Even though Surfshark is famous for its VPN, the Surfshark One Antivirus is the company’s attempt to expand its digital product line, and offer a more inclusive security suite to users. But, is the Surfshark Antivirus really as good as its VPN? In this review, we dig into the Surfshark Antivirus to see if it’s worth your money.
Surfshark Antivirus Short Review
Surfshark Antivirus is a barebones yet useful cybersecurity tool that helps keep your device safe from all kinds of viruses and malware. It’s not as feature-rich as some of the best antivirus software, but it still holds its own. For example, it doesn’t come with handy features like a firewall, a vulnerability scanner, parental controls, an anti-spam filter, and ransomware remediation. It’s important to note that you can’t buy the Surfshark Antivirus separately; it’s sold as one bundle. As such, with one subscription, you get access to a robust VPN service, access to one of the best private search engines, and a tool that alerts you when your personal information is compromised. Furthermore, Surfshark Antivirus is lightweight and can work in the background without slowing down or heating up your device. Although the full scan ran for several hours during our testing, it took up little CPU and memory space. However, Surfshark Antivirus allows you to schedule your scans for any time that works best for you. Thankfully, the antivirus’s interface is neatly organized and easy to navigate. Currently, the antivirus is a great choice for Android users, and Mac and Windows users alike. On top of that, Surfshark is a newcomer to the antivirus industry and promises to add several features in the months to come. If you’re interested in getting the Surfshark One suite with the Surfshark Antivirus, click the link below. Or, read on to find out our full review.
Surfshark One Antivirus Specifications and Subscriptions
If you want access to Surfshark’s antivirus, you’ll need to purchase the entire Surfshark One cybersecurity bundle. However, if you’re already using Surfshark VPN, you can add the other Surfshark One tools (Antivirus, Search, and Alert) for an extra $1.49 per month. For most users, we recommend the 12-months plan since it offers the biggest savings. However, you can opt for the two-year plan if you want a long-term solution.
The good news is that you can use one Surfshark One package to protect up to five devices, so it’s a good choice if you want to share your subscription with your family. This is similar to competitors. For comparison, of our top five antivirus software, three cover a maximum of five devices while the rest (AVG and Avast) cover up to 10 devices.
Security: Can Surfshark One Antivirus Be Trusted?
Overall, the Surfshark Antivirus offers useful features to safeguard your device, whether you’re using a laptop, phone, or tablet. Here’s a summary of what we discovered during our research and testing:
The scanning feature is effective at spotting malware. Real-time protection is available for Mac, Windows, and Android.
Surfshark Antivirus still has a long way to go to prove that it’s more secure than the most popular antivirus software, but it’s already showing good signs. As a result, we awarded Surfshark Antivirus with a 7.0 in security.
Security testing: How does Surfshark Antivirus measure up?
Because Surfshark Antivirus was only recently launched, there are no security evaluation reports from reputable evaluation services like AV-Test and AV-Comparatives. This makes it hard to determine how it stacks up against other top antivirus software. However, we put Surfshark One Antivirus through the wringer by introducing a dummy malware file to our Windows computer. We downloaded the anti-malware test file from the European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research (EICAR) and we ran a quick and full scan to see if Surfshark Antivirus could detect it. The results were impressive. Surfshark Antivirus easily picked out the dummy malware file during each scan. It also gave us the option to delete the file. Our only gripe was that the antivirus didn’t offer much detail on the malware file, except categorizing it as “riskware.”
Real-time protection
Real-time protection means that an antivirus will run in the background, monitoring and detecting any threats to your device. Before, Surfshark One Antivirus’s real-time protection feature only worked on Android. Recently, however, the feature has become available to Windows and macOS users as well. We tried the feature on an Android device and it worked quite well, alerting us each time it suspected any virus, malware, or spyware. However, Surfshark can learn from Bitdefender’s Advanced Threat Defense feature which takes real-time monitoring a notch higher by blocking zero-day attacks. Learn more in our Bitdefender review.
