CyberGhost vs Surfshark: Which Provider is a Better Choice?

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CyberGhost vs Surfshark: A Short Summary

If you are in doubt as to which VPN is better out of CyberGhost and Surfshark, it is handy to see all the pluses and minuses next to each other. We have therefore compared these two providers using various categories. These categories are speed, security, privacy, price, ease of use and customer service. We have provided the winner of each category below.

• Safety: Surfshark
• Speed: Surfshark
• Privacy: Surfshark
• Price: Surfshark
• Ease of use: CyberGhost
• Customer Service: Surfshark

As you can see, Sufshark wins in most categories. Click the button below to go to the Surfshark website.

Surfshark

Deal

Safe and anonymous internet for only $2.49 a month

Visit Surfshark

Below you can read more about the specific characteristics of both providers and how they compare to each other.

In this article we compare CyberGhost and Surfshark. Both VPNs are easy to use and are suitable for streaming Netflix, for example, or downloading torrents. But which of the two is the better choice?

CyberGhost or Surfshark: Functionalities, Features and Extra Options

Before we delve deeper into the specific features of each VPN, we outline below an overview of the features provided by both providers.

Below you will find a brief explanation of all the above-mentioned features:

• Servers: Shows the number of servers the VPN in question has available.
• Torrents/P2P support: If ticked, it means that the VPN provider allows the downloading of torrents via their VPN network.
• Netflix/Streaming: Indicates whether the particular VPN works with the American version of Netflix.
• Simultaneous connections: Specifies the number of devices you can connect to the particular VPN simultaneously on one subscription. Surfshark has no limit.
• Operating system: Indicates with which operating system(s) the specific VPN is compatible.
• Protocols: These are the VPN’s encryption
• Price: Specifies each provider’s cheapest monthly price for a subscription.
• Log policy: Indicates whether the particular VPN provider tracks certain data from you or not.
• Money-back guarantee: States the period within which you can request your money back if you decide to cancel your subscription. Note that this period can be shorter if you take out a single monthly subscription.
• DNS Leak test: Specifies whether the particular VPN has a DNS leak test function. This function allows you to ascertain whether your IP address is being leaked.
• Tor over VPN: If the particular provider has Tor over VPN, it indicates that the provider has special servers available that work well with Tor browsers.
• Obfuscated servers: Obfuscated means hidden. If a VPN provider has such severs, you can access the free internet even in countries with the strictest regimes.
• Double VPN: If a VPN provider has Double VPN servers, you connect with two VPN servers simultaneously. This makes it even less likely that someone will be able to uncover your actual IP address and location.
• Dedicated IP: Dedicated IP addresses are IP addresses used only by a single user. If a VPN has this option, you can request a static IP for your sole use, often at an additional cost.
• Kill switch: Shows if a particular VPN has an emergency stop switch. With this feature, if the VPN experiences a malfunction, your internet access will be (temporarily) stopped so that your data will remain safe.
• Split tunneling: If a VPN provider has split tunneling, you can choose whether or not you want certain applications to be connected to the internet through the VPN.
• Adblocker: Indicates whether the particular VPN has built-in adblocker functionality.
• Diskless servers: Does the particular VPN have diskless servers? If so, the VPN network uses diskless RAM servers on which no data can be stored.
• Malicious website blocker: With this option selected, the particular VPN can block access to malicious websites.
• Custom DNS option: Is this feature ticked? Then the particular VPN provider allows you to set your own DNS records.
• Online tracker blocker: A VPN that has the online tracker blocker feature, can block trackers contained in certain websites.
• Static IP address servers: Surfshark has servers with fixed IP addresses. Unfortunately, however, these servers are shared with other users.
• Anonymous search engine: Surfshark offers its own anonymous search engine.
• Email leak notification: Surfshark has a notification function that alerts you if your email address has been leaked. This works somewhat similarly to the havibeenpwned website.
• Automated HTTPS redirect: the automated HTTPS redirect function ensures that you are automatically connected to the HTTPS version of a website, rather than the HTTP version.
• Data compression option: this option can reduce your data usage by compressing certain images while you are browsing.

CyberGhost vs Surfshark: Who Wins on Safety?

The security of a provider can be summarized in a few points: the protocols offered, the type of servers used and any additional functions it may have, such as the ability to block online trackers and the like.

• CyberGhost and Surfshark both offer the OpenVPN and IKEv2/IPsec protocols. They are both working on making the WireGuard protocol available, but they’re both waiting until it’s in a less experimental-phase.
• Shadowsocks is available as a “protocol” with Surfshark, but this is really just a proxy. Proxies can be used in countries where VPN use is blocked. Unfortunately, Surfshark does not explain this well in its application, which is a drawback since you get the idea that Shadowsocks is a protocol like all the others.
• Both providers use 256-bit encryption. Furthermore, a kill switch is available with both providers, which switches off the internet connection as soon as the VPN connection unexpectedly drops.
• Surfshark, unlike CyberGhost, has the double VPN feature. Surfshark also has some extra functionality to further protect your privacy. For example, a notification will appear if there is a risk that your passwords or other data could have been hacked. However, the latter is not an important difference, since you can also check an email leak with websites like haveibeenpwned. Furthermore, Surfshark has diskless RAM servers on which no data can be stored.
• Currently CyberGhost does not work in China because VPN usage is blocked. In addition, CyberGhost shows on its accounts page on which devices you have installed their VPN. For example, you can see whether the VPN has been installed on a smartphone or desktop, and the type of smartphone or desktop being used. Such information is very privacy-sensitive, and consequently we believe that showing this information does not make for good security.

