ExpressVPN vs Surfshark (2026): Price, Devices, Audits

Surfshark is cheaper than ExpressVPN for the first term. On 31 October 2026, Surfshark cost $2.49 a month and ExpressVPN $2.99 a month. Surfshark also allows unlimited devices. ExpressVPN prints its renewal price, runs obfuscation on every server, includes a smart DNS service and documents more streaming services.

The two also come from different owners, countries and audit firms:

• Owner: Kape Technologies owns ExpressVPN. Nord Security owns Surfshark.
• Jurisdiction: ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands. Surfshark is based in the Netherlands.
• Audit firm: KPMG audits ExpressVPN. Deloitte audits Surfshark.

The table above is built from both providers’ data records. The sections below explain what the rows mean and which differences will affect you.

Pricing today

ExpressVPN’s order page shows a single term, “2 Years + 4 Months”. You pay for all 28 months up front. On 31 October 2026 the three tiers cost:

• Basic: $2.99 a month, or $83.72, renewing at $99.95 a year
• Advanced: $4.49 a month, or $125.72, renewing at $119.95 a year
• Express Pro: $7.49 a month, or $209.72, renewing at $199.95 a year

The tiers differ in how many devices you can connect: 10, 12 and 14. Advanced and Pro also bundle extras: the ExpressKeys password manager, Identity Defender in the US and an eSIM. Pro also includes a dedicated IP. Every tier also comes as a monthly plan and a 12-month plan, according to ExpressVPN’s support page updated 30 October 2026. Their prices appear only at checkout. That is why the table shows “not published” for the monthly plan.

Surfshark’s pricing page showed Starter and One at the same Black Friday price that day. Both cost $2.49 a month for 27 months, or $67.23 up front. One+ cost $3.99 a month, or $107.73. Two more Starter prices come from Surfshark’s own blog post on its plans, dated 22 September 2026. The 12-month plan costs $3.39 a month, or $40.68, and the monthly plan costs $16.45. We used the blog post because the pricing page shows those prices only in the browser.

Surfshark does not publish its renewal price. The page says only that you will be charged “the applicable renewal price”, billed every year after the first term. No official page states the figure.

So Surfshark saves you $16.49 in the first term on the cheapest tiers, for one month less of service. After that, ExpressVPN costs a known $99.95 a year, which is $8.33 a month. Surfshark costs an unknown amount.

Payment options differ. Surfshark accepts cryptocurrency, except on phones and tablets. ExpressVPN removed cryptocurrency, including BitPay, in August 2026. It now takes cards, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Both offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, with different conditions:

• ExpressVPN gives it to first-time users only. It excludes anyone who has had a refund before and anyone who bought through the App Store or Google Play. You ask for it through live chat.
• Surfshark gives it on the initial purchase only, once per service. It excludes prepaid and gift-card payments, Alternative ID and the anonymous dedicated IP add-on.

Surfshark offers a seven-day free trial on its 12- and 24-month plans, with three devices during the trial. ExpressVPN has no free tier, and its only trial is 3 days in its iOS and Android apps. Every plan and renewal price is on our ExpressVPN pricing page and Surfshark pricing page.

Privacy and audits

Express Technologies Ltd. runs ExpressVPN from the British Virgin Islands. That is outside the 5, 9 and 14 Eyes alliances. These alliances are groups of countries that share intelligence with each other. Kape Technologies has owned ExpressVPN since 2021.

Surfshark B.V. operates from Amsterdam, inside the 9 Eyes alliance. It merged with Nord Security in 2022 under one holding company. In its own words, it still operates independently.

Both run every server in RAM, which ExpressVPN calls TrustedServer. A RAM-only server keeps nothing on a hard drive, so a restart wipes it. Both publish transparency reports, and neither keeps a warrant canary. A warrant canary is a public notice that a company removes if it receives a secret government order.

Their logging policies describe similar data. ExpressVPN’s policy, updated 2 October 2026, says it never collects activity or connection logs. It keeps only aggregated statistics:

• which apps were activated
• whether a connection succeeded on a given day
• the location chosen
• the total data transferred

Surfshark’s policy, updated 12 October 2026, lists account data, billing data and aggregated diagnostics. Billing data means a partial card number, the expiry date and the payer’s country. Connection details are held on a server and deleted within 15 minutes of the session ending.