Device scanning
Surfshark’s antivirus software seems to get just about everything right when it comes to scanning devices. Like most antivirus software, it provides three scanning options:
Quick scan: This feature is handy if you want to run a quick surface-level scan of the device’s file system. After the scan, Surfshark Antivirus shows you a list of the threats and gives you the option to delete them. Full scan: Surfshark Antivirus’s full scan digs deep into your entire device to discover threats. It’s an excellent option to fish out viruses and malware that a quick scan may have missed. Custom scan: This is a useful feature since it allows you to scan specific files and folders without having to run a full or quick scan. You can add files one by one or you can drag and drop multiple files at once.
Privacy: How Does Surfshark One Antivirus Handle Your Data?
The best antivirus programs are very careful about handling user data and take extra steps to protect their users’ information. Surfshark scores high marks in this department. To date, there’s no record of any data breaches or scandals.
Surfshark One includes excellent privacy tools. Surfshark follows a strict no-logs policy. Surfshark’s RAM-only servers ensure your data is wiped upon every reboot.
Privacy protection features
It’s worth noting that Surfshark runs RAM-only servers, which clear your data with every reboot. As a result, your data is only stored temporarily and cannot be retrieved once deleted. Aside from Surfshark Antivirus, the Surfshark One bundle gives you access to Surfshark VPN, Alert, and Search. Surfshark’s businesses are known to be privacy-focused. Even their data deletion service, Incogni, tries its best to invade your privacy as little as possible. This isn’t any different for the many features included in Surfshark One. Let’s examine them in detail.
Surfshark VPN
You might be wondering why you need a VPN when you already have an antivirus. While an antivirus keeps viruses and malware at bay, a VPN protects your privacy. Fortunately, Surfshark is one of the best VPNs on the market, second only to NordVPN. It’s a blazing fast, easy-to-use, and affordable VPN service. When it comes to security and privacy features, Surfshark VPN packs a punch. There’s the military-grade AES-256 encryption and a kill switch, which cuts off your internet connection as soon as your VPN connection drops. It also offers DNS leak protection to ensure that your traffic doesn’t leak. Surfshark’s NoBorders mode helps you get past government censorship, particularly in totalitarian countries like China. If you don’t want anyone to know that you’re using a VPN, the camouflage mode makes your VPN traffic look like regular internet traffic. You can also add an extra layer of privacy and protection to your internet traffic using the double VPN servers. You can learn more about this VPN service in our exhaustive Surfshark review.
Surfshark Search
It’s no secret that search engines like Google collect your data and tweak your search results based on your location and search history. Even privacy-focused browsers still have vulnerabilities. However, that’s not the case with Surfshark Search. Think of Search as the true incognito mode that helps you browse the web completely anonymously. This private search engine prevents tracking and ensures that you only get organic search results that are not influenced by your location or previous searches. Furthermore, with Surfshark Search, you won’t see any ads while browsing.
Surfshark Alert
Surfshark Alert notifies you when your personal information appears online. It scours the internet to see if your email address, password, credit card details, and personal identification number have appeared in breached online databases. All you have to do is to fill in the specific details you want Surfshark Alert to monitor.
Surfshark One Antivirus’s privacy policy
For starters, Surfshark has a strict no-logs policy. This means it doesn’t collect information related to a user’s online activity, including IP addresses, browsing history, bandwidth, time stamps, and network traffic. In addition, the company was established in the Netherlands, a country that doesn’t require information storage or reporting and complies with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Surfshark gathers information related to your accounts like your email address, registration date, and password. However, such information is standard fare in the VPN space and it helps Surfshark help you better. If you want to examine Surfshark One’s policy yourself, read our article on how to spot privacy risks in user agreements and privacy policies.
Usability: How User-Friendly Is Surfshark One Antivirus?
Overall, Surfshark Antivirus’s apps are easy to install, intuitive, and user-friendly. Here’s a snapshot of our experience with Surfshark One:
Surfshark One is easy to download and install. You can get a full refund within 30 days of your purchase. Surfshark’s customer support is responsive and helpful. It doesn’t have a user community.
Based on these observations, Surfshark One Antivirus scores an 8 out of 10 for usability.
How do I install Surfshark Antivirus?
To download and install Surfshark Antivirus, you need to first visit Surfshark’s website. Fortunately, the website is well-laid out, attractive, and easy to navigate.
