Surfshark vs ExpressVPN
For most Australians, Surfshark is the simpler buy: it bills in Australian dollars, and we retested it from Melbourne in October 2026. Pick ExpressVPN if you want its Lightway protocol and named auditors (KPMG, PwC and Cure53), and do not mind a US-dollar bill.
Surfshark’s Melbourne server kept 94% of our download speed, the third-highest of the seven VPNs in our current round. We have not retested ExpressVPN since August 2021, so the two do not compare directly.
Our earlier results (2021–22)
When we tested both from Melbourne in August 2021, Surfshark beat ExpressVPN to three of five overseas countries and kept far more upload speed on every server.
The rest of the quick answer comes from the providers’ own sites, read for our daily data check:
- Cheaper to start: Surfshark, on each one’s lowest monthly price in Australian dollars
- Devices at once: Surfshark unlimited, ExpressVPN 10–14
- More countries: ExpressVPN
- Refund window: Surfshark 30 days, ExpressVPN 30 days
Price and renewal in Australian dollars
| VPN | Lowest monthly price | Renewal price | Money-back | Countries | Devices | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Surfshark | A$3.49 27 months, A$94.23 upfront | – | 30 days | 100 | Unlimited | Visit Surfshark |
2 ExpressVPN | US$4.99 (about A$7.10) 15 months, US$74.85 upfront | US$99.95 per year | 30 days | 113 | 10–14 | Visit ExpressVPN |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
– means we do not have that detail yet. Prices shown in US$ are published in that currency; the Australian-dollar figure is approximate, converted at the European Central Bank euro reference rates for 30 Oct 2026 (US$1 = A$1.424).
How this list is ordered
The order is calculated from the figures in the table, weighted as follows. The full method
- Lowest monthly price (AUD): 60%
- Countries with servers: 40%
Ranking calculated 2 Nov 2026.
Surfshark charges in Australian dollars, so there is no exchange-rate surprise, though it notes GST may apply. ExpressVPN charges in US dollars, so our conversion moves with the rate and your bank may add a fee.
Look at the renewal price before the headline one. ExpressVPN lists its renewal price; Surfshark’s pricing page did not show one beside each plan when we read it, so check at checkout.
Surfshark’s best rate needs 27 months paid upfront and ExpressVPN’s 15 months, after which ExpressVPN renews every 12 months at a higher rate. Set a reminder a few weeks before either renews.
Surfshark and ExpressVPN side by side
Devices and apps
Surfshark covers unlimited devices on one account; ExpressVPN covers 10–14, depending on the plan. Count your phones, laptops, smart TV and the kids’ tablets before you choose.
The cards above list each one’s apps. Both include a kill switch; Surfshark adds multi-hop, routing you through two servers, and ExpressVPN adds port forwarding, which some torrent setups need.
Both offer WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2, plus a protocol of their own. Security.org likes ExpressVPN’s Lightway on phones and low-powered devices, because the code is light. Surfshark lists one called Dausos.
Australian servers
Surfshark’s Australian servers are in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney; ExpressVPN’s are in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Abroad, Surfshark lists 4,500+ servers in 100 countries, and ExpressVPN covers 113.
Privacy, audits and ownership
Both say they keep no logs and run servers in RAM only, so nothing survives a restart.
Surfshark says Deloitte verified its no-logs claim in two reports under ISAE 3000, an international standard for checking non-financial controls. It says Cure53 has audited its infrastructure.
ExpressVPN names KPMG, PwC and Cure53, and says its RAM-only servers have been audited too.
Surfshark is based in the Netherlands. ExpressVPN is owned by Kape Technologies, whose own site lists CyberGhost and Private Internet Access among its brands; ExpressVPN says it is registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Testers raise a few cautions. Security.org warns that Surfshark may record IP addresses, which it calls not best practice for a no-logs VPN.
It adds that the Netherlands belongs to the Nine Eyes alliance, so its government can compel Surfshark to share customer information. Top10VPN notes that ExpressVPN keeps some data, such as bandwidth use, but nothing that identifies you.
Speed from Melbourne
Surfshark left plenty of speed at home when we retested it. Its Melbourne server kept 94% of our download speed in October 2026, far more than 4K needs by Netflix’s own guidance.
Its ping was 12 ms, about the same as with no VPN. On the evening of 24 October, a different Melbourne server kept noticeably less.
ExpressVPN kept 86% on Sydney in August 2021. Different years, servers and line speeds sit behind those figures, so the gap is not a head-to-head result.
