Are you looking for an in depth PureVPN vs Surfshark comparison?
While PureVPN is a great vpn for access internet in restricted countries like China, Surfshark is great vpn if you want excellent connection speeds.
But how does PureVPN and Surfshark compare in other aspects like torrenting and streaming capabilities?
In this PureVPN vs Surfshark comparison, we are going to compare PureVPN with Surfshark along the lines of their connection speeds, torrenting support and streaming capabilities among others.
I hope that by the end of this PureVPN vs Surfshark comparison you’ll be able to choose between either Surfshark or PureVPN.
Let’s get started.
Here is a quick summary.
| PureVPN | Surfshark | |
| Website | purevpn.com | surfshark.com |
| Servers | 2,000 | 1,040 |
| Jurisdiction | Hong Kong | BVI |
| Streaming | Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, iPlayer | Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, iPlayer |
| Speed | 3.8/5 | 4.7/5 |
| Torrenting | P2P servers | P2P servers |
| Kill Switch | YES | YES |
| Works in China? | YES | YES |
| Devices | 10 | Unlimited |
| Pricing | $ 3.33/month | $ 1.99/month |
About
PureVPN, a VPN company based in Hong Kong, enables you to access the internet securely and access geo-restricted content on platforms like Netflix.
Here is a detailed review of PureVPN.
Surfshark, on the other hand, is a VPN company based in the British Virgin Islands that enables you to access the internet with very fast connection speeds.
Check out my detailed Surfshark review.
Server Collection
Which vpn has more servers between PureVPN and Surfshark?
In order for a vpn to be able to provide you with more options when choosing a server to connect to, it needs to have a huge collection of servers.
If there server are also distributed to cover more countries, it also makes it easier to find a server to connect to in whichever country you choose to travel to.
PureVPN has 2,000 servers based in 140 different countries at the time of writing this Surfshark vs PureVPN comparison.
Surfshark, on the other hand, only has a total of 1,040 vpn servers that are based in 61 different countries.
It is therefore clear that PureVPN not only has a bigger server collection but also covers a wider geographical region than Surfshark.
If you are looking for a vpn with a bigger servers collection and wider geographical coverage then I recommend PureVPN over Surfshark.
Streaming
Will you be able to watch your favorite tv shows on Netflix using either Surfshark or PureVPN?
Streaming geo restricted is a popular reason why most people purchase vpns in the first place… so a good vpn should be able to unblock a variety of streaming platforms.
Let’s compare PureVPN vs Surfshark streaming support.
PureVPN has great streaming capabilities as it will enable you to stream content on platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and BBC iPlayer.
Since their streaming servers are not labelled, you first need to connect to a server based in the country whose streaming library you need to unblock.
However, I found their Netflix unblocking capabilities rather shaky as sometimes their IPs got blocked and led to a proxy server error.
But as soon as I switched servers, I was able to continue streaming Netflix.
Surfshark also has stellar streaming capabilities.
You’ll be able to watch tv series on Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer and even Amazon Prime using the Surfshark servers based in different countries like the US, UK and Canada.
It is therefore clear that both Surfshark and PureVPN have great streaming support.
If you are looking for a vpn that is great for streaming than I recommend Surfshark because their Netflix unblocking is more stable than that of PureVPN.
Speeds
In order to be able to enjoy a great streaming experience, you need to be able to watch your tv shows in their original qualities without having to scale them down too much.
So a vpn should be able to deliver connection speeds that are close to your original connection speeds in order for this to happen.
I consider a connection speed of at least 80% of original speeds to be great.
How does PureVPN vs Surfshark speeds compare?
In order to test their connection speeds, I connected to three servers based in three different countries i.e. the US, UK and Hong Kong.
I then used speedtest.net to measure for ping, download and upload speeds before and after connecting to their servers.
Here is what I established.
PureVPN delivered low connection speeds that were 76% of average of my initial speeds.
Surfshark performed great because I got connection speeds that were 93% on average of my original connection speeds.
It is therefore clear that Surfshark is a much vpn service compared to PureVPN.
If you are looking for a vpn that provides faster connection speeds then I recommend Surfshark over PureVPN.
Torrenting
How does PureVPN vs Surfshark torrenting support compare?
In order for a vpn to protect you when downloading torrent files, it needs to hide your IP and make it impossible to trace certain torrenting activities back to you.
