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Every provider we cover offers a money-back guarantee. NordVPN gives 30 days, CyberGhost gives 45, and the rest sit between.
TunnelBear offers none. Refunds are considered case by case rather than granted on request within a fixed window. That is the only such policy in our coverage, and it changes how you should approach the whole comparison: the free tier is not a taster, it is the trial.
Which is a shame, because TunnelBear has something NordVPN does not — it invented the practice of publishing VPN audits, and has repeated it every year since 2017. This NordVPN vs TunnelBear comparison covers both sides of that.
The Short Answer
NordVPN wins for most people, at 4.8 against 4.0. Fastest in independent testing, six audits, ten devices, streaming that works, and 30 days to change your mind.
TunnelBear wins on devices, simplicity and audit history. Unlimited connections, the friendliest interface in the category, and an unbroken run of published audits going back further than anyone’s.
Test TunnelBear on the free tier before paying, because you will not get the money back.
Head to Head
| NordVPN | TunnelBear | |
|---|---|---|
| Refund window | 30 days | None — case by case |
| Free tier | 3-day Android trial | 2 GB a month, no card |
| Devices | 10 | Unlimited |
| Speed | 2.9% loss (CNET) | Adequate |
| Audits | 6, account holders only | Annual since 2017, published |
| Owner | Nord Security | McAfee |
| Jurisdiction | Panama | Canada (Five Eyes) |
| Streaming | Reliable | Netflix usually fails |
| Servers | 6,400 to 9,500 | ~47 countries |
| Four years | ~$335 | ~$160 |
| Our rating | 4.8 | 4.0 |
The Refund Difference
Start here, because it changes what you should do rather than merely what you should think.
NordVPN gives 30 days, granted on request. Buy, use the real product for a month, ask for the money back if it disappoints.
TunnelBear considers refunds case by case. There is no fixed window and no guarantee. Reports describe requests being granted, but the policy does not promise it.
⚠️ So the free tier is not a bonus, it is the evaluation period. Two gigabytes a month with no payment card, full server access, no ads. That covers roughly two hours of HD video — enough to confirm the apps work and speeds are acceptable, not enough to test sustained use or streaming.
Practical advice: run TunnelBear free for a week on the devices you actually use, then treat the paid subscription as non-refundable. Our free trial guide covers what each provider’s conditions actually mean.
Winner: NordVPN, and it is not a close call.
The Audit History TunnelBear Deserves Credit For
Here the direction reverses, and the credit is genuine.
TunnelBear commissioned the first public third-party VPN audit. Cure53 did the work in 2016, the report appeared in 2017, and it did not flatter the company — two critical issues and five high-severity, all published and subsequently fixed. Publishing that was the point.
It has repeated the exercise every year since, reaching the eighth annual audit by 2024. Cure53 raised 32 issues in 2022 and 13 in 2023, of which two were high-risk and none critical.
NordVPN has six assessments, most recently by Deloitte between 10 November and 12 December 2025 under the ISAE 3000 standard. Rigorous work by a Big Four firm covering standard, Double VPN, Onion Over VPN and obfuscated servers.
⚠️ But NordVPN’s reports go to subscribers through their account. TunnelBear’s stay on the website with the findings intact. More audits behind a login against fewer you can open — the same tension we found comparing NordVPN with Proton VPN. ExpressVPN publishes more still, and openly.
Winner: NordVPN on auditor weight and count, TunnelBear on the cadence and the publishing.
Speed, Servers and Streaming
CNET measured a 2.9% average download loss for NordVPN across more than 250 tests — the best result in that lineup, achieved with NordLynx, which is WireGuard with a double NAT layer on top.
TunnelBear’s speeds are adequate rather than notable. WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2 are supported, and throughput handles HD video on nearby servers. It does not approach NordVPN’s figure.
Network size is not close either. NordVPN runs between 6,400 and 9,500 servers depending on the source; TunnelBear covers roughly 47 countries.
Streaming settles itself. Published testing reports Netflix failing on most TunnelBear servers, and the company maintains no streaming-optimised servers and no Smart DNS. NordVPN unblocks reliably and ships Smart DNS for televisions that cannot run an app — our streaming guide covers why access shifts monthly for everyone.
Winner: NordVPN.
Devices, Ownership and Jurisdiction
TunnelBear allows unlimited simultaneous connections on every paid plan, changed from a previous cap of five. Many reviews still quote the old number. NordVPN allows ten.
⚠️ That is a genuine win for a household, and it comes at half the four-year cost. Against Surfshark the advantage disappears, because that one is unlimited too.
