TunnelBear vs. NordVPN

Just looking at the ratings we gave the two VPNs might give you an idea of who wins this one. NordVPN secured a near-perfect 9.7 score from us, while TunnelBear got an 8.8 rating. We could just leave it at that, but we believe there’s no such thing as a “VPN for everyone.” NordVPN is objectively better, but are there any reasons that one might want to choose TunnelBear over it? Well, to answer that, we tested both VPNs side by side.

As expected, NordVPN overwhelmed TunnelBear. It let us choose from more locations to connect to, gave us access to features like Threat Protection Pro that not all VPNs offer, and even let us have the option to add a password manager, secure cloud drive, and identity protection to our bundle. But, TunnelBear also makes a compelling case for itself, especially if you’re looking for a VPN that is completely free and safe to use. Let’s start this comparison by looking at what TunnelBear and NordVPN have in common.

>> Related: The Best and Safest Free VPNs to Use in 2024

What TunnelBear and NordVPN Have In Common

When you look at the TunnelBear and NordVPN websites, you’d think they have nothing in common. TunnelBear looks like a fun and easy-to-use app, while NordVPN looks like the professional option for IT specialists. In reality though, both VPNs cover most of what we expect from the best VPNs.

That bodes well for TunnelBear, specifically, because like we said, NordVPN is already one of if not the best VPN. So if you’re looking for just the core features of a VPN, you won’t have much problem finding them in TunnelBear.

Let’s take a look at those core VPN features:

• Kill Switch: VPN connections aren’t always stable, even if you’re using a VPN as good as NordVPN. That’s why the kill switch is a crucial VPN feature. It disables your internet connection the moment your VPN disconnects unexpectedly, preventing any traffic from leaking out. NordVPN has this feature on by default, but you’d need to turn it on (VigilantBear) the first time if you decide to go with TunnelBear.
• Encryption: Encryption also plays a vital role, as it’s what VPNs use to keep your online date private. We found that both TunnelBear and WireGuard use the same protocols: 256-bit AES, which is our gold standard, and ChaCha20, which is faster and just as secure.
• VPN Protocols: VPNs also follow a set of rules for determining how your traffic is routed through its servers. These VPN protocols decide how secure and reliable your connections become. NordVPN has a slight edge because it improved the WireGuard protocol to further improve its security, calling the enhanced version NordLynx. But by and large, TunnelBear and NordVPN both offer the most widely-used protocols: OpenVPN, WireGuard, and IKEv2.
• Split Tunneling: While not a security feature per se, Split Tunneling helps improve the user experience. If you’re doing something less important, like listening to music on Youtube Premium or checking the traffic up ahead, you can choose to make those online activities bypass the VPN connection. It saves you mobile data and keeps your connection fast. TunnelBear calls the feature SplitBear.
• P2P servers: There are also activities that require a specialized connection, such as downloading torrent through a VPN. Doing so requires P2P servers, which both TunnelBear and NordVPN have. The difference is that NordVPN listed all its P2P servers in an easy to access list. With TunnelBear, we needed to do a bit of trial-and-error to find P2P servers for torrenting. We should mention that NordVPN is one of our best VPNs for torrenting.
• Obfuscation: Speaking of NordVPN’s specialized P2P servers, we also saw obfuscated servers. These are servers that can bypass VPN blocks by making encrypted connections look like normal connections, and we recommend them for use in offices, schools, and even restrictive countries. It doesn’t offer a lot of obfuscated servers though, as opposed to TunnelBear that can enable obfuscation (GhostBear) in any available location. TunnelBear wins this one.
• Available apps: Lastly, both TunnelBear and NordVPN have apps for the major operating systems – Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux. If you’re using a device running on a platform other than those, though, we recommend NordVPN. It has wider support, even having an app for the latest tvOS version for Apple TVs.

>> Learn More: The Best VPNs for Apple TV

What TunnelBear and NordVPN Have That’s Different

Even though both companies cover most of the basics, there are a few stark differences we need to point out. These differences can make a big difference if your goal of using a VPN is to maintain your digital security. There are also a few differences that just come down to convenience. So, here are the main differences between TunnelBear and NordVPN:

• Privacy jurisdiction: When it comes to surveillance, we prefer VPNs based in countries that are non-members to Five Eyes, Nine Eyes and 14 Eyes, an alliance that legalizes governments getting customer data from companies. While NordVPN is based in Panama, a non-member country, TunnelBear is based in Canada, a member. That means that, under certain circumstances, they could be forced to hand the feds our data, which is obviously not ideal for a service meant to encrypt our data. In this round, NordVPN is clearly preferable to TunnelBear, particularly for those concerned about privacy.

