In an era where online privacy and security are paramount, choosing the right VPN can be daunting.
Amidst the sea of options, TunnelBear has emerged as a popular choice, known for its quirky bear-themed branding and its promises of simplicity and robust protection.
But is TunnelBear VPN truly worth the hype in 2024?
In this comprehensive TunnelBear review 2024, we’ll dive deep into its features, performance, and overall value to help you decide whether TunnelBear is the right VPN for your needs.
🚀 Bottom Line Upfront:
TunnelBear is a user-friendly VPN service known for its charming branding and strong commitment to online privacy and security.
It is a lovable virtual private network that will protect your online activity without making you deal with cumbersome programs or jarring visuals.
TunnelBear Review 2024🧸
TunnelBear was founded in 2011 in Toronto, Canada, by startup veterans; their team consists of former employees from tech giants like Microsoft, RIM, Goldman, Sachs, and Fixmo.
Currently, they have servers spread across 12 countries: the UK, Canada, the US, Germany, France, Ireland, Spain, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, and Italy.
With their top-notch security, cutting-edge technology, and high-speed servers, they have become one of the most reputed VPN service providers.
TunnelBear Features📋:
1. Streaming Capabilities:
TunnelBear’s premium version has shown notable improvement in unblocking streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, and more.
It offers good streaming quality with minimal buffering, making it suitable for HD content. However, it may not unblock some services like Sky TV and Sky Sports.
Users can stream content in HD quality with TunnelBear, thanks to its fast speeds which reduce buffering and ensure smooth playback.
| Platform | Does it work? |
| Netflix | ✔Yes |
| BBC iPlayer | ✔Yes |
| HBO Max | ✔Yes |
| Amazon Prime Video | ✔Yes |
| YouTube TV | ✔Yes |
TunnelBear can unblock full libraries of services like Netflix in certain regions (e.g., Netflix US and Netflix France). However, it may not work across all its servers for every streaming service, showing some limitations in accessing content from regions like Japan, Australia, Germany, and the UK.
2. Speed:
TunnelBear provides excellent speeds on local servers, making it a viable option for activities requiring fast internet, such as streaming or gaming.
The speeds are comparatively slower on distant servers, which is common among VPNs. The “Fastest Tunnel” feature helps users connect to the best server based on their location.
3. Gaming:
With low ping rates on local servers, TunnelBear is suitable for gaming. The VPN maintains a stable connection with minimal latency, ensuring a smooth gaming experience.
4. Mobile Apps:
TunnelBear offers user-friendly mobile apps for both Android and iOS. The apps feature a simple design, making it easy to connect to servers and manage settings.
5. Pricing and Plans:
TunnelBear offers both free and paid plans. The free plan provides access to all servers with a data cap of 2GB per month.
Paid plans include “Unlimited” and “Teams,” with the former offering more affordable rates for long-term commitments. The Teams plan is tailored for businesses, providing features like centralized billing and an account manager.
6. Privacy and Security Features:
Key privacy features include VigilantBear, which blocks unsecured traffic if the connection is disrupted, and SplitBear, allowing users to control which apps use the VPN connection. TunnelBear also assures no activity logging of its users.
- Vigilant Bear (Kill Switch)
As the name suggests, Vigilant Bear is something that wouldn’t let your data leak even if your VPN connection drops out.
This means that if you are using Wi-Fi in an airport or cafe and if you are changing your location, this might disconnect your VPN for a while.
While your VPN Tunnelbear is reconnecting, you use the internet without any protector. This is where vigilant bear protects your data even if it is reconnecting or offline.
It also connects with the closes tunnel to keep your data such as location or searches safe and secured.
- GhostBear
This is commonly called obfuscation technology. GhostBear is an added layer of security over the TunnelBear. It can scramble or disguise your VPN connections which cannot be detected by your ISP.
You are protected by the firewalls as well. While using the GhostBear, your data is fully encrypted and none of your data can be leaked to your ISPs.
The most attractive feature is that it is not detectable to any of the agencies or governments or ISPs.
However, if you feel that your TunnelBear is functioning as per the requirements, then you can stick to that. It is not less encrypted as compared to GhostBear.
In case, your server isn’t responding even after connecting with the VPN, there is a possibility that the ISPs have used firewalls to block the VPNs.
The GhostBear breaks those firewalls. You can get access to those sites which are blocked even by the firewalls.
7. Encryption and Protocols:
The VPN uses AES 256-bit encryption and supports multiple protocols, including WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2. This strong encryption ensures secure and private online activities.
| Protocol | OS Support |
| WireGuard | Windows, iOS |
| IKEv2 | Windows, iOS |
| OpenVPN | Android, macOS |
| IPsec | iOS |
8. Server Network:
TunnelBear offers a wide network of over 5000 VPN servers in more than 47 countries, providing users with a variety of options for connecting globally.
Initially, TunnelBear had servers only in the United States and the United Kingdom, but now they have expanded their reach.
Apart from the US and UK, they have strategically set up their servers in Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Ireland, Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Australia, Germany, France, and Canada, unlike other VPN service providers who limit the amount of data, TunnelBear does not have any sort of limits.
9. No Logging Policy:
Here’s another reason you would feel secure while using this VPN service provider. It keeps no log or track of its users, thus no online activities can be tracked by the company.
All it asks for is the relevant information, such as the email addresses or if you are a paid member or not. Some operational data is kept by the company which is kept encrypted.
This VPN server may keep data on the time duration of the connected user and the information about the bandwidth so as to use this data for the optimization of the VPN.
It does not keep track of your:
- The IP address of the visiting website
- IP addresses upon service connection
- DNS while connected
- Information related to the websites, applications, or servers.
