SurfEasy VPN Review in Canada (Updated 2023)

Alas! The SurfEasy Opera relationship is officially over. Now the VPN belongs to an American software company called Symantec.

SurfEasy provides freemium and premium VPN services, including a free Chrome proxy as well. Upon using its free service, you can only avail of 500 MB bandwidth.

Both these plans use OpenVPN protocol along with 256-bit military-grade encryption in Canada.

In this SurfEasy VPN review in Canada, I have evaluated SurfEasy privacy features, usage policy, customer support, ease of use, and reliability.

Conversely, the provider does not offer an internet kill switch, anonymous payment options, a clear logging policy, safe jurisdiction, and efficient support to its Canadian users.

Based on the above characteristics, I cannot recommend SurfEasy in Canada as it does not have an attractive pricing strategy like ExpressVPN or Surfshark.

You may subscribe to its annual and monthly plans which are available for CA$28.23 and CA$10.86 per month pricing in Canada.

We have evaluated hundreds of other top VPNs. Visit our VPN reviews 2023 page for more details. Also, if you wish to check out other VPNs that are free, please check out our list of the best free VPN services.

Let’s dig in.

SurfEasy VPN Review in Canada – Rating Criteria

I have tested SurfEasy according to my own 8 steps criteria. This criterion includes:

• Pricing – How much does SurfEasy cost in Canada?
• Security – Protocols & Encryption
• Jurisdiction – Is SurfEasy safe?
• Speed – How fast is SurfEasy?
• Streaming – Netflix & Other Streaming Services in Canada
• Leaks – IP, DNS & WebRTC Leak Tests
• Trustworthiness – Logging Policy & Customer Support
• Compatibility – Supports Different Platforms & Devices

Pricing – How much does SurfEasy cost in Canada?

SurfEasy delivers relatively expensive pricing plans for its subscribers.

The pricing plans of SurfEasy cost CA$10.87/mo and CA$28.23/year, respectively.

All these plans include an exclusive 5 devices multi-login feature and a 14-day money-back guarantee in Canada.

Payment Modes

There are only two methods of paying SurfEasy. Currently, all leading credit cards are accepted by SurfEasy, including Visa and MasterCard. In addition to this, PayPal is also accepted as a digital payment option to ease the subscription process.

However, no anonymous payment option is offered by the service right now. Hopefully, a Bitcoin option is on its way.

7 Days Money Back Trial

Unlike many other market providers, SurfEasy VPN doesn’t offer a free trial or a 30-day money-back guarantee to Canadians.

Instead, it offers a 7-day money-back trial version. The trial version requires the user’s credit card details. And if the service doesn’t meet the user’s requirement, they can avail of a refund within seven days of subscription.

Free Version

Is SurfEasy free? Not exactly.

But in this review, you will learn two ways of accessing this service for free. You can either add the chrome proxy or use the VPN with a 500 MB bandwidth.

Now:

The second option is similar to a free trial since it hardly takes an hour to use up to 500 MB on the net. You can try out this feature to see how the VPN actually performs.

Meanwhile, SurfEasy’s proxy is a simple add-on that allows you to change your IP and access geo-blocked sites in Canada. It’s a nifty tool for anyone who wants online privacy without putting in much effort or investing any money.

Security – Protocols & Encryption

On the security front, the service has met all the mandatory privacy requirements in Canada.

SurfEasy offers OpenVPN protocol with 256-bit encryption keys. This is the industry standard. OpenVPN is the best VPN protocol available in Canada. It is open-sourced and supports 256-bit military-grade encryption.

OpenVPN with AES 256-bit is the combination employed by large banks and corporations to protect their data. On the other hand, the iOS and Mac clients of SurfEasy rely on the IPsec protocol. A tunneling protocol that is competent in its own right.

While some people will complain about the lack of protocol and encryption options, it is important to remember that both OpenVPN and IPsec can protect your data.

Some other protocols like PPTP have proven to be vulnerable to modern hacking tools.

Works with TOR

Tor (The Onion Router) enables anonymous communication and secure browsing in Canada. This tool has widespread popularity in countries like Iran and China, where cyber censorship is prevalent.

But this tool has plenty of flaws. It can sometimes leak your IP address and leave you exposed on the web. Hence, a combination of Tor and VPN is a better way to secure your online activities.

SurfEasy supports TOR. Its combination with TOR provides you with an extra layer of privacy in Canada.

No Kill Switch

SurfEasy boasts an advert blocker that blocks cookies that advertisers use to track people online. This keeps annoying adverts from ruining your browsing experience.