Ownership differs in kind. NordVPN’s parent, Nord Security, also owns Surfshark — two of the five providers we rank under one roof. TunnelBear was acquired by McAfee in March 2018, a publicly traded US security company, though the team stayed in Toronto and the audit programme survived intact.
Jurisdiction favours NordVPN. Panama sits outside every intelligence-sharing arrangement. Canada is a member of the Five Eyes, and TunnelBear’s corporate parent is American.
⚠️ Nothing has gone wrong at TunnelBear in eight years of corporate ownership — no breach, no logging incident, no reported disclosure. The concern is structural rather than historical, and our legality guide covers how much jurisdiction decides on its own.
Winner: TunnelBear on devices, NordVPN on jurisdiction.
Price: Half the Money, and None of It Refundable
TunnelBear runs about $3.33 a month on the three-year plan, $4.00 annually and $9.99 month to month. Across four years that comes to roughly $160.
NordVPN Basic starts around $3.39 on the two-year plan and renews at $139.08 a year — the steepest renewal we track, as our renewal price table sets out. Four years lands near $335.
So TunnelBear costs less than half. For a household with many devices and no interest in streaming, that is a strong case.
⚠️ A cheap subscription you cannot return is not automatically better value than a dearer one you can. Thirty days of the real product has a price, and TunnelBear does not sell it.
Winner: TunnelBear on the number, with a condition attached.
Winners by Category
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Refund window | NordVPN |
| Speed | NordVPN |
| Server coverage | NordVPN |
| Streaming | NordVPN |
| Jurisdiction | NordVPN |
| Audit count and auditor | NordVPN |
| Devices | TunnelBear |
| Audit cadence and publishing | TunnelBear |
| Free tier | TunnelBear |
| Four-year cost | TunnelBear |
| Ease of use | TunnelBear |
When to Choose TunnelBear Instead
It is your first VPN. The interface is the friendliest in the category by a distance, and that matters more than most feature lists.
You have more devices than people. Unlimited connections at half the cost is a real argument.
An unbroken audit run matters to you. Nobody else has published every year since 2017, and nobody else publishes the findings alongside the fixes.
You will test on the free tier first. Two gigabytes a month with no card is enough to know whether the apps work on your machines.
⚠️ Do not choose it for streaming. Published testing reports Netflix failing on most servers, and there is no Smart DNS.
How We Research
This comparison draws on our full reviews of both providers, where every figure was verified against named primary sources at the time of writing — the published Cure53 audit reports and TunnelBear’s summaries of them, contemporaneous reporting on the March 2018 McAfee acquisition, NordVPN’s assurance-engagement announcements, published streaming testing from named reviewers, and each provider’s own pricing and refund terms. We don’t run our own speed tests. Where reviews carried figures a provider has since changed, notably TunnelBear’s device limit, we use the current number and say which ones are stale. Our full approach lives on the About Us page.
NordVPN vs TunnelBear FAQ
Not through a standard guarantee. TunnelBear considers requests case by case rather than offering a fixed window, which sets it apart from every other provider we cover. NordVPN gives 30 days on request. Use TunnelBear’s free tier to evaluate first and treat the subscription as difficult to reverse.
NordVPN, by a clear margin. It lost 2.9% of baseline download speed in CNET’s testing across more than 250 runs, the best result in that lineup. TunnelBear’s speeds are adequate for HD video on nearby servers but do not approach that figure.
TunnelBear allows unlimited simultaneous connections on every paid plan, changed from a previous cap of five that many reviews still quote. NordVPN allows ten. For a household with more devices than people, that is TunnelBear’s strongest practical advantage.
It depends what you count. NordVPN has six assessments by Deloitte, a Big Four firm, published to account holders. TunnelBear has an unbroken annual run since 2017 by Cure53, published openly with the findings intact. It also commissioned the first public VPN audit anyone had done.
For evaluation, yes. It gives 2 GB a month with no payment card and full server access, which covers roughly two hours of HD video. It is not enough for sustained use, and streaming does not work reliably on TunnelBear at any tier.
The Verdict
NordVPN takes it, on speed, coverage, streaming, jurisdiction and the ability to get your money back.
TunnelBear’s case is real and cheaper. Unlimited devices at half the four-year cost, the friendliest apps in the category, and an audit record that started before anyone was asking for one.
But the refund policy changes the order of operations. With NordVPN you can buy and decide later. With TunnelBear you decide first, on two gigabytes a month, and then commit. That is a worse deal for you, and it is worth knowing before rather than after.