**Official website: Tunnelbear.com
Furthermore, these servers are always expanding and have award winning speeds, meaning that using TunnelBear should not slow your connection. Some of these features include a military 256-bit encrypted network, 24/7 customer support, “Ghost Bear” and it even has a free service from which you can sign up to with the click of a button. All features will be disclosed throughout the review.
**Official website: https://www.tunnelbear.com
TunnelBear is well-known for its free service and the paid version is just as good. The service is based in Canada and offers servers in 20+ countries with great encryption for all their apps. Their client is fantastic and they keep zero logs!
Pricing and Packages
TunnelBear has several packages and plans, starting from an amazing zero dollars! TunnelBear offers a free package in which you will receive all the same features as if you were to pay for the VPN monthly. This is very good as the price of VPNs is something that is taken into consideration the most before purchasing, so by having a free package, this VPN is very appealing to the casual user. It should also be noted that TunnelBear does not distinguish and differentiate between packages and you will be getting the same features regardless of the package you choose. However, even though TunnelBear has a free package to choose, they also have many other paid plans. As always, this VPN has tiered plans which decrease in price depending on the level of commitment you provide to their service. TunnelBear has three plans: free, monthly and yearly.
The TunnelBear free plan is great and has all the features you would need to keep safe and secure on the internet, and allows you to use the VPN for a maximum of 500MB a month. The price then goes up to a fairly expensive $9.99 for their 1-month plan, but then goes down to an industry standard of $4.99 for the yearly plan, which is fairly reasonable. The annoying thing about TunnelBear is that you have to pay for 12 months in advance. Other than that, TunnelBear has a 30-day money-back refund policy which is good when you don’t feel their services.
Payment Options
Any good VPN should have a range of payment options that make their users’ online purchases safer and private. The primary reason VPNs exist is to make sure you are secure and safe on the web, so they must make sure that you are safe when purchasing on their website. The payment options that are available on TunnelBear are decent and they allow you to purchase the software with some reasonable security.
The software gives you the ability to pay via credit or debit card and accepts all major payments, including Visa, American Express and MasterCard. However, despite this, this is the first VPN I have come across that does not accept PayPal – the secure third-party application. PayPal is a worldwide payment gateway that allows users to claim refunds and dispute online payments that were invalid. It is disappointing to see that TunnelBear has not incorporated this into their website. Nonetheless, even with the absence of PayPal, TunnelBear does offer Bitcoin payments. Bitcoin is one of the safest ways to pay on the internet and is almost completely anonymous and private. This is because Bitcoin is an encrypted network and is not connected to your private information. This means you can pay for items and software online and cannot be tracked by ISP or Government Agencies, giving you ultimate privacy. Although there is no PayPal, TunnelBear compensates with Bitcoin and offers fairly secure ways to pay.
TunnelBear VPN Setup and User-Friendliness
TunnelBear was incredibly easy to set up and it took just under 5 minutes. We recommend that you try out their system with the free plan initially, so you can see what their VPN is like. Once I had successfully created a free account and downloaded the little bear plan, I was greeted with a screen that offered me the choice to download either the Windows client or Mac client. I downloaded the Windows client and began the installation process. The software asks you to select a place to save the files and then instantly start up the software. You will be required to log-in again and will go through a short tutorial/explanation of what TunnelBear can do. It should also be noted that I was not required to restart my computer at any point in the installation, which is always a bonus.
Once the installation was complete you will see the server selection screen which lets you choose the country you would like to connect too. The client is very clean and simple and I thought it was very good considering the VPN is (partially) free. The location selection screen is simple and effective, and there some tunnels you can select to send your connection too. The client also has an auto-connect feature which allows you to connect to a server with a strong connection, so your internet isn’t hit too badly by the extra strain.