In a no-logs audit, an outside firm checks that a VPN does not keep records of what its users do. ExpressVPN has KPMG engagements from September 2022, December 2023 and June 2025. PwC also audited its policy and TrustedServer technology in 2019. Surfshark has Deloitte reports dated 25 January 2023 and 16 June 2025.

ExpressVPN’s list of technical audits is much longer:

• Cure53 examined Lightway in 2021, 2022 and 2024. Praetorian examined it in 2024.
• Cure53 and F-Secure audited the apps in 2022.
• Nettitude tested the Windows app in 2024.
• The browser extension and the Aircove router have each been audited twice.

Surfshark cites SecuRing penetration tests of its apps in 2025 and of its infrastructure in December 2025. A penetration test is an authorized attempt to break into a system. Surfshark also cites Cure53 audits of its extensions in 2018, its server configuration in 2021 and its Dausos protocol in March 2026. ExpressVPN publishes several of its reports openly. Surfshark’s no-logs reports are available to customers in their account.

The incident records are the clearest contrast. ExpressVPN has four entries:

• In January 2017, one of its servers was seized in Turkey. The seizure yielded no data.
• In 2021, it disclosed that its CIO had earlier worked on a UAE surveillance program.
• In February 2024, a Windows split-tunneling bug sent some DNS requests outside the tunnel. CNET’s Attila Tomaschek found it. ExpressVPN fixed it, and Nettitude verified the fix.
• In 2025, a Windows bug let RDP traffic on port 3389 bypass the tunnel. It was reported on 25 April 2025 and fixed five days later.

ExpressVPN disclosed the last two app bugs itself. Surfshark has no documented incidents. Its transparency report for July to September 2026 lists 23 government inquiries, zero warrants, zero national security letters and zero gag orders. ExpressVPN’s transparency report states that no request has resulted in disclosure of user data.

Security and protocols

ExpressVPN’s default protocol is Lightway, its own design. A protocol is the set of rules a VPN uses to build its encrypted tunnel. Lightway is written in Rust and has an open-source core. Since January 2025 it has used a hybrid post-quantum ML-KEM key exchange by default. Post-quantum encryption is designed to resist attacks from future quantum computers. WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2 are also available.

Surfshark offers WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2. It also has Dausos, its own AEGIS-256X2 protocol. When we verified it, Dausos was available only in the macOS app. Post-quantum protection is on by default for WireGuard and Dausos. Cure53 audited Dausos in February and March 2026 and found no critical or high issues in the protocol itself.

A kill switch blocks your internet if the VPN connection drops. ExpressVPN’s kill switch is called Network Lock. It is on by default on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android, and always on for iOS. On every platform it blocks IPv4, IPv6 and DNS traffic outside the tunnel. Surfshark’s kill switch runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, with soft and strict modes.

Split tunneling lets you choose which apps or sites skip the VPN. The two are close here. ExpressVPN offers it on:

• Windows, for apps and websites
• macOS
• Linux, for apps, IPs and subnets
• Android, per app
• iOS, as IPv4 address exclusions

Surfshark’s version is called Bypasser. It covers Windows, where it takes apps, websites and IP addresses. It also covers macOS, Android, which adds a reverse mode, and iOS. It does not cover Linux.

Obfuscation disguises VPN traffic so that networks which block VPNs are less likely to spot it. It is automatic on every ExpressVPN server. Surfshark provides obfuscated servers and a NoBorders mode for restrictive networks.

Multi-hop sends your traffic through two VPN servers instead of one. Only Surfshark has it. Its Dynamic MultiHop has no ExpressVPN equivalent, because ExpressVPN documents no multi-hop feature.

Both sell a dedicated IP add-on, which Express Pro includes. Both block ads and trackers, with Advanced Protection at ExpressVPN and CleanWeb at Surfshark.

Port forwarding lets other devices reach a program on your computer, which some torrent apps need. Neither provider supports it through the VPN. ExpressVPN offers it only on its router app and Aircove, outside the tunnel. Surfshark says in a 9 September 2026 blog post that it does not support it.

