Surfshark vs Proton VPN — Australia 2026

Evidenced differences

• Introductory billed total and covered months. Surfshark Starter 2-year billed A$94.23 for 24 months plus three extra months (27 covered) and renews at A$110.12/year before tax. Proton VPN Plus 2-year billed A$134.16 for 24 months (no bonus) and renews at A$134.28 every 12 months. Both intros are charged in full inside 12 months. The A$3.49 and A$5.59 teasers are averages, not cancellable monthly prices. 349×12=4188 is not 9423; 559×12=6708 is not 13416. Starter monthly A$23.19×12=27828 is not the 2-year intro; Plus monthly A$15.99×12=19188 is not the 2-year intro. Columns stay in AUD. Surfshark One is not this cash table.
• Listed tax treatment. Surfshark listed cards are before tax; the AU payment API returned vatPercentage 10 (Starter 24-month totalPriceVat A$103.65) and gst_basis is exclusive. Those API VAT figures are not observed checkout totals. Proton VPN cards do not print Australian GST; the payments API TaxMode 1 attached Swiss MWST 8.1%, not a printed AU GST line. gst_basis is unknown because checkout was not started.
• Simultaneous connections on the compared SKUs. Surfshark help documents unlimited simultaneous VPN devices on Starter/One/One+, with a fair-usage limit against resale-scale use and a 3-device cap during the 7-day trial. Antivirus on One/One+ is a five-device cap and is not the Starter VPN SKU. Proton VPN Plus and Unlimited help document 10 devices on one account at the same time (Free is 1). The cash table uses Starter 2-year versus VPN Plus 2-year, so the documented cap is unlimited versus 10 at those plans. We did not measure how many tunnels actually stay up.
• Free plan. Surfshark has no free plan. Help documents a 7-day website trial for new users on 12- and 24-month plans paid with PayPal, Apple Pay or a credit card, capped at 3 devices during the trial. 30-day money-back on an initial paid website subscription is not a free tier. Proton Free is a genuine no-card plan: 1 device, medium speed, servers in 10 countries randomly selected from a documented list that does not include Australia, unlimited volume with a reserved right to restrict free-server speed, and no streaming/P2P/NetShield/Secure Core/split tunneling. An A$1.00 first-month Plus coupon on the Free card is an upsell, not the free plan.
• Inspectable report scope. Surfshark’s Deloitte Lietuva ISAE 3000 report dated 10 June 2025 was downloaded over HTTPS and inspected; it is a point-in-time configuration opinion with printed out-of-scope items. Surfshark’s SecuRing December 2025 infrastructure PDF was opened (one medium TLS finding). The Cure53 Dausos file is a two-page management summary, not a full annex, and Dausos is documented as macOS App Store only. Proton’s Securitum August 2025 no-logs PDF (on-site Zürich 18–20 Aug 2025) was downloaded over HTTPS and read; it is a point-in-time server-logging opinion and lists a Switzerland accounting service as out of scope. The May 2026 Securitum PDF loaded on Proton Drive; the cover was inspected and inner pages rendered as canvas, so that row is not a full-body inspection. A public PDF is not a numeric security score and not proof of zero retained account data.
• Linux protocol and split tunnel. Surfshark’s current Linux GUI documents OpenVPN and Kill Switch; WireGuard is not listed for Linux, and Bypasser is not documented on Linux. Proton documents WireGuard UDP on Linux, OpenVPN on the Linux GUI only, and split tunneling on the official Ubuntu/Fedora/Arch GUI (optional on Debian; not the unofficial Flatpak). This is vendor documentation, not an app test and not a speed result.
• Split tunnel on iOS. Surfshark Bypasser on iOS is documented as website bypassing only, not per-app. Proton’s split-tunneling how-to does not list iOS (split_tunnel is no). Both document a kill switch on iOS. This is help-centre copy, not an app test.
• Surfshark One 24-month intro. Two headed Chrome sessions on 11 Sep 2026 printed different One 24-month billed totals (A$105.03 and A$113.13). Terms disclose A/B price testing. That SKU is not used in the cash table. Starter billed totals were stable across those sessions. Incogni on One+ is not listed for Australian residents and is not mixed into Starter cash.
• Legal entities and Five Eyes. Surfshark’s controller is Surfshark B.V. in the Netherlands; Surfshark terms are governed by BVI law. Surfshark says the brands run separate infrastructure after the 2022 holding-company merger with Nord Security. Proton VPN’s operator is Proton AG in Geneva, Switzerland, under the non-profit Proton Foundation as primary shareholder (terms 23 Jun 2026). The swiss-based FAQ still names “Proton Technologies AG”; current terms use Proton AG. Five Eyes is no on both stored legal-entity fields. Neither jurisdiction is Australian data residency. Proton account/control-plane copy names Switzerland, Germany or Norway; Surfshark account/control-plane hosting stays unknown.
• Consumer versus business products. This pair is personal VPN only. Surfshark for Teams and Proton VPN for Business are separate offerings and are not scored here. Do not infer SSO or private-resource access from a consumer tier.

