TunnelBear For Mac

VPN services come in many forms, from the simplest to the downright confusing. If you aren’t interested in configuring your connection and just want to either secure your traffic or change your location, TunnelBear might be for you.

This VPN was meant to be as novice-friendly as possible, with every other consideration pushed to the sidelines. It has a fair number of servers, support for most platforms, decent speed, and three protocols to choose from.

Once you’ve installed and launched the app, either select a specific location or let the service find the fastest one automatically. Then, you can just close the window and let the app run in the menu bar.

Almost everything can be handled automatically, from the location to the protocol. Speaking of protocols, the app supports OpenVPN, IKEv2, and WireGuard. Servers are available in a considerable number of countries, but it’s not the best VPN app in this regard.

Your location and available servers are going to be the deciding factor when it comes to connection speed. For eastern European servers, 200-300 Mbps was the most we could get, but the results may be different in other locations.

It’s available for macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Chrome, and Firefox. The browser extensions are even simpler, and they operate separately from the desktop app. Coupled with the fact that a subscription covers an unlimited number of devices, it's not a bad deal.

As far as features go, there’s nothing else to mention. No advanced connection configuration, no split tunneling, multi-hop connections, or automation. You get very little, but it may all you need.

TunnelBear has a great, easy-to-understand privacy policy. It does not log data, and the company undergoes regular independent audits and makes the results available to the public. Privacy-wise, this VPN is a top-tier choice.

In all other respects, except for ease-of-use, TunnelBear doesn’t excel. It’s not the cheapest, the fastest, or the most widespread, and it has one of the most limited feature sets of any competing service. But if you want a simple, reliable VPN that just works and keeps you secure on the web, it will do the job.