Surf is a social network with no ads in it.
Built by Surf Platforms Inc. in San Jose, California. Several unrelated products share the name, so this page states plainly which one this is.
Surf carries the formats you already use: threads, posts, Shorts, Stories, Spaces and Live. It runs in a browser tab and installs to a home screen. What separates it from the social apps it replaces is the business model underneath. Surf sells subscriptions rather than attention, which is what makes it possible to publish the ranking formula, hand the dials to the person reading the feed, and let them switch the whole thing off.
The short version.
- What it is
- A social network: threads, posts, Shorts, Stories, Spaces and Live
- Made by
- Surf Platforms Inc.
- Based in
- San Jose, California, United States
- Founded
- 2026
- Funded by
- Subscriptions. No advertising on any tier
- Where it runs
- The browser, and installs to a home screen
- Price
- Free, or $10, $20, $40 a month
- Website
- surfplatforms.org
- The app
- app.surfsocial.org
No ads, on any tier.
Including the free one. There is no advertiser API, no ad-targeting profile and no ad-serving code, so the paid tiers are not an ad-removal upsell. There was never an ad to remove.
See the plansThe ranking is published, and yours.
23 named signals with their weights written down. Ten sliders that move those weights, up to twelve standing rules in plain English, and one switch that drops the feed to newest first with no scoring at all.
Read the formulaA post will tell you why it is there.
One tap on any ranked post reads back the signals that surfaced it, straight from the ranking query, with no second call and no model involved.
See all featuresOther things called Surf.
The name is shared, and the products are not related to each other. If you were looking for one of these, it is not this site.
Surf by Flipboard
A browser for the open social web, at surf.social. It reads feeds published on other networks over ActivityPub, AT Protocol and RSS rather than hosting its own.
Surf, the sport by Everyone else
Surfing publications, surf schools, surf reports and surf shops, which between them own most of the word.
This site describes Surf by Surf Platforms Inc., a subscription-funded social network at surfplatforms.org, with its own accounts, feed, messaging and creator payouts.
Questions people ask.
- What is Surf?
- Surf is an ad-free social network built by Surf Platforms Inc. in San Jose, California. It carries threads, posts, Shorts, Stories, Spaces and Live, runs in the browser, and is funded by subscriptions rather than advertising. Its distinguishing feature is that the feed ranking is published and adjustable: ten named sliders, standing rules written in plain English, and a switch that turns ranking off entirely.
- Is this the same Surf as the Flipboard app?
- No. Flipboard's Surf, at surf.social, is a reader for feeds published on other networks over open protocols. Surf by Surf Platforms Inc. is its own social network with its own accounts, feed and creator payouts. The two are unrelated companies and unrelated products that share a name.
- Is Surf the same as Surf Social or Surf Social Media?
- Those are informal names for the same product this site describes. The company is Surf Platforms Inc., the product is Surf, the website is surfplatforms.org and the app runs at app.surfsocial.org.
- Is Surf free?
- Yes, and free is the whole network rather than a trial: every format, the full algorithm and all of its controls, and end-to-end encrypted direct messages, with no ads. Paid tiers at $10, $20 and $40 a month raise limits like upload quality and post length, and add creator payouts.
- Can I use Surf right now?
- Surf is pre-launch and running a waitlist. The product described on this site is built, and the numbers quoted across these pages are taken from it, but the network is not yet open to everyone.
- How does Surf make money if there are no ads?
- Subscriptions, and only subscriptions. There is no advertiser API, no ad-targeting profile and no ad-serving code in the product. One thing money does change inside the feed, and it is published: posts from a paying account carry a ranking multiplier of 1.5x, 2.5x or 4x, inside the same formula everyone gets.
More in about the company, the manifesto, and the documentation.