TunnelBear VPN (for iPhone) - Review 2022

Likewise often, security companies opt for ominous imagery of faceless hoodie-clad hackers or other scaremongering designs to sell their products. Not so with TunnelBear VPN. This virtual private network, or VPN, secures information with a cadre of beautiful just powerful bears. The app is bursting with charm, but it besides delivers security at a proficient price. Still, the iPhone edition lacks the advanced features establish in the Windows app, and it fared poorly in some of our speed tests. All the same, TunnelBear'southward charm and simplicity mean you may want to install it for your not-techie friends.

What Is a VPN?

The free public Wi-Fi at the public library or cyberspace café may be convenient, simply it's not safe. A malefactor on the network could intercept your traffic. The network itself may be a creation of malevolent forces. It may not even be the network you recall you're using—crooks can spoof the network ID, making your device call back it's one of your usual connections. Out on the web, advertisers and authorities snoops are eager to track your movements online. To gainsay these possible spies, you lot need a VPN.

When your VPN is agile, it routes your web traffic through an encrypted connection to a server managed by the VPN service. Data thieves and phony networks can't bear upon that information. Using a VPN also helps protect against your Internet service provider selling anonymized metadata well-nigh your web habits. When your traffic exits to the web through the VPN server, yous appear to have an IP address at that server's location. This protects your real identity equally you browse the web, and foils advertisement networks that pin your surfing habits to your IP address.

Journalists or people living in countries with restrictive internet policies often employ VPNs. But they're also a handy style to spoof your location for less serious needs. With a VPN, you can view content that is region-locked, such as sporting events or Netflix movies that are available in some countries, but not in others, because the service spoofs your location. Netflix has gotten wise and started blocking VPN access. In our previous review TunnelBear was one of the VPNs that worked with Netflix, only non this time.

According to our contempo survey, there's a practiced take chances that yous've never laid hands on a VPN earlier. If that's the case, don't worry! We've got a whole characteristic on how to prepare and use a VPN.

Pricing and Servers

TunnelBear is 1 of the few providers we've reviewed that offers a free VPN service. However, the complimentary TunnelBear tier does restrict yous to merely 500MB of information per month. You tin earn more than data by tweeting about the company, which can heighten your limit to a total of 1GB for one month, and y'all earn bandwidth by tweeting every month. Other free VPNs, like that offered past HotSpot Shield Elite, serve you ads, limit admission to servers, or both.

If you decide to pay for TunnelBear, it won't suspension the bank. You tin snag the Giant program for $9.99 per month or the Grizzly plan for $59.88 per year. The electric current average monthly price is about $10.50, so TunnelBear's toll combined with the quality of service makes it a good value. Both the paid plans offer unlimited data and a total set of features.

You can pay for TunnelBear using major credit cards and anonymous BitCoin transactions. Yous can too pay from the app on the iTunes store. Other VPN services like TorGuard VPN (for iPhone) go even further, accepting prepaid gift cards from other merchants, such equally Starbucks and Subway. The next time yous receive 1 of these as a gift, consider putting it towards a VPN instead of a venti mocha.

With either a free or a paid business relationship, you tin can apply up to 5 devices with a single TunnelBear account. That'southward average for VPNs, although NordVPN offers six, CyberGhost gives you 7, and KeepSolid VPN Unlimited (for iPhone) lets you tack on more devices for an incremental charge.

IPVanish VPN (for iPhone), TorGuard, and a few other services offer software for routers. This finer protects every device on your network while only counting ane device (the router) toward your limit of protected devices. TunnelBear doesn't offer this scheme. In whatsoever case, a router-based VPN won't do you a lick of good when your mobile device is abroad from the home network.

Representatives from TunnelBear told u.s. that it offers approximately i,000 servers at any given time. That'southward a good offer, simply it'southward a far cry from Private Net Access, which offers well over three,200 servers in more than twenty locations. With more than 3,400 servers in 59 countries, NordVPN (for iPhone) gives y'all fifty-fifty more choices. The number of servers matters considering yous become meliorate performance if the VPN server you're using isn't already stuffed to capacity with other subscribers.