Overseas in October 2026, Surfshark kept 43% in the US, 55% in the UK and 79% in Japan; a slow first download pulled down the US and UK. London’s ping of 300 to 310 ms is fine for streaming but laggy for fast games.
The tables show each provider’s latest result where Australians most often connect. For ExpressVPN, that still means August 2021.
| VPN | Speed kept | Download | Ping | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surfshark | 43% | 23 Mbps | 248 ms | October 2026 |
| ExpressVPN | 25% | 25.1 Mbps | – | August 2021 |
Our download speed to a server in the United States, from Melbourne, as a share of the same line's speed with the VPN off that day. Line speeds differ between test years, so compare the share kept.
Tested on an account Surfshark gave us free of charge (16–25 Oct 2026).
| VPN | Speed kept | Download | Ping | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surfshark | 55% | 29.3 Mbps | 310 ms | October 2026 |
| ExpressVPN | 42% | 43.1 Mbps | – | August 2021 |
Our download speed to a server in the United Kingdom, from Melbourne, as a share of the same line's speed with the VPN off that day. Line speeds differ between test years, so compare the share kept.
Our earlier results (2021–22)
We tested both from Melbourne in August 2021, so read this as a dated snapshot. Surfshark won three of five overseas countries and kept far more upload speed everywhere.
From our test bench Melbourne, August 2021
| Connection | Download | Upload |
|---|---|---|
| No VPN | 107.9 Mbps | 18.4 Mbps |
| Surfshark, Sydney server | 89 Mbps −17.5% | 17.4 Mbps −5.2% |
| Server in | Download | Upload |
|---|---|---|
 United States | 98.5 Mbps −8.7% | 17.1 Mbps −7.1% |
 United Kingdom | 86.6 Mbps −19.7% | 16.4 Mbps −11.0% |
 India | 43.5 Mbps −59.6% | 10.2 Mbps −44.7% |
 Brazil | 83.1 Mbps −23.0% | 16.5 Mbps −10.2% |
 South Africa | 16.9 Mbps −84.3% | 8.19 Mbps −55.5% |
13.1 MiB/s average torrent download rate on an Australian server (August 2021)
Our own measurements on a Melbourne home connection of about 108 Mbps at the time, August 2021. Changes are against the speed of the same line with the VPN off, measured the same day.
From our test bench Melbourne, August 2021
| Connection | Download | Upload |
|---|---|---|
| No VPN | 102 Mbps | 18.4 Mbps |
| ExpressVPN, Sydney server | 88.2 Mbps −13.5% | 9.83 Mbps −46.6% |
| Server in | Download | Upload |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 25.1 Mbps −75.4% | 7.08 Mbps −61.5% |
| United Kingdom | 43.1 Mbps −57.7% | 4.95 Mbps −73.1% |
| India | 63.5 Mbps −37.7% | 4.88 Mbps −73.5% |
| Brazil | 42.6 Mbps −58.2% | 11.7 Mbps −36.4% |
| South Africa | 55 Mbps −46.1% | 3.94 Mbps −78.6% |
11.8 MiB/s average torrent download rate on an Australian server (August 2021)
Our own measurements on a Melbourne home connection of about 102 Mbps at the time, August 2021. Changes are against the speed of the same line with the VPN off, measured the same day.
On Sydney the downloads were a dead heat: about 89 Mbps on Surfshark and 88 on ExpressVPN. As a share of each session’s line, ExpressVPN kept slightly more, 86% against 82%.
Uploads differed more. Surfshark kept about 17 of our 18 Mbps; ExpressVPN fell to about 10, roughly half, still fine for video calls.
Overseas, Surfshark was well ahead to the US (about 99 Mbps against 25), the UK (87 against 43) and Brazil (83 against 43). ExpressVPN won India (64 against 44) and South Africa (55 against 17).
Torrent downloads averaged 13.1 MiB/s on Surfshark and 11.8 MiB/s on ExpressVPN.
Surfshark’s torrent result is new: in October 2026 a Debian download through Melbourne ran about as fast as with the VPN off. ExpressVPN’s figure is still from 2021, so do not compare the two directly.
| VPN | Our torrent speed | P2P policy | Kill switch | Port forwarding | Audited by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surfshark | 4.13 MiB/s tested October 2026 | Allowed in our test tested October 2026 | ✓ Listed | Not listed | Deloitte, Cure53 |
| ExpressVPN | 11.8 MiB/s tested August 2021 | Not checked | ✓ Listed | ✓ Listed | KPMG, PwC, Cure53 |
Torrent speed is the average download rate we measured on an Australian server, with its date. Features and auditors are as each provider lists them; "Not checked" means we have not recorded it yet.
