Tunnelbear VPN Review – Is It Reliable?
One of the most detailed policies we currently have seen from any VPN provider, with detailed information on anything the network gathers, as well as everything it doesn’t, is TunnelBear’s Personal Privacy policy. We must say comprehensive too – the names of the cookies used by TunnelBear.com, their meanings and expiry dates are also available for users.
TunnelBear describes the logging policy explicitly by specifying that TunnelBear does not collect “IP addresses on the connection to our website,” “IP addresses on the connected network link,” “DNS queries when connecting,” “any data on apps and services or sites that our customers use while linked to our Network.” It sounds good for us.
It tracks, once you connect to a network, what it refers to as “Operational Information.” It includes the system OS version, the software version for TunnelBear, whether you were online and the bandwidth that you used it month. There’s nothing that anyone can use to start connecting you with a certain online action, but this is far less than we’ve been able to see elsewhere.
Whilst that looks great, it is typically impossible to tell whether you should believe in what you are told by a VPN provider. But it’s a little different from TunnelBear. In 2017 and also 2018, the organization hired independent experts on its servers, the process as well as software to perform a public security review.
The findings of the audit were not impeccable and the report listed a number of defects. But it was not critical and TunnelBear fixed it later. In order to allow us the access to their processes at this point, we must appreciate the transparency and openness of the business to its customers.
In TunnelBear’s Windows software, we performed our own much less complicated privacy tests and this resulted in favorable results. No DNS or WebRTC leakages were present to give away our identities, and when the VPN link was opened, the VigilantBear kill switch immediately hindered Internet accessibility.
Performance
In order to test TunnelBear’s reliability and record the connection time, we first logged in on each server. Next, we carried out ping tests for latency problems and did a geolocation inspection to see if the server is in the advertised country.
We did the test twice after every 12 hours, making sure that connections to any web server is as easy to connect as before. The time of connection was fast each time. However, time of ping differs but was not enough to raise serious concerns.
The following, we tried to assess the optimal speed for TunnelBear download for UK and US, using benchmarking sites like TestMy, Netflix’ Fast, and Ooklas SpeedTest.
With only around 3-4% less quality without a VPN, our nearest UK server has given us 63-65 Mbps bandwidth.
Speeds in America hit 95 Mbps, with our average score of 60 Mbps, which is disappointing for our very fast connection to 475 Mbps. Obviously, emailing, browsing, and downloading is still fast enough if your device is connected to a 30Mbps internet connection. We do, however, see that some companies achieve better results-on a test, and PIA (Private Internet Access) showed up to 200 Mbps in each test.
We didn’t have as many variables as we had during the remote speed test, but somehow we made some tests and also very positive results. The quality is less standard, we thought, but there is a daily download speed of 20 to 30 Mbps that is enough to perform basic routine tasks.
Netflix
One of the main reasons a VPN can be marketed is that it lets you access sites and unverified web content from elsewhere. That doesn’t always work, though.
Torrents
Typically VPNs don’t like to market with torrents and it isn’t difficult to understand why. Some people can share less information than other people. Through downloading and installing illegal items, the copyright police may increase the concern.
Windows customer
A gray world map will appear to show you your current location and all other VPN pages.
You can also choose something else from the top-down list in the current location at the top to find the area in a far more convenient way. Not too difficult, but documenting alphabetical locations is certainly being considered by TunnelBear.
Click on the link once you have chosen the location to connect. Tunnelbear shows desktop warnings to inform you about the connection status. Ultimately, it’s a very good thing, as it makes sure that you can see if your connection is secure, even if the tab is minimized.
Overall, TunnelBear’s Windows customer is not bad, and you may also find that they are similar to any other kind if your needs are simple. But the user’s interface and the simple checklist could disappoint professional consumers. There is a plenty of room to improve in that particular section.
Mobile Apps
The Android and iPhone TunnelBear applications are much the same as the Windows version. It provides a global map with highlighted VPN destinations, a shorter list of countries, not yet sorted alphabet-wise, and a few other helpful settings.
Maps work a little better than versions of the browser. For example, you can move left or right, and also come back where you started. The Android app can switch from portrait to landscape to provide a much better view, however, no zoom option available for now.
The choice of the database looks similar because you can pick places from the map or from the location checklist. Nevertheless, both options cause verification at this moment before they connect, so you could need another click.
There are several feature options in the Android Settings box, including the ability to disable, deactivate, or view fluffy clouds on your map. You can use the desktop version completely, different. If you do not have access to a secure network, automatic link, to try and avoid disrupting VPN, disable GhostBear and VigilantBear keys.
In general, alternative iOS app is much simpler. There is not GhostBear, kill button, tunneling and other confusions.
Final Verdict
It is not the biggest, quickest or most efficient VPNs, but it may have a huge credit report on the ease of use and the strong focus on opening up its research systems. Go for it if you appreciate their transparency policy and ease of connectivity.
