Are you looking for an updated PrivateVPN vs Surfshark comparison?
PrivateVPN and Surfshark are some of the vpns that will top your list if you are looking for a vpn that delivers fast internet connection speeds.
However, these two vpns compare very differently in other aspects like their streaming and torrenting support.
In this PrivateVPN vs Surfshark comparison we are going to look the pros and cons of these two vpns.
We’ll compare PrivateVPN with Surfshark along the lines of their speeds, privacy policies and advanced security features like malware blocking.
I hope that by the end of this PrivateVPN vs Surfshark comparison you’ll be able to make a choice between either PrivateVPN or Surfshark vpns.
So let’s get started.
Here is a quick summary.
| PrivateVPN | Surfshark | |
| Website | privatevpn.com | surfshark.com |
| Servers | 150 | 1,040 |
| Jurisdiction | Sweden | BVI |
| Streaming | Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, iPlayer | Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, iPlayer |
| Speed | 4.3/5 | 4.7/5 |
| Torrenting | P2P servers | P2P servers |
| Kill Switch | YES | YES |
| Works in China? | YES | YES |
| Devices | 6 | Unlimited |
| Pricing | $ 2.55/month | $ 1.99/month |
About
PrivateVPN is a VPN service provider based in Sweden that enables you to privately access the internet and unblock geo-restricted entertainment content on platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Click here for a detailed PrivateVPN review.
Surfshark, on the other hand, is a VPN company based in the British Virgin Islands that enables you to safely and securely access the internet with great connection speeds.
Check out my detailed Surfshark review.
Server Collection
Let’s start this Surfshark vs PrivateVPN comparison by looking their collection of servers and geographical distribution.
Which one has more servers between PrivateVPN and Surfshark.
Having more servers means that you get more options to choose from when selecting a server to connect to on these servers.
So if you are not impressed with the speeds of a particular server in a certain country, you’ll easily get another in the same country to connect to with better speeds.
PrivateVPN does not have a huge server collection as it currently only has around 150 servers that are based in 60 different countries.
Surfshark, on the flip side, has more servers that total to about 1,040 vpn servers that are spread across 61 different countries in different continents.
As you can see, Surfshark not only has more servers in general than PrivateVPN, but their servers are also present in a few more countries than PrivateVPN.
If you are looking for a vpn with a great server collection then I recommend Surfshark over PrivateVPN.
Streaming
Will you be able to watch your favorite tv shows on Netflix using either PrivateVPN or Surfshark vpn?
In order to be able to streaming that is destined for a different geographical region that you current are based in, you need a vpn that will assign you an IP that makes you look like you are actual in that particular country.
This is what we called IP spoofing.
That way, you’ll be able to access content destined for that region without experiencing any proxy server errors.
PrivateVPN does a great job at unblocking streaming platforms as it is able to stream content on almost all the major streaming platforms that you might want to access.
At the time of writing this PrivateVPN vs Surfshark comparison in 2021, PrivateVPN unblocks Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and iPlayer.
In fact, since all their streaming servers are labelled, it makes it very easy to locate and connect to a server that will unblock your streaming platforms in your country of choice.
Surfshark is also not left behind when it comes to unblocking streaming platforms.
It is able to unblock Netflix, Hulu, iPlayer and Amazon Prime Video using their servers based in different countries like the US, UK and Canada.
If you are looking for a vpn with great streaming support then either PrivateVPN or Surfshark is a great option.
Speeds
How about their connection speeds…?
Most vpns will lie to you that their vpn is the fastest vpn just to convince you to buy but you should be skeptical of what a vpn claims to be able to do on their site.
Test if for yourself in order to establish the truth.
Let’s now look at how PrivateVPN vs Surfshark speeds compare.
In order to test the connection speeds of Surfshark and PrivateVPN I connected to three of their servers based in the US,UK and Hong Kong.
I then used the speedtest.net website to measure their download and upload speeds before and after connecting to their servers.
PrivateVPN and Surfshark had great results.
While PrivateVPN has an average speeds that was 86% of my original download speeds, Surfshark had an average download speed of 93% of my initial speeds.
It is therefore clear that while both are fast vpn, Surfshark is a much faster vpn compare to PrivateVPN.
If you are looking for a vpn with fast connection speeds, then I recommend Surfshark.
Torrenting
Which vpn between PrivateVPN and Surfshark will offer you private and anonymous torrenting in 2021?
In this day and age, you are not smart if you are downloading torrent files without first hiding your IP with an anonymous vpn.
This is because if your ISP can see your torrenting activities, your government could easily use this information to sue you in a court of law if you are in a country that frowns upon torrenting activities.
PrivateVPN has P2P enabled servers that will allow you to download torrent files.
