Right so, around a week ago my little sister rang me up and said,
‘Josh, I’m traveling to Indonesia soon for work and they’re still
doing this 7 day quarantine thing…how in the heck am I gonna survive the boredom?’
So I said to her, ‘Sis, you need to get yourself a VPN pronto.
With a VPN you can watch any tv or movies you want from all around the world.’
She said, ‘Ok great, you’re into all that nerdy stuff, which one should I get?’
My answer? What about Surfshark?
I was actually just about to make a review video on Surfshark when I thought to myself,
hang on just a gosh darn minute…why don’t I get my little sister to review this instead?
Let’s evaluate this VPN through the lens of someone that genuinely does
not give a flying flute about VPNs. Her review might just shock and surprise you
so make sure you watch right to the end to find out what her final verdict was.
So without further ado, let’s see what my sister had to say after
using the Surfshark VPN for the very first time.
Ok so my sister refused to be on camera today but
she gave me her notes in the form of a pros and cons list. So let’s take a look.
Pros.
“I wanted to be able to stream movies and tv shows in Indonesia without any hassle.
Surfshark performed this task well and I was able to catch
up on the latest season of Vikings without any issues. 10 out of 10.”
Ok cool, so yeah when most people download a VPN what they’re looking to do is bypass
geo-restrictions and Surfshark is great if you want to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime,
Disney+ and more from all around the world.
So when I asked my sister what she thought about the Wireguard protocol
and whether she was happy with the speed of Surfshark her response was this:
“Wtf is a Wireguard protocol you absolute nerd? The speed seemed fine,
I didn’t have any buffering issues while I was watching TV although I wouldn't be upset
if Netflix suddenly started buffering on a shot of Ragnar Lothbrok’s abs.”
Right, we’ve got the tick of approval for streaming and speed from my sister,
but I do want to mention that while Surfshark is pretty speedy, it’s not the best for torrenting.
Surfshark is known for having erratic P2P behavior, meaning that speeds are reportedly
pretty bad if you’re torrenting. So that is a bit of a con and something worth bearing in mind.
The next thing I asked dear sis about was privacy. Was she concerned about
cyberhackers getting her banking info in a foreign country? Here was her response:
“The fact that Surfshark has a no logging policy was reassuring,
not that I was visiting any questionable sites, cos I’m not a weirdo.
But I also liked their killswitch feature too which offers a little more security. But Josh,
the other protocols you told me about meant basically nothing to me. I felt like my connection
was pretty private and my data wasn’t going to get stolen. So that’s another pro for Surfshark”
Fair enough sis. But just in case you’re interested dear viewer, Surfshark has some
pretty robust privacy features. The service is based in the British Virgin Islands,
meaning it’s not governed by any government agencies, and it has a Noborders mode which
means that it’s not restricted in countries like China who tend to block VPNs.
Surfshark also uses 256 bit AES encryption, which is pretty standard for most VPNs and about as good
as it gets. Wiregard is their default protocol which is a lightweight open source protocol
offering a lot more than previous protocols when it comes to security.
And yes, Surfshark has a strict no logging policy
meaning that none of your browsing history or information is collected
which is definitely a plus and something most people are looking for in a VPN.
Alright we’ve covered streaming, speed and privacy - all pros according to sis.
I’ve given them 1 con for speed in regards to torrenting. But are there
any other downsides to Surfshark? Let’s see what my sister had to say.
“Cons - I don’t know Josh, it seemed pretty good to me, in my opinion the only con is that when
I downloaded this vpn I didn’t realize you were going to ask me so many damn questions about it.”
Well. Just trying to create some valuable content here sis.
But yeah, to be honest Surfshark doesn’t really have many cons.
That being said, their customer service reportedly isn’t that great. They do have
a lot of tutorials and faq content in their help section as well as a live chat feature
which is great, but some users have reported issues getting a refund if they no longer
wanted to use the service. Hopefully, they’ll refine their processes in that area soon.
Alright let’s move on to the interface. What did my lovely
sister think of Surfshark’s interface? Let’s find out:
“Good. I liked it. Simple and easy to navigate.”
