TunnelBear VPN service offers simple privacy apps for individuals, small businesses, and organizations that want to safely access email, favorite web sites, and entertainment while traveling.
Those who don’t travel will find using TunnelBear an easy way to keep online activity secure at home while gaining the ability to “tunnel” out to one of 20 countries across the network.
TunnelBear success is based largely on ease of use and its Teams feature that provides centralized billing and easy management for organizations wanting the security a VPN connection provides.
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TunnelBear Features
The features of both the subscription plans, Grizzly and Giant, are the same. Here’s what the paid plans of TunnelBear offer:
- Servers spread over 20 countries.
- Dedicated customer support for all technical queries.
- Ability to add up to 5 devices to a single VPN account simultaneously.
- Strict no logs policy.
- 7-day free trial on offer.
- Allows P2P file sharing.
- Teams – organizational management that can add members in seconds.
Pricing Options
TunnelBear users have the option to stay with the free plan offered by the VPN service provider or upgrade to either of the two paid subscription packages.
Plan Options
- Little: This is the free and most basic package offered by TunnelBear. The users can use 500MB of data every month without any payment.
- Giant Monthly Plan: This is the monthly subscription plan which costs $9.99 per month. The users have access to unlimited data and are charged on a monthly basis.
- Grizzly Yearly Plan: This is the most popular and cost-effective plan offered by TunnelBear. The billing is done annually and the plan is priced at $59.99 for 12 months, setting you back by just $5 every month. You can save flat 50% through the yearly plan.
There are separate subscription packages for corporate teams starting at $69 per person charged annually. The plan offers unlimited data usage as well as priority customer support via email.
Payment Methods
There are several ways you can pay on TunnelBear while purchasing the subscription plans. The payment methods on the portal include:
- Visa
- Mastercard
- American Express
- Bitcoin
Devices Supported
TunnelBear is compatible with almost all devices and operating systems. It has exclusive applications for each platform, including:
- Mac
- Windows
- Android
- iPhone and iPad
- Chrome and Opera browsers
Server Information
TunnelBear has over 1,000 servers that are spread across the globe in over 20 countries. The number is lower than a lot of other VPN service like Vypr, HMA and PureVPN. TunnelBear has its presence in about 22 countries with maximum servers being in Australia, Europe, Brazil, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico and India.
TunnelBear uses dedicated servers at all these locations rather than virtual servers for maximum transparency and authenticity. The service provider uses virtual servers in emergency cases or when there is an overflowing demand.
Privacy Features
TunnelBear offers one of the best privacy policy among the VPN service providers by claiming not to store any personal data and not selling it to third parties.
- Strict no logs policy.
- Uses OpenVPN encryption on all devices.
- A kill switch in the form of VigilantBear that secures your data in case of disconnection.
- GhostBear makes your already secure VPN data less exposed to detection by other ISPs.
Additional Features
- Independently audits itself and releases the results for the public to see, emphasizing transparency.
- Automatically connects when you start your device.
- The Auto Tunnel feature allows you to connect to the best tunnel and have the quickest connection.
- Secures your connection over public Wi-Fi.
- Can add up to 5 devices simultaneously.
- Users can gain access to content streaming sites like Netflix through TunnelBear VPN.
- The Blocker plugin disables ads and also adds another layer of protection to your privacy and online tracking.
Ease of Use
The TunnelBear software is pretty easy to use and also looks attractive with the entire bear theme. The website is easy to navigate and does not hound you with information overload. The design is colorful and plays around with different notification layouts. Since the design is similar for the apps across devices, it’s quite easy to navigate.
The app does not have a lot of advanced settings, unlike other VPN apps, but that’s what makes it easy to use for people just beginning with encryption. The home screen shows the place you are located in actually and the location of the server you are using along with tunnel you are using.
The user interface of TunnelBear is clean and does not clutter. The signing up process is easy as well and does not ask for details. There are no additional configurations required by the software.
About The Company
TunnelBear is a VPN service provider based in Toronto, Canada and is one of the few VPN service providers that provide both free and paid VPN services. The free services are capped post usage of which the users need to purchase the subscription.
The VPN company was founded in the year 2011 and since then has spread its network in over 20 countries. As the name suggests, they have the entire website designed around their mascot bears, along with the name of the plans.
TunnelBear adheres to the Canadian law which means it keeps some of the personal data like email address, data used, name, etc. and is bounded legally to hand over the data to Canadian law enforcement agencies if the need arises.
TunnelBear VPN Pros and Cons
TunnelBear is one of the simplest and most loved VPN service providers in the industry. Let’s take a look at what does and what doesn’t make it so appealing.
Pros
- One of the few VPN service providers to provide free services up to 500MB per month.
- Uses a strong AES 256-bit encryption.
- Simple, user-friendly navigation of the apps.
- Capacity to connect up to 5 devices simultaneously.
- Advanced security features like VigilantBear and GhostBear.
- Does not keep any private user information under the strict no traffic logs policy.
- Offers a 7-day trial run period to test the app before purchasing.
- The free plan also allows an in-depth test run of the VPN before purchasing the extended plan.
- Users can get extra 1GB under the free plan by tweeting about TunnelBear.
- Uses Blocker, its own Chrome plugin, to block ads and add to your online security.
- Priority customer support for TunnelBear for Teams.
Cons
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- The speed slows down on using GhostBear and even overall the servers record slower than usual speed for VPNs.
- Being located in 20 countries, there aren’t a lot of locations to choose from for servers.
- Does not support P2P file sharing and downloads which means no access to torrents.
- Netflix might be blocked on most of the servers as per some user tests.
- Does not support direct installation on your router.
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