We put these VPNs to the test to find out which is the best!
TunnelBear is fast, but NordVPN is faster.
TunnelBear is surprisingly fast despite the few number of servers that the VPN has. That said, it’s nowhere near as fast as NordVPN which is one of the fastest VPNs at the moment. TunnelBear also takes longer to connect, and its ping is significantly higher.
| VPN vendor |
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|---|---|---|
| Download speed reduction | 19% (UK) | 17% (UK) |
| Upload speed reduction | 17% (FRA) | 17% (FRA) |
| Ping time to google.com | 25ms | 321.83ms |
| Average time to connect (sec.) | 9ms | 12ms |
| Unblock successful for |
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| Visit Site | Visit Site |
Speed determines how fast content uploads, so if you’re torrenting or streaming, you want the speed to be somewhat identical to your regular internet speed. Since a VPN encrypts your data, it usually takes a bit longer to send your data back and forth, which can slow down your connection. However, if your ISP deliberately slows down your connection (also known as throttling) a VPN might increase your internet speed. Testing a VPN is somewhat pointless because new servers pop up and affect speed. Your speed can also differ according to your location, so your speed test might not match ours. Having said that, we tested the speed in numerous locations to provide you with the average.
NordVPN’s server network is far much bigger and diverse.
NordVPN has a total of 5,200+ servers spread across 60 countries, while TunnelBear has just 350+ VPN servers located in 20 different countries. NordVPN’s network size ensures that you can never the clogged with many other users in the same server, and that you can connect to almost any region in the world.
Further, the VPN has special servers like torrenting, double VPN, anti-DDoS, and dedicated IP servers. With these, you can accomplish any task and stream Netflix and any other streaming platform.
| VPN vendor |
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Server Locations | 59 | 20 |
| Server Countries | 59 | 20 |
| IP Addresses | 5201 | 20 |
| Dynamic Server Switching | ||
| Visit Site | Visit Site |
The ratio of servers to countries is an important factor to look at when choosing a VPN. Only paying attention to location or number of servers can get you in trouble. More servers generally means faster speeds, but if VPN X has a few more servers than VPN Y but twice as many users, VPN X will typically have slower speeds. Ideally, you want a VPN that has a lot of servers in every location. This way you won’t have to worry that server/country that you want will be overburdened and running slow
NordVPN offers 24/7 live chat customer support which TunnelBear doesn’t.
Both NordVPN and TunnelBear provide sufficient installation and troubleshooting guides as well as FAQs. However, the most important part when it comes to support is ease of reaching out to the customer support team and the quality of service they offer.
While NordVPN gets all the support areas right, TunnelBear support service is almost non-existent. First of all, they don’t offer live chat support. The only way you can reach them is through a ticket system, and you can wait for many hours to get a reply.
NordVPN on the other hand offers 24/7 live chat support service so that users and potential customers can always talk to an agent. There’s also an email and ticketing system that can assist you with technical challenges within 2 hours.
| VPN vendor |
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|---|---|---|
| Email Response Time | 3 | 6 |
| 24/7 Support | ||
| Live Chat | ||
| Knowledge Base | ||
| Video Tutorials | ||
| Visit Site | Visit Site |
We personally test the customer support team of every VPN we review. This means asking technical question through the live chat feature (where applicable) and measuring the response time for email questions. Whether you need to connect to a specific server, change your security protocol, or configure a VPN on your router, finding a VPN with quality customer support should be important to you.
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