Proton VPN vs Surfshark 2026: Price, Speed, Privacy and Verdict

01The verdict at a glance

Try Proton VPN: 70% off for 2 years

02Proton VPN vs Surfshark: price

The two services show prices differently. Proton lists euro prices with tax included: from Czechia, its checkout for two-year VPN Plus through our partner link showed “Total for 24 months 71.76 €” with 21% VAT itemized (Proton VPN). On the public pricing page, the same plan costs €83.76 (Proton VPN). Surfshark lists prices before tax with the note “VAT may apply” and adds VAT at checkout. Czech customers pay in koruna: Starter for 27 months costs CZK 1,593 before VAT and CZK 1,927.53 with 21% VAT (Surfshark). In its euro price list, the same plan costs €81.35 with Czech VAT and €82.69 with Slovak VAT.

Per month, the gap is a matter of cents. Through our partner link, Proton’s first payment is about €9.60 lower, but Surfshark gives you three extra months for its price. After the first term, Proton renews at €83.88 a year (Proton VPN) and Surfshark Starter at €85.10, or CZK 2,070.39 for Czech customers (Surfshark). Over 48 months including two renewals, Proton costs €239.52. Over 51 months, Surfshark costs €251.55. Either way, that is roughly €5 a month. Surfshark’s koruna renewal price moves with the exchange rate: on October 13 a Starter renewal cost CZK 2,086 with VAT, today CZK 2,070.

Watch what the discounts are measured against. Our Proton button promises 70% off: two-year VPN Plus at €2.99 a month is that much cheaper than the €9.99 monthly plan. After 24 months, though, VPN Plus renews at €83.88 a year, which is €6.99 a month, and the discount code works only once per user. Without the partner link, two years cost €83.76 and Proton advertises “65% OFF”. Surfshark’s checkout shows an 85% discount and three extra months on Starter, and its pricing page even says 87%. Its partner link adds no extra discount; the price matches the pricing page.

Proton VPN Plus vs Surfshark One

Right now Surfshark is running what it calls a Black Friday deal: the One plan, with antivirus and data leak alerts, costs the same as Starter for 27 months. It renews at a higher price, though, €106.65 a year (Surfshark). Against VPN Plus, One costs about the same for the first term but renews at €106.65 a year instead of €83.88, and it adds antivirus and data leak alerts that Proton VPN Plus does not include. If you want it, the deal is the time to buy, but plan for the higher renewal. Proton Unlimited is a different kind of bundle: it adds Proton Mail with 15 addresses, the Proton Pass password manager and 500 GB of Proton Drive storage, but two years cost €191.76. We cover every Proton plan in our Proton VPN price guide.

Try Proton VPN: 70% off for 2 years

Try Surfshark: 85% off + 3 months free

03Proton Free VPN vs Surfshark: free plan and device limits

Only Proton has a free plan. According to Proton, Proton Free has no data or time limit, shows no ads and follows the same no-logs policy as the paid plans (Proton VPN). You can connect just 1 device, though, the app assigns you a server in one of 10 countries, and you can only switch after a waiting period (Proton VPN). Guaranteed streaming and P2P file sharing are paid features. Our Proton VPN free guide explains what the free plan can do and when it is enough.

Surfshark has no free plan. Its help center describes a 7-day trial on the website, available only with the one-year and two-year plans and for up to 3 devices. After seven days, you are charged for the full term (Surfshark Help Center). Beyond that, there is the 30-day money-back guarantee.

On devices, it’s the other way around. Paid Proton VPN Plus connects 10 devices at once (Proton VPN), while every Surfshark plan allows unlimited devices. The only exception is the antivirus in the One and One+ plans (Surfshark Help Center). For a household full of phones, laptops and TVs, that is a strong point for Surfshark.

04Proton VPN vs Surfshark: speed

Which one is faster depends on the test. In TechRadar’s table, where both were tested in April 2026, Proton reached 1,475 Mbps on the nearest server and Surfshark 1,021 Mbps (TechRadar). In its review updated on October 6, however, TechRadar published a new round for Surfshark: 2,005 Mbps over WireGuard and 1,739 Mbps from Europe to the US (TechRadar). There is no newer round for Proton yet. Tom’s Guide, from the same publisher, measured an average of 1,012 Mbps for Surfshark in April (Tom’s Guide) and says Proton’s latency was lower than Surfshark’s (Tom’s Guide).

In its June 2026 report, the Artifact Security lab measured a higher average download speed on Windows for Surfshark, 208.7 Mbps against 165.2 Mbps for Proton. Proton, on the other hand, had the most stable connection of the five VPNs tested, with jitter of 5.93 ms against Surfshark’s 15.51 ms. Overall, Proton scored 83 points, just ahead of Surfshark’s 81 (Artifact Security). The report does not say who commissioned the test. In CNET’s 2025 tests, Surfshark lost 21% of speed on average (CNET) and Proton 15.8% (CNET).

On a home connection in Czechia or Slovakia, both are fast enough, and you will not notice the difference on a typical line. Results vary more between test rounds than between the two services.

