Another day, another dilemma in the sea of millions more. You think about your new VPN and decide to narrow things down to ExpressVPN and Surfshark. Your efforts to find a comprehensive Surfshark vs ExpressVPN comparison are vast, but nothing clicks with you. Well, your suffering is cut short.
This ExpressVPN vs Surfshark duel compares the two amazing providers to decide which is better. We know both providers are flagship, but the concern is the price, which is much higher with ExpressVPN. This begs the question of whether paying more for it is better. Or stick to a low-priced VPN like Surfshark.
We can say a few things for certain. These two are impeccable in terms of security, privacy, performance, and device compatibility. Unfortunately for the loser, one must win. Which one is that? Read this Surfshark vs ExpressVPN analysis to find out.
ExpressVPN vs Surfshark: Overview
Lazy readers will appreciate knowing the winner right away. Here it is – ExpressVPN won the duel. However, there are a few nuances in our comparison we’d like you to know about. That said, we advise reading until the end before spending money. Here’s a table showcasing both VPNs’ most important features for quicker reading:
| ExpressVPN 🏆 | Surfshark VPN | |
| 📋 Our Current Ranking | #2 | #5 |
| 🔖 Prices | Starts at $2.44 monthly | Starts at $1.99 monthly |
| 💸 Money-Back Guarantee | 30 days for all plans | 30 days for all plans |
| 🆓 Free Version/Free Trial | No/3 days | No/7 days |
| 📓 Logging/Jurisdiction | No logging/British Virgin Islands | No logging/Netherlands |
| 🔐 Protocols | OpenVPN, IKEv2, Lightway, Lightway Turbo | WireGuard, IKEv2, OpenVPN |
| 🌐 Servers | 3,000+ in 105 countries | 4,500+ in 100 countries |
| 🔝 Specialty Servers | Dedicated IP | Dedicated IP & Static IP, MultiHop |
| ⛔ Ad Blocking | Yes | Yes |
| 💾 RAM-Only Servers | Yes | Yes |
| 📺 Working With Netflix | Yes (15+ catalogs) | Yes (30+ catalogs) |
| 🔽 P2P Allowance | Yes | Yes |
| 📱 Concurrent Connections | 10-14 | Unlimited |
Applications & Ease of Use
In terms of applications, Surfshark and ExpressVPN do well, from compatibility to ease of use. Compatibility-wise, you can expect them to work on all desktop and mobile platforms, like Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. They also support Smart TVs, gaming consoles, routers, Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, and plenty more.
Ease of use is on ExpressVPN’s side, with its beginner-friendly apps that look stunning. You’ll see a sleek-looking app with a big connection button connecting you to a server in seconds. From here, you can access the server list underneath and pick from one of thousands of servers. Settings are also easily reachable.
Surfshark looks more modern. Its apps are brimming with features and options that give out that premium feel. Best of all, these are snappy and responsive apps that won’t take long to connect. Surfshark’s more lavish apps are slightly less simplistic. However, we would lie if we said we had a tough time getting around.
It’s good to know that both providers support browsers, offering VPNs for Chrome as excellent extensions with WebRTC leak protection and bank-grade security. Let’s finally address their simultaneous connections. ExpressVPN has 10 in the Basic plan and goes up to 14 in the range-topping Pro plan.
Surfshark supports unlimited simultaneous connections, no matter the plan.
Winner: Tie 🟰
The first ExpressVPN vs Surfshark round is a tie. ExpressVPN is easier to use and more suited to beginners, while Surfshark excels at connectivity thanks to unlimited simultaneous connections.
Surfshark vs ExpressVPN: Price Comparison
Many people interested in an ExpressVPN vs Surfshark comparison think of price as the most vital factor. We value cheap VPNs, but sometimes, more expensive means better. We know ExpressVPN is more expensive, but let’s see by how much.
Surfshark Prices
Starting with Surfshark, it offers flexible plans. You have 2-year, 1-year, and monthly deals, all discounted except for the latter. The 2-year plans are very affordable, starting at $1.99 per month with three extra months. The lowest-tier plan, however, lacks certain features. This brings us to the plan in the middle.
The Surfshark One plan has the best value and all of the features we’ll address. Interestingly, Surfshark’s 1-year plans are also heavily discounted, with three free months on top. As you can see, it’s hard to overpay this provider, even if you spend more on the One plan at $2.29 per month with all the extras.
That isn’t the case with its expensive monthly plans that go well over $15.40 if you want everything the service has to offer. Since we addressed its discounts, you can use our Surfshark coupon to claim them or click the blue button instead.
