Teardowns › Pricing & paywalls › Decoy effect

Surfshark prices Starter the same as the bigger One plan

Surfshark · Pricing page · UK visitors, logged out · surfshark.com · captured 17 Oct 2026

Honest nudgeDecoy effect Reference price

Surfshark Pricing page, captured 17 Oct 2026 — Our capture, 17 Oct 2026, logged out. Numbers match the steps.

Step by step

1
Decoy effect
Starter: £1.79/mo, £48.33 for the first 27 months.
2
Decoy effect
One: same £1.79/mo and £48.33, with more included.

Prices quoted in pounds (£), exactly as shown on the page we captured. Prices vary by region and change over time.

The psychology

Why it nudges

Surfshark uses a dominated option: Starter costs the same as One for less. On the 24-month tab both show £1.79/mo (£48.33 for the first 27 months), and One adds scam protection, antivirus and Alert (scam call protection marked coming soon). Next to Starter, One looks like the obvious pick. The page also shows struck-through prices (£323.73 vs £372.33), which add a reference point. Whether this was intended as a decoy, or lifted One sign-ups, is not public. The equal price sits under a "Black Friday deal" banner, so it may be a temporary promo.

● Mixed evidence Typically absent when products are experienced or shown perceptually (Frederick et al., 2014). · More on decoy effect, with sources →

Context

A VPN and online security bundle sold on 1-, 12- and 24-month terms. UK prices as served on 17 Oct 2026. Prices checked 17 Oct 2026.

Honest nudge or dark pattern?

Honest nudge

Both plans are real and buyable, and the comparison is visible. It becomes a dark pattern if a plan exists only to be rejected.

Sources: Captured by Nudgeswipe, checked on 17 Oct 2026 (24-month tab, UK, logged out)

Steal this, honestly

If you show a cheaper plan beside your target, make sure it is genuinely cheaper.
Show what each plan adds side by side, as Surfshark does with ticks.

What to test: Equal vs lower Starter price. Measure plan mix and refunds per plan.

Next: run it on your product

Apply this with your agent

Take the steps above into your own flow. The prompt carries this teardown, the honest-vs-dark line and the steps.

You are helping me apply a behavioural-design pattern ethically.

Pattern: Surfshark: Surfshark prices Starter the same as the bigger One plan
Bias: Decoy effect: An inferior third option can make one of the other two look better.
Why it nudges: Surfshark uses a dominated option: Starter costs the same as One for less. On the 24-month tab both show £1.79/mo (£48.33 for the first 27 months), and One adds scam protection, antivirus and Alert (scam call protection marked coming soon). Next to Starter, One looks like the obvious pick. The page also shows struck-through prices (£323.73 vs £372.33), which add a reference point. Whether this was intended as a decoy, or lifted One sign-ups, is not public. The equal price sits under a "Black Friday deal" banner, so it may be a temporary promo.
Our verdict: Honest nudge. Both plans are real and buyable, and the comparison is visible. It becomes a dark pattern if a plan exists only to be rejected.
Source page: https://nudgeswipe.com/examples/surfshark-starter-same-price-as-one-decoy/ (JSON: https://nudgeswipe.com/api/teardowns/surfshark-starter-same-price-as-one-decoy.json)

Rules: say a brand "uses" a tactic, never that it "worked"; outcomes are not public unless the company published them; no invented uplift estimates; flag mixed evidence. Honest nudge = true, visible, easy to reverse, and in the user's interest. Dark pattern = hides costs, fakes scarcity or popularity, shames, or makes leaving harder than joining. Quote company-published results as "X reports", with the source link, and don’t generalise them. Don’t cite retracted or failed-to-replicate studies as support (e.g. Ariely & Wertenbroch 2002). Don’t state study figures unless they’re on this page or in a source you can link. If an idea crosses the line, link the matching deceptive.design pattern.

Tasks:
1. Ask me for my product, the flow (URL or screenshots) and the goal.
2. Audit where this pattern already appears, or could, in that flow.
3. Propose 2-3 ethical experiments: hypothesis, variant copy or UI, primary metric, and a guardrail metric (refunds, complaints, cancellations).
4. Flag every dark-pattern risk and say how to stay on the honest side.

Open in ChatGPT Open in Claude Open in Grok Open in Cursor

ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and Cursor open with the prompt filled in (it is also copied, in case the prefill doesn't load). Gemini and Codex don't support prefilled links, so the prompt is copied and the app opens; paste it in.

Sources

Our capture of surfshark.com, 17 Oct 2026
Huber, Payne & Puto (1982). Limits: Frederick, Lee & Baskin (2014). doi.org/10.1086/208899
Captured by Nudgeswipe, checked on 17 Oct 2026 (24-month tab, UK, logged out): surfshark.com

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