Well that was straight to the point. And she’s right Surfshark’s interface
is incredibly intuitive and easy to find your way around. Simply
find the server you’d like to connect to and hit a button to connect,
it’s as easy as that. There are other features you can toggle on and off too like the Noborders mode,
the killswitch and cleanweb. You can even select which protocol you’d like to use too.
Alrighty moving on, the next thing I wanted to ask my sister about was what she thought of
the other features Surfshark has. For instance, what did she think about the number of servers
Surfshark has available, the split tunneling feature, the multiphop feature, GPS spoofing,
URL and ad blocking, the simultaneous connections??? And here was her response:
“I don’t speak cyber nerd Josh. I literally have no idea what you’re talking about or why
I should care. I just wanted to watch Netflix in Indonesia and Surfshark allowed me to do that.”
Well, ok then. But just in case you’re interested,
here’s a very quick rundown of some of Surfshark’s other noteworthy features.
So currently Surfshark has a network of over 3200 servers in 65 countries.
It’s not as many as some other VPNs out there but it’s definitely pretty decent
and doesn’t disappoint given it’s low price point which we’ll talk about in just a moment.
The split tunneling feature is great if you’re into torrenting
because it allows you to separate your connections and choose which apps and websites use the VPN.
And the multihop feature is another great addition which allows you to route through more than one
server at a time, and personally I think that’s pretty cool and gives you some added privacy.
The GPS Spoofing feature is yet another way to fake or hide your true location
and the ad blocking feature just gives you a way nicer browsing experience.
Oh and let’s not forget the simultaneous connections! While this wasn’t an issue
for my sister as she was on her own, if you have a large family or multiple devices,
Surfshark allows unlimited connections with just one account which is pretty
damn awesome. Most other VPN providers have a maximum of 5.
Alrighty so now the final thing my dear sister added to her list of criteria for Surfshark
was of course, the price. In her words she says:
“The monthly subscription for Surfshark was a tad ridiculous
at $12.95 considering I was only in Indonesia for like 3 weeks
but their 2 year plan was just $59.76 at like $2.49 a month, so it made sense to splurge.
And with the 30 day money back guarantee I figured I had plenty of time to decide.
That being said, make sure you read the fine print because when it comes time
to renew your plan they jack the price up to $4.98/month. It’s a bit cheeky really.”
That’s right, in terms of getting the best value for your money, the longer plans are the way to
go. When you compare Surfshark’s pricing with their competitors, they’re still definitely
the most affordable VPN on the market right now. Their monthly plan comes in at $12.95,
but if you go for a 6 month plan that price drops down to $6.49 per month, and finally if you commit
to a full 24 months the price is just $2.49 a month plus you get an extra 3 months for free.
Overall, I think this is a great all round VPN and if you’re on a tight budget,
signing up for their 24 month plan with 3 months free is the way to go. Now before we wrap up,
let’s see what the final verdict was from my sweet sister's experience using Surfshark.
“Overall, I would probably rate this VPN a 9.5 out of 10. I liked that I could stream tv shows
and movies from around the world pretty easily and the speed was reasonably fast.
I also liked their strict privacy policies which made me feel a little more comfortable.
The interface was super easy to navigate which I appreciated as a non-VPN user. I only deducted
half a point because of their sneaky price hike when it comes time to renew your plan.
Now in terms of Josh’s Youtube skills,
I’m scoring him a solid 6 out of 10 - lots of room for improvement there.”
Wow. Well that’s the last time I ask my sister to help me with anything related to this channel.
So that brings us to the end of this review! What did you think,
do you agree with my sisters and will you be downloading Surfshark? If so,
be sure to use the link we’ve included in the description box below. This link gets
you an amazing 81% discount on Surfshark so you’ll definitely want to check that out.
Plus you’ve got that risk-free guarantee
where you get your money back within 30 days if you’re not happy.
And don’t forget if you enjoyed this video be sure to give us a big thumbs up
and consider subscribing to The Cyber Lab so you don't miss the
next time a family member decides to roast me for no reason at all.
The next video is about the best VPNs available out there so don’t miss it.