The VPN also comes with an in-built DNS leak protection that keeps your IP from being leaked. And as the DNS leak tests have shown above, it is extremely effective.

Talking about IP leaks, Surf Easy does not possess a kill switch feature. This is a huge letdown as this feature gives you guaranteed privacy on the net. The primary function of a kill switch is to end your internet connection if the VPN gets disconnected. It basically takes away the slightest chance the hackers would get of stealing your information.

This is definitely something that SurfEasy should include in its future releases.

Jurisdiction – Is SurfEasy safe?

No, because SurfEasy has become a part of the 5 eyes jurisdiction.

SurfEasy is the propriety of Symantec, which is an American cybersecurity firm. This places SurfEasy in the United States jurisdiction.

Now:

Readers of this SurfEasy review should know how troubling this is. Good Ol’ Uncle Sam is known to be a peeping creep. Hence, the jurisdiction of this VPN puts it at a disadvantage.

Server Locations

A significant number of servers spread across various world regions represent the bedrock of a superior VPN service.

SurfEasy offers 1000 servers in 28 countries including servers in Canada; this eliminates network congestion during peak times and ensures better gaming. Moreover, high-speed video calling and streaming are additional benefits you get with SurfEasy VPN.

However, these are the numbers for the Ultra Plan. The subscribers of other plans get access to servers from 16 countries. Here are the countries that are available exclusively on the Ultra Plan.

Speed – How fast is SurfEasy?

This US-based service offers excellent connection speeds.

Performance is a key factor when making up one’s mind about a VPN service. To evaluate the claims of SurfEasy, I tested their performance in this SurfEasy VPN review in Canada. Here are the results:

Before connecting to SurfEasy VPN:

After connecting to SurfEasy VPN:

During the tests, all downloads were stopped, and no background programs were running. After connecting to SurfEasy’s US server, the ping did not increase by much, and downloads dropped slightly.

I watched House of Cards, Mr. Robot, Orange Is the New Black in HD quality on Netflix at great speed.

In addition to this, no DNS leaks or IP leaks were discovered during the entire testing phase. If streaming, torrenting and secure browsing is what you’re looking for, then SurfEasy is the best pick for you in Canada.

Streaming – Netflix & Other Streaming Services in Canada

Undoubtedly, SurfEasy bodes quite well with Netflix, torrenting, Kodi, and other streaming services in Canada.

Don’t get me wrong. Netflix has revolutionized online streaming. However, its separate libraries for different regions make way for some ridiculous discrimination. Americans get all the good stuff while people from other countries get low-quality content. This is why you need to set up a VPN to get past Netflix’s geo-restrictions.

However, not all VPNs are going to do the deed. Why? Because Netflix has clamped down on VPNs in recent years, only a handful of VPNs still unlock the streaming site.

SurfEasy is one of the VPNs that are still going strong when it comes to Netflix. The VPN has Canadian and American servers that unlock Netflix in a jiffy.

Supports Torrenting

Interestingly, SurfEasy supports P2P and torrenting with servers located in torrent-friendly countries (Spain, Netherlands, and Canada).

Subscribers can enjoy downloading the latest movies, TV series, music, and games from torrent sites without facing copyright trolls and infringement notices.

But there is a catch.

Torrenting is only allowed on the Ultra Plan, which is a bit pricy, to say the least. Hence, if you like downloading content without facing online threats, you will need to pay extra. It also unblocks Live TV Channels on Kodi with ease. With Kodi, you can watch movies and TV shows using SurfEasy.

Leaks – IP, DNS & WebRTC Leak Tests

SurfEasy is a leak-free service.

IP leaks can be extremely damaging to your online security. They can expose your location to the local ISP and or the website you’re visiting. Two common forms of IP leaks are WebRTC leaks and DNS leaks. Thankfully, some websites let you check your connection for any potential leakages.

Making use of these sites, I tested SurfEasy for DNS and WebRTC leaks. First, I tested the VPN on IPleak.net. The site detected no leaks whatsoever.

However, to double-check the WebRTC leak, I utilized browserleaks.net. The website failed to detect my WebRTC, which shows that SurfEasy is safe for use in Canada.

With no DNS or WebRTC leak, SurfEasy keeps unwelcome entities far away from your private information.

Trustworthiness – Logging Policy & Customer Support

SurfEasy does not have a crystal–clear logging policy or all-around customer support.

Privacy and data logging policy is a surprising part of almost every VPN service in Canada. User activity logging has been in practice for a long time, and many providers sell retained data of users to 3rd party advertising companies.

