Surfshark referral code

Surfshark is a Netherlands-headquartered VPN founded in 2018 and now part of Nord Security following the 2022 merger.

• Servers: 4,500+ across 100 countries, including a large UK presence
• Devices: unlimited on a single subscription — almost no other major VPN allows this
• No-logs policy: independently verified by Deloitte in 2023 and again in 2025
• Infrastructure audit: Cure53 reviewed the platform and the new Dausos protocol in 2025
• Built-in extras: CleanWeb (ad and malware blocking), Camouflage Mode (obfuscation), MultiHop (chained VPN routes)

Surfshark sits in the cheaper tier of mainstream VPNs but is one of the few in that tier that has consistently passed third-party privacy audits.

Surfshark calls its refer-a-friend programme Refer & Earn. The reward depends on which plan the new customer signs up to:

1. Click the referral link on this page
2. Choose a Surfshark plan and sign up
3. Stay subscribed for 31 days — that is the qualifying period
4. Free subscription months are added to both your account and the referrer's account

The size of the free-months reward depends on plan length:

• 1-month plan: 1 free month for both parties
• 12-month plan: 3 free months for both parties
• 24-month plan: 3 free months for both parties

There is no limit on the number of people you can refer. Honest disclosure: as the existing customer, the referrer can also choose to take a cash commission (up to roughly USD $38 per referral, paid via PayPal once their wallet hits $25) instead of free months. The new customer always receives free months — the cash option is only on the referrer's side. The price you pay to subscribe is unaffected either way.

Signing up to Surfshark for the first time:

1. Click a refer-a-friend link — such as the one on this page
2. Choose your Surfshark plan and create your account
3. Stay subscribed for 31 days
4. The free months land automatically once the 31-day period clears

There is no separate referral code to enter. The link itself carries the referral, similar to how the Octopus Energy and E.ON Next schemes work.

Already a Surfshark customer? Your own referral link is inside your Surfshark account under "Refer & Earn". Share that URL — when a friend signs up through it and stays subscribed for 31 days, both of you receive the reward.

I am not a paid reviewer and I have not run benchmark tests. This is a user account from someone who has used both products in real life.

Why I switched in May 2022: I had been on ExpressVPN for several years and was running into more frequent connection drops than I wanted. Surfshark was significantly cheaper on its multi-year plan, supported unlimited devices, and had recently completed its first Deloitte no-logs audit. I gave it a try.

Four years in, what has been better on Surfshark:

• Connection stability: drops are rare in my day-to-day use
• Device coverage: unlimited devices means I do not have to ration which laptops, phones, and TV apps run the VPN
• Price: consistently cheaper per month than ExpressVPN on equivalent plan lengths

What ExpressVPN still does well:

• Strong reputation in independent reviews for raw speed
• A simpler app interface that some users prefer
• Slightly broader streaming-service compatibility in some industry tests

Who each is for: if you want the absolute fastest single-tunnel speeds and a polished app, ExpressVPN is a defensible choice. If you want unlimited devices, audited privacy, and a lower price for similar everyday performance, Surfshark is the one I would pick today — and have stuck with for four years.

Surfshark suits a broad UK audience, but particularly:

• Privacy-conscious households — you want your ISP and the websites you visit to see less of what you do, without the legal and reliability concerns of free VPNs
• UK travellers — you want to keep watching UK-licensed services like BBC iPlayer, ITVX, or Channel 4 from a hotel abroad. (Surfshark works with the major UK streaming services in industry tests as of 2026, but reliability shifts as services actively block VPN exit IPs — your mileage may vary.)
• Public Wi-Fi users — coffee shops, hotels, airports, co-working spaces. Encrypting traffic on networks you do not control is the single most useful day-to-day case for a VPN.
• Multi-device households — phones, laptops, smart TVs, and tablets all on one subscription. The unlimited-device policy is a real advantage if your household has more than 5 devices.

Surfshark is less of a fit if your only criterion is the absolute fastest single-tunnel speed (ExpressVPN and Mullvad tend to win speed-only benchmarks), or if you want a fully independent provider with no parent-company affiliation.

VPN trust depends entirely on the company keeping the promises it makes. Surfshark backs its claims with third-party verification rather than asking users to take its word.

• Deloitte no-logs audit (2023, re-verified 2025): Deloitte applied the ISAE 3000 assurance standard to Surfshark's infrastructure, server configurations, and internal processes. The 2025 reverification confirmed the no-logs policy is still in place.
• Cure53 infrastructure audit (2025): Cure53 reviewed Surfshark's platform and its new Dausos protocol, reporting a stable and resilient setup.
• Headquarters: the Netherlands. Outside the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance.
• Ownership: Nord Security since the 2022 merger. Surfshark and NordVPN run on separate infrastructure with separate apps and audits — they are not the same product, but they share a parent company.

No VPN can prove the absence of all logging through a single audit, but recurring third-party assurance is the strongest signal currently available in the consumer VPN market.