All you need to do is first connect to these dedicated torrenting servers so that your torrenting traffic is not throttled or blocked.
Surfshark, on the flip side, supports torrent download on all their servers.
So you don’t need to first connect to any special servers as all Surfshark servers are optimized for torrenting activities.
As you can see, Surfshark is better optimized for torrenting because all their servers are P2P enabled.
If you are looking for a vpn that is great for torrenting then I recommend Surfshark instead of PrivateVPN because you’ll get better download speeds.
Privacy Policy
You never want any single entity ever knowing everything about your internet adventures… could be your ISP, your government or even your vpn company.
Having this information means you are giving them to much power that they could easily wield against you on a rainy day.
It all starts by using a vpn to connect to the internet and then ensuring that your vpn does not keep logs of your internet activities ever… not even for 30 minutes.
Let’s compare PrivateVPN vs Surfshark in terms of the physical jurisdiction as well as their stand on zero logs.
PrivateVPN is not based in a friendly location because Sweden, where it’s headquartered, is a founding member of the 14 eyes countries surveillance alliance.
That notwithstanding, PrivateVPN provides you a no logs policy as they state in the privacy policy that they do not keep traffic logs.
Surfshark, on the flip, is located in the British Virgin Islands which is a very privacy friendly place to based a vpn company.
It is a country that does not form part of the 14 eyes countries and also does not have mandatory data retention laws that obligate vpn companies to keep logs.
In addition to that, Surfshark also makes it clear that they do not keep logs of your IP address, server connection timestamps or even bandwidth usage.
So in terms of their no logs policy, I find Surfshark to be both located in a privacy friendly place and also to be very transparent about their logging policy than PrivateVPN.
If you are looking for a vpn that is transparent about what logs exactly they don’t keep then I definitely recommend Surfshark.
Encryption and Data Protection
The way you encrypt your data before transmitting it will determine whether it is secure online or not.
While some encryption technologies are weak and can easily be decrypted, some are tamper proof and ensure that hackers are locked out of information that is not meant for them.
What encryption technologies do Surfshark and PrivateVPN use in order to protect your personal information?
PrivateVPN provides you two options when ti comes to data encryption which include either 128-bit or 256-bit encryption technologies.
Surfshark on the other hand only has 256-bit encryption as the default technology for all their apps.
And the connection protocols?
PrivateVPN supports OpenVPN, L2TP, IPSec, IKEv2 and PPTP connection protocols in all their applications.
Surfshark, however, only support a few protocols that include OpenVPN, IKEv2 and Shadowsocks protocols.
Overall, both vpns use protocols that are secure, except for PPTP, and so will provide you secure internet access.
If you are looking for a vpn with secure internet access the either Surfshark or PrivateVPN is a great option.
Ad Blockers
In order to be able to block ads, you need a vpn that will be able to block that adware that is installed by websites on your browser.
It is through these scripts that they are able to tracking you, build a profile and then server the appropriate ads…
Often times following you around the web with an exact same ad.
PrivateVPN, unfortunately, does not have any ad blocking capabilities at the time of writing this PrivateVPN vs Surfshark comparison.
Surfshark, on the flip side, has a security feature called CleanWeb that enables you to activate ad and malware blocking.
Their ad blocker will disable ads on the website that you visit and block their tracking scripts.
So you’ll be able to enjoy an ad free browsing experience.
In addition to that, the malware blocker will block most known malware infected websites before they can harm your device.
If you are looking for the best vpns for ad blocking and malware blocking then I recommend Surfshark.
Dedicated IPs
For you to be able to access the internet on certain sensitive platforms, you first need to whitelist your IP.
So it needs to be an IP that you own and is only used by you.
This is where dedicated IPs come into play.
Normally, a vpn would assign you a shared IP address that is also bound to change anytime.
This is particularly for your privacy and anonymity on the internet… to make it harder to trace certain activities online to you as many people use the same IP simultaneously.
PrivateVPN and Surfshark both a dedicated IP functionality in all their apps that work more like static IP addresses.
They will both provide you static IP servers that will enable you to always connect to the internet using the same IP address.
Even though these IPs might still be shared by others, you can easily whitelist them in certain websites as they won’t change.
If you are looking for a vpn that provides static IPs then either PrivateVPN or Surfshark is a great option.
However, if you want a real dedicated IP that is only used by you then I recommend dedicated IPs by TorGuard or CyberGhost.
Kill Switch
If you don’t want your actual ISP given IP to ever be exposed on the internet, then you need a kill switch.
A kill switch ensures that all your internet access is always encrypted and channelled through your vpn tunnel.
So if your vpn app disconnects from the server for example when you are switching servers, all other apps that might continue to access the internet and expose your IP are blocked.