Before you do, know that the provider has a 30-day money-back guarantee for all plans. This is backed by a 7-day trial through mobile devices. Surfshark has no free plan, but at least it’s very affordable, so you won’t have to spend a fortune.
Get the Best Price on Surfshark
ExpressVPN Prices
ExpressVPN’s new pricing structure took the world by storm. Instead of costing nearly seven monthly quid, it now starts at only $2.44 monthly for the biennial Basic plan with four free months and an 81% discount. Even the Advanced plan at $3.14 monthly is affordable for what it actually offers.
The Pro plan at $5.24 per month is pricier, but as the range-topping plan, it offers everything in ExpressVPN’s arsenal, including 14 simultaneous connections, three days of free eSIM, and much more. ExpressVPN also has annual plans with decent discounts and three free months, but at notably higher prices.
Compared to Surfshark, we can immediately see ExpressVPN’s downfall. It’s noticeably more expensive per month in its introductory pricing structure and when renewing. The provider has a risk-free 3-day trial plus a 30-day money-back guarantee. We have a handy free trial guide for ExpressVPN if you want to test it.
Get the Best Price on ExpressVPN
Winner: Surfshark 🏆
Surfshark takes the round with less expensive introductory deals. Surfshark starts at $1.99 monthly, while ExpressVPN starts at $2.44 monthly. Surfshark also renews at a lower price, so it’s better for saving money in the long run.
ExpressVPN vs Surfshark Features
Moving on in this Surfshark vs ExpressVPN analysis, we’ll examine the features of both providers. By this, we mostly mean security features that will influence the quality and security of your VPN connection.
Shared Features
Starting with the shared features, these providers have a lot in common. You’d think they’re working together, but not. Surfshark has joined forces with NordVPN instead. That’s a story for another time. Here are the most important shared features:
- Kill Switch. Both offer it to protect you against data leaks if the VPN connection breaks. Their kill switches are system-level, with no advanced functions. Surfshark had some kill switch issues before, but now, both providers work reliably.
- Bank-grade encryption. AES-256 encryption is the name of the game on both sides. This impenetrable encryption will keep you tucked away, without ISP surveillance and government snooping.
- Blocking ads. Both services offer ad blockers to kick out annoyances on the internet. Surfshark titles its ad blocker CleanWeb, while its competitor calls it Advanced Protection. Both tools block ads, trackers, and malicious sites.
- Split tunneling. It’s useful for splitting your VPN connection into two parts. One part won’t be tunneled while the other will. Useful for online banking, shopping, and online gaming.
- Advanced security protocols. Surfshark relies mostly on WireGuard to ensure proper performance and unbreakable security. ExpressVPN uses Lightway Turbo, a proprietary solution that does the same, but in our book, a tad better.
Unique Features
Our recent test of ExpressVPN highlighted some of its strange choices. The provider doesn’t include many advanced features while costing you a premium. That’s not the case with Surfshark, which will inevitably take this round. Bear with us.
❌ Parental Control & Website Blocking (ExpressVPN & Surfshark)
ExpressVPN has Parental Control, which people with children will love. It blocks porn sites, so if you want to use Pornhub, XNXX, or any other sexually explicit site, it’ll do its job fine. The bad thing is that you can’t choose which website you want to block.
For instance, it would be good to block gambling sites as well since this activity isn’t child-friendly. Surfshark has something similar, but way better: Web Content Blocker. It actually lets you choose which sites you want to block: adult, drugs, gambling, malware, phishing, and other platforms you don’t want to see.
↔️ Dynamic MultiHop (Surfshark)
MultiHop routes your connection through two servers in different countries. It doubles your encryption and makes you impossible to track. Surfshark allows you to choose which servers to use as entry and exit locations.
This is a huge advantage of this provider in the ExpressVPN vs Surfshark duel. ExpressVPN’s lack of MultiHop is concerning and should be addressed by the provider. MultiHop is a security/privacy feature, so don’t expect great speeds and performance. You’ll get that in our fastest VPNs for 2026 instead.
🦠 Antivirus (Surfshark)
Antivirus is an optional feature in Surfshark, unavailable in the lowest-tier plan. The mid-tier plan and above offer Antivirus that works like a Swiss clock. It detects 99.99% of the threats on your devices and promptly removes them. It’s in Surfshark’s app, so you don’t have to download a separate client.
Coupled with its ad-blocking abilities, this Antivirus will let you protect your device all around. We tested this antivirus against a few dedicated solutions, and it was just as good at detecting and removing threats.
