Are you having a hard time picking the best VPN? Well, choosing a good VPN service for you may sometimes seem tricky.
However, to simplify things for you, we have personally handpicked two great VPN service providers and done like a comparison between the two to know the better one to choose – so, which is better in comparison of ExpressVPN vs TunnelBear?
The question can only be answered after we’ve gone through the similarities and disparities in their features, pricing, performance and many more.
How to determine the best VPN for you
The first thing to help you with is how to determine a good VPN amidst several others available. A lot of folks make the mistake of choosing a VPN service provider based on only one or two factors, and it’s important to note that to choose a good one, you must also look closely at some other things.
Also, while a low price offer is good, having a faster connection speed is better. And at the same time, a speedy connection cannot also take the place of good security offered by a VPN service. However, all are needed. Many VPN service providers tend to go over people’s heads with terms like “encryption,” therefore, we’ll be discussing the categories that you should consider in the face-off between the two VPNs in question.
ExpressVPN vs TunnelBear Comparison
Speed
The kind of VPN you use tells a whole lot on your web-browsing experience. When it comes to speed connection, ExpressVPN is known to be at the top of the bar. With the speed test conducted here at Pixel Privacy on both VPN providers, we made use of the Speedtest.net app to measure their speeds. The table below shows the result.
Average Connection Speeds
| VPN | Avg. Connection Speed |
| ExpressVPN | 101.04 Mbps |
| TunnelBear | 50.1 Mbps |
After the test, TunnelBear is discovered to have delivered an average speed of 50.1Mbps during the test, which makes it perfect enough for downloading large files from servers, gaming, and more.
On the other hand, ExpressVPN delivered a download speed that is like double of TunnelBear, averagely at about 101.04 Mbps. This average speed is great for online activities such as file sharing, gaming, and streaming.
Please note that if you’re going to run the test yourself, the connection speeds will most likely be different from ours, and this depends on the speeds supplied by your ISP, your location and the servers you decide to use.
Pricing
When it comes to pricing, TunnelBear is found at the extreme end of the spectrum to ExpressVPN. TunnelBear is well known to be a low-priced VPN service provider while its opponent offers an array of services at a premium rate. TunnelBear takes the lead in this aspect as it offers a fair price of less than half of that of ExpressVPN.
The actual prices of these providers are not included as they tend to change their pricing schemes over time and offer special deals on certain occasions. The table below, however, shows the refunding policy of both providers.
| VPN | Money-Back Guarantee Period |
| ExpressVPN | 30 days |
| TunnelBear | 30 days |
Privacy
Privacy is one primary reason a lot of people use a Virtual Private Network. Therefore, it is very crucial to pay good attention to this aspect of the bid to choose a good VPN provider.
Below are some things to consider when checking the level of privacy protection offered by a service provider:
- Is the provider located in a privacy-friendly country?
- Does the provider register user activity logs?
- Does the provider allow privacy-enhanced forms of payment like Bitcoin and others?
ExpressVPN does not keep activity logs of users as there is a law that guides against that in the country where it is located. Basically, there are no data retention laws in its country base of the British Virgin Islands. For individuals that are privacy-conscious, a disposable email address is allowed to be used to sign up for the service and also the payment can be done via Bitcoin to ensure a complete anonymous identity.
TunnelBear, on the other hand, is situated in Canada. And the government of the country requires Internet Service Providers to offer access to user logs; however, a decision has not been made yet as to whether it applies to VPN service providers or not. However, be rest assured that TunnelBear doesn’t record any user info.
| VPN | Privacy Ranking |
| ExpressVPN | 5.0 |
| TunnelBear | 4.5 |
Features
When you’re making your choice of a VPN provider, one very basic thing is to weigh the features each provider offers, and this consequently helps in making a well-informed choice. Some of the features worthy of consideration are briefly discussed below.
Security
A VPN makes use of military-grade encryption to protect your activities online against prying eyes which also includes keeping both your personal and business-related information safely out of reach.
TunnelBear uses the Advanced Encryption Standard with 256-bit keys which is commonly known and referred to as AES-256, with IPSec/IKEv2 and OpenVPN protocols to protect their users’ connections. It also offers kill switch protection and the ability to make your VPN traffic look like normal browser traffic.
ExpressVPN also makes use of AES-256, and VPN protocols such as OpenVPN, PPTP and L2TP/IPSec are also included in the provider’s apps. There’s additional protection via kill switch protection, a DNS leak and IPv6 leak prevention.
Simultaneous Connections
Connection speed, as discussed earlier, can also be affected by the number of simultaneous connections made from different devices. However, both ExpressVPN and TunnelBear offer the maximum number of simultaneous connections – 5 users at once.
Streaming Support
Access to streaming services offered by a VPN provider can be very essential for some folks that like to explore outside their regions.
ExpressVPN offers reliable access to a good number of streaming services such as Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and even the new additions to the streaming ranks like Disney+.
On the other side, you might get a little disappointed with TunnelBear on this as it doesn’t claim to support any streaming access.
BitTorrent Support
One very common activity done on the internet today is the P2P file sharing. However, this can be used for illegal reasons, but it enables companies to share copyrighted materials such as music, movies etc.
ExpressVPN allows the use of this technology on all of its servers around the globe. It also offers a guide on how to protect your files with it.
TunnelBear doesn’t support the P2P file-sharing activity, and this tends to make ExpressVPN a good choice for many people over TunnelBear.
Wrap up
Having looked at a good number of factors that can make a good choice of VPN provider, ExpressVPN takes the lead in more aspects than its counterpart. This includes connection speed, privacy, BitTorrent, global server coverage, streaming, and even the ones not discussed in this article – multi-platform support and customer support departments. However, one good reason you can opt for TunnelBear is the pricing which is fair enough.
