Dark Surf vs Nostr VPN
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Dark Surf
Enhance your browsing experience with a customizable dark theme for Safari. Adjust shade, contrast, saturation, and image settings. Schedule dark mode or set it per-site.
- Customizable dark theme
- Adjustable shade and contrast
- Saturation and image handling
- Scheduling for dark mode
- Per-site theme controls
- Preset themes (Midnight, Warm, AMOLED, Gray)
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Dark Surf gives Safari a thoughtful dark mode for every website. Instead of painting over pages, Dark Surf reads each site’s own design and rebuilds it in the dark. Backgrounds and cards turn deep and calm, text stays crisp, and the colors that carry meaning, like buttons, links, warnings and highlights, keep their character. Photos stay natural. SMART BY DEFAULT • Leaves websites that already have a dark design alone • Keeps dark logos, icons and formulas visible • Keeps text on top of photos readable • Handles modern websites built with CSS variables, Tailwind, Bootstrap and web components MAKE IT YOURS • Six themes: Midnight, Ocean, Dim, Warm, Graphite and true-black AMOLED • Build your own palette from any colors • Fine-tune brightness and contrast, and choose how images look • See every change instantly in a live preview that runs Safari’s own Dark Surf engine YOUR RULES • Switch any website between Dark, Invert and Off right from Safari • Keep lists of websites that are always dark, inverted or never themed • Follow a schedule or your device’s Dark Mode, or pause for an hour PRIVATE BY DESIGN Pages are recolored on your device. Dark Surf has no account, no analytics, no ads and no tracking, and never sends the pages you visit to anyone. Dark Surf is a Safari extension. After installing, turn it on in Settings › Apps › Safari › Extensions. The app shows you how.
Nostr VPN
This app allows you to create secure, private mesh VPN networks connecting your own devices and trusted peers. It offers encrypted tunnels for accessing private services with customizable routing options and DNS names.
- Create private mesh VPN networks
- Connect your own devices and trusted peers
- Encrypted tunnels for private services
- Readable MagicDNS names
- Relay-assisted and exit-node routing
- User-controlled network configuration
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Nostr VPN creates private mesh VPN networks between your own devices and trusted peers. Create a network, invite devices, start the VPN, and reach your private services through encrypted tunnels. Devices can use readable MagicDNS names, direct LAN paths when available, relay-assisted paths when needed, and optional exit-node routing through a peer or WireGuard upstream you control. You choose the networks, peers, relays, routes, and exit nodes. Nostr VPN does not sell or operate public VPN exits and is not a public internet proxy, anonymity, or stealth browsing service.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Nostr VPN at weekly against Dark Surf's every 4 months. On price, rating, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.0 for Dark Surf against 3.0 for Nostr VPN. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.
Dark Surf ships an update every 4 months, Nostr VPN weekly. Both last shipped on November 5, 2026.
| Parameter | Dark Surf | Nostr VPN |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (2 ratings) | 3.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 41 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Vali Mikayilov | Sirius Business Oy |
Customer experience
Dark Surf
Nostr VPN
In-app purchases
Dark Surf
No in-app purchases
Nostr VPN
No in-app purchases








