Which VPN is best for you, Surfshark or Windscribe? If this question has been looming over your head for a while, it’s time to end it. Surfshark was a better VPN in our tests, but we can’t simply send Windscribe to the trash can. It’s evident that both VPNs have many resounding qualities.
From a wide server spread, modern security features, and multi-device apps to strong privacy, streaming prowess, and more. For this test, we used Windscribe’s premium version to level the playing field. Simultaneously, we used the Surfshark One plan that offers bonus security features.
If you’re interested in all the nuances, we don’t think you should leave just yet. Today’s Surfshark vs Windscribe 2026 duel holds several rounds that’ll take us to the end, one by one. Whichever provider wins more rounds takes the crown. Let’s set sails and examine them thoroughly.
Surfshark VPN vs Windscribe: Quick Comparison
| 🏆 Surfshark | Windscribe | |
| Our Current Ranking 📋 | #5 | TBD |
| Prices 🤑 | Starting at $1.99/mo | Starting at $5.75/mo |
| Money-Back Guarantee 🪙 | 30 days | 7 days (if not spent more than 10 GB) |
| Free Version/Free Trial 🆓 | No/7 day free trial on iOS/Android | Yes/No |
| Logging/Jurisdiction 🕵️ | No/Netherlands | No/Canada |
| Protocols 🌐 | OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2 | OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, Wstunnel, Stealth |
| Servers 🏠 | 3,200+ in 100 countries | 500 in 69 countries |
| Specialty Servers ✅ | Dedicated and Static IP, MultiHop | Static IP |
| RAM-Only Servers 🛡️ | Yes | Yes |
| Working With Netflix 📺 | Yes (US, UK, JP, CA, …) | Yes (US, UK, CA, JP, …) |
| P2P Allowance ↔️ | Yes | Yes |
| Customer support ☎️ | Live chat, email | Email, chatbot, Reddit, Discord |
| Concurrent Connections 📟 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Applications & Ease of Use
Surfshark and Windscribe are worlds apart in terms of ease of use. While Surfshark is polished, Windscribe feels more makeshift. Here’s how Surfshark looks (see below). You can see its large—and most importantly, intuitive—application for Windows and macOS.
The mobile version looks even simpler but retains the same great aesthetics. In our tests, the VPN was snappy and responsive, although with a few longer connection times occasionally. Surfshark’s apps can be confusing to beginners, but after a while, they become second nature.
Windscribe’s tiny app window looks really nice, but the app isn’t as snappy as we’d like. Moreover, opening the server list, at least on Windows, unwraps the app downwards, which looks a bit awkward. Given the cluttered interface, the Settings menu can be convoluted.
Unfortunately, on its VPN for Mac and Windows, you can’t resize the app window, which is a big disadvantage, especially on a 4K panel. Windscribe’s mobile apps are way better and more responsive, although we still prefer Surfshark for the overall aesthetics and interface.
Good to know is that both offer unlimited simultaneous connections. After inspecting Windscribe vs Surfshark comprehensively, we noticed their extensive device support. They’ll work on all major desktop and mobile platforms, routers, Smart TVs, gaming consoles, etc.
Both even offer Smart DNS, which enables streaming on non-VPN-friendly devices and televisions. This is how you can use both VPNs on an LG TV, which leverages WebOS instead of Android.
Winner: Surfshark
To be honest, this round was almost a tie, but Windscribe’s cluttered app design didn’t work in its favor. We prefer to use Surfshark across all devices and love both for multi-device protection and top-of-the-line device support.
Surfshark vs Windscribe Price Comparison
Surfshark’s tiered approach makes its pricing plans somewhat confusing. We know we’ve used this word abundantly so far, but that’s how it is. The provider offers biennial, annual, and monthly plans split into Surfshark Starter, One, and One+.
They’re displayed below:
The Starter plan at $1.99/mo is insanely affordable, especially because of its 3 free months. For this review, we used the one in the middle at $2.49/mo for 27 months. The last one includes Incogni at $3.99/mo and is perfect for ID theft protection in supported countries.