Ultimately, we see a clear difference between CyberGhost and Surfshark in terms of security. Both providers are very secure, but Surfshark does not keep track of which devices you have their VPN installed on. In our opinion, this gives Surfshark the victory.

Safety winner: Surfshark

CyberGhost vs Surfshark: Which Provider Wins on Speed?

To compare speeds, we performed speed tests on both providers. However, first, we tested our own internet connection without a VPN to set the speed baseline. Our baseline measurements are provided in the screenshot below.

We then tested international and local servers belonging to both CyberGhost and Surfshark. The table below provides an overview of the results with the best scores entered in bold.

The results show that both Surfshark and CyberGhost are very fast. Compared to other VPNs, these two are amongst the fastest, with neither being hugely different from the other. Surfshark is faster when using international servers and CyberGhost when using local servers. Nevertheless, we see from the results that Surfshark is much faster than CyberGhost when connecting to international servers. Consequently, we would like to declare Surfshark the winner in terms of speed

Speed winner: Surfshark

CyberGhost vs Surfshark: How Do these VPN Providers Guarantee User Privacy?

In addition to speed, it is also important that your personal data does not fall into the hands of third parties thanks to the VPN provider itself. Do these providers keep logs, and if so, what happens to them?

CyberGhost

• CyberGhost does not keep any logs. However, the provider keeps anonymous data to improve their VPN’s service. For example, if the company knows how often the servers are logged in it can avoid overload.
• CyberGhost occasionally publishes a “transparency report”. This report looks at how often CyberGhost receives requests for access to users’ personal data. The report shows that CyberGhost does not provide this information when requested, even ignoring government agencies.
• For each of your subscriptions, CyberGhost registers on its accounts page on which devices their VPN is installed.

Surfshark

• Surfshark also does not keep any logs. However, Surfshark keeps anonymous data that helps it improve its software. Moreover, just like CyberGhost, Surfshark also uses this data to ascertain how busy its servers are.
• Surfshark has transitioned to a diskless server network. This means that no user data can be stored on its servers as data only exists temporarily in RAM.

The fact that CyberGhost does not use diskless servers provides us with cause to give Surfshark the win in the privacy category. Furthermore, even though CyberGhost says it does not keep any logs, it is not inconceivable that it may do so anyway.

Privacy winner: Surfshark

CyberGhost vs Surfshark: With Which Provider Do You Pay the Least?

Surfshark is often chosen thanks to its incredibly low price. It is the cheapest of all the popular providers that we have tested. Please refer to the table below for a plan comparison.

Prize winner: Surfshark

CyberGhost vs Surfshark: Which One is Easier to Use?

Our previous reviews of CyberGhost and Surfshark have shown that ease of use is great with both providers. Where are the differences?

• With the CyberGhost application you can quickly find the torrenting and streaming servers, without having to search very long. There are separate lists for them. Connecting is also done in a jiffy. CyberGhost has a very nice application, although the color scheme can be a bit annoying due to the contrast. However, this is a personal preference that we will not take into consideration in our scoring.
• In the Surfshark application, the various functions that you can set are not sufficiently explained. For example, you can turn on Shadowsocks without knowing what this function does. CyberGhost, on the other hand, only offers (secure) classic VPN protocols.
• Both Surfshark’s and CyberGhost’s websites have knowledge centers in which you can find information about the functions provided by the particular VPN. There are also manuals for these functions. The Surfshark website navigates nicely and is up to date. However, on the CyberGhost website, we found quite a bit of outdated information.
• In principle, the installation process of both applications is self-explanatory and very simple.

Apart from the outdated information on its website, the use of CyberGhost is less ambiguous than Surfshark’s. Therefore, mainly thanks to the application’s differences, we give the money to CyberGhost.

Screenshots of CyberGhost’s and Surfshark’s software are provided below.

Ease of Use Winner: CyberGhost

Customer Service: How Do these Providers Solve Your Problems?

There are of course problems that may crop up which cannot be solved by just looking on the website. How do CyberGhost’s and Surfshark’s customer service respond?

• Both CyberGhost and Surfshark have customer service representatives to whom you can ask questions via live chat. We were quickly connected to an employee when we asked a question.
• The Surfshark employee answered clearly and was knowledgeable. This was also the case with the CyberGhost employee, but he was not aware that there was outdated information on the helpdesk pages. The fact that we had to point this out was not a plus.
• With both providers, customer service is only available in English.
• Both providers’ online help centers were useful, but Surfshark’s was slightly more up to date.

Customer service winner: Surfshark

Our Final Verdict: When is CyberGhost the Better Choice and when Surfshark?

Our comparison shows that Surfshark has an advantage over CyberGhost in many categories. CyberGhost could be a good choice if you want to do less research and just want to quickly connect to a VPN.

Please refer below for an overview of the winner for each category:

• Safety: Surfshark
• Speed: Surfshark
• Privacy: Surfshark
• Price: Surfshark
• Ease of use: CyberGhost
• Customer Service: Surfshark

Do you want to subscribe to one of these two providers? Then, see below and go to the Surfshark or CyberGhost website.

Surfshark

Deal:

Safe and anonymous internet for only $2.49 a month

8.8

• Very user-friendly and works with Netflix and torrents
• 30 days money back guarantee. No questions asked!
• Cheap with many extra options

Visit Surfshark

CyberGhost

Deal:

Try CyberGhost for $2.75 per month!

9.3

• Very user-friendly
• High quality for a low price
• Torrents and Netflix possible

Visit CyberGhost

Would you like to see the other VPN comparisons? Then click on one of the links below:

• ExpressVPN vs. NordVPN
• ExpressVPN vs. CyberGhost
• ExpressVPN vs. Surfshark
• NordVPN vs. CyberGhost
• NordVPN vs. Surfshark