Initially had Surfshark a few years ago and currently have Proton VPN but am thinking about switching back over to Surfshark due to it being cheaper and having more features. Any pros/cons or good/bad experiences with Surfshark or Proton VPN?
I can only say im using proton on multiple devices 24/7 sincr years and i have pretty much no issues. As im using all their services the 10$/month is worth for me for ultimate plan
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One of the benefits Surfshark has over Proton, is that it has an option to get a dedicated IP. I really miss that with Proton VPN. If Proton had it, it would be perfect. Other than that, Proton is the better choice for me. Surfshark is registered in the Netherlands, which is part of the 9-eyes. I personally would never get a VPN that’s registered in one of the 14-eyes countries. Proton doesn’t have that problem; it’s registered in Switzerland, which has one of the best privacy laws in the world.
And if you go for Proton Unlimited you get much more than Surfshark offers (not just Proton VPN, but also Proton Mail, Proton Calendar, Proton Pass, and Proton Drive). I’m not really impressed by what Surfshark offers in their Starter, One and One+ packages. I wouldn’t want to rely on Surfshark antivirus, for instance. Most tests show it’s not really effective. And for ad blocking, I use uBlock Origin in all my browsers.
The only other extra feature Surfshark offers that I like, is their cookie popup blocker, which actually works. But this is only interesting if you reside in the EU. And besides that, there are browser extensions for that as well.
If it’s purely about VPN, then you could go for Surfshark, because it’s cheaper. If you want more, then I would recommend Proton VPN. In this day and age where privacy is becoming more and more important, I can’t imagine having to do without Proton. Yes, it costs more, but if you care about your privacy, it’s worth it.
Edit: in all fairness, Surfshark’s browser extension seems a little bit better, too. But I don’t use the browser extension. And the Proton browser extension is rather new. I’m sure they will filter out the errors, and the Proton extension will get better and better over time.
I wouldn’t. If couple bucks a month is more important for you than security why bother with VPN at all. Proton is way, way better and trustworthy than Surfshark. When I had Surfshark I had tons of issues including leaking IP and will never use them again.
I don’t use anything promoted by “influencers,” including surfshark.
Proton vpn declined my transaction many times That’s why I went through Surfshark but now I’m regretting why i take a subscription to surfshark… Proton is expensive but it is a true vpn but proton vpn needs to update their transaction interface simultaneously they need to add more ways for transactions.
The Surfshark multi hop feature (you can pair any two servers on their network to create double VPN protection) and rotating IP features are excellent. Speeds are good and it’s cheap
I hear they are not fans of torrenting though and users have been banned if it’s picked up by their automated system for breaking ToS
Windscribe’s VPN Relationship Map is a pretty eye-opening, visual representation of the market. I encourage everyone to spend some time there learning about the ownership and paid affiliate relationships between VPN and other security/privacy providers and media.
SurfShark is owned by NordSecurity. Both have an acknowledged financial releationship with Tesonet, a data-mining, analytics, SEO, targeted marketing company.
SurfShark’s Privacy Policy is extremely lengthy and complex, and if you use their misnamed DNS service, admits to retaining IP logs for “as long as you use the service.” Surfsharks Privacy Policy also admits to using “cookie id, mobile device id, advertising IDs; and in case you use our Trust DNS app – in app events, such information about what browser, network, or device is used to access and use Trust DNS” to “attribute sales, deliver more relevant ads and promotional messages to you, which may include interest-based advertising and account-based advertising.”
By comparison, Proton’s Privacy Policy is a bit spread-out, but is generally shorter and simpler, and does not admit to using any customer data for advertising purposes.
Proton VPN is based in Switzerland, and is subject to their privacy laws. The company was founded by several CERN scientists.
That’s just meaningless marketing drivel. The fact is, both the Swiss and other government law enforcement agencies can request data through the Swiss courts, and in nearly 6,000 cases (2022), Proton has provided this data. This is separate from the passive and active surveillance that might occur at Proton’s connections to the Internet, or other places on the Internet, including surveillance by the Swiss government itself.