Every bit for server locations, TunnelBear offers servers in 20 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, holland, Kingdom of norway, Singapore, Espana, Sweden, Switzerland, Uk, and these United states of america. Information technology'south a skilful selection, merely it leaves out all of Africa, the Centre East, and places like Russian federation and Turkey, which accept repressive net admission policies. Editors' Choice winners VPN Unlimited and NordVPN offering more than locations. The more locations a VPN company offers, the better operation you lot'll take when traveling abroad, since there will be a VPN server close by. Having more server locations to choose from also means more options for spoofing your location.

TunnelBear does not include integrated ad blocking. Instead, the company has quietly launched a stand-alone browser plugin called Blocker. It retains TunnelBear's trademark bears and charm, and is surprisingly well polished for a Chrome plugin, simply information technology's naturally less useful on an iPhone. See our review of the total TunnelBear VPN for consummate details.

Annotation that several advanced features from the Windows edition don't appear on the iPhone, specifically: Vigilant mode, which protects your data while the VPN reconnects; Ghost Bear, which disguises VPN traffic as HTTPS traffic much like the like feature in Golden Frog VyprVPN (for iPhone); Trusted Networks, which automatically uses VPN if you connect to an untrusted network; and Impale Switch, which halts internet-aware programs when the VPN connection is lost. Apple's potent grip on what apps can and tin can't do brand these features tough to implement under iOS, though NordVPN offers Kill Switch and VyprVPN activates automatically on untrusted networks. In truth, TunnelBear's iPhone edition is sleeker and friendlier without these advanced features.

Your Privacy With TunnelBear

TunnelBear's greatest strength, likewise its powerful bears, is its stance on privacy. Information technology has ane of the best privacy policies we've seen, explaining, in great detail and with plain language, exactly what it collects and why. It too includes discussion sections, in which the company explains how it arrived at a particular decision. For case, a pull-out department talks nearly how the company used to gather users' names to customize communications, but decided that this information didn't need to be gathered or stored and that its loss could put customers at risk.

TunnelBear's privacy policy also clearly states that it does not store the IP addresses of those visiting the company's website, the IP address of users upon connection, any DNS queries from users while connected, or any information regarding other activities past users while using TunnelBear. This includes other apps you might be running, or other sites yous might visit. By not having this data in the starting time place, the visitor cannot exist compelled to hand it over to constabulary enforcement, nor could information technology lose control of information technology in a data breach.

Notably, TunnelBear says that it volition non disclose, sell, or trade personal data with third-party companies. That's a remarkable delivery that not every VPN company makes. TunnelBear does use third-parties for payment processing, simply this is not unusual. Additionally, a company representative confirmed to u.s.a. that TunnelBear's only source of acquirement is subscriptions—not information mining or ad retargeting.

The company is based in Canada, and a company representative explained that it is not discipline to any mandatory data retentiveness laws. We at PCMag do not experience that we tin adequately pass judgment on a company'south privacy practices based solely on its location. However, it is important to know where a VPN company is headquartered and nether what legal jurisdiction it operates. We recommend that consumers consider this information, and simply go with the service they are most comfy with.

TunnelBear has the notable distinction of having completed an independent code inspect, and publicly released the results. The point of a code audit is to detect potential flaws in the app'south design, and so this is welcome news. These kinds of third-party evaluations aren't always conducted, or made public, and we're glad to run across that TunnelBear takes privacy and security seriously enough to undergo the audit. The just other VPN service we've reviewed that has undergone a like evaluation is AnchorFree Hotspot Shield Elite (for iPhone).

Hands On With TunnelBear

TunnelBear offers client software for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices, as well every bit browser plug-ins for Chrome and Opera. The plugins give you VPN protection on any device that can run the associated browser, but they're less important on an iPhone. For testing, we installed the TunnelBear iPhone app on an Apple tree iPhone SE. Information technology installed in a snap and was immediately ready to go.

Similar NordVPN and VPN Unlimited, TunnelBear's user interface centers on a earth map. NordVPN's map is a bit whimsical, with sailboats in the oceans, while VPN Unlimited offers a more than businesslike map. TunnelBear's map is the best-looking of the three. Tunnels sticking out of the ground identify server locations, while trees, shrubs, and mountains add interest. Tap a tunnel, ostend your want to connect, and so spotter equally an blithe bear tunnels there from your current location, and roars to indicate success (you tin can turn off the bear sounds). If you lot wish, yous can simply choose the desired location from a listing, but where's the fun in that?