🔄 IP Rotation (Surfshark)
Finally, we’ll mention IP Rotation found in Surfshark. This is like MultiHop at first, but at a second glance, nothing like it. It rotates your IP periodically, but doesn’t break your VPN connection. Let’s say you get a British IP address by connecting to the server. Surfshark rotates your IP addresses from the UK every few minutes.
You still have your UK IP and retain your connection stability. However, due to this rotation, you’re impossible to track because you’re a new person every few minutes.
Winner: Surfshark 🏆
Both VPNs have a few more features, but they’re not VPN-related. In any case, the VPN with more security features is Surfshark, whose virus protection, Web Content Blocker, IP Rotation, and Multi-hop servers surpass ExpressVPN’s offers.
Do Surfshark and ExpressVPN Store Logs?
Now, we come to the logging part. Before we proceed with this Surfshark vs ExpressVPN evaluation, let’s first analyze their jurisdictions. Surfshark is in the Netherlands, an active Nine Eyes country. ExpressVPN is in the British Virgin Islands. The latter is more privacy-friendly, with no involvement in data-collection alliances.
This is a big advantage, as ExpressVPN’s country won’t force it to store logs and hand them out. On the other hand, the Netherlands is an EU country. EU privacy laws aren’t the best, and countries within are known for keeping tabs on their users. This is done through ISPs that monitor your connection.
Privacy Policy Analysis
Despite the differences, neither of these VPNs keeps logs. Surfshark is a no-log provider despite its far-from-the-best jurisdiction. It was in the British Virgin Islands, but after moving to Holland, nothing changed, and logging remained minimal.
This means it keeps only service-vital information, such as your email, technical info for troubleshooting, and things like that. It doesn’t store any timestamps, visited websites, IP addresses, DNS requests, or other sensitive information.
ExpressVPN does the same. It doesn’t keep private information, so it has no idea what you’re doing online. Your location, IP address, connection timestamps, download history, and visited sites won’t end up on ExpressVPN’s servers.
Now that we mentioned servers, both providers base them on RAM. This volatile memory’s data is lost after each shutdown. A simple restart is enough to wipe them clean, preventing unwanted logging and data retention. What about security audits?
Both have them. Surfshark has a few from Cure53 and Deloitte. ExpressVPN has over 20, from KPMG, PwC, Cure53, and a few other highly reputable companies.
Winner: ExpressVPN 🏆
We’d say both are fantastic for privacy, but we gave ExpressVPN the edge because it boasts more third-party audits and is stationed in a more privacy-friendly jurisdiction (British Virgin Islands). It’s a marginal win, but still a win.
Which VPN Is Faster: ExpressVPN or Surfshark?
We all want a neck-breaking VPN with speed reductions in the realm of a few percent. The reality tells us that’s nearly impossible given all the things going on – encryption, server distance, etc. However, some VPNs are faster than others, and this margin can be large. Let’s compare these two and see how they perform.
Below is our native internet speed. At the time, we were in Belgrade. From here, we tested both providers for three days in a row, three times a day, using three server locations: the UK, the USA, and Japan.
We noted the best results we got using ExpressVPN and Surfshark. Keep in mind, we also haven’t used manual protocol selection. Instead, we kept everything on Automatic to let the providers decide which protocol is best for speed and overall stability. Below is the table that displays average speed losses on both sides.
| Download Speed Loss 🔽 | Upload Speed Loss 🔼 | |
| Surfshark | 27% | 32% |
| ExpressVPN | 24% | 9% |
The table above shows us that ExpressVPN is faster than Surfshark. The margin for download speeds isn’t high, with ExpressVPN being only 3% faster. However, the upload speed loss is more dramatic in Surfshark, making ExpressVPN 23% faster.
For more information about our performance evaluation, refer to the table below. You can see the exact download and upload speeds we achieved with both VPNs for each tested location, but the result is still the same.
| UK (Download/Upload) | US (Download/Upload) | Japan (Download/Upload) | |
| Surfshark | 306.48/16.97 Mbps | 253.79/12.47 Mbps | 191.07/10.90 Mbps |
| ExpressVPN | 298.82/18.50 Mbps | 274.61/18.35 Mbps | 206.33/16.73 Mbps |
Winner: ExpressVPN 🏆
That result is ExpressVPN’s win due to faster connection speeds, lower latency, and more impressive download and upload performance. As a result, ExpressVPN is better for gaming, streaming, and torrenting.
Streaming & Torrenting
A bit of occasional entertainment won’t hurt. There’s no better way to entertain yourself than streaming blockbusters. Some even like torrenting, while others love gaming with VPN protection. In this Surfshark vs ExpressVPN comparison round, we’ll focus on the first two, as these activities are far more popular.