You should particularly be concerned about your real IP being exposed during torrenting if you live in a country that frowns upon torrenting activities.
PureVPN will enable you to download torrent files safely using their P2P optimized servers.
These special torrenting servers are labelled and you can easily identify them in the server list in the apps.
Always ensure that you first connect to the torrenting servers before you start downloading any torrent files in order to ensure that your torrent traffic is not throttled or blocked completely.
Surfshark, on the flip side, supports torrenting on all their servers and you do not need to connect to any special servers in order to start torrent downloads.
All Surfshark servers are optimized for P2P file sharing.
Since Surfshark also does not keep logs of your IP address and connection timestamps, it offers private and anonymous torrenting.
If you are looking for a vpn that is great for torrenting, then I recommend Surfshark because you’ll get better download speeds and anonymous torrenting.
Privacy Policy
In order for either Surfshark or PureVPN to guarantee your privacy online, they need to collect as little information about you as possible.
There should be no information on their servers that could actually be used to identify you.
How does PureVPN vs Surfshark privacy policies compare?
Let’s compare PureVPN with Surfshark in terms of their privacy policies and establish which one offers to privacy online.
PureVPN is headquartered in Hong Kong, which despite being close to China, is rather a safe place for a vpn that is big on user privacy.
This is because this country is not part of the 14 eyes countries surveillance alliance and also does not have mandatory data retention laws that obligate vpn companies to keep logs of their users.
PureVPN, in addition to that, does not keep logs of your actual IP and DNS queries that you make whenever you are connected to their servers.
However, after reading further I discovered that PureVPN keeps logs of the location of the server that you connect to, the total bandwidth usage as well as your ISP.
Surfshark is located in the British Virgin Islands which is a privacy friendly location.
In addition to that, Surfshark does not keep logs of your IP address, connection timestamps or bandwidth usage.
It is therefore clear that Surfshark collects less information about your as compare to PureVPN.
If you are looking for a vpn that is true to their zero logs policy then I recommend Surfshark over PureVPN.
Encryption and Data Protection
You need a proper encryption technology that will ensure that your personal information is secure online.
This because internet traffic is often hijacked by hackers using networking tools.
Once in the wrong hands, therefore, it should be impossible for them to decrypt these packets and see the actual information.
PureVPN and Surfshark implement AES 256-bit encryption to ensure that your information is secure online.
It is a military grade encryption that is impossible to crack.
In order to ensure that your data is secure transmitted, these vpns also use certain connection protocols.
PureVPN, at the time of writing this PureVPN vs Surfshark comparison, supports OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP/IPSec, SSTP and PPTP connection protocols.
Surfshark, on the other hand, only supports OpenVPN, IKEv2 and Shadowsocks protocols.
Overall, both PureVPN and Surfshark offer you very secure internet connections, thanks to the tamper proof encryption and secure protocols that they use.
If you are looking for a vpn that provides secure internet access then either PureVPN or Surfshark will do. However, PureVPN provides more connection protocol options than Surfshark.
Ad Blocker
The more you become ad blind the more aggressive the websites get with their advertising.
Even though ads is the primary revenue source for most of these websites, you can often feel overwhelmed by these intrusive and annoying ads.
Heck, these days they even track you and follow you around the web with the same ad in every other website that you visit.
If you want to be able to block ads and ad tracking completely, then you need a vpn with an inbuilt ad blocker.
Let’s compare PureVPN vs Surfshark in terms of their ad blocking capabilities.
PureVPN has an inbuilt ad blocker and malware blocker.
They will enable you to browse most websites ad free, block tracking as well as protect your from malware infected websites… like known phishing websites.
Surfshark also has a feature called CleanWeb that has ad and malware blocking capabilities.
Once turned on, CleanWeb enables you to disable ads and ad tracking on the websites that you visit in order to enjoy an ad free browsing experience.
Its malware blocker also has a database of over a million known malware infected sites and will block these sites before you visit them.
If you are looking for a vpn with an ad and malware blocker then I recommend either Surfshark or PureVPN.
Dedicated IPs
Even though it is a much needed feature these days, most vpns still don’t support dedicated IP addresses.
You’ll need a dedicated IP if you want to have a secure remote access to sensitive applications like your home security camera feed.
You can’t do this using a shared IP address that a vpn gives you by default because these IPs are being used by thousands of other people and might have already been abused and blacklisted on certain websites.
So does either Surfshark or PureVPN provide a dedicated IP?
