Surf Easy Review
- Over 1000 servers in 31 different countries
- Some servers works with Netflix
- Offers email and phone support
- User friendly PC & Android apps
- Blocks annoying "tracking" advertising
- Single click IP masking can be enabled
- Unlimited use on up to 5 devices simultaneously
SurfEasy is an excellent VPN for accessing US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and HBO Max. It utilizes OpenVPN connections and the industry-standard AES-256 encryption. However, it only provides average connection speeds, and the native apps seem to be difficult to use. It also lacks a kill switch, which is a necessary security feature.
This is not a privacy-oriented service. Since its change in ownership, SurfEasy logs far too many data points and its Canadian jurisdiction means that privacy laws are quite intrusive.
Detailed Ratings
Customer Support
We like the live chat feature with quick and pleasant responses.
Unfortunately, it isn't available 24/7, and the SurfEasy agents seemed inexperienced.
The website also gives a phone number, which is more personal and appealing to individuals who prefer verbal communication.
You can email the helpdesk after hours (9-5 EST). Response times were often over a day. But when we did hear back, it was quick and to the point.
The FAQs and how-to tutorials are better than some we've seen. The tutorial videos are nice but not polished.
Features
Locations and Servers
SurfEasy's server network (the countries available to connect) is one of the smallest. There are just 31 countries to choose from. From this list of countries, there are no city-level choices. That might be fine for a smaller nation, but if you live in the US (New York) or Australia (Melbourne), you'll have to luck out and be based near the server to get max speeds.
SurfEasy is keeping a low number of servers - just 1,000 in total! Unfortunately, this could lead to server congestion and lower performance at peak times.
Europe and North America are well-served, but Asia is poorly represented - just Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore. So if you're in Asia, your options will be very limited.
South America and Africa are even worse, with only a single location (Brazil and South Africa, respectively).
Apps
SurfEasy is only available on some of the most popular operating systems: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. There are VPN extensions for Chrome and Opera, but they work as proxies. As I mentioned before, SurfEasy can't be installed on other devices and manual workarounds aren't possible, so it is quite limited.
Pricing
SurfEasy offers monthly and annual subscriptions. The price of the monthly subscription may seem high for the features it gives you, but a yearly subscription is cheaper than other services that offer the same features.
Payment is easy with SurfEasy VPN accepting major credit cards and PayPal. However, this convenience comes at a price: billing requires you to disclose personal information, breaching your privacy. Unlike most VPN services, SurfEasy VPN does not accept anonymous cryptocurrency payments. As a result, SurfEasy is not the ideal solution for greater privacy via anonymous payments.
SurfEasy doesn't provide a free trial. All subscriptions can be refunded within 14 days, though. Even though the industry standard is 30 days, the two-week money-back guarantee lets you fully try out the service.
About Surf Easy
Surf Easy's parent company is Symantec, and they advertise as a quality "no-log" VPN for every device. This is great off the bat because what's the point of protecting privacy if all that information is recorded on a stored log somewhere? What's the point of protecting your online activities if it's all recorded and stored in a separate place that can be hacked?
This company focuses on VPNs exclusively, and that means a lot of support, good technical focus, and a quality product that you can depend on. That does show in the quality in-depth protection that is provided.