• Data logged: Both TunnelBear and NordVPN have a no-logs policy, which basically means that they don’t record and store your web activities as you browse using their connections. They also don’t remember your real IP address, making it impossible to backtrack your VPN activities. That said, NordVPN’s no-logs policy has been independently audited, lending more credibility to its claims. TunnelBear is yet to undergo such auditing, although we have no reasons not to trust its privacy policy. NordVPN has a slight edge though.
• Multi-hop: For folks who want their online data fully anonymous, NordVPN offers the option to use a multi-hop connection; TunnelBear doesn’t. Multi-hopping connects you to two or more VPN servers, doubling the encryption and IP address concealment. It’s not for everybody because it also slows down your connection significantly – we experienced as much as 80-percent speed loss while testing NordVPN’s multi-hop – but it comes in handy for privacy-minded users.
• Free VPN: This is perhaps TunnelBear’s biggest win against NordVPN, because TunnelBear offers a lifetime free version. With NordVPN, you must absolutely pay for a subscription to use its services. We’d like to point out that TunnelBear caps its free VPN to 2 GB per month, which didn’t last us even two days. But if you’re looking to secure just some of your online activities, TunnelBear’s free version is a great solution for you.
• Servers: We also found that TunnelBear offers slightly more servers than NordVPN, but that’s not as big a win as you might think. It has 8,000 servers; NordVPN has servers somewhere in the 6,800 range. Both are more than enough to sustain millions of users, but we’re giving this point to NordVPN because it can change your IP address to an IP address in 111 countries. TunnelBear, on the other hand, only has 47 locations. We find the server location a more valuable factor than the number of servers available.
• Simultaneous connections: One of NordVPN’s long-standing drawbacks is the limit it places on each user’s simultaneous connections. You can only connect 10 devices at a time, whereas NordVPN’s starkest competitors such as Surfshark allow unlimited connections. TunnelBear, too, supports unlimited devices, so this point goes to TunnelBear.
• Bonus features: Here’s where NordVPN overwhelms TunnelBear. The latter is a plain old VPN – it does what a VPN should do, but not much else. NordVPN can round out your cybersecurity with features like Threat Protection Pro, which scans downloads for malware just like antivirus software would. It also offers bundles that could include the VPN, a password manager, secure cloud storage, and/or identity theft protection with insurance and cyber extortion protection.

When looking at the differences, NordVPN wins by a landslide. But that doesn’t put TunnelBear completely out of the race. The lifetime free version and unlimited simultaneous connections are its biggest assets, so if you’re looking for those things, TunnelBear is a great choice. Remember, it has all the core features of a top-tier VPN.

If you want anything other than those, though, especially if you’re looking to bolster your overall digital security, NordVPN is the much better solution.

Which VPN Is Faster?

Features aside, let’s talk about their performance, particularly the speed. It’s a commonly known fact that using a VPN impacts your internet connection – usually for the worse. Adding encryption and routing traffic to a remote server unsurprisingly reduces your internet speed. The question is, by how much?

We tested NordVPN and TunnelBear side by side to see which VPN slows us down more. Remember though that a lot of factors come into play when testing VPN speeds, so take these results with a grain of salt.

TunnelBear performed slightly better in the download speed department, dropping by only 3.16-percent. As a point of reference, our normal internet speed is in the range of 250 Mbps, so that amount of speed loss translates to only about 8 Mbps. Our 242 Mbps average with TunnelBear was still plenty fast. That said, NordVPN’s 5.78-percent drop translated to only about 14 Mbps, so it wasn’t a huge difference.

In the upload speed and latency departments, NordVPN was slightly better. But again, the difference is ignorable. We only noticed a significant contrast when we used the VPNs for online gaming. NordVPN – one of the best gaming VPNs – offered a smoother experience with very little lag. TunnelBear, with its 98 ms average ping, caused occasional latency spikes that resulted in lagging.

>> Find Out More: The Fastest VPNs of 2024 – Hands-On Speed Test Results

Which VPN Is More Affordable?

Lastly, let’s talk about pricing. Besides the fact that TunnelBear offers a free VPN, we find the two VPNs equally matched in terms of cost. It depends on how long you want your subscription to be, but essentially, the longer it is, the lower you’ll pay.

With monthly billing, TunnelBear costs $9.99 while NordVPN’s pricing starts at $12.99 but can go up to $17.99 depending on if you’ll buy add-on features such as access to NordPass, NordLocker, and NordProtect. We like TunnelBear’s single-tier pricing, but we also appreciate having bundled options from NordVPN.

If you’re looking for just a VPN though, focus on just NordVPN’s Basic plan. Now let’s see how TunnelBear’s pricing compares:

Looking at the one-year price as a point of comparison, we can see that TunnelBear is cheaper – by about $9 per year. But cheaper is not what we (and likely you) are looking for. We all want to get value for our money, and we believe NordVPN offers that better than TunnelBear. As we saw earlier, NordVPN wins almost every feature and category we discussed. For that alone, most would be willing to pay the extra $9.

As for the point we made earlier that going for a longer subscription will likely save you more money, that doesn’t apply to TunnelBear – at least not when it’s going up against NordVPN. TunnelBear’s three-year subscription is a long commitment but only reduces the monthly average cost to $3.33 (versus the one-year plan’s $4.99 monthly average cost). With a shorter, two-year commitment to NordVPN, you can already reduce the monthly cost to $3.36 (or even lower with on-going NordVPN deals).

The Final Verdict

There’s no doubt in our minds that whether you go with NordVPN or TunnelBear, you’ll have solid protection online, but this is a comparison, so we have to pick a winner. Fortunately for us, it was an easy call. As we stated right from the start, our tests have shown that NordVPN is objectively better than TunnelBear.

There are some subjective factors to consider though, such as the user experience and whether you’re looking for a free VPN versus a premium one. TunnelBear makes a good case for itself, but when it comes to brass tacks – how secure the VPN is, how it performs, and how much value you can get for your money – NordVPN is simply too overwhelming for TunnelBear. NordVPN is what we recommend.