05Proton vs Surfshark: privacy and security

Both services say they do not log what you do online. Proton relies on Swiss law, which does not require it to keep connection logs (Proton VPN). It only complies with foreign requests approved by a Swiss court, and since 2017 it has received 458 legally binding orders from Swiss authorities, all of which it denied because it does not have the data (Proton VPN). In July 2025, however, Proton announced it was moving most of its physical infrastructure out of Switzerland because of government proposals to expand surveillance (Proton).

Surfshark points out that Dutch law does not require it to log or retain user data (Surfshark). TechRadar notes, though, that the Netherlands is part of the Nine Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance (TechRadar). Surfshark’s privacy policy says that connection information is deleted within 15 minutes after a session ends (Surfshark). All of its servers run on RAM only (Surfshark).

Both have had their no-logs policies independently checked. Since 2022, Proton has hired the Polish firm Securitum for an audit every year, with 2026 marking the fifth in a row (Proton VPN). Surfshark has had its policy checked twice: Deloitte did the first assessment and published its report in January 2023, and a second one followed in June 2025 (TechRadar). Proton leads on transparency, having open-sourced all of its apps back in 2020 (Proton VPN).

Surfshark also disclosed an incident in September 2026. Because of human error, an internal test server was reachable from the internet, and an unauthorized party obtained parts of system binaries and internal configurations through it. The attacker also reached an isolated proxy server that, according to Surfshark, had no access to user identities, IP addresses or traffic. Surfshark confirmed the activity on September 2 and finished remediation by September 5. According to the company, no user data or VPN services were affected, and it has promised an additional independent audit of its infrastructure (Surfshark).

Try Proton VPN: 70% off for 2 years

06Servers and features

Proton has the bigger network. On October 18, its server list showed 20,839 servers in 149 countries, including 85 in Prague and 62 in Bratislava (Proton VPN). Surfshark lists “4500+ servers in 100 countries” (Surfshark). It does not publish server counts per country, and its public list shows a single location in Prague and one in Bratislava, both allowing P2P (Surfshark API). In 46 countries, Surfshark only has a virtual location: you get an IP address from that country, but the server sits elsewhere (Surfshark API). Proton does the same on a larger scale: its Smart Routing serves 109 countries, only 22 of which also have physical servers. Czechia and Slovakia are not among them (Proton VPN).

Surfshark offers more small tools for everyday privacy: a rotating IP that changes your address without dropping the connection, and Alternative ID, which creates a spare email address and made-up personal details for sign-ups (Surfshark). Proton has Secure Core, which routes traffic first through a server in Switzerland, Iceland or Sweden (Proton VPN). Proton is still only preparing post-quantum encryption, designed to protect against future quantum computers (Proton VPN), while Surfshark already uses it with WireGuard, though according to TechRadar’s October review not yet on Windows or iPhone (TechRadar). The table draws on Proton’s help pages (NetShield, split tunneling, port forwarding) and Surfshark’s (features, MultiHop, NoBorders). Surfshark has neither port forwarding nor open-source apps (TechRadar, Tom’s Guide).

Both have apps for Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, Linux, Apple TV, Android TV and Fire TV, plus browser extensions (Proton VPN, Surfshark Help Center). Language is the difference. Proton’s apps, except on Linux, are available in Czech and Slovak, and its website has a Czech version (Proton VPN, Proton VPN in Czech). Surfshark offers neither language in its apps or on its website. We cover Proton’s browser extension in Proton VPN for Chrome and Firefox.

07Proton vs Surfshark: streaming and torrenting

Proton did better at streaming. TechRadar unblocked every Netflix library it tried with Proton, though it failed with several Amazon Prime Video libraries (TechRadar). In TechRadar’s latest round, Surfshark needed several attempts to reach US Netflix and failed entirely in the UK and Australia, although an older section of the same review says it unblocked all five libraries on the first try (TechRadar). In April 2026, Tom’s Guide wrote that Surfshark, NordVPN and ExpressVPN had more streaming issues than Proton (Tom’s Guide), and with Surfshark it could only unblock the UK Prime Video library (Tom’s Guide).

With Netflix, keep its rules in mind: over a VPN you will only see titles licensed worldwide, and the plan with ads does not support VPNs at all (Netflix). Slovakia is on Proton’s list of countries where it supports Netflix, but Czechia is not (Proton VPN).

Both handle torrenting, but Proton does more. It allows P2P on dedicated servers on every paid plan (Proton VPN) and offers port forwarding on Windows, Mac and Linux, which matters mostly to torrent users (Proton VPN). According to Tom’s Guide, Surfshark allows P2P on every server, including Prague and Bratislava (Tom’s Guide), but it has no port forwarding. That is why TechRadar points anyone who wants the feature straight to Proton (TechRadar).

08China and travel

Surfshark has the edge in censored countries. When the app detects that a network restricts VPNs, it turns on NoBorders mode with a selected list of servers (Surfshark Help Center). A colleague of the Tom’s Guide reviewer connected with it in China (Tom’s Guide). Tom’s Guide says Proton does not work in China (Tom’s Guide). Neither service guarantees access, and Surfshark recommends a manual WireGuard connection if the app fails (Surfshark Help Center, Proton VPN). Install the app and test it before you leave.