Click on the “Get Surfshark Antivirus” button on the “Antivirus” page and follow the steps below:
Choose a plan. Add Surfshark Search, Alert, and Antivirus. Select payment method and make payment.
Once you’re done making the payment, click on the VPN tab on the homepage and select “Application” from the drop-down menu.
Next, select your operating system and download the setup file. Then run the application and follow Surfshark’s prompts until the program is successfully installed. Installing Surfshark on Android follows a similar pattern. Simply head over to the Google Playstore and search for Surfshark. Click the install button and the app will install in a few minutes.
Surfshark Antivirus’s software
Once the installation is complete, open the Surfshark app and navigate to the top left. You’ll see a lineup of Surfshark’s cybersecurity tools: Surfshark VPN, Alert, Antivirus, and Search.
Click on the “Antivirus” tab to access it.
If you want to schedule a scan, simply click on the quick scan button.
How easy is it to cancel Surfshark Antivirus?
You can cancel your Surfshark One subscription at any time. However, if you want to get your money back, then you have to request a refund through customer support within 30 days. Surfshark may consider refund requests beyond 30-days if you can prove that the service you purchased was unavailable or not usable and you made sufficient efforts to contact Surfshark to no avail. Note that Surfshark allows a maximum of two refunds per subscriber and the claims must be at least six months apart.
Surfshark One Antivirus’s customer support
Surfshark has a knowledge base dedicated to its antivirus. At the time of writing, it had only four questions, but the answers were thorough and insightful.
You can also reach out to Surfshark’s customer support agents through email or a live chat. We tested the live chat feature and we were impressed by the timely and helpful response. An actual agent, rather than the bot, responded to us in less than a minute and provided all the information we needed. Unfortunately, there’s no user community to help you with your questions.
Speed and Performance: Will Surfshark One Antivirus Slow Down My System?
An antivirus can slow down your system, especially during full scans. Overall, Surfshark antivirus has little impact on your system speed. Here’s a summary of our findings when we tested it:
Surfshark Antivirus doesn’t consume much memory or CPU resources. The full scan can last for several hours depending upon your file system.
Based on these conclusions, we gave Surfshark One Antivirus 7 out of 10.
How long does a scan take?
The length of a scan depends on many factors, including the size of your drive, your RAM, and your CPU resources. For our testing, we used a device with the following specifications: Intel Core i5 CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a solid-state drive (SSD) with Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit system (English). On Windows, the Antivirus’s quick scan combed through 88 files in about a minute. This is just about the same time that Sophos and Avira used to complete a quick scan.
On the other hand, the full scan screened over 470,000 files in a little under three hours which seems quite long. For comparison, Bitdefender took almost four and half hours to complete a full scan of about a million files.
How does Surfshark Antivirus impact my CPU?
The good news is that the Surfshark Antivirus full scan does not require a lot of processing power. During our testing, the antivirus used between 60-80MB of working memory and 5-10% of CPU resources. This means that you can still use your PC normally even while performing a full scan and you don’t have to worry about the scan slowing down or heating up your device. However, Surfshark can still get better when it comes to CPU usage. For example, Kaspersky used only 2% of CPU resources.
Final Verdict: Is Surfshark Antivirus a Good Virus Scanner?
Although Surfshark Antivirus is still relatively new, it’s a secure, lightweight, and easy to use option. Based on its current feature set, Surfshark Antivirus is best for people using Android devices. Mac and Windows users can try it out while waiting for more features to be added. Furthermore, Surfshark One Antivirus is great for privacy-minded users, especially since it comes with one of the best VPNs on the market. This gives a slightly different, but better-performing package than other all-in-one services, like System Mechanic Ultimate Defense. To summarize, these are our final scores for Surfshark One Antivirus:
From these conclusions, Surfshark Antivirus scores 7.8 overall. This score is not enough to give it a place in our top five antivirus software as all of them score 8 or higher. However, since Surfshark antivirus is fairly new to the scene, this score is impressive for a start and we won’t be surprised if it overtakes some of the best antivirus software as it adds new features. Interested in giving Surfshark Antivirus a try? Visit their website by clicking the orange button below.