If you have chosen the free plan, the monthly allowance will be placed in the bottom right of the screen. This is handy if you are unsure about the amount of data you have left to spend when surfing the web. The settings tab (which can be found in the navigation bar) is very basic and is probably the only bad aspect of this client. There are no settings that allow you to change your encryption and data authentication, but they’re many settings that allow you to configure the client to your preferences.
Furthermore, TunnelBear also has several other features in the client such as Ghost Bear and Vigilant Bear. Ghost Bear allows you to mask your connect and make your connection look like it is legitimate. This is great for bypassing the Chinese firewall and getting around content filters. The Vigilant Bear allows you to block any traffic when you are reconnecting or disconnecting from the VPN, kind of like a kill switch. Although there are no features which let you change and mix-up your security protocols, the client is perfect for any casual user.
Servers and Speeds
As previously mentioned, TunnelBear has several servers in 22+ different countries. This gives you a wide variety of server locations to choose from and is perfect for the casual user. However, when you compare this to other VPN services, it is not very impressive. Some VPN provides have thousands of servers in 100s of countries and if you live in a fairly remote country it may be difficult to connect to or find a server that doesn’t ruin your speeds.
In the future, TunnelBear may extend its reach. In terms of speeds, they were fairly average but decent enough for the normal user, and with the auto-connect feature, your connection shouldn’t drop too much. One thing that should be noted is that TunnelBear does not allow for P2P sharing and torrenting on their servers, which may discourage some users from using their service. Also, TunnelBear does not bypass the Netflix content filter but can hold up against the Great Firewall of China through its little application known as ghost bear. In my tests, no DNS or IPv6 leaks were found and TunnelBear themselves state that their VPN will not leak any DNS information.
Compatibility
TunnelBear offers a range of devices that you can install their program onto, and the provider now allows you to connect a total of 5 devices which is very impressive since the VPN network is free. It is important for a VPN service to offer the ability to protect and secure our mobile and other online devices. We live in a digital world and as a result, are using our phones and tablets more and more to surf the web.
This makes it essential for a VPN service to provide protection against malicious individuals on public Wi-Fi and so they should be offering a wide range of compatible software. TunnelBear has a fairly impressive collection of downloadable software, including VPN for Windows, Mac, IOS, Android, and Linux. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like TunnelBear offers router support making it a little bit useless for large businesses and expert users.
Customer Support
Privacy and Security
TunnelBear offers some good security and runs a very tight ship. They offer some protocols and have strong encryption of AES-256-bit. This is military-grade and will protect your connection from almost all malicious individuals, including ISP and Government agencies. They offer two security protocols, IPSec and OpenVPN, which are some of the best protocols on the market. As always we recommend you stick with the OpenVPN protocol as this is the safest and more up-to-date protocol available. However, it should be noted that this protocol will slow your system down slightly. So if you favor speed over security choose IPSec. TunnelBear also has a strict no-logs policy meaning that they do not keep or retain any usage logs. This is perfect for anyone who is paranoid about security and privacy and doesn’t want their information being transferred to Government agencies like NSA.
Free-Trial and Refund Policy
One of the biggest benefits of using TunnelBear is that they offer a free service which lets you have all their features for 500MB a month. If you feel you need more you can upgrade to unlimited data for $9.99 a month. Also, one of the new features in that TunnelBear is now offering a 30-day money back refund policy. If you are just a casual user, the free plan suits you.
Conclusion
TunnelBear is a good VPN and is a software that would be perfect for the casual user. The VPN has several servers in 22 different countries and has a fantastic free plan that lets you have 500MB free a month. The client is very clean and effective but has little options for security and protocols. They give you the choice to pay by Bitcoin but for some odd reason, PayPal has been taken away, which was a little disappointing. In terms of security, TunnelBear offers tight 256-bit encryption and OpenVPN protocols which are the best in the industry, and they keep no logs. The only downsides to this VPN are that the paid versions are expensive, P2P is not allowed and there is no refund policy. However, this VPN is still recommended.
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