09What reviewers say

Reviewers rate the two almost the same, with Surfshark a point or two ahead on three of the four sites (Proton VPN: Security.org, Tom’s Guide, TechRadar, CNET; Surfshark: Security.org, Tom’s Guide, TechRadar, CNET). The Tom’s Guide and CNET reviews, however, predate Surfshark’s September incident.

10Money-back guarantee, payment and cancellation

Both offer refunds within 30 days. Proton refunds the full amount, but only once, and not for cash or bank transfer payments or for subscriptions bought through the App Store or Google Play (Proton). Surfshark refunds only your first subscription bought directly from it or through its billing partners such as Google Play, not after a renewal and not for add-ons like an anonymous dedicated IP (Surfshark Help Center). Our step-by-step guide on how to cancel Proton VPN and get a refund covers Proton in detail.

Proton’s checkout from Czechia offered card, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and its help center adds bitcoin and cash (Proton VPN). Surfshark offered PayPal, card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and cryptocurrency. To turn off Surfshark’s auto-renewal, click your email address in the top-right corner of your account, open Subscription, then Payments, and choose Cancel auto-renewal (Surfshark Help Center). At Surfshark’s checkout you also agree that the EU’s 14-day withdrawal right will not apply, although the 30-day guarantee still does.

11Which VPN should you choose

Choose Proton VPN if you

• want a free VPN for one device with no data cap,
• care about a Swiss base, open-source apps and regular audits,
• want apps in Czech or Slovak,
• torrent and want port forwarding,
• stream Netflix libraries from abroad.

Try Proton VPN: 70% off for 2 years

Choose Surfshark if you

• want to protect lots of devices at once, such as a whole family,
• travel to China or other countries that block VPNs,
• like having a rotating IP, email aliases and ad blocking on the basic plan,
• live in Czechia and want to pay in koruna without a bank conversion,
• are buying while the Black Friday deal lasts and want the One plan with antivirus for the price of Starter.

Try Surfshark: 85% off + 3 months free

We have also compared Proton VPN with NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Mullvad, and Surfshark with NordVPN. For more services, see our best VPNs for 2026 comparison.

12FAQ

13Conclusion

Per month, Proton VPN and Surfshark cost almost the same, so the choice comes down to what you need. For most people in Czechia and Slovakia who want a VPN for themselves, for public Wi-Fi and for streaming, Proton VPN is the better pick: it has a free plan, Czech and Slovak apps, stronger privacy credentials and better streaming results. Surfshark makes sense for families with lots of devices and for people who travel to censored countries. Whichever you choose, note the renewal date. For our full take on Proton, see the Proton VPN review.

Data protection matters for business websites and apps too. If you are planning a project that handles customer data, see how we build custom websites, what it costs and how we work.

14Sources

• Proton VPN: pricing
• Proton VPN: partner offer
• Proton VPN: free vs paid
• Proton VPN: free plan servers
• Proton VPN: about us
• Proton VPN: features
• Proton: moving infrastructure (blog, 2025)
• Proton VPN: transparency report
• Proton VPN: no-logs audits
• Proton VPN: open source and app audit
• Proton VPN: server list
• Proton VPN: Smart Routing
• Proton VPN: Secure Core
• Proton VPN: NetShield
• Proton VPN: split tunneling
• Proton VPN: port forwarding
• Proton VPN: P2P and torrenting
• Proton VPN: spring and summer 2026 roadmap
• Proton VPN: downloads
• Proton VPN: app languages
• Proton VPN: website in Czech
• Proton VPN: streaming guide
• Proton VPN: China
• Proton: terms of service
• Proton VPN: payment options
• Surfshark: pricing
• Surfshark: about us
• Surfshark: Trust Center
• Surfshark: privacy policy
• Surfshark: incident report (September 2026)

• Surfshark: public location list (API)
• Surfshark Help Center: refund policy
• Surfshark Help Center: free trial
• Surfshark Help Center: canceling auto-renewal
• Surfshark Help Center: number of devices
• Surfshark Help Center: NoBorders
• Surfshark Help Center: features
• Surfshark Help Center: MultiHop
• Surfshark Help Center: connecting from China
• TechRadar: fastest VPN
• TechRadar: Surfshark review
• TechRadar: Proton VPN review
• Tom’s Guide: Surfshark review
• Tom’s Guide: Proton VPN review
• CNET: Surfshark review
• CNET: Proton VPN review
• Security.org: Surfshark review
• Security.org: Proton VPN review
• Artifact Security: VPN Performance World Tour 2026 (PDF)
• Netflix: VPNs and proxies
• Czech National Bank: exchange rates

Prices for both services as of October 19, 2026; other Proton details as of October 18 and 19, 2026. Per-month figures, multi-year totals and koruna amounts for Proton are our own calculations (Czech National Bank rate of CZK 24.340 per euro).