Save at Least 80% on Surfshark
Surfshark’s annual plans are surprisingly budget-friendly. The One, which we used, is now only $3.39/mo, also with 3 free months. All plans have a 30-day money-back guarantee, a 7-day Surfshark VPN free trial, and essential Surfshark features. There’s no free plan, however.
Windscribe costs this much. Wait. That’s only two plans. Right! The discounted Yearly plan at the time of writing is $5.75 per month, which translates to $69 every 12 months. Pay close attention, because the renewal price is the SAME, so you don’t pay more after the fact.
In our Windscribe review, we stated that it’s not the best value for money because, for example, Surfshark’s annual plans cost less and offer more. At just ~0.33/mo on top, you could get Surfshark One+ with Incogni, and rock its beefiest, most robust VPN package.
Windscribe has an ace up its sleeve — a free plan that made it widely popular and one of the best free VPNs for Mac.
The downside is a short 7-day refund policy for premium plans, which only applies if you’ve used less than 10 GB of data. It sounds strange, but that’s how it is.
Winner: Surfshark
The second round is a reprise of the first one — Surfshark wins, but this time, because it’s less expensive than Windscribe. Both 24 and 12-month plans are some of the most affordable in 2026, and they’re backed by an unconditional 30-day money-back guarantee.
Windscribe vs Surfshark: Features Analysis
Surfshark and Windscribe have plenty of features that would take too long to analyze. We’ll discuss the most important ones to highlight their similarities and differences. Let’s start with similarities that we uncovered in this duel:
- 256-bit AES encryption
- WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols
- Split tunneling
- Automatic kill switches
- Ad and tracker blocking
- Obfuscation technology
- MultiHop (Double Hop)
We can see that Windscribe and Surfshark share many essentials, but some of them work differently
Ad-Blocking and Tracker Protection
Surfshark’s CleanWeb ad-blocker is one of the best, but we found Windscribe’s ROBERT a better tool because it’s DNS-powered and blocks more than ads and trackers. For example, it offers custom rules where you can block specific sites AND categories of websites.
We used it to block porn sites and, for example, allow gambling sites while using the VPN. Moreover, ROBERT blocks malware, which helps get rid of unwanted software that you can hitchhike inadvertently. ROBERT is truly enthralling because of its comprehensive customization options.
While CleanWeb works extremely well in Surfshark, it lacks a bit of personalization.
Winner: Windscribe
MultiHop Connections
On paper, both providers should be great for MultiHop. They’ll casually encrypt your traffic twice by routing it through two servers. Luckily for Surfshark, it gets a point here, because its MultiHop is customizable and works directly in the app, be it a desktop or a mobile one.
Windscribe’s Double Hop (same thing), requires two components: a desktop app and a web browser. You essentially need to connect to the VPN server in the app and then do that in the browser extension. It’s, again, a makeshift solution that isn’t that great to begin with.
Plus, you can’t use Double Hop on, let’s say, an iPhone, because mobile browsers, including Safari, don’t support VPN extensions. So yeah, Windscribe’s Double Hop is a bit messy.
Winner: Surfshark
Advanced Protection
Windscribe offers nothing in this aspect, except for its two obfuscation-focused protocols called Stealth and Wstunnel. We’ll see how they perform in China later, to give space to Surfshark’s antivirus in the One plan. It works on all devices, so there are no compromises.
This antivirus detects 99.9% of the threats, which is bolstered by frequent virus database updates. Surfshark comes with periodical IP rotation, which renders you untraceable by swapping your IP every few minutes. Another feature is Search, which is your true-to-life incognito browser without tracking.
Then, there’s Alternative ID, which we use frequently to get another identity and hide our own to preserve our online privacy. We haven’t mentioned Alerts with data breach email alerts, NoBorders for obfuscation, and a neat browser extension with location spoofing.
In terms of extra features, Surfshark lacks nothing, as expressed during our extensive testing.
Winner: Surfshark
Overall Winner: Surfshark
We do prefer Windscribe’s ROBERT over Surfshark’s CleanWeb, but everything else is much better realized in Surfshark. From its seamless MultiHop to virus protection, IP rotation, and other security-enhancing tools. Pick Surfshark to get the most value for money security-wise.
