VPN Reviews

Expat Surfer Review – VPN for the UK

By Paul Liu
Monday, April 21st, 2014

Expat Surfer is a privacy service brought to you by copla Ltd., an IT company registered in England and Wales. Established in 2009, the service is primarily meant for UK expats who wish to access their favorite streaming services and TV channels from abroad. In this Expat Surfer Review, we will list down the benefits of using the service and recommend whether you should subscribe to it.

Server Locations and Site Access

Expat Surfer has VPN servers in just one country – United Kingdom. While the company does not really offer any choice of server locations, the services allows you unlock your favorite On-Demand streaming services like BBC iPlayer, Sky Go, 4OD, Demand 5, iTV Player, STV, Lovefilm, UK TV and Eurosport from anywhere. Moreover, the service can also be used as an anti-censorship solution to access Facebook, Skype, Gmail, Twitter, Viber, GTalk, Blogger and YouTube from schools, offices and countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Brazil and Thailand.

VPN Speed and Bandwidth

Expat Surfer does not impose any caps on speed and bandwidth so you would be able to stream your favorite shows and movies without experiencing any slowdowns or buffering. In addition, the company supports resource consuming actives like downloading, FTP, VOIP and online gaming through its network. However, sharing and downloading content through torrents is strictly prohibited.

Privacy Settings

Expat Surfer offers a basic level of security (PPTP protocol with 128 bit encryption) through its network. The biggest advantage of using the PPTP protocol is that it is compatible with almost all operating systems and devices plus it doesn’t slow down browsing speeds. Although the service does not offer the highest level of security, you can still use it to secure your critical data (credit card numbers, passwords, social accounts) and online activities (browsing, FTP, IM, emailing, VOIP) from all types of surveillance and security threats (especially at public Wi-Fi hotspots).

The company logs data usage and connection/disconnection times. The company will not monitor online activities of its users or share customer data with third parties unless it is forced to do so by a court order.

Supported Operating Systems

Expat Surfer works with Windows (7, XP, Vista), Mac OS X(10.4+), iPads, iPhones and Android devices. Since the company does not provide a custom VPN client, you would need to configure the service manually. The company has published detailed setup instructions for most operating systems (but not for all) on its portal so configuring the service should be easy. However, if you are not able to set up the service for some reason, you can ask for remote assistance by paying £35.

Customer Support

The company offers support only through support tickets. And while the company has published its phone numbers on the website, it doesn’t offer technical support through this medium.

Pricing Options

Expat Surfer VPN plans are available from £6.99 per month or £70 per year. The company does not provider refunds but it does offer 48 hour free trial to new customers. However, customers who wish to subscribe to the service through PayPal are not eligible for the free trial and what’s worse, you need to provide your payments details even while signing up for the free trial.

Final Verdict

Overall, Expat Surfer disappoints on most evaluation parameters. The service does not offer any real choice of server locations or protocols and on top of that, the service is expensive when compared with its peers. We recommend the customers to stay away from this service provider and subscribe to another VPN service that provides much better features at a lower price. For more information, please visit: https://www.expatsurfer.co.uk/.