Newer independent tests are kinder to ExpressVPN. On nearby servers Top10VPN recorded a 2% loss for it and 4% for Surfshark, both in reviews updated in September 2026.
More in our Surfshark review and ExpressVPN review.
Streaming
Surfshark is the one for British TV on our current evidence, but not for American Netflix. Its October 2026 results:
- United Kingdom: Netflix UK played on London on 16 October. BBC iPlayer played Panorama on 17 October, signed in to a UK-registered BBC account.
- United States: a live Pluto TV channel played on Los Angeles, but Netflix showed its VPN or proxy error on Los Angeles and New York.
- Japan: Netflix blocked us on Tokyo, though ABEMA’s site loaded with no region block.
- Australia: Prime Video refused to play on Surfshark’s Melbourne and Sydney servers on 24 and 25 October.
We have not tested ExpressVPN for streaming since August 2021, so check the date beside each result.
| VPN |  Netflix US | Netflix UK |  BBC iPlayer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surfshark | Blocked on all 2 servers we tried tested 16 Oct 2026 | Played tested 16 Oct 2026 | Played tested 17 Oct 2026 |
| ExpressVPN | Not tested | Not tested | Played (EastEnders) tested August 2021 |
Our own results from Melbourne, with the date we tried. "Site loaded" means the service's local site opened through the VPN but we did not play anything (usually no account). Results from different years come from different test rounds.
Our earlier results (2021–22)
In August 2021 Surfshark played Dexter on US Netflix and MasterChef on BBC iPlayer from Melbourne. ExpressVPN played EastEnders on BBC iPlayer; we have no saved record of it on US Netflix, so we make no claim either way.
Top10VPN says ExpressVPN unblocked 115 out of 120 streaming services it tried, and Security.org says Surfshark switched its Netflix region without trouble. Use the refund window to check the service you care about most.
More in best VPN for Netflix in Australia.
Leaks and kill switch
Surfshark passed on DNS but showed our real address when we switched servers on default settings.
| VPN | DNS | IPv6 | WebRTC | Kill switch | Switching servers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surfshark | No leak tested 25 Oct 2026 | Could not test tested 25 Oct 2026 | No leak tested 25 Oct 2026 | Whole device, off by default; drop test not run tested 25 Oct 2026 | Kill switch off: Leaked (real address showed for about 3 s) Kill switch on: No leak (12 s offline) tested 25 Oct 2026 |
| ExpressVPN | No leak tested 11 Aug 2021 | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
"Could not test" means our line had no IPv6 to leak. "Not recorded" means we tested the VPN but did not record that check; "Not tested" means we have not tested the VPN yet. Neither means it failed.
It had no DNS leaks on servers in Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, Melbourne, Mumbai, São Paulo and Johannesburg (16–25 Oct 2026), so lookups went through the VPN, not our internet provider. We could not test IPv6, because our line has none.
Switching from Tokyo to London on default settings, our real Melbourne address showed for 3 to 4 seconds before London connected. That happened on both tries, in October 2026.
Surfshark’s kill switch, labelled beta and off by default, closes that gap when it behaves. With it on, a Melbourne to Sydney switch never showed our address.
But it was erratic on our Mac. After we turned it off, a server change failed and the kill switch kept the Mac offline for about 50 minutes.
ExpressVPN passed our DNS leak check in August 2021. We have no server-switch or kill switch result for it.
Which should you choose?
- Choose Surfshark if you want to pay in Australian dollars and watch British TV. Turn its kill switch on, and check the app shows no error.
- Choose ExpressVPN if you want Lightway, named auditors and Top10VPN’s strong streaming results, and can live with a US-dollar bill and Kape ownership. Our own results for it date from August 2021.
Not sure? Try one on the services you actually use, inside its refund window. See also NordVPN vs Surfshark and NordVPN vs ExpressVPN.
Full reviews: Surfshark review · ExpressVPN review
Guides for both
- UK VPN: British servers from Australia
- US VPN: American servers from Australia
- Japan VPN: Japanese servers from Australia
- India VPN: Indian servers from Australia
- Best VPN for Netflix in Australia
- How to watch AFL and NRL overseas
- Is torrenting illegal in Australia?
- The definitive VPN guide: how a VPN works