Name: TunnelBear review
Item: TunnelBear
Rating: 4.3

UPDATE: Aug. 28, 2024, 5:00 a.m. EDT After retesting TunnelBear on iOS and Windows, taking a closer look at its privacy practices, and evaluating its transparency measures against those of other VPN providers, we've revisited this review to award it a higher score.

"Beginner-friendly VPN" isn't contradictory thanks to TunnelBear, a cheery provider with an uncluttered, cartoon-y app, unlimited simultaneous connections, and an unintimidating privacy policy that doesn't require a law or IT degree to understand. Crucially, it's also one of the few VPN services that lets you use its service for free (with some major restrictions).

Power users won't be impressed by its lack of advanced features and inability to unblock regional content. But for casual users and VPN newbies who'd rather be inundated with bear puns than technical jargon, TunnelBear is a worthy pick.

How much does TunnelBear cost?

TunnelBear offers three different subscription options:

TunnelBear Free is designed for "testing and limited usage." It includes 2GB of browsing data per month on a single device, which doesn't roll over to the next month if it goes unused. There's no credit card required to sign up.
TunnelBear Unlimited ($9.99/month, $4.99/month per year, or $3.33/month per three years) unlocks unlimited browsing data, unlimited simultaneous connections, access to its entire server network, the ability to select certain servers on the city level, and priority customer support.
TunnelBear Teams starts at $138/year for businesses with at least two users.

TunnelBear doesn't have a money-back guarantee, unlike many of its peers, and refunds are only offered by request on a case-by-case basis. It accepts Mastercard, Visa, and American Express.

For the purposes of this review, I only tested TunnelBear's Free and Unlimited tiers.

Hands-on with TunnelBear

side by side screenshots of the tunnelbear app on mac

He's a jetsetter. Credit: Screenshot: TunnelBear

TunnelBear works on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Chrome. (I tried it on Windows, Mac, and iOS.) That's fewer platforms than much of its competition, but realistically, it covers most users on a smartphone and/or desktop.

The TunnelBear app is effectively just a posterized world map speckled with yellow, Super Mario Bros.-esque pipes that represent different servers, and when you boot up the app for the first time, a small sheep will be sitting at your physical location. Toggling on the VPN will colorize the map and make the sheep poof into a teensy brown bear, who then digs down and emerges from the pipe at the VPN server location nearest you — that means you're connected. (In theory, this default server should be the speediest one for you since your data doesn't have to travel very far. TunnelBear calls it the "Fastest Tunnel.") If you look closely, you can see the bear look around once he's settled. It's very cute.

Via Giphy

Most things about TunnelBear can be described as cute, which feels like a weird thing to say about a VPN — a cybersecurity tool. Its website is peppered with bear references ("grizzly details," "a helping paw," lots of "rawrs"). Its bear logo covers its eyes when you type in your password at login. Each of its staff members have bear nicknames and avatars. You can enable bear sound effects on mobile. It would all feel a bit juvenile if most other VPNs weren't so solemn and intense. Online privacy is a serious matter, yes, but let's have some fun with it! What ever happened to fun!!!

Via Giphy

Anyway, that map is pretty much the extent of the TunnelBear interface. The free version lets you switch between servers in different countries, while a paid subscription opens up servers in specific cities worldwide; you can connect to them by clicking on their pipes or by selecting them from a list. TunnelBear maintains servers in over 5,000 locations in 47 countries worldwide, which makes its network on the smaller side from a geographical distribution standpoint. (ExpressVPN and NordNPN, two other major VPN providers, have servers in 105 and 111 countries, respectively.) In other words, you've got fewer location-spoofing options.

The TunnelBear app defaults to an "auto" protocol option that it deems best for you, but you can choose between WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2 in a settings menu. This is also where you'll see options to enable an automatic kill switch called "VigilantBear" and a split tunneling tool called "SplitBear." The latter offers varying levels of control depending on your platform: SplitBear for Windows lets you exclude both websites and apps from your VPN connection, for instance, while SplitBear for macOS lets you only exclude sites. There's no multi-hop.

In my latest roundup of testing, TunnelBear was quick to connect most of the time. Its Mac app often struggled to make an initial connection to my Fastest Server — sometimes it took a full minute to get me online — but hopping on a different U.S. server first before going back to the Fastest Tunnel seemed to remedy the issue. I wouldn't put too much stake into this; it wasn't a cross-platform problem and could just be a me/my MacBook quirk.

ookla speedtest results with and without tunnelbear running

Credit: Mashable / Screenshots: Ookla

Browsing with TunnelBear on felt a little pokey no matter which server I was connected to, but that's to be expected with any VPN, and it was never annoying enough to be totally unusable. I was also able to stream YouTube videos and movies on Disney+ and Max without any lagging or stuttering.