PureVPN has a dedicated IP that you can whitelist in your applications and have secure remote access.
These dedicated IPs are a premium addon and so are purchased separately.
Surfshark, on the hand, offers you static IP address.
They function such that once you choose a particular static IP address server to connect to, you will always connect using the same IP.
Even though this IP can still be shared by other people, it is not like other shared IP servers that regularly change their IPs.
If you are looking for a dedicated IP that is only available to you then I recommend the dedicated IP by PureVPN.
Kill Switch
If you don’t want your real IP address to ever be revealed whenever you are connected to the internet then you need a kill switch.
A kill switch ensures that all your internet traffic is first encrypted and channelled through your vpn tunnel.
So anytime that you vpn app disconnects from the server, your internet access for the entire device is blocked until the vpn app reconnects.
This ensures that those few instances like when switching servers that your real IP would be exposed do not occur.
PureVPN and Surfshark both have inbuilt automatic internet kill switches that when turned on will ensure that your internet access is always safe and is only possible through your vpn tunnel.
They are turned of by default, so you should turn them on first.
If you are looking for a vpn with an amazing kill switch then either PureVPN or Surfshark will be a great option.
Split Tunnelling
In some instances, you need exempt certain applications from your vpn tunnel.
It could for example be your application that runs backups that you do not want slowed down by the speed drops caused by your vpn connection.
A vpn with split tunnelling support will therefore enable you to whitelist certain applications.
These applications will then have their traffic routed through your ISP, as usual.
Even though traffic in these apps will not be encrypted by the vpn, these apps will be able to enjoy the maximum connection speeds that your ISP provides.
PureVPN and Surfshark vpns both have a split tunnel that enables you to specify certain applications to be exempted from your vpn tunnel.
Once exempted, though, these applications do not enjoy the addition security and anonymity that a vpn provides.
Traffic on these apps is visible to your ISP.
Works in China?
Are you looking for a vpn that will enable you to access censored content in China?
Let’s now compare Surfshark vs PureVPN in terms of their abilities to bypass the great firewall of China.
In order to be able to bypass the deep packet inspection technology of China’s firewall, a vpn need to make its vpn traffic look like normal https traffic.
PureVPN has technology that makes its traffic like normal https traffic and bypass the DPI technology.
You’ll therefore be able to use PureVPN in China without being detected when accessing censored websites.
Surfshark also have a technology that is called Camouflage Mode that enables you to access internet in China.
In this mode, your Surfshark traffic is obfuscated such that they are able to fly under the radar without being detected and blocked.
So you’ll be able to use Surfshark to access internet in China.
If you are looking for a vpn that will work in China then I recommend either Surfshark or PureVPN.
Pricing
Let’s now compare PureVPN vs Surfshark pricing to establish the cheaper vpn.
Both PureVPN and Surfshark have their cheapest plans being their 2 year plans.
PureVPN costs $ 3.33/month on their 2 year plan while Surfshark costs $ 1.99/month on their 2 year plan.
As you can see, Surfshark is a cheaper vpn compared to PureVPN.
If you are looking for a vpn that will save you a couple bucks on their 2 year subscription then I recommend Surfshark.
Payment Options
What payments does PureVPN and Surfshark support?
Let’s finish this Surfshark vs PureVPN comparison in 2021 by looking at the various payments methods that you can use to pay for your subscriptions.
In order to ensure that you are anonymous, a vpn that is great on privacy should provide anonymous payment methods like Bitcoin, that do not require you to give out your billing address.
PureVPN and Surfshark, fortunately, accept all the major credit cards, PayPal and cryptocurrency payments through currencies like Bitcoin.
So if you want to give as little information about you as possible, signup with a disposable email address and pay with some Bitcoins.
If you are looking for vpn that supports crypto payments then I recommend either PureVPN or Surfshark.
In Conclusion
I hope this PureVPN vs Surfshark comparison has helped you learn about the pros and cons of these two vpns.
Are you now ready to make a choice between Surfshark and PureVPN?
If you are looking for a cheap vpn with excellent speeds, great streaming and torrenting support and that is true to their zero logs policy then I recommend Surfshark.
However, if you are willing to pay a little more for a vpn with more servers and wider geographical coverage, has actual servers in China and provides real dedicated IPs then I recommend PureVPN.
Have you used PureVPN or Surfshark before?
Please share your experience in the comments below.