10. TunnelBear Blocker:
You can block anything in Chrome using this VPN. You can block almost anything including the ads or trackers or even the emails tracking your traffic.
You can unblock the blocked contents or block the information you don’t want to share.
Have you ever seen those annoying pop-ups asking you to enable Flash or some irritating video ads which do not pause or mute?
This VPN server can block all these stuff by blocking the plugins on these web pages.
TunnelBear Pricing💰:
Pricing is one of the most important factors, we all have a budget for everything, and adhering to it is important for financial stability.
We see a lot of great things we want, but if it is not in our price range, we don’t go for it. But don’t worry; you won’t have that issue if you want to sign up for TunnelBear.
It has affordable prices, probably one of the lowest prices in the world. TunnelBear has 3 different plans, let’s take a look at them one by one.
Although there is no guarantee of returning your money from TunnelBear VPN, you get the benefits of a free account with some limitations. This free account gives you access to monthly data limited to 500 MB, enough to use this free VPN.
You need a paid premium account for extra features like unlimited bandwidth and concurrent connections.
| TunnelBear plans | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| Free | $0.00 |
| Unlimited | $3.33 |
| Teams | $5.75/user |
If you want to get their one-year subscription plan, it costs you $ 4.99 per month. The payment methods available include MasterCard, Bitcoin, Visa, and American Express.
Apart from having a limited free version, the premium subscriptions aren’t too pricey.
| Version | Price |
| Free Plan | $0.00 |
| 1-year plan | $4.99/month |
| 2-year plan | $4.17/month |
| 3-year plan | $3.33/month |
TunnelBear Benefits✨:
1. Fully private internet
With TunnelBear, users can enjoy safe and private surfing and online sharing in the best possible way. The application ensures that no one monitors a user’s computer or network, whether it’s hackers, internet service providers, government agencies, employers, or others.
In addition, the VPN application is always active and alert, avoiding downtime to protect privacy on the Internet.
2. Secure public connections
Public access points and free Wi-Fi networks are a nuisance to any private user. They can benefit from a seemingly secure connection to the Web but are still victims of malicious threats.
For this reason, TunnelBear installs encryption barriers around a user’s computer or device to ensure they are not attacked by viruses, malware, and other online threats.
3. Parameters without registration
There’s a reason why TunnelBear is an award-winning VPN. It vigorously protects the privacy of its users.
For this reason, the application has the No Registration setting, which prevents users from worrying about the websites and programs they have visited that are listed and stored somewhere.
4. Expansive network
TunnelBear has more than 20 servers in different parts of the world. If a user needs to ignore content locked by a region, it will be enough to ask his partner to take him to another country.
Therefore, they have unrestricted access to their favorite content.
5. Fast connections
Thanks to its servers, TunnelBear offers its users a fast connection wherever they are. This makes your online experience more enjoyable as you do not have to wait long to listen to your favorite videos or scratch your head behind the games.
6. Anti-VPN application
Some areas of the web can detect when a computer is using a VPN. In this case, they block access to this system. TunnelBear has found a solution to this problem.
For this reason, it has an anti-VPN feature that allows users to continue using their open Internet.
7. Bears team
However, TunnelBear is not limited to individual users. The VPN application also works for computers and allows them to protect their activity on up to 5 devices. It allows them to do their work anywhere in the world.
TunnelBear Customer Support ☎️:
| 24/7 live chat | ❌ |
| ✔ | |
| Phone line | ❌ |
| Guides or articles | ✔ |
| FAQs/Forums | ✔ |
TunnelBear offers support only via ticket; they do not have 24/7 live chat. You can raise a ticket under the help section on their website, they will reply on the email id you provide.
They also have a lot of step-by-step tutorials available on their website.
They have covered literally, everything in their tutorials also you can go through their FAQ page to get solutions of general problems customers face.
FAQs about TunnelBear Review❓:
✔Does TunnelBear collect data?
Yes, TunnelBear does gather certain user information. The IP addresses, DNS requests, and other information about the viewed content are not included, though.
👀Is TunnelBear reliable?
Yes. The VPN provider TunnelBear maintains that no activity logs are kept. Additionally, they have conducted independent security audits for the past five years. They are now among the reliable VPN service providers.
🤷♂️Does TunnelBear allow torrenting?
No. No matter which host we choose, TunnelBear prevented us from torrenting anything during our tests. Additionally, torrenting would be terrible with such erratic speed results. See our list of the top VPNs for torrenting to choose a VPN that is both quick and secure.
💁♀️How much does TunnelBear VPN cost?
There are various options available from TunnelBear, including a free version. Although TunnelBear is available for free, you won't have much of a user experience. The 3-year package from TunnelBear, which starts at just $3.33/month, is the best deal available.
👍 Is TunnelBear better than NordVPN?
In contrast to NordVPN, TunnelBear is not superior. In general, NordVPN is one of the best VPNs on the market right now, as you can read in detail in our comparison study of these two VPNs.
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Conclusion: TunnelBear Review 2024 🏁
As our journey through this TunnelBear review in 2024 comes to an end, we can confidently say that this VPN offers a delightful blend of user-friendliness and strong security features.
Its commitment to privacy, robust encryption, and no-logs policy make it a compelling choice for individuals looking to enhance their online security.
While its server network and streaming capabilities may not be the most extensive, TunnelBear excels in providing a simple and effective VPN solution.
Ultimately, whether or not TunnelBear is worth the hype depends on your specific needs and preferences.
So, take the time to evaluate its strengths and limitations and decide if this bear is the right guardian for your online adventures.
