SurfShark VPN Is as Low as $2 a Month Right Now

The world is awash in VPNs right now. Some are major players and nearly household names, others are new even to me—and I do this for a living. SurfShark seems to be on the rise, as far as visibility goes, considering that it’s a relative newcomer.

It was only just founded in 2018.Now, it’s owned by the same people who bring us NordVPN, which I call the overall best VPN in my guide to VPNs. Right now you can grab a two-year plan for $2 per month, plus three free months, or a one-year plan for $3.



19 per month, also with three free months.There’s currently no deal on the month-to-month price, which starts at $15.45.

If you plan to use a VPN as a regular habit—and you should—the one-year deal makes much more sense than going month to month.(opens in a new window)SurfShark(opens in a new window)Available at SurfSharkBuy Now(opens in a new window)Why you’d go with surfsharkVPN stands for virtual private network. Acting as a middleman, it routes all the information exchange between you and other websites’ servers on the internet, in both directions, through a server owned by the VPN service.

Should a website or a bad actor try to follow you across the web, they won’t see your unique, identifiable IP address, only that of the VPN server you’re connected to. Since these are shared servers—any decent VPN will have thousands of servers to choose from—you disappear into the crowd if a data thief or snoop tries to eavesdrop on your digital trail.Unlike NordVPN, which bases itself legally in Panama and outside the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes international surveillance alliances, SurfShark is based in The Netherlands, which is a member of the Nine Eyes.

These alliances enable sharing of citizens’ online data, so a person using a VPN service located in one signatory country—even if they’re not physically in that country or a citizen of that country—can have their data logs handed over to one of the other signatory countries by request.Basing oneself outside these 14 countries is a major measure of data privacy. Even if a VPN has a no-logs policy—and that’s an absolute requirement for a worthy VPN, in my book—it’s good to have the security of not being based in a country that has the framework to make these sorts of privacy-invading demands of VPN providers.

SurfShark says a “VPN being established in an -Eyes country doesn’t mean anything.” It’s a funny departure from NordVPN’s wariness toward the -Eyes Alliances, given that they share the same owner.To its credit, SurfShark does have a prominent no-logs policy, and it’s passed several independent audits whereby people looked deeply into its infrastructure to determine that it was telling the truth about its privacy protections.

I’ve yet to do a full review of SurfShark, although it’s on my radar. If you balk at pledging yourself to a year or two’s worth of service to snag the deal price, know that there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee if you change your mind during your first month of usage.(opens in a new window)SurfShark(opens in a new window)Available at SurfSharkBuy Now(opens in a new window)The post SurfShark VPN Is as Low as $2 a Month Right Now appeared first on VICE.

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