Proton VPN vs Surfshark (2026): free plan, audits, devices, which to pick

Choose Proton VPN if you want a free plan, publicly readable no-logs audits, port forwarding and a clean recent record; choose Surfshark if you need to cover more than 10 devices at once and want the lowest up-front price on a two-year plan. Both are paid mainstream services with a 30-day refund, so the decision usually comes down to devices, free use and how you read Surfshark’s 2026 breach.

This comparison puts the verifiable facts side by side, from the providers’ own pages, their auditors and news reports, all checked on November 12, 2026. We haven’t run speed tests and don’t publish speed scores. For the full profiles, see our Proton VPN review and Surfshark review.

Proton VPN vs Surfshark at a glance

Prices as listed on Proton’s pricing page¹ and Surfshark’s pricing page² on Nov 12, 2026 (US; Surfshark adds VAT where it applies and was running a Black Friday offer). Promotions and renewal prices change often, and both bill the whole term up front.

Does Proton VPN or Surfshark have a free plan?

Proton VPN does; Surfshark doesn’t. Proton’s free plan has no time limit, no data cap and no ads on one device, while Surfshark offers a 7-day trial to new customers who buy a 12- or 24-month plan.

Proton’s free VPN page³ lists one device, no ads and no logs. Its plan comparison¹ shows the limits: servers in 10 randomly selected countries, “medium” speed, and no streaming or P2P, which are paid features. Its VPN privacy policy⁴ says free users are covered by the same no-logs policy.

Surfshark’s trial page⁵ (updated September 11, 2026) says the 7-day trial is for new users buying a 12- or 24-month plan on Surfshark’s website with PayPal, Apple Pay or a card, on up to 3 devices. You cancel auto-renewal before it ends if you don’t want to keep it, and after the trial you can still ask for a refund within the 30-day guarantee. A trial is a good way to test speed and apps; a free plan is the better answer if you only need a VPN occasionally. See the best free VPNs.

How many devices can you use with Proton VPN and Surfshark?

Surfshark has no limit on simultaneous connections; Proton VPN allows 10 on its paid plans and 1 on the free plan.

Surfshark’s pricing page² answers “Is Surfshark VPN really unlimited?” with a yes: unlimited simultaneous device connections. Proton lists 10 devices at once on VPN Plus and Proton Unlimited (pricing¹). For one person or a couple, 10 is usually plenty. For a large household with phones, laptops, tablets and TVs all connected at once, Surfshark’s unlimited plan is the practical difference, and it’s the main reason to pick it.

Which is cheaper, Proton VPN or Surfshark?

Surfshark is cheaper per month on its two-year plan ($2.49 a month, $67.23 for 27 months); Proton is cheaper up front on a one-year plan ($35.88). Surfshark doesn’t show its renewal price on the pricing page; Proton’s is $83.88 a year.

Surfshark’s page listed Starter and One at $2.49 a month for 24 months plus 3 extra, both $67.23 for the first 27 months, and One+ at $3.99 a month ($107.73). The page’s underlying plan data put Starter’s 12-month plan at $2.99 a month ($44.85 for 15 months) and month to month at $18.95; it also listed a Starter renewal of $79.00 per 12 months, but the visible page only says renewals are charged at the “applicable renewal price”, so treat that figure as indicative.

Proton listed VPN Plus at $2.99 a month on the 1-year plan, billed $35.88, renewing at $83.88 a year, or $9.99 month to month (first month $1 when we checked). Its 2-year plan, in the page’s plan data, was $3.49 a month ($83.76), so Proton’s 1-year plan is currently cheaper per month than its own 2-year plan.

Refunds: Proton refunds in full within 30 days of the first purchase, once per user, but not cash or bank-transfer payments (terms⁶). Surfshark’s 30-day guarantee covers the initial purchase only, one refund per service, and excludes recurring payments, prepaid or gift-card payments and most reseller purchases (terms⁷). Compare more in the cheapest VPNs.

Which has the better no-logs audits?

Proton has the longer and more open series: five yearly audits by the same firm, each published for anyone to read. Surfshark has three no-logs reports (Deloitte in 2023 and 2025, KPMG in November 2026), which you can read only after signing in or accepting the auditor’s terms.

Proton VPN. Securitum has audited Proton’s no-logs policy every year since 2022. The fifth audit, from May 20 to 27, 2026, reviewed a sample of production servers, configuration and procedures, as CyberInsider reported⁸, and found nothing indicating logging of browsing, DNS queries, destinations, traffic contents or identifying connection data. Proton links all five reports on its audit page⁹.

Surfshark. Deloitte’s second no-logs assurance report, published in June 2025 under ISAE 3000, covered standard, static and multiport servers; Surfshark says the report is available to users in their account (Surfshark¹⁰). On November 12, 2026 Surfshark announced a KPMG review of its server configurations, temporary login data and employee access (Surfshark¹¹). KPMG’s notice on the report page¹² describes a reasonable-assurance ISAE 3000 (Revised) report on the design and implementation of controls as at October 30, 2026, dated November 9, 2026: a check of one point in time, not of how controls ran over months. Separately, SecuRing pen-tested Surfshark’s network infrastructure in late 2025 and found nothing critical (Surfshark¹³), and Cure53 reviewed its Dausos protocol in early 2026 and found nothing rated critical or high in the protocol itself (Cure53 summary¹⁴).

