TunnelBear Free is a VPN service founded in 2011 that's owned by the cybersecurity company McAfee. It's available on several platforms and has servers in 47 countries. The free version has a monthly data limit of 2GB. It includes obfuscation, a feature that disguises your traffic to make it appear like you're not using a VPN. It also allows unlimited simultaneous device connections.
TunnelBear also offers a paid, unlimited version that we also tested. See more in the Differences Between Variants section.
Our Verdict
TunnelBear Free is mediocre for torrenting. While it allows you to download torrents, it has a monthly data limit of 2GB, which can be frustrating if you need to download larger files. Also, its kill switch doesn't work properly, as it allows some unencrypted traffic to leak past the VPN after reconnecting to the internet or after a system restart or software crash. You have to provide your email address and password, potentially exposing your personal information in the event of a data breach. That said, it protects you from man-in-the-middle attacks and keeps your IP address and DNS queries within its tunnel while you use it.
Doesn't leak your IP address or DNS queries.
Proper TLS implementation protects you from man-in-the-middle attacks.
Kill switch leaks unencrypted traffic.
No anonymous registration options.
TunnelBear Free is a poor VPN for private browsing. Although its privacy policy says it doesn't retain traffic logs, the company may collect certain device hardware details and geolocation data. It also doesn't release independent security audits consistently or publish audits covering its privacy policy adherence. Technically, the VPN effectively encrypts your IP address and DNS requests. However, its kill switch is unreliable, which can leave your traffic exposed if the app crashes or your device restarts.
Doesn't leak your IP address or DNS queries.
Proper TLS implementation protects you from man-in-the-middle attacks.
Kill switch leaks unencrypted traffic.
No anonymous registration options.
Policies indicate the company can record device hardware information.
Infrequent independent security audits and no policy audits.
TunnelBear Free has bad privacy policies and business practices. Although the company says it doesn't keep user traffic logs, its policies state it can collect device details and geolocation data. The company commits to publishing independent security audits annually, yet no new reports have been released since 2023. In addition, the published audits don't address whether the company complies with its own privacy policy, which weakens its claims to protect user privacy.
Policies indicate the company can record device hardware information.
Infrequent independent security audits and no policy audits.
TunnelBear Free has acceptable security. It keeps your IP address and DNS queries encrypted while you're connected. It also offers protection against man-in-the-middle attacks as it has proper TLS implementation. Unfortunately, its kill switch doesn't work as intended, as it leaks some unencrypted traffic after reconnecting to the internet, a system reboot, or a software crash. This is a concern if you need all your traffic to be encrypted when your internet drops out or when you connect to a new network.
Doesn't leak your IP address or DNS queries.
Proper TLS implementation protects you from man-in-the-middle attacks.
Kill switch leaks unencrypted traffic.
We can't test TunnelBear Free's speeds because its monthly data limit is too low to run enough tests to get meaningful results.
Changelog
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Updated Mar 02, 2026:
We've updated the text throughout the review to reflect the changes from Test Bench 0.10.
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Updated Jan 23, 2026:
We've updated the text throughout the review to reflect the changes from Test Bench 0.10.1.
- Updated Jan 23, 2026: We've updated this review to Test Bench 0.10.1! This is a minor update to how we conduct our speed tests. Read the changelog for more info.
- Updated Jan 15, 2026: We've updated our review to Test Bench 0.10! This update focuses on privacy and evaluates the trustworthiness of a VPN in keeping your personal information private. Read the changelog for more details.
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
TunnelBear Free has a paid unlimited tier that we tested separately, a tier for teams, and a free tier that we tested in this review.
| Plan | Linux Support | City Selection | Data Limit | Admin Tools & Centralized Billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | No | No | 2GB per month | No |
| Unlimited | Yes* | Yes | Unlimited | No |
| Teams | Yes* | Yes | Unlimited | Yes |
*You can only manually configure the VPN on Linux.
Popular VPN Comparisons
TunnelBear Free lags behind other free VPNs we've tested, like Proton VPN Free, Windscribe Free, and Hotspot Shield Free, due to its low data limit of 2GB per month. That said, you can connect to servers in 47 countries, considerably more than those other services. This makes it a decent option if you don't need to download many files or stream a lot of bandwidth-intensive content but need access to servers in many different countries.
TunnelBear Free is owned by McAfee, a security company backed by private equity and associated with a controversial corporate track record. Although TunnelBear promotes a no-logging policy, its privacy policy shows that it collects a notable amount of device hardware information. The company also doesn't release independent security audits on a consistent schedule. Furthermore, the audits it has published don't verify whether TunnelBear complies with its stated privacy commitments to users.
Check out our articles on the best VPNs, the best free VPNs, and the best free VPNs for Windows to see which services we recommend.
Test Results
The kill switch doesn't work as intended, as network traffic leaks outside the VPN tunnel after a reboot and after a software crash, reboot, or loss of internet. This can be problematic if you're concerned with keeping your traffic encrypted at all times, like if your system freezes and you have to restart it.
This VPN doesn't implement BGP properly, but this is true with almost every VPN service. This means that even if your ISP protects against attacks like route hijacking, your traffic could still be misdirected once it enters the VPN's network. This is only a concern for highly targeted and resource-intensive attacks that are feasible only for governments or large corporations to orchestrate.
The paid version of TunnelBear is one of the only VPNs we tested that passed this test. TunnelBear Free failed because it used a different DNS provider that didn't implement BGP properly.
TunnelBear Free states in its privacy policy that it doesn't collect your IP address, DNS queries, or browsing traffic while you use the service. However, it does gather certain geolocation and device data for analytics purposes, and the policy may be updated without notifying users.
The company hasn't released any independent audits to substantiate its privacy claims. Its transparency report also shows that it has confirmed the existence of two user accounts in response to requests from government authorities.
TunnelBear Free is owned by McAfee, which in turn is controlled by private equity firms that have faced criticism for prioritizing profit through common buyout strategies rather than investing in long-term product development.
Although TunnelBear has released a transparency report, it hasn't been updated since 2023. The company has pledged to conduct and publish annual independent security audits, yet no audits have been released for 2024 or 2025, and one medium-severity issue remains unresolved.
Its terms of service are written clearly, but include provisions that allow the company to change the terms at its discretion, suspend accounts without prior notice, and terminate accounts without providing an appeals process.
We can't test TunnelBear Free's speeds because its monthly data limit is too low to run enough tests to get meaningful results.
We can't test TunnelBear Free's speeds because its monthly data limit is too low to run enough tests to get meaningful results.
We can't test TunnelBear Free's latency because its monthly data limit is too low to run enough tests to get meaningful results.
Mobile apps are available for iOS and Android, as well as browser extensions.
You can only connect to specific cities if you get the paid version of TunnelBear.