In February, NordVPN and Surfshark announced the two companies were merging, though they'll continue to operate autonomously. In December, ExpressVPN announced that it had officially joined Kape Technologies, a company that already owns several other VPNs and has raised privacy concerns in the past. 9, 2022: The VPN industry has undergone significant change in the past few months, with all three of our top VPN choices announcing major changes in corporate ownership. Meanwhile, competitor Surfshark costs half as much at $60 for a two-year subscription, outperforms TunnelBear on every privacy and feature front, has likewise been independently audited, and allows unlimited connected devices.īy every measurement I've got, TunnelBear is just a slightly overpriced yet middling offering within a privacy-averse jurisdiction, and has all the configuration options and visual appeal of Baby's First VPN by PlaySkool.Įditors' note, Feb. The TunnelBear plan with the best value is $120 for a three-year subscription with a limit of five connected devices. I know it can't be the cost that makes it so appealing. Why do people like this VPN so much? What am I missing? Is it the cutesy little bear animation that you see when you click the connection button? Is that what's got everyone excited? No judgment. It doesn't offer Tor-over-VPN, it only offers split tunneling on Android, and it can't even unblock Netflix. It holds a paltry 23 server locations from which you can't manually choose your server or even a city.

But it's also a Canadian business owned by US-based McAfee, so if you're looking for subpoena-proof international privacy, you're playing with fire. And yes, like some of its competitors, it offers yearly transparency reports and has been audited independently. Sure, TunnelBear's speeds are reasonable. But when I look at TunnelBear after a year spent under the hoods of its VPN competitors, I just don't get the excitement.

It was touted by Wirecutter as the New York Times' top virtual private network pick for several months through 2020, US News and World Report ranked it 6th for the year, and PC Magazine and TechRadar liked it too. TunnelBear's gotten a lot of hype in the last couple of years.

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