TunnelBear VPN Review: Just Right for Beginners

Worth When Reviewed

From $3.33 per thirty days (limitless plan)

Finest Costs At present: TunnelBear

TunnelBear is a well-liked VPN service owned by McAfee safety firm and primarily based in Toronto, Canada. It’s been round for some time now and has all the time stood out resulting from its distinctive and kitschy bear-themed interface.

The service has tried laborious lately so as to add extra options similar to limitless machine connections so as to stay related in an more and more aggressive VPN market.

Actually, there are ursine puns aplenty to be loved right here, however is the VPN service simply best for you? I took it for a stroll within the woods to search out out.

TunnelBear briefly

• P2P allowed: Sure
• Limitless machine connections: Sure
• Enterprise location: Canada
• Variety of servers: 5000+
• Variety of nation places: 47+
• Free plan: Sure
• Limitless plan: $9.99 per thirty days with 1- and 3-year choices

Options & Providers?

Once you first open TunnelBear you’ll be able to’t assist however discover how a lot work the designers have put in to it. The primary interface is a world map geographically dotted with the obtainable servers. As you scroll throughout the map, even the timber change primarily based on the continent or area you’re viewing (palm timber within the Center East, Umbrella Thorns in Africa). Your precise location is signified on the map with a sheep, however when you hook up with the VPN it turns right into a bear.

Sam Singleton

Every server location has an empty tunnel icon on it. To attach, simply choose the server icon you need. Along with deciding on the server from a map, there’s additionally a drop-down checklist on the prime with all the servers as properly. Someway within the TunnelBear universe sheeps turning into bears and bears digging via tunnels is sensible, however the logic is misplaced on us. Nonetheless, it’s a enjoyable and distinctive design aspect.

On the entire, TunnelBear is an easy service with out lots of frills, however it does present some attention-grabbing key options price trying out. Underneath Settings > Safety, TunnelBear has its personal model of a kill change characteristic referred to as “VigilantBear.” It really works just a little otherwise than a standard kill change in that as a substitute of disconnecting your web within the occasion of a VPN disconnection, it simply blocks all incoming and outgoing site visitors till the connection is re-established. 

Moreover, TunnelBear provides a characteristic referred to as “GhostBear” that makes your encrypted knowledge much less detectable. It does this by masking your VPN site visitors and disguising it as HTTPS site visitors, which is mostly much less more likely to be blocked by censors. This may work properly in case you discover that your connection is being blocked by streaming providers similar to Netflix. By turning on the GhostBear characteristic, there’s a increased chance that your connection will have the ability to entry these restrictive websites. Be warned, although, turning on GhostBear will seemingly decelerate your connection even additional.

One other characteristic to notice is “SplitBear” or TunnelBear’s model of split-tunneling, which lets you management which apps or web sites can have entry to the VPN connection. Sadly, TunnelBear lacks many superior options that rivals supply similar to multi-hop and devoted servers particular to sure actions—streaming, torrenting, and many others. In truth, previously, TunnelBear blocked entry to P2P downloads however has since begun permitting them. Nonetheless, it isn’t one thing that it overtly encourages with its service and for that purpose different VPN suppliers similar to ProtonVPN and Mullvad VPN are higher fitted to torrenting.

Sam Singleton

TunnelBear provides desktop applications and cellular apps for various techniques similar to Mac, Home windows, Android, and iOS, amongst others. There are additionally proxy browser extensions for Chrome and Opera. And only in the near past TunnelBear has switched to permit for limitless simultaneous machine connections with its premium plans.

TunnelBear does supply a free service that comes with the total desktop app however a 500MB-per-month knowledge restrict. It’s an effective way to check out the service to see in case you prefer it, however the low knowledge restrict isn’t more likely to be sufficient to make use of it often—you received’t even have the ability to stream an HD (1080p) video for greater than 10 or so minutes.

Efficiency

Throughout my testing I rated speeds throughout TunnelBear’s servers in 5 completely different international locations all around the globe after which in contrast them to our baseline web pace. TunnelBear server speeds, actually, weren’t nice. Throughout all places examined, the speeds averaged a mere 33 % of the bottom obtain pace and a somewhat poor 20 % of the bottom add pace. Not solely do these numbers not impress, however it fell manner wanting the providers in our prime 5 quickest VPNs.

Nonetheless, on-line speeds can range wildly in pure Mbps checks from everyday and even hour to hour. It’s finest to take any and all pace checks with a grain of salt. Your expertise with TunnelBear could differ from these within the checks for this assessment.

