Pricing, Ease of Use & Safety

TunnelBear’s distinctive, bear-themed method to its VPN service units it aside from the extra technical and standardized implementations of different VPNs. TunnelBear is on the market on Home windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. It affords 5,000+ servers, limitless gadget connections, and a subscription choice for groups and organizations.

Regardless of its enjoyable design and accessibility, TunnelBear’s slower speeds and buggy app are causes for concern. As well as, its server fleet solely spans 47 international locations.

How a lot does TunnelBear VPN value?

TunnelBear’s beginning paid plan prices $3.33 per 30 days through its TunnelBear Limitless. It has three subscription tiers: Free, Limitless, and Groups. Solely TunnelBear Limitless has the choice to decide on between a month-to-month, one-year, and three-year subscription.

Curiously, the month-to-month and three-year plans are solely accessible to view after you click on the “Get began” button for TunnelBear Limitless subscription choice priced at $3.33. Personally, I hope TunnelBear makes their extra contract choices extra accessible to view or a minimum of have it on the prime of its pricing web page.

When it comes to particular person pricing, TunnelBear’s Limitless subscription is at a reduced price of $3.33 per 30 days for the one-year plan. In the event you go for the TunnelBear Limitless paid plan, this discounted annual price is a steal. Nevertheless, as a result of this can be a sale supply, costs could fluctuate sooner or later.

I’d counsel attempting TunnelBear’s free model earlier than buying a subscription. Whereas information is capped at 2GB and a few options are omitted, the free model lets you get a really feel for TunnelBear’s desktop VPN implementation.

For enterprise homeowners, TunnelBear Groups is a sensible choice. You get all of TunnelBear’s paid options along with extra team-based add-ons, resembling centralized billing and account supervisor instruments.

Does TunnelBear VPN have a free model?

Sure, TunnelBear has a devoted free model of its VPN. These fascinated with attempting the service don’t have to fret about offering fee info, as you may simply obtain it with no strings connected.

Nevertheless, there are notable limitations with TunnelBear VPN’s free model in comparison with its paid plan. The free model has a 2GB information cap that resets each month. So, realistically talking, free customers will solely be capable of check out the VPN for round a day or two earlier than information runs out.

As well as, solely paid customers will be capable of choose city-designated servers on TunnelBear’s community. Free customers are solely ready to select from accessible international locations (Determine A).

Determine A

Regardless of this, TunnelBear states that their free and paid variations don’t have any distinction performance-wise, making the free model a viable strategy to check if the VPN is best for you.

SEE: TunnelBear VPN Free vs Paid: Which Plan Is Proper for You? (TechRepublic)

Safety and privateness: Is TunnelBear VPN safe?

Specs-wise, TunnelBear has all of the requisites wanted for a contemporary VPN to be thought of safe. It has OpenVPN, WireGuard, and IKEv2 — the three industry-standard safety protocols we would like in a VPN. It additionally makes use of AES 256 encryption, features a kill swap (VigilantBear), and cut up tunneling (SplitBear).

TunnelBear has a no-logs coverage, which states that it doesn’t accumulate any person’s shopping info, IP addresses, DNS queries, and functions used whereas linked to the VPN.

TunnelBear additionally has a formidable monitor document of present process annual impartial testing. Since 2016, TunnelBear has accomplished seven annual impartial safety audits. The latest third-party audit was accomplished in October 2023 by Cure53.

In that 2023 audit, Cure53 discovered a complete of “13 points this 12 months, with solely 7 thought of to be of medium danger or greater.” Luckily, TunnelBear has mentioned that “12 out of the 13 recognized points have been mounted or mitigated.” Personally, I give main props to the TunnelBear workforce for persevering with to have its VPN examined through third-party audits. This exhibits a robust dedication to transparency and is a good way to construct belief amongst its customers.

