Comparison — from the record, 2026-08-26
NordVPN vs Surfshark: the renewal one prints, and the one that doesn't
OUR PICK
Our pick: Surfshark for the first term — it costs meaningfully less and covers unlimited devices. Mark your renewal date in your calendar the day you buy.
For the same 27 months, Surfshark Starter is $67.23 against NordVPN Basic's €94.23 — roughly a third less for the intro term — and a Surfshark subscription covers unlimited devices where NordVPN counts them. Both pages play the same game: a low intro price for the first term, then a renewal at standard rates.
The other way: Pick NordVPN if you refuse to buy a subscription whose future price is a secret — and that is a respectable reason. NordVPN prints its renewal beside every plan: Basic renews at €139.08/year, 3.3 times the intro rate. Surfshark's pricing page nowhere states what any plan renews at. Transparency about a steep price still beats silence.
How to read this page: every number below was read from the vendor’s own public pricing page on the date shown, and the pages are re-checked daily. Currencies differ because that is what each vendor showed an EU visitor. Some links on this page are affiliate links — if you subscribe through one we earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Per
our method, that never changes a number or a verdict. Source links always point to the vendor’s plain page.
The two pricing pages, side by side
NordVPN — EUR, read 2026-08-26
| Plan | Price | Contacts | What the page says |
|---|
| Basic 2-year | €3.49/mo | first 27 months | Pay €94.23 upfront for 27 months; renews at €139.08/year (€11.59/mo) after |
| Basic 1-year | €5.49/mo | first 12 months | Pay €65.88 for year one; renews at €139.08/year after |
| Complete 2-year | €4.49/mo | first 27 months | €121.23 upfront; renews at €219.48/year. Adds antivirus, password manager, 1TB cloud storage, monitoring |
| Complete Max 2-year | €6.49/mo | first 27 months | €175.23 upfront; renews at €301.08/year. Adds dedicated IP |
Source: https://nordvpn.com/pricing/ · read 2026-08-26 (UTC) · Prices as shown to an EU visitor. Intro prices apply to the first term only; every plan renews at the standard yearly rate, which the page states beside each price. No monthly-billing plan appeared in the term selector we drove.
Surfshark — USD, read 2026-08-26
| Plan | Price | Contacts | What the page says |
|---|
| Starter 24-mo | $2.49/mo | first 27 months | $67.23 for the first 27 months (was listed $444.15); VPN, unlimited devices, ad blocker |
| One 24-mo | $2.49/mo | first 27 months | $67.23 first 27 months; adds antivirus, data-leak monitoring, masked email |
| One+ 24-mo | $4.49/mo | first 27 months | $121.23 first 27 months; adds data-removal (Incogni) |
Source: https://surfshark.com/pricing · read 2026-08-26 (UTC) · 24-month plan view as shown (+3 extra months = 27 months covered). Intro prices for the first term; the pricing page does not state renewal prices.
What the record says
VPN pricing is a term game, and both of these pages play it identically on the surface: a striking per-month figure (€3.49, $2.49), a 24-month commitment quietly extended by '3 extra months', and the real number — what you pay today — in the small print. Read from both vendors' own pages on the same day: NordVPN Basic costs €94.23 for the first 27 months; Surfshark Starter costs $67.23 for the same 27. Surfshark also showed us dollar prices while NordVPN showed euros — each page prices an EU visitor as it pleases, so we record what each one displayed.
On the recorded numbers the first term isn't close. Surfshark Starter undercuts NordVPN Basic by roughly a third, Surfshark One (which adds antivirus and data-leak monitoring) costs the same $67.23 as Starter, and every Surfshark plan covers unlimited devices. On the 1-year terms the gap holds: NordVPN Basic at €65.88 for year one against Surfshark's 12-month plan, which our capture couldn't fully record — noted honestly in the table above.
Then comes the part that decides year two, and it's a tale of two disclosure policies. NordVPN prints the renewal beside every price: Basic renews at €139.08 a year — €11.59 a month, 3.3 times the intro rate — and their page even labels the savings 'intro vs. renewal prices'. That's a steep cliff, printed honestly. Surfshark's pricing page states no renewal price for any plan, anywhere. The struck-through 'old prices' ($444–$590) are marketing comparisons, not renewal figures. Whatever Surfshark charges at month 28, their pricing page isn't saying — so we can't either, and neither can you when you budget.
So the decision rule is about your own discipline. If you'll set a calendar reminder and re-shop at renewal — the rational move in a category where every vendor prices the first term as a loss-leader — Surfshark's cheaper intro and unlimited devices win the 27 months you're actually buying. If you know you'll let it auto-renew, NordVPN is the only one of the two that tells you today what that costs. Both offer a 30-day money-back window, so the cost of testing your choice is time, not money.
Beyond the price tag
Devices
Surfshark: unlimited devices on every plan — the clearest hardware-level differentiator. NordVPN allows a fixed number of simultaneous connections (10 on current plans per their materials).
Beyond the VPN
Both bundle suites at higher tiers: NordVPN Complete adds a password manager, 1TB cloud storage and breach monitoring (renews €219.48/yr — printed); Surfshark One adds antivirus and data-leak alerts at the same intro price as Starter, One+ adds data removal.
Price honesty
The category's core trap is the renewal cliff. NordVPN documents its own cliff on the pricing page. Surfshark leaves the year-two number unstated. On a site that verifies prices daily, that difference is not cosmetic — one future is checkable, the other is not.
Questions people actually search
Is the $2.49/month real?
It's real arithmetic on a real payment: $67.23 ÷ 27 months. But you pay the $67.23 upfront, and it prices only the first term. What Surfshark charges after that isn't stated on their pricing page.
What does NordVPN cost after the intro?
Printed on their own page: Basic renews at €139.08/year, Complete at €219.48/year, Complete Max at €301.08/year. On the 2-year deal, that renewal starts at month 28.
Why are the currencies different?
Because that's what each vendor showed the same EU visitor on the same day: NordVPN priced in euros, Surfshark in dollars. We record what the page displays rather than converting — conversion would add a number neither vendor printed.
Can I just cancel before renewal?
Yes — both are subscriptions you can cancel, and both offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on purchase. The renewal cliff only catches subscribers who auto-renew without re-shopping; a calendar reminder at month 26 is worth roughly €70 a year on NordVPN's own numbers.
THE VERDICT, ONE MORE TIME
Our pick: Surfshark for the first term — it costs meaningfully less and covers unlimited devices. Mark your renewal date in your calendar the day you buy.
For the same 27 months, Surfshark Starter is $67.23 against NordVPN Basic's €94.23 — roughly a third less for the intro term — and a Surfshark subscription covers unlimited devices where NordVPN counts them. Both pages play the same game: a low intro price for the first term, then a renewal at standard rates.
We verified both vendors' prices on their own pricing pages (dates shown above; currencies as each page displayed to an EU visitor). Feature descriptions summarize what each vendor's own materials emphasize; we have not run a hands-on speed or privacy test. The method →
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