Regional content gave TunnelBear trouble, though. No matter the platform, ITVX showed me a "you're outside the country" error code 01-01 every time I tried watching Love Island UK on a TunnelBear UK server in the UK. Don't count on this one for your international streaming needs.

In TunnelBear's defense, it at least kept my true IP address locked down while I was connected to its server. (It passed multiple DNS leak tests.) It's important to remember that this is the main job of a VPN, and that extras like unblocking geo-restricted content are essentially just bonuses.

More on TunnelBear Free

A TunnelBear Free plan used to limit you to just 500MB of browsing data per month. TunnelBear's decision to raise it to 2GB per month in February 2023 made this tier eons more practical for regular use, but you can still chunk through it in a few hours if you're not careful. I ate through my 2GB in just under four hours by surfing the web, scrolling through social media, and watching some music videos on my Fastest Tunnel, so don't just leave it on and expect it to get you through the month. A TunnelBear rep named "CubCake Bear" told me via email that this tier is meant to "[serve] as a method to try before you buy, or if your need is minimal on a monthly basis."

One of the biggest things TunnelBear Free has going for it (besides the obvious "it's free!" part) is that it isn't cluttered with ads. A banner promoting a seasonal discount on Tunnelbear Unlimited did appear across the top of the app at one point during a previous round of testing, but it was subtle and unobtrusive and didn't affect my user experience whatsoever. TunnelBear's rangers have kept this park litter-free.

Is TunnelBear trustworthy?

TunnelBear has democratized VPNs in two major ways: One, by simplifying the technology itself, and two, by maintaining a privacy policy that's extremely easy for a layperson to understand. It uses plain language and mixes in explainers that delve into why certain types of customer data are collected and stored — the last name on your credit card is used for fraud prevention, for instance — and it explicitly states that it does not log activity while someone's using the VPN. (It doesn't know who you are, where you connect from, or what you're doing when you're on it.) TunnelBear Free users' monthly data consumption is documented so that the company can enforce its 2GB limit, but they're otherwise protected by the same "no logs" promise.

For what it's worth, TunnelBear says it doesn't make any money off its free users, either — by selling their data or otherwise. "Our business is driven solely by our paid subscribers, who help offset the cost to maintain our servers and operate our infrastructure," CubCake Bear told me.

TunnelBear was the first consumer VPN to publish an independent security audit back in 2017, and it's completed them every year since. Anyone can view these reports, even those who haven't signed up for an account. TunnelBear also publishes reports that disclose the government data requests it receives. The latest version details 70 requests between 2021 and 2023, which were mostly "the result of law enforcement authorities seeking to investigate crimes," it said. TunnelBear twice confirmed whether an individual had an account, but never coughed up any browsing data — because it doesn't have it.

Is TunnelBear worth it?

TunnelBear is a refreshingly approachable VPN service that will win over those who just need a simple, easy-to-use VPN that can run in the background during everyday browsing. It's not quite a Mashable Choice Award winner, but it ranks high among the VPNs I've tested.

I don't think TunnelBear will feel like a good value to VPN veterans and techies who like to fiddle around with lots of features. Those who need a VPN that can unblock regional content will also need to look elsewhere. For comparison's sake, a NordVPN Basic plan gets you multi-hop, a built-in dark web monitor, an anti-malware/tracker tool, support on more platforms, up to 10 simultaneous connections, and the ability to unblock regional content for the same annual rate as TunnelBear Unlimited.

But for more inexperienced and casual users, I think there's merit in TunnelBear's simplicity, and especially in its clean record. You should never sacrifice strong privacy practices in favor of extra fixings — though it would still be really nice if TunnelBear offered multi-hop connections.

The free version of TunnelBear deserves its own shoutout. Many free VPN providers will log and sell user data to third-party advertisers or bundle their products with malware — there's that thing about free lunches — but TunnelBear Free is backed by the same policies and protections as the paid version. While it won't meet the needs of a daily user, it's decent for sparing, situational use and may help you decide whether to invest in a paid plan (or a more feature-rich VPN).