On the flip aspect, some individuals could be cautious of TunnelBear being based mostly in Canada, one of many members of the 5 Eyes intelligence alliance, together with Australia, New Zealand, the U.Ok., and the U.S. If authorities intervention is one thing you’re attempting to keep away from, TunnelBear is probably not for you.

Total, TunnelBear’s safety features, transparency, and annual impartial testing make it a safe and reliable VPN in 2024.

Key options of TunnelBear VPN

TunnelBear has a couple of key options that set it aside from different VPNs. Let’s try 4 particularly that it is best to learn about.

Newbie-friendly interface

In comparison with different VPNs, TunnelBear has a really user-friendly, bear-themed interface. Servers are represented by tunnels, and whenever you join or swap to a brand new tunnel, a bear will pop up (Determine B) from contained in the tunnel — therefore the title, TunnelBear.

Determine B

The bear theme is enjoyable and foregoes the very technical method that almost all safety software program normally have. If that is your first VPN, this whimsy person interface could make studying the software program much less complicated. The navigation expertise itself can also be very intuitive, with most options or choices being positioned the place you’d anticipate them.

For customers which are solely beginning to discover VPNs and need a much less daunting expertise, TunnelBear is usually a good choose.

TunnelBear Groups

TunnelBear Groups (Determine C) is their model of workforce accounts for his or her VPN subscription. It nets customers the paid service and extra options tailor-made to companies, resembling centralized workforce billing; the flexibility so as to add/take away customers and edit billing data from an admin account; and an auto-join characteristic that robotically enrolls customers with a selected electronic mail deal with.

Determine C

In the event you’re a small enterprise fascinated with getting a VPN on your workflow, TunnelBear Groups affords a handy choice that reduces a variety of legwork usually related to establishing a VPN for a corporation or enterprise.

Limitless gadget connections

TunnelBear VPN permits for a vast variety of simultaneous gadget connections to at least one subscription. Because of this any mixture of computer systems, smartphones, or browsers will be protected through a TunnelBear server at no extra value.

It is a significant characteristic provided that a few of the prime VPN suppliers solely supply round 5 to eight simultaneous connections with one account. The power to attach a vast variety of units gives customers with added worth, eliminating the necessity to buy extra connections.

Velocity and efficiency: How briskly is TunnelBear VPN?

Efficiency-wise, my expertise with TunnelBear wasn’t nice. Throughout my first day of testing the VPN, I couldn’t set up a connection utilizing TunnelBear’s “quickest” server connection choice (Determine D). It was irritating because the VPN was capable of finding the server closest to me — however was nonetheless not ready to connect with it reliably.

Determine D

Even after I uninstalled and reinstalled the VPN, the difficulty remained. Once I was capable of join, it took nearly three minutes to take action; and once I disconnected, it was nearly inconceivable to re-establish the connection. What’s bizarre is that once I linked to a server farther away from my location, I had no points.

Once I was linked, the speeds had been slower in comparison with different VPNs. Throughout my testing, I used TunnelBear primarily to do work in Google Workspace apps resembling Drive and Docs, browse social media, and analysis with a number of tabs open. Webpages appeared to take a bit extra time to load, and the connection was unstable. 1080p YouTube movies additionally had extra buffering time than anticipated whereas linked to the VPN.

A day after my horrible expertise with TunnelBear’s quickest server characteristic, the difficulty appeared to have resolved itself. I used to be ready to connect with the server nearest to my location and disconnect/reconnect with none subject. The slower speeds, nevertheless, persevered even when the connection bug appeared to have been mounted.

SEE: How one can use TunnelBear VPN (Step-by-Step Tutorial) (TechRepublic)

TunnelBear carried out decently when it comes to uploads and obtain speeds. In my pace check, TunnelBear had a lower of 38.46% for downloads and 11.64% for uploads — with the add pace being one of many sooner speeds I’ve recorded in comparison with different VPNs.

TunnelBear additionally carried out effectively on the DNS leak safety entrance. After a number of rounds of testing by way of a public DNS leak software, I bought zero leaks even whereas I used totally different places.

