Surfshark vs Betternet

Whether you’re new to the world of VPNs or you’re switching providers, selecting a VPN that meets your needs can be challenging. You will want a VPN that fits your budget and offers incredible speeds, but there are several other factors to consider too. In this comparison, we take a look at Surfshark and Betternet to determine which is the better option.

We assess pricing, features, speed, security, and more, before coming to our conclusion. If you’re in a rush and just want a quick answer, Surfshark is the winner of this comparison. Keep reading to find out how came to that conclusion.

Highlights

Surfshark vs Betternet pricing

Surfshark starts off the comparison with the broader range of subscription plans available. While both providers offer a one-month sign-up term, Betternet’s free plan and one-year plan are the only alternative terms. Generally, VPN providers offer longer plans with more significant discounts for signing up for periods of two or three years, and in return, the provider onboards a longer-paying customer.

There is a difference of 4 cents between Surfshark and Betternet’s monthly plans coming in at $7.95 and $7.99, respectively. Neither are huge sums if you are dipping your toes in to see if a VPN is for you before committing to a longer-term.

Both providers include a money-back guarantee, but Betternet comes out on top, offering 45 days to get a full refund against Surfshark’s 30 day guarantee period.

Surfshark takes the crown on pricing and subscriptions, though. Betternet offers a 36% discount on its one-year plan (paid in full), but Surfshark outshines it with its whopping 83% discount on its two-year plan. As Betternet doesn’t offer anything over a year, it makes it near impossible to compete with Surfshark’s discount.

BEST DEAL FOR SURFSHARK:Save 83% when you choose Surfshark’s 2-year deal.

BEST DEAL FOR BETTERNET:Get 36% off Betternet’s 1-year plan.

Surfshark vs Betternet features

Betternet is a little thin on the ground in terms of its features. While Betternet allows the use of its VPN on up to 5 devices simultaneously, Surfshark trumps it with support for unlimited devices. That means you could share your account with friends and family while installing Surfshark on every device in your household.

Surfshark offers apps for every major platform and manual setup for routers and set-top boxes. iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows apps are the extent of Betternet’s platform support, meaning you can’t install the app on Smart TVs, Firesticks, or games consoles like PlayStation and Xbox. There’s also no option to install the VPN on a set-top box or a router to protect all the devices connected to your wifi network.

Surfshark includes a split tunneling feature that allows you to route your VPN traffic separately from your direct internet traffic. This is useful when you’re torrenting and require anonymity using the VPN while your browsing traffic goes via a direct connection. Betternet doesn’t offer split tunneling.

Malware scanning, ad-blocking, and anti-tracking come standard with Surfshark. Both providers offer a Chrome and Firefox browser extension, which would allow you to use the VPNs on devices where a native app isn’t available. Betternet lacks most of the other features that Surfshark offers.

Streaming and unblocking

VPNs were traditionally used to protect our online privacy, but more recently, with the growth of streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney Plus, we’re using VPNs to overcome geo-restrictions.

Geo-restrictions (geographical restrictions) are used by services like Netflix to limit the media offerings available depending on where you are connecting from in the world. The US, for example, has the most extensive Netflix library worldwide, while other countries have smaller and region-specific content unavailable anywhere else.

Surfshark bypassed almost every platform we threw at it, regardless of where we connected. It works with more than a dozen Netflix libraries, Prime Video in the US and the UK, and BBC iPlayer with no problems whatsoever. Betternet, on the other hand, accessed the same Prime Video and Netflix libraries with ease, but it struggled with BBC iPlayer and a bunch of other platforms.

China

Countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and China place heavy internet censorship on internet users connecting within the region.

The Great Firewall in China blocks social media apps, news and media sites, and even VPN websites. Fortunately, you can use a VPN to connect to a server located outside of China to beat the censorship controls.

Surfshark offers an obfuscation feature it calls NoBorders Mode, which, when enabled, allows the use of the VPN in China so long as you install the VPN on your device before you land in China. Betternet was a different story. Having no obfuscation features results in the VPN being unusable in China.

Setup and interface

There’s not much to choose between Surfshark and Betternet for ease of use and getting connected quickly. Both providers offer apps for most major platforms, although Surfshark’s device support is broader. Each provider ensures a straightforward setup, consisting of downloading and installing their apps, logging in, and selecting a server from a list of available countries to connect. Apps for both platforms look great on mobile and when scaled to a larger screen.

Betternet lacks some customization options that Surfshark includes, like changing the app’s appearance, but both providers allow you to enable the app on startup.

Servers and performance

You may be asking why an extensive server network matters. It’s because servers are shared between potentially hundreds of thousands of users. When a server becomes overloaded, you’ll experience unreliable connections and slow speeds.