PrivateVPN and Surfshark both have inbuilt kill switches in their apps that ensure that you only are able to access the internet through your vpn tunnel.
Once turned on, those instances where your real IP could be expose do not occur.
So you’ll always be anonymous, using different IPs every time you access the internet.
Split Tunnelling
What if you wanted to be able to split tunnel so that some of your internet traffic goes through your ISP while others are routed through your vpn?
Will either PrivateVPN or Surfshark provide you a split tunnel?
A split tunnel enables you to whitelist certain applications and exempt them from having their internet traffic encrypted and channelled through your vpn.
A practical example is when you don’t want your application that runs backups to be slowed down by the speed drops caused by a vpn.
In that case, you could whitelist it and have its traffic flow as usual through your ISP for it to enjoy the full speeds that your ISP assigns you.
PrivateVPN does not have a split tunnel capability in any of their applications at the time of writing this Surfshark vs PrivateVPN comparison.
Surfshark, on the flip side, has a whitelister that enables you to whitelist certain apps.
Once whitelisted, these application will function as usual by having your ISP process the page requests and DNS queries.
This means that the traffic through whitelisted applications is transparent to your ISP and you are not protected by your vpn encryption technologies anymore.
If you are looking for a vpn that supports split tunnelling then I strongly recommend Surfshark ove PrivateVPN.
Works in China?
Okay, so which vpn will be able to work in China, Surfshark or PrivateVPN?
As you might already know, most vpns are blocked and will not work in China because the great firewall of China is able to detect and block vpn traffic.
It does this to ensure that the government has full control of the sites that you can visit… something that a vpn connection renders impossible.
PrivateVPN and Surfshark, fortunately, both have the technology that it takes to bypass China’s firewall.
PrivateVPN will access internet in China, including all the censored websites, once you activate it stealth vpn mode.
Surfshark also has a Camouflage mode that once activated makes it impossible for the deep packet inspection technology of China’s firewall to detect your traffic.
If you are looking for a vpn that will work in China, then I recommend either PrivateVPN or Surfshark.
Pricing
As we near the end of this PrivateVPN vs Surfshark comparison, let’s compare their pricing plans to establish the cheaper vpn.
Surfshark and PrivateVPN both offer you their greatest discounts when you choose their longest plans.
PrivateVPN and Surfshark both have two year plans being their longest and cheapest.
PrivateVPN 2 year plan would set you back $ 2.55/month while the same 2 year plan with Surfshark costs $ 1.99/month.
As you can see, Surfshark is a slightly cheaper vpn compare to PrivateVPN, but I consider both vpns to be cheap and budget friendly.
However, if you are looking for a vpn that will save you a couple bucks in the long term then I recommend Surfshark.
Payment Options
Can you pay for either Surfshark or PrivateVPN with Bitcoin?
Let’s finish this PrivateVPN vs Surfshark comparison in 2021 by comparing the payment methods that each one accepts.
A vpn that is big on privacy should support anonymous payments through Bitcoin or gift cards.
Since such payments methods do not require a billing address, then enable you to give as little identifying information about you as possible.
PrivateVPN and Surfshark, currently, both support credit card payments, PayPal as well as Bitcoin payments.
If you never want your vpn knowing who you are, sign up with a fake email address and then pay with some Bitcoins.
So if you are looking for a vpn that supports Bitcoin payments then I recommend either Surfshark or PrivateVPN.
In Conclusion
I hope this PrivateVPN vs Surfshark comparison has helped you learn some of the pros and cons of these two amazing vpn services.
Are you now ready to make a choice between either Surfshark or PrivateVPN?
If you are looking for a vpn will great connection speeds, excellent streaming capabilities and has an ad blocker then I recommend Surfshark.
However, if you are looking for a fast vpn that unblocks all streaming platforms, works in China and accepts Bitcoin payments then I recommend PrivateVPN.
Have you used either PrivateVPN or Surfshark before?
Please share your experience in the comments below.
No more 7-day free trials available on Private VPN.
I’ve been using PrivateVPN for 3 weeks, the drop in speed is huge.
With VPN turned off, I get around 90-93mbps (connected by cable).
With VPN on, I never got more than 32mbps (connected by cable). But average speed is 8-14mbps (tried many different servers).
IPTV from local ISP is not working.
No one,and I mean no one makes VPN comparison like Cybernyze. I have bookmarked this site. I was looking at the Comparison between Surfshark and PrivateVPN and is the first article of many that is so detailed and well written.
The long and short of it I will choose Surfshark because it arguably it is on par ll the features of PrivateVPN and still more cost effective, faster and has an ad blocker.
Thank you