Do Surfshark and Windscribe Store Logs?
People are aware that keeping logs is never a good practice, so they intentionally avoid specky providers. We can claim with certainty that neither Surfshark nor Windscribe retains logs. How are we so certain? Well, remember that we tested both VPNs multiple times!
After examining their no-log policies, we found nothing but transparency. On top of that identifiable information such as:
- IP address
- DNS requests
- Visited websites
- Geolocation
- Timestamps, and others
Are NOT stored on their servers. Both providers rely on RAM servers, too, so even a tiny amount of collected data can be wiped in seconds with a server restart. Surfshark is based in the Netherlands, while Windscribe is in Canada, neither of which is a perfect jurisdiction for privacy.
As stated many times, this shouldn’t worry you. Surfshark has multiple third-party audits from Cure53 and Deloitte. Windscribe’s audits are more about its software and apps, but because the VPN is open-source, with source codes available on Github, it’s more than trustworthy.
Furthermore, akin to CyberGhost VPN (read our CyberGhost review here), Windscribe publishes real-time transparency reports. The website’s “Ethics & Philosophy” section is specifically fascinating to read, explaining that it’s a self-funded company with no interest in collecting and storing sensitive information.
Winner: Tie
We’ve seen this outcome from a mile away. The privacy portion of the Surfshark vs Windscribe duel is a tie, as both VPNs store minimal logs, have third-party audits, and are famous for their privacy practices.
Which VPN is Faster: Windscribe or Surfshark?
You won’t get groundbreaking performances from Surfshark and Windscribe. However, our thorough examination confirms that they still perform fine, with slightly weaker speed retention compared to, let’s say, NordVPN or ExpressVPN. Let’s get on with the test results.
During our side-by-side comparison, we were in Belgrade. Before initiating our tests, we performed a quick speed check on speedtest.net, using its application on Windows. Our native speed test results are below. After that, we began testing Windscribe vs Surfshark.
Our tests were performed for 3 days in a row (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, during “busy” internet days), 3 times a day, using 3 server locations. We emphasized long-distance servers, so apart from the UK, which is in Europe, we used American and Japanese VPN locations.
| Download Speed Loss | Upload Speed Loss | |
| Windscribe | 45% | 61% |
| Surfshark | 33% | 24% |
The table above displays the average download and upload speed drops across both tests. Below, you see another table that displays their average download and upload speeds for all three locations. Bear in mind we used WireGuard in both VPNs to minimize the differences.
| Windscribe | Surfshark | |
| UK (Download/Upload) | 35.74/5.82 Mbps | 40.99/8.33 Mbps |
| US (Download/Upload) | 27.85/3.91 Mbps | 35.74/9.53 Mbps |
| Japan (Download/Upload) | 22.60/2.08 Mbps | 27.85/4.82 Mbps |
Winner: Surfshark
Surfshark wins the round with flying colors, and while it’s faster than Windscribe, it’s not a particularly fast VPN overall. Interestingly, Windscribe had slightly lower latency, but speed-wise, Surfshark performed better for gaming, streaming, downloading, etc.
Streaming & Torrenting Comparison
Since we mentioned these fabulous activities, let’s analyze them deeply.
Streaming-wise, Surfshark and Windscribe are close. In our tests, both VPNs worked with Netflix and they were reliable for watching Hulu abroad. Services like BBC iPlayer, ABC, Pluto TV, and others have also been easily unblocked from our hotel in Belgrade. Good job!
We ended up preferring Surfshark a bit more for two reasons. First, it works with more Netflix libraries, while Windscribe works with a few popular ones, although that’s still a fantastic result. Second, Surfshark’s browser extension was excellent thanks to reliable location spoofing.
Using it allowed us to access ESPN Plus outside the USA, which we couldn’t do with Windscribe. As for buffering and that kind of stuff, honestly, we had no problems. Surfshark and Windscribe could load up a 4K movie smoothly and without immersion-breaking stuttering.
Torrenting is allowed in both VPNs, but this time, we liked both equally. Windscribe offers port forwarding, which can be great for speeding up your downloads. Surfshark doesn’t. But when you put things on paper and do the math, it boils down to both VPNs performing well.
