Surfshark vs ExpressVPN 2026: One Price, or Pay Per Tier?
Surfshark bundles unlimited devices and every feature into one flat price. ExpressVPN's tiered plans (since Sept 2025) let you pay only for what you actually need.
Published September 11, 2026· By Juan Martinez
Surfshark and ExpressVPN solve the “how much VPN do I actually need” question in opposite ways. Surfshark sells one plan tier with everything unlocked — unlimited devices, double-hop routing, a rotating IP — at a flat renewal price. ExpressVPN, since restructuring its pricing in September 2025, sells three tiers that gate devices and extra features behind higher prices, so you choose how much to pay based on what you’ll actually use.
| Surfshark | ExpressVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 8.0 | 8.2 |
| Renewal price (steady-state) | $6.58/mo (flat, all tiers) | $8.33-16.66/mo (by tier) |
| Devices | Unlimited | 14 |
| Protocols | WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, Dausos (macOS only) | Lightway, WireGuard, OpenVPN |
| Jurisdiction | Netherlands | British Virgin Islands |
| Est. | 2018 | 2009 |
Devices and price: Surfshark’s whole pitch
Surfshark allows unlimited simultaneous device connections on its single plan, at a flat $6.58/month renewal regardless of how many devices that covers. ExpressVPN caps devices by tier — 10 on Basic, 12 on Advanced, 14 on Express Pro — with renewal prices climbing from $8.33/month to $16.66/month as you go up. For a household or shared account running more than 14 devices, Surfshark is the only option that doesn’t ask you to count. For someone with two or three devices who doesn’t want to pay for a tier built around a bigger household, ExpressVPN’s cheapest Basic tier ($8.33/mo) still costs more than Surfshark’s unlimited plan — the per-device math doesn’t favor ExpressVPN even at the low end.
What’s included free vs. what’s tier-gated
Surfshark bundles Dynamic MultiHop (double VPN) and Rotating IP into every plan at no extra cost — features that add a layer of routing obfuscation without an upsell. ExpressVPN’s equivalent extras are the opposite structure: the entry-level Basic tier only includes lite ad/malware/adult-site blocking, while a bundled password manager (ExpressKeys), broader tracker-blocking, and — on Express Pro specifically — an included dedicated IP and unlimited private email relay are locked behind the pricier Advanced and Express Pro tiers.
Audit history: both verified, different depth
Both providers have their no-logs claims independently audited, and neither makes the full technical report freely downloadable — ExpressVPN’s KPMG report requires accepting KPMG’s own terms, Surfshark’s Deloitte report requires an account login. ExpressVPN has the longer continuous history: 23+ published audits since 2009 against Surfshark’s second Deloitte engagement (first in 2023, most recent published mid-2025). Surfshark has its own separate audit that ExpressVPN’s review doesn’t have an equivalent for — Cure53 reviewed its new Dausos protocol in early 2026 with no critical findings. Neither gap is disqualifying for either provider; it’s a difference in track record length, not in whether the no-logs claim has been checked at all.
What the table leaves out
Torrenting favors Surfshark in one specific way: every server supports P2P, so there’s no need to hunt for a specialty location. ExpressVPN also supports torrenting network-wide. Neither offers real port forwarding to a typical subscriber — Surfshark doesn’t offer it at all, citing IP-leak risk; ExpressVPN only supports it through a short list of compatible router firmware, with forwarded ports sitting outside the encrypted tunnel.
Jurisdiction is a real, structural difference: ExpressVPN operates from the British Virgin Islands, outside the Nine Eyes alliance entirely, while Surfshark is Dutch, and the Netherlands sits inside it. Neither has a mandatory data-retention law forcing the point, but the jurisdictions themselves aren’t equivalent.
Bottom line
Read the full Surfshark review if you want one flat price with everything unlocked — unlimited devices, double-hop routing, a rotating IP — without picking a tier. Read the full ExpressVPN review if you’d rather pay less for a smaller device count on Basic, or pay up specifically for the extras (password manager, dedicated IP) bundled into the higher tiers, and you value the longer independent audit track record enough to justify the higher renewal price either way.