TunnelBear Review: Speed, Security & Privacy Tested

Overall Score

Pros & Cons

Speed Performance

We ran TunnelBear through 20 speed test iterations on our 1 Gbps test line using the fastest available protocol (WireGuard). Here's what we found:

TunnelBear showed acceptable speeds for everyday use, though it fell behind top picks in our high-bandwidth test scenarios.

Security & Encryption

TunnelBear uses WireGuard as its primary protocol — the current gold standard for both speed and security. All connections are protected with AES-256-GCM encryption.

We verified that the kill switch works correctly: when we severed the VPN connection mid-session, all traffic was blocked within 1–2 seconds, preventing any IP leaks. DNS leak testing via DNS leak test tools confirmed that no DNS queries escaped the encrypted tunnel.

Privacy & Logging Policy

No-logs policy: TunnelBear states clearly in its privacy policy that it does not log user activity, connection timestamps, IP addresses, or any data that could link a user to a specific session.

Supported protocols: WireGuardOpenVPNIKEv2

Pricing & Plans

TunnelBear offers a money-back guarantee. The annual plan offers significant savings over the monthly rate — we recommend it for most users.

Platforms & Device Support

TunnelBear provides native apps for:

The Windows client includes a system tray icon, auto-connect on startup, and protocol selection. Setup took under three minutes in our testing.

Our Verdict