After all, VPN pace and efficiency will fluctuate relying on components resembling your location, your web service supplier, server site visitors, and your machine. Nevertheless, my testing confirmed that TunnelBear could provide you with a buggy and slower expertise in comparison with different VPN suppliers accessible immediately.

TunnelBear VPN servers and places

TunnelBear affords round 5,000+ servers from 47 international locations worldwide, placing TunnelBear’s server fleet within the low-to-middle vary towards the competitors. Compared, ExpressVPN affords servers from 105 international locations, whereas Non-public Web Entry has servers throughout 91 international locations.

Whereas TunnelBear’s server rely is on the upper finish, I would like a extra geographically numerous community. At 47 international locations, TunnelBear has some catching as much as do as different VPNs are providing round 60 to even 100+ international locations of their server unfold. So in the event you’re particularly on the lookout for a VPN to unblock geo-restricted content material, TunnelBear is probably not the optimum selection.

I like that TunnelBear options P2P-friendly servers particularly optimized for duties resembling torrenting and file sharing.

TunnelBear VPN Customer support

Customer support (Determine E) is one other side the place TunnelBear may see some enchancment. Specifically, I imagine TunnelBear ought to supply 24/7 dwell chat. As a result of VPNs can have sudden technical points, lots of the prime suppliers supply a service for answering questions and troubleshooting.

Determine E

For the time being, TunnelBear has an online type and electronic mail, on-line guides, and an AI chatbot (Determine F) known as RoboCub for buyer help.

Determine F

In equity to TunnelBear, RoboCub was capable of present pretty useful solutions once I requested a couple of questions.

SEE: How one can Create an Efficient Cybersecurity Consciousness Program (TechRepublic Premium)

TunnelBear VPN execs

• Newbie-friendly UI.
• Free model.
• Inexpensive one-year plan (fall sale).
• Annual impartial audits.
• Limitless gadget connections.
• TunnelBear Groups for companies.

TunnelBear VPN cons

• Buggy app expertise.
• Sluggish real-world pace.
• Connection will be unstable.
• Smaller nation rely for its servers.
• Hidden contract size choices in pricing web page.

ExpressVPN

In the event you’re on the lookout for a VPN with an easy-to-use interface and quick efficiency, ExpressVPN is without doubt one of the finest choices available on the market. It has sturdy safety features, servers throughout 105 international locations, and a password supervisor included at no extra value.

To study extra, verify our full ExpressVPN evaluation.

Proton VPN

Proton VPN is a good choose in the event you’re on the lookout for a VPN that operates in a privacy-friendly nation. Based mostly in Switzerland, it complies with the nation’s sturdy privateness legal guidelines that provide a further layer of safety to your information. Proton VPN additionally has a free model with no information cap.

To seek out out extra, verify our full Proton VPN evaluation.

Non-public Web Entry

Customers who need a large server suite ought to take into account Non-public Web Entry VPN. PIA reportedly has round 10,000 to 35,000 servers throughout 91 counties, making it a sensible selection in the event you plan to make use of a VPN to unblock content material. Its Home windows app can also be one of many extra customizable VPN functions accessible immediately.

To study extra, verify our full Non-public Web Entry VPN evaluation.

Evaluation methodology

My evaluation of TunnelBear VPN concerned an in depth evaluation of its safety features, value, and real-world efficiency. I had hands-on expertise with TunnelBear by way of its free Home windows software, and I supplemented my findings with person testimonials and respected evaluations.

For obtain and add speeds, I ran TunnelBear by way of Ookla’s public Speedtest. For DNS leak safety, I examined TunnelBear a number of instances utilizing DNSLeakTest.

Lastly, I scored TunnelBear VPN on numerous parts, together with its safety protocols and value, based mostly on an inside algorithm to get a ranking of three.1 out of 5 stars. I checked out TunnelBear VPN each by itself and in relation to different VPN options available on the market immediately.