With no bandwidth caps, using nearby servers provided us with ample speed to download Linux Mint at the drop of a hat. Plus, their stringent security and privacy allowed us to download torrents anonymously, without snoopers breathing down our necks. Again, good job!
Winner: Surfshark
We loved Surfshark for streaming more than Windscribe. Torrenting was an equally pleasant experience. That said, we can sum up this round by saying that Surfshark was slightly more convincing and better for accessing region-locked Netflix catalogs and streaming services.
Server Locations
In our Surfshark vs Windscribe analysis, we also assessed their server networks. Not only numbers — quality matters, as well! We concluded that Surfshark is just a speck more impressive, and if you look at the table underneath, it’ll be easy to realize why.
| Surfshark | Windscribe | |
| Countries | 100 | 69 |
| Servers | 3,200+ | ~500 |
| Servers Based on RAM | Yes | Yes |
| Bandwidth | 10 Gbp | 10 Gbps |
You do get more servers in Surfshark, but both providers offer qualities like 10 Gbps and RAM disk servers. One thing we observed is the number of 10 Gbps servers, which differs considerably. Windscribe has specific 10 Gbps servers with the “10 Gbps” badge, for example.
Surfshark advertises its network as being head-to-toe 10 Gbps, which means it’s easier to find a faster server. Numbers-wise, it’s pointless to explain anything. More countries and servers are on Surfshark’s side. The variety is solid on both sides if that’s what you want.
Surfshark has static, multi-hop, and dedicated IP servers, while Windscribe offers static IP addresses. Dedicated IPs are absent from Windscribe for privacy reasons, but in its defense, it offers more static IP locations than Surfshark, and you can choose from datacenter or residential, at $2/mo and $8/mo respectively.
Winner: Surfshark
Surfshark ultimately snatches the win. With a larger server network spread across more countries and cities, the odds are stacked against Windscribe. The half-redeeming factor is a bigger static IP country pool, but that’s irrelevant in the bigger scheme of things.
Do They Work in China and Other Censored Countries?
Drawing from our experience, both VPNs are great for dodging specky censorship. Windscribe is a widely used VPN for school, too, while Surfshark is a better premium option. But then, working in China is another league that most VPNs aren’t ready to compete in.
Having tested both providers first-hand, we experienced plenty of issues. Windscribe offers Wstunnel and Stealth protocols whose obfuscation methods are different. Wstunnel encapsulates OpenVPN in a WebSocket, while Stealth does so in a TLS tunnel through Stunnel.
Stealth was more reliable in our tests, and with it, we made Windscribe work in China on a few occasions. Our testers have reported seldom issues with speed and stability, so the experience wasn’t always on point. Surfshark’s NoBorders mode performed similarly.
The obfuscation was enough to hurdle the Great Firewall, but at times, Surfshark would stop working or flat-out fail to connect. We can’t really say which VPN is better, but we can say they work exquisitely outside China and are used in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Russia, and other censored regions.
Winner: Tie
Both providers seem to perform “okay” in China and aren’t the most efficient options in 2026. You can make them work with their built-in obfuscation, but it’s all gambling at this point. If you need them for censorship outside China, they’ll perform equally impressive.
Conclusion: Windscribe is Better than Surfshark
The final score is 8:2 for Surfshark, which mathematically and practically emerges as a victor of this comparison. We must give props to Windscribe for being consistent and not displaying any critical flaws. I mean, it offers unlimited simultaneous connections, which is extremely valuable.
This instantly makes it a VPN suitable for people with multiple devices (10+). Not to mention, it excels in security and privacy and even works with many Netflix libraries. It can do almost everything that Surfshark can, but not as impressively, and that’s why it lost the battle.
Surfshark is easier to use, has more security features, it’s faster, more capable of streaming, and with a wider server spread. At the time of the Surfshark vs Windscribe duel, Surfshark was also less expensive, which sealed the deal and made Windscribe kind of pointless to consider in this proposition.
Why pay more, when you can pay less and squeeze out more juice? It’s simple math — get Surfshark!