On iOS devices, TunnelBear uses the IKEv2 protocol. This protocol is newer than IPSec, but in general we adopt OpenVPN. The problem is, Apple requires extreme vetting for any app that wants to utilise OpenVPN. VPN Unlimited is among the very few that support OpenVPN. TunnelBear does utilise OpenVPN in its Android, macOS, and Windows apps. Whatsoever the platform, you don't get a option of protocol, simply that's fine for most users.

You can gear up TunnelBear to always manage your phone'southward Wi-Fi traffic, and separately set it to activate whenever you lot're on the cellular network. In that location's likewise an selection to define certain networks as trusted, significant y'all don't need VPN protection on that network. Or, equally the help arrangement puts it, give your acquit a java break.

Some Dull Speeds

No affair the VPN you choose, y'all'll see an affect on your web-browsing experience. Most of the fourth dimension, it'southward a negative one, only there'southward the occasional exception. For example, in our latest round of testing, Hotspot Shield actually made downloads and uploads faster.

TunnelBear'south Windows app earned poor scores in our latest speed tests. Information technology profoundly increased latency in the domestic test, and slowed downloads more than than whatever other in the international download test. For mobile apps, we stick with testing on domestic servers.

To ready for this test, we set the iPhone to aeroplane way, disabling the volatile cellular connexion, and so turn on Wi-Fi. You're much more than likely to encounter man-in-the-middle attacks and other attacks over Wi-Fi than arcane attacks on your cellular data. We use Ookla's net speed test tool, running it several times with the VPN turned off and immediately running several more than tests with the VPN connected. (Note that Ookla's Speedtest.net is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag's publisher.) Averaging runs with and without VPN lets usa see simply how the VPN afflicted speeds.

Latency, merely put, is the time it takes to ping a remote computer and receive a response. High latency could cause lagging in a fast-paced action game, though y'all're more probable to play those on the PC than on an iPhone. TunnelBear increased latency past 21.seven percentage, better than the current average of 28 percent. CyberGhost VPN (for iPhone) aced this test, with just a 3.7 pct increment. At the other cease, IPVanish increased latency by 79.v percent.

Meet How Nosotros Test VPNs

Any subtract in download speed due to VPN usage will irk most users, specially if it'south a big decrease. Here, also, TunnelBear didn't fare so well, slowing downloads by 34.4 percent. Only IPVanish, with a 47.4 per centum slowdown, did worse in contempo tests. CyberGhost only slowed downloads by 9.5 per centum, and, as noted, Hotspot Shield increased download speed.

All contempo products slowed uploads, but non by a huge corporeality. Even the worst, Private Internet Access and TorGuard, only slowed uploads by viii.five percent. TunnelBear slowed uploads by 5.ane per centum, a fleck more than boilerplate. PureVPN (for iPhone) put just a 2.4 percent slowdown on uploads, while Hotspot Shield sped them up a bit.

Novices Volition Beloved the Bear

TunnelBear has ever been a favorite of ours. In the ofttimes ossified and overly technical earth of security products, it's lighthearted and cute. The company has always put a premium on blueprint and user experience, rare in the earth of VPNs. The Windows version of TunnelBear VPN is an Editors' Choice. The iPhone app lacks some of the avant-garde features that impressed us nether Windows, just that's just fine for coincidental users. Thinking of installing a VPN for your parents, or for a non-techie friend? TunnelBear is a neat choice.

That said, it falls short in the important expanse of geographically various servers, and it lacks the specialty servers offered by some of the competition. In improver, it caused significant slowdowns in some of our speed tests. For an iPhone VPN that'south both effective and attractive, we recommend NordVPN or KeepSolid VPN Unlimited, our Editors' Choice products in this area. Withal, we wouldn't fault anyone for cuddling upward with this carry.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/tunnelbear-vpn-for-iphone/15839/tunnelbear-vpn-for-iphone

Posted by: harrisdonelly.blogspot.com

Share this post