Buyer scenarios

Reproducible prepaid cash example

Horizons are cash charged, not prorated service. A 24-month prepaid is billed in full inside 12 months. Australian checkout totals stay unknown. Open the same plans in the cost tool

Hand checks: 9423/27=349; 349*12=4188 ≠ 9423; 9423+11012=20435; 13416/24=559; 559*12=6708 ≠ 13416; 13416+13428=26844.

• Cash outlay counts billed charges when they are taken. A 24-month prepaid is billed in full inside a 12-month horizon.
• The effective monthly figure is an average of the introductory billed total over covered months. It is not the cash charged each month.
• Australian checkout totals are unknown. Checkout was not started. Card FX fees are omitted.
• GST treatment is unknown on at least one listed total. Those figures are not GST-inclusive Australian checkout prices.
• Exclusive listed amounts are before tax. VAT/GST that a checkout might add is not in the cash column.

Unknown on this pair

• Australian checkout totals (checkout was not started; Surfshark listed amounts are before tax; Proton GST unknown; Proton payments API attached Swiss MWST 8.1%, not a printed AU GST line)
• Surfshark One 24-month introductory billed total (A$105.03 versus A$113.13 the same day)
• Physical versus virtual Australian exits on both products
• Account and control-plane data residency (data_hosting remains unknown; Proton copy names Switzerland, Germany or Norway, which is not Australian residency)
• Inner pages of the May 2026 Securitum Proton Drive PDF (canvas; not OCR’d)
• Whether Surfshark fair-usage would cap a household in practice — not measured
• Independent speed, leak-test or streaming-unblocking results — not tested

Original conclusions from the record

• On the stored AUD cards, Surfshark Starter 2-year 12-month cash is 9423 AUD cents and Proton VPN Plus 2-year 12-month cash is 13416 AUD cents. Covered months are 27 versus 24. 12-month cash equals those intros, not 349×12=4188 or 559×12=6708. 36-month cash is 9423+11012=20435 and 13416+13428=26844 if the documented yearly renewals are taken. Surfshark amounts are before tax; Proton GST is unknown; charged Australian totals stay unknown. The smaller listed intro is not an Australian checkout ranking.
• The documented simultaneous-connection cap is the clearest product difference: unlimited VPN devices (Surfshark, with fair-usage and trial/antivirus caps) versus 10 (Proton Plus). That is help-centre copy, not a measured session count.
• Linux WireGuard and split-tunnel documentation favour Proton VPN on the stored help articles; iOS website split-tunnel documentation favours Surfshark. Apps were not run.
• A genuine no-card free plan exists on Proton VPN only, with a documented one-device cap and a country list that does not include Australia. Surfshark has no free plan. The Free-card A$1.00 Plus coupon is not the free plan.
• Inspectable report scope differs: Surfshark’s June 2025 Deloitte ISAE 3000 PDF was opened; Proton’s 2025 Securitum no-logs PDF was opened; the 2026 Drive PDF was cover-only. Those are different report kinds, not a claim that one product is more secure.
• Both advertise Australian city exits. Neither record establishes Australian data residency. Both retain account and payment identifiers despite no-logs claims.
• This is not a ranked winner, not a numeric security score, and not a speed or streaming result. Business private-resource access is out of scope for both consumer listings.

Sources

• Surfshark pricing (11 Sep 2026)
• Surfshark simultaneous devices
• Surfshark Deloitte ISAE 3000 PDF (10 June 2025)
• Surfshark advertised Australian exits
• Surfshark protocol list
• Surfshark Linux setup
• Surfshark Bypasser on iOS
• Surfshark trial (not a free plan)
• Proton VPN pricing (12 Sep 2026)
• Proton VPN plans and device limits
• Proton VPN advertised Australian exits
• Securitum Proton VPN no-logs PDF (2025)
• Proton VPN no-logs audit blog
• Proton VPN protocol how-to
• Proton VPN split tunneling

Calculation clock 2026-09-12. Product research dates stay 2026-09-12. Changing the evaluation time does not rewrite those checked dates.