Proton VPN vs Surfshark: the one with a free plan is also the expensive one
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.
Prices as this vendor showed them to a visitor in the United States — USD. A reader elsewhere may be quoted a different figure — we publish what we were served, never a conversion.
Prices as this vendor showed them to a visitor in the United States — USD. A reader elsewhere may be quoted a different figure — we publish what we were served, never a conversion.
Plan
Price
Surfshark Starter
$2.49/mo
Surfshark One
$2.49/mo
Surfshark One+
$4.49/mo
Source: https://surfshark.com/pricing · read 2026-10-13 (UTC) · Prices are shown in euros to an EU visitor — confirmed on the date shown above both in a browser and by our own cookie-free server fetch, so this is what a first-time European visitor sees rather than a stored preference. An earlier capture recorded these same figures against a dollar sign; the figures were right and the currency label was wrong, and that is corrected here. 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 this vendor quotes in each market, as its own page printed it — not one price converted three ways.
Plan
United States USD · 2026-10-13
United Kingdom GBP · 2026-10-13
EU EUR · 2026-10-13
Surfshark Starter
$2.49
£1.79
€2.49
Surfshark One
$2.49
£1.79
€2.49
Surfshark One+
$4.49
£3.29
€4.49
What the record says
This pair splits on a single question: are you going to pay? Proton VPN publishes a plan at £0, and our readings hold that row in every market. Surfshark's ladder in our reading has no plan priced at zero. If the budget is nothing, the comparison is over before the prices are read.
If you are paying, it reverses sharply. Surfshark's cheapest paid plan reads £1.79 against Proton VPN Plus at £7.99. Over a year that is £21.48 against £95.88 — a gap of £74.4, which is large enough that it is the decision rather than a detail of it.
Both vendors price per market and answer in that market's money, so those comparisons hold in the American, British and European editions of this page alike. Neither is exporting a single dollar figure to the world, which means the gap above is arithmetic on two figures in one currency.
Proton's ladder has a third row, £10.39, and it is not really a VPN price. It buys the rest of Proton's services alongside the VPN, so setting it against a standalone VPN subscription compares a bundle to a component. If you would otherwise pay separately for encrypted mail and storage, that figure deserves a different comparison from the one this page is making.
Neither reading records a renewal rate. Both vendors advertise the monthly figures above against committed terms, and what happens at the end of a term is not in our capture — so it is not on this page. In this category that is the number most likely to differ from the one you were quoted, and the vendor's own page is where to settle it.
Beyond the price tag
The free row
Proton VPN opens at £0, present in all five markets we read. Surfshark's ladder carries no zero-priced plan in our reading. What Proton's free tier restricts is a product question its pricing page does not answer, so this page does not answer it either.
The paid rung
Surfshark's cheapest paid plan £1.79 against Proton VPN Plus £7.99 — £21.48 against £95.88 across a year, a difference of £74.4.
Same money on both sides
Each vendor returned the local currency from every market we read, so every difference on this page is two figures in one currency subtracted, never converted.
The bundle row
£10.39 carries Proton's wider suite rather than the VPN alone. It is excluded from the scoring here because a bundle judged against a single subscription loses a comparison it was never in.
The figure neither page gives
No renewal rate appears in either reading. The monthly figures above are what each page advertised on the date beside its table, against the terms it advertised them on — not a promise about year two.
Questions people actually search
Is Proton VPN really free?
Its ladder carries a plan at £0 in every market we read, so yes, there is a row priced at zero. What that plan allows — servers, speed, devices — is a product question the pricing page does not settle, and we do not fill it in. Surfshark has no equivalent row in our reading.
Which is cheaper if I pay?
Surfshark, and by a wide margin: £1.79 against £7.99, or £74.4 less across a year. Both vendors quote local currency, so that holds in every edition rather than only the American one.
What is Proton Unlimited?
£10.39 is the bundle carrying Proton's other services alongside the VPN. It only makes sense against what you would otherwise pay for those services separately — measured against a standalone VPN it is the expensive option, which is why this page leaves it out of the verdict.
Do these prices last?
Our reading does not say. Both figures are what the pricing pages advertised on the dates beside the tables, and neither capture holds a renewal rate. Check it on the vendor's page before committing to a term.
THE VERDICT, ONE MORE TIME
Our pick for anyone who will pay: Surfshark at £1.79 against Proton VPN's £7.99 — £74.4 less over a year.
Both vendors quote the currency of the market they are read from, so this is a subtraction rather than a conversion. On the paid rung Surfshark is substantially cheaper in every market we hold: £1.79 against £7.99, or £21.48 against £95.88 across twelve months.
Both ladders were read from the vendors' own pricing pages, from five countries in turn, each table dated. Differences here are computed from two figures in a single currency. Where a row is absent it is absent from our reading, and a free tier we did not capture is not a free tier we say does not exist. The method →
Found a price that no longer matches the vendor’s page? Tell us — corrections are dated and stay on the page.