SurfEasy VPN Review (2024)

Features

SurfEasy VPN is headquartered in Canada but owned by the US-based Opera, the folks who built the Opera browser. With over 1000 servers in 28 countries.

SurfEasy provides apps for Win, Mac, iOS, Android, and Amazon devices, plus browser extensions for Chrome and Opera.

All it takes to get a free trial is to subscribe with your email, and you’re up and running in a matter of minutes. The user dashboard gives you quick access to the download files, FAQ, upgrade page, and your account stats.

The Windows client is super-swift and dead-simple. Minimum settings, basic usage stats, ways to upgrade or earn free MBs, and a list of countries with a connect toggle.

The main window displays a neat map that shows your location and four central readings – your public IP address, your masked or real location (depending on whether VPN is connected), and your connection status. The fourth stat is for the ad tracker blocking – the feature available in the paid packages.

The mobile client is equally sleek and fast and comes with a nifty desktop widget for a one-tap connection. You can also set all the SurfEasy apps (desktop and mobile) to start automatically when your device connects to a new Wi-Fi network. It’s especially useful for mobile devices since you can forget to enable VPN if you’re anything like me and use public WI-Fi a lot while traveling.

Overall, SurfEasy is a no-hassle option if you’re a newcomer to the VPNs and need something that lets you surf safely with minimum user input. The help files are short and sweet, and there’s ticket-based support if you need direct assistance. On the flip side, they only work 9-5, so expect some delay.​ There’s no customization for the power users here, but that doesn’t mean SurfEasy has nothing to boast. You can connect up to five devices with a single account, and the bandwidth is not capped in the paid plans.

The provider explicitly supports P2P but to enjoy protected torrenting you need the Ultra subscription. Tracker blocker kicks in to protect you from advertisers’ and social networks’ cookies snooping on your online activities. Even though the apps don’t have any toggle for the DNS leak protection, the feature is implemented at the server level, so you’re safe on this part. I wish there were a kill switch, but overall SurfEasy looks solid despite the lack of customization.

Pricing

SurfEasy takes the cake when it comes to the free trial plan, which lets you connect up to five devices. It’s limited to 500MB, but you can expand that by spreading the word and connecting more devices.

The support for up to five devices, unlimited data, region selection, ad-tracker blocking, torrent compatibility, and dedicated customer support kicks in at $7.99/mo if billed monthly, or $39.99 if billed annually.

All plans come with a no-question 14-day money-back guarantee, but you can only pay with a credit card or PayPal. So, if you’re after anonymity, you will have to look elsewhere.

The monthly pricing isn’t all that cheap, but the annual fees are much more reasonable and don’t seem overpriced if you ask me.

Tests

I was impressed with SurfEasy speeds and performance. Usually, the further the server is located from your physical location, the slower the speeds. Not in this case, as SurfEasy improved my upload speeds for both the US and EU servers.

The drop in download speeds is minor while the increase in latency seems reasonable:

As far as security testing goes, again, I was pleased to see SurfEasy wasn’t leaking my DNS, IPv6, or WebRTC:

With the stellar speeds and security checkups, I thought I was in for a smooth streaming experience, but alas.

While I was connected to the US server, SurfEasy only got me as far as Netflix Canada, and that was only up until the moment their VPN guards locked me out.

Same story with BBC iPlayer – I logged into my account, but couldn’t stream anything.

Privacy and security

On the security front, SurfEasy implements all the right technology by default but leaves the user out of the equation. It’s OpenVPN and AES-256 encryption by default, which is the current golden standard for VPNs.

As far as your privacy goes, there are a couple of things to consider.

First, the Canadian laws are privacy-invading, and you can multiply that by two since SurfEasy is the property of the US-based Opera. So, the 5 Eyes, Big Brother, data retention, subpoenas et al. are on the table.

Second, the provider keeps your email and billing details for understandable reasons, and if they receive a request from law enforcement, they comply.

Third, they can and will cut you short if you abuse or clog the service, but that’s true for any VPN provider.

Their ToS and Privacy Policy are written in human language – short and digestible, but I’m on the fence after reading them. On the one hand, they don’t log your real IP address, or the websites you visit while connected to the VPN.

On the other, they do log temporary usage data, and aggregate bandwidth use and their apps come with Google Analytics. But this part of their Privacy Policy here looks really alarming:

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