Topics Apps & Software Reviews

How we tested

Mashable's VPN reviews involve hands-on testing, which I'll describe in more detail shortly, but they also hinge heavily on guidance from cybersecurity experts. When it comes to the types of things consumers should look for in VPN services, they told me in separate interviews, much of what separates the good from the bad can be gleaned before anything is installed. These experts include:

Mallory Knodel, Chief Technology Officer at the Center for Democracy and Technology
Nick Feamster, Neubauer Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago, Faculty Director of Research at the UChicago Data Science Institute, and founder/co-director of the DSI's Internet Equality Initiative
Paul Ohm, Professor of Law and Chief Data Officer at the Georgetown University Law Center

What the experts said

When you surf the internet freely without a VPN, you're being tracked online constantly by multiple third parties, including your Internet Service Provider (ISP), search engines like Google, and possibly even your employer or school. Connecting to a VPN means taking your traffic away from them and putting it in the hands of one lone entity instead, conceding exclusive, unfettered access to all of your browsing data. It's a privilege that needs to be earned, and the true caliber of a VPN ultimately comes down to whether you can wholly believe it's keeping you safe.

Unfortunately, the VPN industry is notorious for hyperbolic marketing, especially when it comes to privacy practices. This can "give VPN users a false sense of security if they don’t realize that the protections offered are not comprehensive," according to a Consumer Reports investigation into 16 providers. (Many popular VPNs shout about offering "military-grade" encryption, for example, which isn't a thing.) It's unwise to take a provider's "trust me bro!" claims at face value.

So how do you know for sure if a VPN is trustworthy? A single Google search can be enlightening: A good provider won't have a long rap sheet for mishandling users' personal data or succumbing to server breaches, and bad headlines should raise a red flag — including those about a VPN's ownership or parent company. A swift, effective response to crises and a healthy dose of corporate accountability can offset these concerns in some cases, but I also place a high value on a pristine reputation.

The best VPN services should also be willing to open themselves up to scrutiny. Bragging about a strong "no logs" privacy policy that specifies how users' personal information gets protected is one thing. But subjecting that no-log policy to independent audits — and making the results public — provides a much higher level of assurance.

The most trustworthy VPNs will also issue regular transparency reports disclosing any requests for data they've received from government or law enforcement agencies. (These requests won't yield anything if a provider's privacy policy holds up.) Some go the extra mile by offering in-house bug bounty programs to researchers who comb their software and servers for vulnerabilities.

Tests we run on VPNs

After assessing their company policies, histories, and overall reliability, I hands-on test VPNs on mobile and desktop. (I've tested TunnelBear on an Apple MacBook Pro running macOS Monterey, an HP Elite x360 1040 G11 running Windows 11, and an iPhone 11 with iOS 16.6.1.) I have the VPN connected for approximately four to eight hours at a time to get a general sense of the user experience as part of the average person's everyday workflow. I also put them through a handful of performance benchmarks:

DNS leak tests

Often described as "the internet's phone book," the DNS (Domain Name System) is basically a back-end directory that translates website domain names into computer-speak, aka internet protocol (IP) addresses. An IP address is a unique number that's assigned to a device when it's connected to the internet; it identifies the device's general location and the name of the ISP.

Without making things overly complicated (bear with me): When you search for a website, your browser sends a query to one of your ISP's DNS servers to track down its matching IP address(es) so it can send you to that page. Without the DNS, you'd have to type out a long string of numbers every time you wanted to visit a website. For example, instead of "Mashable.com," you'd enter "104.18.33.218" or "172.64.154.38" into your search bar.

A VPN is supposed to reroute your DNS queries to its own DNS servers while you're connected to it — that way, your ISP (and possibly other snoops) can't see where you are or what sites you're looking up. If the VPN is faulty, it may continue to send DNS queries to the ISP's DNS servers, putting your security at risk. That's the gist of a DNS leak.

Some VPN apps have built-in DNS leak tests that tell you if your connection is secure and whether your real IP address is being hidden. Otherwise, you can perform them via DNSleaktest.com. When I try a VPN, I run its standard test twice: once with the VPN off, and once with it connected.

Trying different use cases

The No. 1 purpose of VPNs is to make it difficult for anyone other than the provider to identify and track your online activity, so every VPN I recommend must do that well — no exceptions. However, VPNs are also widely used to spoof user locations and skirt geo-restrictions on content, especially overseas streaming libraries. (Services like Netflix limit their libraries abroad because of region-specific distribution rights.)

While a VPN will never be disqualified simply because it can't get users access to geo-blocked content, it's a plus if it succeeds, so I still test for it. I do so by connecting to one of the VPN's UK servers from my home in Chicago and running a DNS leak test to see if my IP address changes accordingly, then attempting to watch Love Island UK on the UK streaming service ITVX.

Speed tests

The connection speed of a VPN depends on a lot of different variables, but it will almost always be slower than your regular internet connection, so it's not a huge factor in my final recs. That said, I try to get an idea of how well a VPN performs by using it for a lengthy period of time and running it through some Ookla Speedtests on Google Chrome. (I do three of them back-to-back: one with the VPN off, one with the VPN connected to a local server, and one with the VPN connected to a UK server, if possible. Some providers don't let their free users pick specific server locations, and when that's the case, I'll use any European server I can get on.) If a VPN is noticeably sluggish to the point where it affects usability, I'll call it out.