I like ProtonVPN, and I use it personally and recommend it to others. But that’s my opinion and, even though I’ve taken the time to do due diligence and have been an Information Security Professional and have several InfoSec and IT certifications, unless you know me personally or professionally, there’s no reason for you to trust me (or any other random Redditor). Unless you’re a potential enterprise customer working directly with Proton on a large licensing agreement, all you can go by are the company’s reputation, history and the recommendations of others who have become recognized experts in the field.
Two of the most well-known experts are Jonah Aragon from PrivacyGuides.org, and Henry Fisher from Techlore.tech. Both of these people/sites have been recommending ProtonVPN as one of the best VPN’s for several years.
Same, couldn’t live without the Unlimited Plan.
I mean, I could, but I really don’t want to.
I’m not sure what you just said here, but all of a sudden I now know 10 languages, how to shoot sniper rifles at ranges exceeding 2 miles, am a 10th degree BJJ black belt, how to hack into any system in the world within 2 minutes, can understand how block chain and bitcoin works and also have a sudden urge to do whatever biddings is asked of me by my government with zero questioning 
I’m guessing OP is mainly talking about the ad blocker, cookie popup blocker, and the antivirus. But I’m not impressed by those extra features. They are available as (free) browser extensions. And Surfshark’s antivirus doesn’t perform well in tests, to put it mildly.
Proton vpn isn’t promoted right?
Not true. I’ve torrented for years on Surfshark without issue.
We’d like to clarify that the 6,000 cases you mentioned above refer to Proton Mail, and not Proton VPN. The situation with legal requests sent to Proton VPN is very different: https://protonvpn.com/blog/transparency-report/. This is because, under Swiss law, the treatment of VPNs is different. So VPNs can indeed be no-logs. No-logs VPN is also possible in other countries as well, but what makes Switzerland different and possibly unique is that within the current Swiss legal framework, Proton VPN also does not have forced logging obligations. Therefore, a no-logs US VPN could, for instance, get an NSL (National Security Letter) to start logging particular users, but that’s not possible in Switzerland. In addition to that, VPN is mostly impossible for law enforcement to ask for something reasonable, as there’s no “identity” for the traffic going out of our server. There’s practically no chance for law enforcement to know what account to ask for.
Regarding the surveillance by the Swiss government you mentioned, Proton users are not impacted because we already designed Proton with the assumption that all cables are tapped. Here’s our analysis of this revelation: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/1930vnh/comment/kh71qch/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3.
Not by influencers, as far as I know.
We’d like to clarify that the 6,000 cases you mentioned above refer to Proton Mail, and not Proton VPN.
Thank you for the correction. But my example was more to illustrate that the distinction of Swiss jurisdiction is a misleading marketing device. It’s not the jurisdiction that protects users from government inquiries, it’s the technology you employ that makes such warrants useless to pursue.
With regards to an NSL, I’d appreciate a legal explanation about why a foreign company’s operations within the USA are exempt from USA law?
Regarding the surveillance by the Swiss government you mentioned, Proton users are not impacted because we already designed Proton with the assumption that all cables are tapped.
Once again, my original point was that Swiss Privacy is a misleading marketing device and not assurance against attempts by the Swiss or any other government to implement surveillance. I feel that Proton would be better served by stressing the technological means by which they prevent surveillance than pretending that being based in Switzerland provides some explicit privacy benefits.
If Proton keeps no logs it isn’t possible for them to hand over user data. It’s pretty simple
If they were found to have handed over data it would be over for them
Thank you for the clarification!
We are not sure we understand your question, however. Could you clarify what you mean by “operations within the USA”? Proton doesn’t have an entity in the USA.
If a threat actor can monitor the traffic going in and out of the VPN server’s network, they can correlate that traffic between the source and destination IP.