Streaming
Both providers excel at streaming and unblocking. ExpressVPN and Surfshark work with Netflix, but the latter has an edge. ExpressVPN unblocks roughly 15 libraries, whilst Surfshark can unblock 30 or more. This provider has serious streaming prowess visible from the plane.
Regarding other streaming services, both are equally impressive. We noticed they can unblock even more hard-to-get ones like Hulu, Sky Sports, ESPN+, and dozens more. Streaming performance is excellent, too, with 4K footage being buttery-smooth. Surfshark was a bit inconsistent at times.
A few slowdowns forced us to use a lower resolution and drop from Ultra HD to Full HD. One thing we also like about both providers is Smart DNS. It’s easy to set up on non-VPN-friendly devices and watch content primarily on US streaming services.
Torrenting
Torrenting is nothing special for premium providers like Surfshark and ExpressVPN. We listed them as some of the best premium VPNs, so it’s not strange. Both services have fully P2P-optimized server networks, allowing you to use any server to start downloading torrents. ExpressVPN is a speck faster, but not by a huge margin.
Besides, when torrenting, you’ll likely use a nearby server to avoid performance drops. In this case, it doesn’t matter which provider you pick, Surfshark or ExpressVPN. The experience is great, speed- and security-wise on both sides.
Winner: ExpressVPN 🏆
This time, we’d give a slight edge to ExpressVPN. Both are reliable for streaming and torrenting, but ExpressVPN’s more convincing performance made both experiences more enjoyable. Surfshark fares better with Netflix, but everything else is on ExpressVPN’s side.
Server Locations of Surfshark and ExpressVPN
If you need a heap of servers, look no further than these fierce rivals.
- Surfshark has 4,500 servers in 100 countries.
- ExpressVPN has way more than 3,000 servers in 105 countries.
Surfshark has roughly 50% more servers than ExpressVPN. However, ExpressVPN has 160+ worldwide locations, more than Surfshark. ExpressVPN’s server distribution is a bit better, particularly in the USA, where it offers over twenty, while Surfshark has ten or so locations. Variety-wise, Surfshark takes the lead.
It has Static IP and Dedicated IP servers. However, ExpressVPN also has plenty of dedicated IP addresses purchasable as an add-on. We value these, but we rarely use them. Both providers have 10 Gbps server ports and support Onion Over VPN connections, a gold standard for use with Tor and the dark web.
Winner: ExpressVPN 🏆
All things considered, ExpressVPN has more city-level servers and five more countries. It also has better US coverage for streaming and unblocking services. For these reasons, we’re slightly inclined towards ExpressVPN.
Bypassing Censorship: Which VPN Does It Better?
Which VPN to choose for battling censorship, ExpressVPN or Surfshark? Luckily, both work as intended. We found that they have obfuscation that works slightly differently. ExpressVPN applies it out of the box, so you don’t have to tweak a single thing. Surfshark has NoBorders for combating censorship.
This feature masks your VPN connection, making it look like a regular one. This allows you to bypass the Great Firewall of China and use the provider freely. Yes, ExpressVPN works in China too, showing incredible results in the process. We tested Surfshark in China as much as we’ve tested ExpressVPN.
In terms of reliability, they’re pretty much on par, with a few minor inconveniences here and there, as the Great Firewall is still a massive threat to freedom of speech and VPN providers. Other countries are fine. These providers also work in Iran, the UAE, Qatar, Russia, Turkey, and other censored countries.
Winner: Tie 🟰
The last Surfshark VPN vs ExpressVPN round ends in a tie, as both VPNs work well in censored countries, including China, Turkey, Iran, Russia, the UAE, and others. You don’t need to manually adjust anything because both VPNs automatically enable their obfuscation to counteract censorship.
Conclusion: ExpressVPN Wins Against Surfshark VPN
Concluding this in-depth comparison, we can confidently say that ExpressVPN has outperformed Surfshark. This isn’t a knockout win but a solid one, given ExpressVPN’s superiority in the following categories:
- Privacy and jurisdiction
- Streaming performance
- Speeds and performance
- Server locations (more countries)
On the other hand, Surfshark won a few times in comparisons regarding:
- Simultaneous connections (it offers no limits)
- Price (it’s far cheaper)
- Security features (antivirus, Multi-hop, etc.)
The providers played a draw in apps & compatibility and bypassing censorship. As a whole, ExpressVPN is a better choice if you don’t mind a higher price. If you do, Surfshark is a great money-saving alternative. If we were you, we’d consider quality first. Judging by our in-depth comparison, the former is a clear winner.