A general rule of thumb for any VPN is that your connection speeds will be fastest when you're connected to a server that's geographically close to your actual location.

Other important details

I also take following factors into account as I use a VPN and decided whether to recommend it, listed in no particular order:

Included features

Most premium VPNs come with similar privacy tools, so I don't encounter major provider-to-provider discrepancies in this regard. Still, it's worth noting some of the important ones I look out for:

A kill switch will immediately disconnect your device from the internet if your VPN drops. (This one's non-negotiable.)
Support for multi-hop connections that route your traffic through two or more of the VPN's servers. This adds an extra layer of protection.
Split tunneling, a tool that sends some of your traffic through the VPN and some outside it to conserve bandwidth, can be useful for streaming and gaming.

Oftentimes, providers will also bundle their VPN with additional security features like malware/adware blockers, data breach detectors, and cloud storage. These won't make the VPN itself any better, but they're good to have alongside your go-to antivirus software and password manager. (If you have to choose between a reputable VPN or one that comes with a bunch of add-ons, always go with the former.)

Protocol type

A VPN's protocol is the set of instructions that determine how data gets communicated between its servers and your devices. Many VPN providers have developed proprietary protocols within the past few years, but OpenVPN remains the most popular and widely respected option: It's stable, secure, and open-source, meaning anyone can inspect its code for vulnerabilities. WireGuard is another good pick that's newer than OpenVPN and supposedly faster.

Encryption type

A VPN protects your data by encrypting it, or scrambling it up into unreadable "ciphertext" that can only be decoded with a secret key or password. Virtually all premium VPNs use an encryption algorithm called Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit encryption, which is pretty much uncrackable to third parties.

Server network size and distribution

Picking a VPN with a large server network means there's a lower likelihood of you sharing one with a bunch of other users, which is especially valuable for streaming (since there's more bandwidth to go around).

Relatedly, a VPN with a geographically diverse network of servers in many different parts of the world will make it easier for you to spoof specific locations and find one close to you to optimize connection speeds. Most premium VPNs maintain servers throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia; few have a big presence in Africa.

Number of simultaneous connections

Most VPNs can be used on five to 10 devices per account (depending on the provider), which should be plenty for individual users. A handful of them support unlimited simultaneous connections to better serve bigger households.

Customer support options

Users should have access to some kind of help around the clock in case an issue arises with their VPN connection or account, whether it's by phone, email, or live chat. (Online help forums and tutorials are nice, but not enough on their own.) I also give preference to VPNs that offer some kind of money-back guarantee; in most cases, it's 30 days long.

Overall value

Premium VPN providers typically charge anywhere from $2 to $12 per month for access to their clients, depending on the subscription length. It's easier to justify the higher end of that spectrum if it gets you a reliable and responsible VPN with some useful security features.

Ease of use

Some VPNs are more intuitive and beginner-friendly than others.

It's important to note that many popular VPN providers posit their jurisdiction, or the location of their headquarters, as something that can have serious privacy implications based on local surveillance laws (such as the Five, Nine, and 14 Eyes alliances). Without getting too in the weeds, the experts I spoke to said the average consumer shouldn't put a big stake in these claims, and that authorities will get access to user data one way or another if the need is great enough. What's more concerning, they added — to bring things full circle — is whether any data is being retained by a VPN provider in the first place.

If anything, users might be better off choosing a VPN headquartered in a country with strong consumer protections against deceptive marketing (like the U.S. and many countries in the European Union). These could come in handy if a provider's privacy policy was ever questioned.

Note: Ookla is owned by Mashable's publisher, Ziff Davis.

Haley Henschel

Senior Shopping Reporter

Haley Henschel is a Chicago-based Senior Shopping Reporter at Mashable who reviews and finds deals on popular tech, from laptops to gaming consoles and VPNs. She has years of experience covering shopping holidays and can tell you what’s actually worth buying on Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day. Her work has also explored the driving forces behind digital trends within the shopping sphere, from dupes to 12-foot skeletons.

Haley received a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and honed her sifting and winnowing skills at The Daily Cardinal. She previously covered politics for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, investigated exotic pet ownership for Wisconsin Watch, and blogged for some of your favorite reality stars.

In her free time, Haley enjoys playing video games, drawing, taking walks on Lake Michigan, and spending time with her parrot (Melon) and dog (Pierogi). She really, really wants to get back into horseback riding. You can follow her on X at @haleyhenschel or reach her via email at [email protected].