Due to the vast number of servers at Surfshark, it’s highly capable of handling loads even during busy periods. However, Betternet struggles at peak times.

Speed

We tested Betternet and Surfshark to see how they performed during speed tests as part of our comparison. Surfshark presented the best speeds at 323.6 MBps, while Betternet resulted in a much less exciting 54.2 MBps, although that speed is more than enough for 4K streaming or online gaming. For context, our direct connection test produces up to 5GBps download speeds.

During our tests, we compared speeds on our closest servers in the US for both VPNs (providing the best speeds) and then tested the download speeds from a server located on the other side of the world (the UK). While Surfshark produced similar speeds with each server we tested, Betternet produced a more significant speed loss regardless of which server we connected to.

Security

Both VPNs offer different protocols, although the open-source Wireguard is a much more broadly-used protocol than Betternet’s Catapult Hydra protocol. In terms of the protocols to choose from, Surfshark wins hands down, allowing you to test the various protocols to see which produces the best speeds.

Surfshark and Betternet employ AES 256-bit encryption to protect your online privacy, an algorithm that’s almost impossible to crack. This is the same standard that the US military uses and is the standard used by most VPNs today.

Each VPN uses RSA-2048 channel encryption, which is robust enough to secure your connection, but it’s not as extensive as VPNs like NordVPN which provide 4096-bit DH key channel encryption.

Unlike Surfshark’s NoBorders Mode, Betternet doesn’t offer any kind of obfuscation technology. Obfuscation is useful when you’re using a website that uses software to detect VPN usage as it scrambles the packets of data transferred over your connection to make your VPN traffic appear like regular internet traffic. It’s likely that, because Betterment doesn’t obfuscate VPN traffic, it makes it a useless option in China and may be why it struggled to unblock sites like BBC iPlayer.

Surfshark includes an internet kill switch as standard on macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android, which is a valuable feature to prevent data leaks while using the VPN. When you enable the kill switch, Surfshark monitors your connection, and if your VPN drops, it disables your internet connection until you’re up and running again. Betternet doesn’t have an app kill switch available with any of its apps.

Configuration

Betternet and Surfshark allocate their users with shared IP addresses, which results in VPN servers and IP addresses being shared by multiple users. Shared IP addresses are typical among VPN providers unless you pay for a dedicated IP address (not available for either of our providers here). A shared IP address makes it impossible to trace online activity back to a specific user.

Privacy

Betternet is based in the US, which is a part of the Five Eyes Alliance, meaning they’d be obliged to hand over connection logs if local authorities requested them. As they only keep minimal logs, though, it’s unlikely the information provided would be substantial enough to identify its users as IP addresses aren’t recorded.

Similarly, Surfshark is based in Amsterdam in the Netherland, which forms part of the Nine Eyes Alliance. The same principle of minimal logging applies to Surfshark, with the provider insisting your logs are in the safest hands possible. If you opt for Betternet’s free version, it’s worth noting that it displays Google ads which can become a little annoying.

Customer service

Surfshark takes the crown for the customer service options available, with live chat support available 24/7, ticketing support, email support, and a fully-fledged knowledge base. However, Betternet slips just ahead in terms of the average response time to a ticketing query, beating Surfshark’s 4+  hours response time with Betternet responding to tickets in 2-3 hours.

Surfshark’s live chat is ideal for urgent issues, and its fleshed-out knowledgebase answers most inquiries. On the other hand, Betternet’s short ticket response times may be more than sufficient for many.

From a support perspective, it comes down to what’s important to each user. While some feel a quick response turnaround is vital, you’d go with Betternet, but for a wide range of customer service options like real-time support via live chat is your thing, then Surfshark is the better choice.

The winner

Surfshark

Betternet ticks a lot of the checkboxes that most beginner users could ask for. Its speeds are fast enough for online gaming and streaming, it has servers in some of the most popular locations, and its apps work on the mainstream platforms. If your sole purpose for a VPN is streaming US Netflix, using apps like Kodi anonymously, or torrenting, then Betternet isn’t a bad option. Beyond that, though, there’s a lot to be desired for Betternet that most users could inherit from other VPNs.

Surfshark is the best overall choice compared to Betternet as it plugs almost every gap that Betternet is missing. For starters, its speeds are over double those available with Betternet. Surfshark has a server network that is vastly bigger than Betternet’s, and its unlimited device allowance gives it an edge over Betternet’s five device limit.

Surfshark works with all the major streaming providers like Netflix, and signing up for a two-year plan is an excellent way of saving big with its extensive subscription discounts.