IPv6 is the newer format for internet addresses. ExpressVPN’s apps block IPv6 rather than tunnel it. Surfshark’s security page says its apps block IPv6 leaks. Its help center recommends turning off IPv6 on the device. Both run their own DNS resolvers on every server.

Streaming claims

ExpressVPN’s support guide and dedicated pages claim support for Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, Prime Video, HBO Max, YouTube TV, DAZN, Paramount+, ESPN+, Crunchyroll and Peacock. Surfshark’s streaming page lists Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, HBO Max, Hulu and Crunchyroll. It notes that results may vary.

Smart DNS is a streaming setting for devices that cannot run a VPN app. ExpressVPN includes MediaStreamer, a smart DNS service for Samsung TVs, Roku, Chromecast and consoles that cannot run an app. Surfshark discontinued its SmartDNS service on 2 February 2026. Samsung Tizen and LG webOS televisions now need a router setup to use Surfshark.

We have not tested streaming access for either provider. Treat both lists as claims and use the 30-day refund as your test window. Our ExpressVPN Netflix guide and Surfshark Netflix guide cover the setup details.

Apps and devices

Both publish apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Android TV, Fire TV and Apple TV. Both have extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Edge, and ExpressVPN’s extension also runs in Brave. Both support routers. ExpressVPN also sells its own Aircove router with the VPN built in.

The device limit is the biggest gap. ExpressVPN allows 10 connections on Basic, 12 on Advanced and 14 on Express Pro. Surfshark allows unlimited connections on every plan.

Open-source code can be read and checked by anyone. ExpressVPN’s browser extension has been open source under the GPLv2 license since 2019. Its Lightway core is open source too, but its main apps are not. No Surfshark app is open source.

ExpressVPN publishes no server count, but it lists 113 countries and 214 locations. Surfshark lists 4,500-plus servers, 100 countries and 130-plus locations. Both use virtual locations. A virtual location is a server that appears to be in one country but is physically in another. Speed is not yet tested in our lab for either.

Support and refunds

Both run 24/7 live chat, email support and large help centers. We have not measured response times for either. Refunds are 30 days at both, with the conditions set out above. ExpressVPN refunds first-time direct purchases only. Surfshark refunds the initial purchase, once per service. The cancellation steps are in our ExpressVPN cancellation guide and Surfshark cancellation guide.

Which should you buy?

Buy Surfshark if any of these apply:

• you need to cover more than ten devices
• you want multi-hop
• you want to pay in cryptocurrency
• you want the lower first-term price of the two

Its clean incident record and two Deloitte reports are enough assurance for most people.

Buy ExpressVPN if you want the more predictable product:

• a kill switch that behaves the same everywhere
• obfuscation without choosing special servers
• split tunneling on Linux
• smart DNS for a TV
• the longer list of streaming claims
• a renewal price you can read before you pay

ExpressVPN’s four incidents are real, but they were disclosed and fixed. Surfshark’s missing renewal price is the bigger unknown over three years.

Alternatives

NordVPN shares Surfshark’s owner. It adds Meshnet and a published renewal price. See ExpressVPN vs NordVPN and NordVPN vs Surfshark.

Proton VPN has open-source apps, a free tier and port forwarding. See ExpressVPN vs Proton VPN and Proton VPN vs Surfshark.

CyberGhost shares ExpressVPN’s owner. It costs $2.19 a month on its 26-month plan and renews at the same price. See CyberGhost vs ExpressVPN and CyberGhost vs Surfshark.

Private Internet Access adds port forwarding and open-source apps. See Private Internet Access vs Surfshark.

Every provider we track is on the comparison hub.

How we compared them

Every row in the table comes from the two providers’ data records. We checked those records against their official order, pricing, feature, server, policy and audit pages on 31 October 2026. The sources are listed below. Scores follow our published methodology, with speed left out until our lab measures it. The figures shown above change whenever the data does. Read the full ExpressVPN review and Surfshark review for the detail behind each row. The ExpressVPN deals and Surfshark deals pages show today’s verified prices.