Sadly, some vendors go beyond the limits by handing over users’ confidential information to law enforcement agencies.

However, SurfEasy VPN claims to protect users’ data privacy by not storing any users’ online activities, including origin & destined IP addresses.

But, I decided to examine the privacy policy of service in this SurfEasy review in Canada and discovered that the provider uses bandwidth caps to control users’ connection speed. Also, SurfEasy privacy policy contains the following alarming characteristics:

• Logs temporary usage data at the time of debugging an issue
• SurfEasy’s official website uses cookies to target ads
• Performs real-time analysis of subscribers’ internet traffic but doesn’t retain this information

SurfEasy also clarifies that it will disclose your information to law enforcement agencies in some rare cases. Now, this is troubling especially considering SurfEasy’s jurisdiction.

Customer Support

In our SurfEasy VPN review in Canada, the only drawback of using this service is poor customer support. Interestingly, SurfEasy claims 24/7 customer support, an email ticketing system, and a support helpline, but to give the most unbiased and neutral reviews, I decided to test their support channels in this analysis.

However, I achieved variable results: good and fast response sometimes, and no response for days on end other times.

24/7 Live Chat

24/7 live chat support aims to provide an instant solution for a user’s queries. To test the live chat support of SurfEasy, I enquired about the supported tunneling protocols and didn’t receive any response from SurfEasy representatives until the next 24 hours:

Email Ticketing System

The email ticketing system tends to provide detailed solutions for most complex queries. To test SurfEasy’s email ticketing system, I dropped off a query regarding a free trial version. Sadly, I didn’t receive any response from SurfEasy.

Despite offering tremendous benefits, SurfEasy needs to improve the setbacks in the customer support system.

FAQs Section

Regardless of nuance in ticketing and live chat system, SurfEasy VPN offers well-designed FAQ sections. The FAQs section provides in-depth guides and tutorials for setting up VPNs on various devices in Canada. Users can refer to the FAQs section at times of general query and troubleshooting.

SurfEasy Reddit Review

SurfEasy has to improve its reputation on Reddit drastically. Different users perceive the service as a marketing tool rather than a full-fledged VPN service.

Compatibility – Supports Different Platforms & Devices

SurfEasy supports all the major operating systems and devices in Canada.

SurfEasy VPN serves individuals with diverse privacy needs. It provides top-notch privacy protection to Windows, Mac OS X, Android, and iOS users.

However, you cannot download and install the service on your Routers.

It also offers an exclusive extension for both Opera and Chrome. The extension routes all the network traffic through a secure encrypted tunnel, making one’s data safe and encrypted.

This way, you don’t need to download a separate desktop client.

In addition to this, SurfEasy Opera and SurfEasy Chrome extensions give you access to thousands of geo-blocked sites, delivering non-stop entertainment to subscribers. SurfEasy VPN is a suitable option for netizens who crave supreme privacy and unrestricted on-demand entertainment.

To my surprise, they also deliver a mobile app for Amazon phones.

Comparison between ExpressVPN and SurfEasy in Canada

In case you want to make a comparison between ExpressVPN and SurfEasy before making a final decision, you can explore the below-mentioned table:

ExpressVPN is known all over the world for offering excellent VPN services with state-of-the-art security, features, accessibility, and performance to its users. Check out all the features of this VPN in our complete review of ExpressVPN.

SurfEasy VPN Alternative in Canada

Apart from SurfEasy, many alternative VPN services offer better features and enhanced performance in Canada.

Following best SurfEasy alternatives offer numerous servers positioned across major regions of the world, strong tunneling protocols, economical packages, and round-the-clock customer support:

• Review of Avast Secureline VPN
• Review of RA4W VPN
• Review of Encrypt.me
• Review of BolehVPN
• Review of Keenow
• Smart DNS Proxy Review in Canada
• Review of Hola VPN
• Review of Unlocator
• Review of VPN Gate
• Review of Surfshark
• Review of VPNBook in Canada
• Opera VPN review

Do I Recommend SurfEasy in Canada?

No, I don’t recommend SurfEasy in Canada.

In this SurfEasy VPN review in Canada, I unearthed apparent shortcomings of SurfEasy, such as inefficient customer support, comparatively expensive plans, and fewer protocols.

However, compatibility across various platforms (Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS), including exclusive add-ons for Chrome & Opera, adds more appeal to SurfEasy VPN. But they lack in providing other major benefits like internet kill switch and router support.

Based on SurfEasy VPN Review in Canada, I would give SurfEasy a 3.2/5.0 stars rating overall.