tip: If you’re purchasing the lifetime plan, don’t click “buy now” instantly – wait a couple of minutes, and a 20-30% discount coupon may appear.

We also like that all plans offer the same features and differ only in duration. You can also save 20-30% through bundled plans that combine Data Recovery Wizard with EaseUS Todo Backup and iPhone utilities.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard: Features

EaseUS supports 2,000+ storage devices, including USB flash drives, memory cards, cameras, and external hard drives, along with 1,000+ file types such as photos, emails, archives, documents, and videos.

During our testing, we were able to recover JPG, PNG, MP3, and torrent files. The software also handles multiple data loss scenarios, including deletion, formatting, OS crashes, virus attacks, and inaccessible or RAW partitions.

You don’t need to stay in front of your screen during scans – EaseUS allows automatic recovery of scanned files to a selected location. It also allows you to preview files before restoring them, helping ensure you recover the correct files.

Scanning

EaseUS offers two scanning modes: quick scan and deep scan. When you select a drive and hit the scan button, the quick scan mode kicks in first, where the software reads the drive's file directory and master files to find files that were recently deleted and whose directory entry is intact with no data overwritten. This is very quick, often lasting a few seconds or a minute.

(Image credit: Future)

After this, EaseUS enters deep scan mode, where the entire drive is scanned for known file signatures, header-footer patterns, and specific binary codes. Deep scan comes in handy for older files that were lost accidentally or corrupted over time.

During my test, I noticed EaseUS was consuming 1 to 2% of CPU power at rest. However, as soon as we hit scan on the software, the CPU usage jumped to 7 to 8%, often reaching 10% at times.

(Image credit: Future)

This level of CPU usage is pretty acceptable and normal for a workload-heavy software such as a data recovery tool. I was able to comfortably browse the internet and stream videos without experiencing any performance lags while EaseUS scanned the drive in the background.

Installation and in-use experience

The installation experience of the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is pretty seamless. All you have to do is visit its official website and find the free trial button on its homepage, available for both Windows and Mac.

Click on it to download your free version and then double-click the installed file to launch the installer. Wait 3-5 minutes for the installation process to complete, after which you will see the EaseUS home dashboard.

The interface is modern and sleek, with a central pane showing you all your internal and external drives. Searching for lost data is simple, even if you are a complete beginner to data recovery tools.

(Image credit: Future)

Click on the drive from where the data was deleted and hit the “Search for Lost Data” button in the bottom right corner. EaseUS will then perform a complete drive scan to look for existing as well as deleted files. Besides scanning complete drives, you can also search for specific types of files such as pictures, videos, documents, or audio.

One good thing about EaseUS is that it lets you recover files as soon as you see them pop up while the scan is still running. Click on the file you want to recover and tap the “Recover” button in the bottom right.

(Image credit: Future)

You will then have to choose a destination path where you want to save the recovered file. As soon as you click “Save”, a new File Explorer window will open with your recovered file. All of this happens while the scan is still ongoing in the background.

After we recovered an MP3 file of 3.70MB, our free allowance was reduced to just 508.30MB, which was pretty shocking. It's possible that the 2GB limit might apply to the size of the drive being scanned instead of the amount of data recovered.

How we tested

We first installed the free version of EaseUS on our Windows 11 system, with 16GB of RAM and a 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-12500H processor.

To test EaseUS's data recovery capability, we downloaded an album of Mozart's music from the Internet Archive. This consisted of 22 files – 13 JPG files, 4 PNG files, 2 MP3 files, 2 FLAC files, and 1 torrent file. We copied this folder onto a 1.36 TB NTFS hard drive and connected it to our Windows 11 system.

We then deleted this folder and emptied the Recycle Bin. After this, we ran a scan with EaseUS, and within a matter of seconds, it found the deleted folder. We simply clicked on it and hit recover, and all 22 files were recovered in our chosen destination within a few seconds.

I also tried to recover the same set of files from the local drive on my system, which EaseUS did comfortably. We noticed that the scanning process is much faster on a local disk than on an externally connected drive, likely due to the higher data transfer speeds and lower latency associated with internal storage interfaces.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard: Support

(Image credit: EaseUS)

EaseUS offers a fairly comprehensive customer support system, accessible directly from its Support Center. From the dropdown menu, you can quickly navigate to options like Support Center, Download, Chat Support, Pre-Sales Inquiry, Premium Service, and even Manual Recovery Service for advanced cases.

There’s also a handy search bar that lets you instantly look up guides, licensing help, or troubleshooting queries without digging through menus.

For more urgent issues, EaseUS provides direct access to human support. You can reach out via email, call their support number, or use live chat to speak with a representative. This makes it easy to get real-time assistance, whether you're dealing with technical problems or pre-sales questions.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard: Final verdict

EaseUS is an all-round data recovery software that allows you to get back your data in various loss case scenarios, such as deletions, virus infections, or accidental OS crashes. Along with two scanning modes – quick scan and deep scan – the process is fairly quick, with low CPU utilization at around 7 to 8%.

The interface is modern and very easy to use, even for beginners. The pricing is fair and at par with industry standards, although cheaper options exist. There’s a handy 2GB free data recovery option, which lets you test out the platform before getting a subscription.

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