Tunnelbear

With regard to streaming, I did discover that TunnelBear wasn’t capable of constantly unblock websites similar to Netflix and Amazon Prime. It was profitable more often than not however the odd server appeared to have bother or was actively being blocked.

Once I turned on the GhostBear characteristic it appeared to resolve most of those unblocking points. Sadly, with GhostBear turned on, I seen that my connection speeds plummeted and I wasn’t capable of stream HQ video as a result of it was too sluggish. So GhostBear appears to work, however it wasn’t actually a viable answer.

Due to this fact, I personally wouldn’t suggest TunnelBear as a dependable VPN for streaming. That doesn’t imply it could possibly’t be used to stream, however I consider there are higher choices obtainable similar to NordVPN, which works flawlessly with Netflix, or CyberGhost VPN, which has a ton of places to select from and optimized servers for streaming.

Safety & Privateness

TunnelBear comes together with your industry-standard AES-256 encryption, which is the strongest at the moment obtainable and it means you’ll be able to relaxation assured your connection shall be safe. The Home windows app additionally helps WireGuard, IKEv2, and OpenVPN protocols. I desire OpenVPN each time doable because it’s some of the safe and versatile protocols obtainable resulting from its open-source nature. However, in case you’re not sure, you’ll be able to simply choose the Auto choice in TunnelBear’s settings and the app will select what it believes is one of the best protocol on your connection.

Additionally, so as to verify that my precise IP handle is obfuscated appropriately, I used a DNS leak take a look at. It confirmed that there have been no points with unintentional leaks of my IP handle when linked to TunnelBear’s servers. 

Sam Singleton

Based on its privateness coverage, TunnelBear doesn’t accumulate any DNS queries, IP addresses of customers, timestamps, or different private identifiable info. Nevertheless, it does accumulate what it deems “operational knowledge” similar to person help and troubleshooting queries, complete knowledge used per thirty days, and a few gross sales knowledge. It says that none of this info may establish customers and are “not associated to the time and exercise of VPN utilization.” 

Moreover, upon sign-up, TunnelBear requires customers to enter of their e-mail handle and cost info. Fee choices embody bank cards, PayPal, and Bitcoin.

Actually, I used to be impressed with TunnelBear’s complete and forthright privateness coverage. Not all VPN corporations present the identical detailed or thorough details about what knowledge it particularly collects. Additionally, TunnelBear continues to conduct common third-party audits by Cure53, a reliable and dependable Huge 4 auditing agency. It has efficiently handed each audit for the final 5 years. That’s spectacular and an enormous promoting level for privacy-conscious customers.

TunnelBear itself is positioned in Toronto, Canada, which implies that all private info is dealt with in line with Canadian legislation. Canada doesn’t at the moment have any necessary knowledge retention legal guidelines both.

Pricing & Plans

Many individuals will know of TunnelBear due to its free providing. Few VPN providers have a very free plan, however right here as you’ll discover elsewhere, you don’t get very a lot with out paying for the service.

The primary limitation is knowledge: you’ll be able to solely use 2GB of information per thirty days on a free account. Which may be tremendous in case you’re solely intending to make use of a VPN on open public Wi-Fi networks, however it isn’t sufficient for on a regular basis shopping and positively not for streaming video.

For limitless knowledge, the month-to-month plan is $9.99 and the yearly plan works out at $4.99 per thirty days (billed as a single $59.88 cost). There’s additionally a three-year plan at $3.33 per thirty days (billed in a single $120 cost). That’s middle-of-the-pack territory: not the most costly, however not the most affordable both.

Ought to I purchase TunnelBear VPN?

TunnelBear is a VPN that sticks to the fundamentals. It’s an pleasing service chock-full of bear puns which are enjoyable and lighthearted. It’s additionally extraordinarily simple to make use of—it doesn’t overwhelm with too many options or nation choices. And whereas this is perhaps splendid for the typical person, energy customers who prefer to tweak and optimize their VPN connections will really feel that the service doesn’t supply sufficient.

The speeds are satisfactory, however not nice—you would possibly say they lumber a bit. Additionally, I did encounter some unlucky points with servers being unable to unblock streaming platforms—notably Netflix. General, this approachable and cheerful service is an effective choice for customers who’re simply getting began with VPNs or won’t be essentially the most tech-savvy. In any other case, there are different providers similar to these in our greatest VPNs that is perhaps higher for extra superior customers.

This assessment initially appeared on PC World.