What happened in Surfshark’s 2026 breach?

An internal test server was misconfigured and reachable from the internet, and an attacker used it to reach internal engineering material and a proxy server. Surfshark says no user data or VPN services were affected.

According to Surfshark’s incident report¹⁵ (September 9, 2026), the first signs were detected on August 31 and the incident was contained on September 2, with further remediation by September 5. The attacker accessed parts of system binaries, internal configurations for some services, and build-related credentials that had at times been committed to code history; Surfshark says none gave access to user data or production systems, and it rotated or retired every secret it found. A separate proxy server used for “content accessibility optimisation” was also accessed; Surfshark says it had no access to user identities, IP addresses, encryption keys or browsing traffic. It admitted the first alert was handled as low-risk because it came from a test environment, and it promised an additional independent security audit of its broader infrastructure, without naming a firm or date. BleepingComputer¹⁶ covered the disclosure.

We found no comparable breach of Proton VPN. Its notable episode is legal rather than technical: in 2021 a binding Swiss order forced Proton Mail, not the VPN, to log an activist’s IP address (The Record¹⁷). Proton’s CEO said Swiss law treats VPN differently, so the same kind of order can’t force VPN logging.

Is Switzerland or the Netherlands better for a VPN?

Neither shields you on its own. Proton is Swiss and is moving most of its hardware out of Switzerland over a proposed surveillance rule; Surfshark is a Dutch company, so Dutch and EU law apply.

In 2025 Proton said it was moving “the majority of its physical infrastructure” out of Switzerland because of a proposed revision of the Swiss surveillance ordinance that would require services with at least 5,000 users to keep metadata such as IP addresses for six months and identify users, as heise reported¹⁸; it started with servers in Germany and sites in Norway, and said it isn’t leaving. Proton’s VPN privacy policy now says account data is kept in Switzerland, Germany or Norway.

Surfshark B.V. is registered at Kabelweg 57, Amsterdam (terms⁷). In 2022 it merged with Nord Security, NordVPN’s parent, under one holding company, and it says the two operate independently (about us¹⁹). If you want your VPNs owned by unrelated companies, Surfshark and NordVPN count as one group.

Which has better protocols and features?

Both use WireGuard by default. Proton adds Stealth for networks that block VPNs; Surfshark adds IKEv2, its new Dausos protocol on one platform, and obfuscated servers.

Proton’s protocol page²⁰ lists WireGuard over UDP or TCP, Stealth, and Smart Protocol, with OpenVPN only on Linux. Proton says Stealth²¹ uses obfuscated TLS tunneling over TCP to look like ordinary HTTPS and is on every plan, including Free. Surfshark’s protocol page²² covers OpenVPN, WireGuard and IKEv2; WireGuard is on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android with post-quantum protection added on top. Surfshark’s features page²³ lists obfuscated servers, NoBorders for restricted networks, a kill switch and split tunneling, and its server page²⁴ says all servers run in RAM only. Proton says all its servers use full-disk encryption.

Which is better for torrenting and streaming?

For torrenting, Proton VPN, because port forwarding is on every paid plan; we found no Surfshark help article offering it. For streaming, don’t buy either on a promise.

Proton’s port-forwarding guide²⁵ covers Windows, macOS and Linux on P2P servers. Surfshark’s server page lists P2P servers among its categories. A VPN doesn’t make copyright infringement legal; this isn’t legal advice. Proton sells streaming as a VPN Plus feature, but providers’ “works with” claims change often, and using a VPN to reach another country’s catalog usually breaks the streaming service’s terms. See the best VPNs for torrenting and for streaming.

Is Proton VPN faster than Surfshark?

We haven’t tested it. Speed depends mostly on distance to the server, server load, your own connection and the protocol, and both default to WireGuard.

Two practical notes: Proton’s free plan is labelled “medium” speed, so judge it on a paid plan; and both refund within 30 days, so test the servers you’ll actually use. A VPN also isn’t a full security tool; the FTC’s public Wi-Fi advice²⁶ explains what still matters.

Proton VPN or Surfshark: which should you pick?

Pick Proton VPN if you want a free plan that doesn’t expire, port forwarding, Stealth on any plan, no-logs audits you can read in full, and a provider without a recent breach. Accept a 10-device limit, an $83.88 renewal after the first year, and that its Swiss setup is changing.

Pick Surfshark if you need unlimited devices, want the lowest per-month price on a two-year plan, or want a 7-day trial before committing. Accept that the 2026 test-server breach is recent, that its promised infrastructure audit hasn’t been published yet, and that the renewal price isn’t shown up front.

Related: Proton VPN vs NordVPN, NordVPN vs Surfshark and Mullvad vs Proton VPN, or the comparison table of all ten providers.

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