PrivacyPick

Surfshark vs TunnelBear Comparison

Feature
Overview
Rating8.07.4
Pricing
  • $16.45/moStarter, 1 month
  • $3.39/moStarter, 1 year
  • $2.49/moStarter, 2 years
Show billing details
  • Starter, 1 month: Billed monthly, no discount
  • Starter, 1 year: Intro rate for the first 12 months (+3 bonus months); renews at $79/yr (~$6.58/mo) per Surfshark's billing-terms page
  • Starter, 2 years: Intro rate for the first 24 months (+3 bonus months); renews at $79/yr (~$6.58/mo, 1-year term) per Surfshark's billing-terms page
  • $9.99/moUnlimited, 1 month
  • $4.99/moUnlimited, 1 year
  • $3.33/moUnlimited, 3 years
Show billing details
  • Unlimited, 1 month: Billed monthly, no discount
  • Unlimited, 1 year: $59.88 billed every 12 months; TunnelBear's own checkout authorization text states future renewal terms are charged at the same $59.88 — a confirmed flat rate, not a discounted intro price. TunnelBear does not offer a standard 30-day money-back guarantee, reviewing refund requests case by case instead
  • Unlimited, 3 years: $120.00 billed once every 3 years; a one-time non-recurring charge per TunnelBear's own checkout flow, not an auto-renewing subscription — resubscribing after 3 years would be a new purchase at whatever pricing is current then, not a guaranteed renewal at this rate. Same case-by-case refund policy as the annual term
Established20182011
Platforms
WindowsmacOSLinuxAndroidiOS
WindowsmacOSAndroidiOS
Privacy
No-logs auditDeloitte 2025
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Second no-logs assurance engagement (first was 2023). Report published June 16 2025, updated November 26 2025; exact assessment period not disclosed. Examined standard, static, and multiport VPN servers, configuration/deployment processes, and privacy settings. Full ISAE 3000 report is only available to logged-in Surfshark account holders, not publicly downloadable. Separately, SecuRing completed an infrastructure security audit in December 2025, confirming network resilience with no critical vulnerabilities found.

Cure53 2025
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8th consecutive annual independent security audit, a white-box review (full source code, configuration, and backend access) conducted over 44 working days by 8 senior Cure53 auditors, blog post announcing completion published November 24, 2025. This round found 10 vulnerabilities of medium severity or higher plus 3 low-severity issues, all acknowledged and addressed or mitigated per TunnelBear. The prior (7th) audit, published February 2024, found 7 issues of medium risk or higher (5 medium, 2 high) out of 13 total. Unlike several other frequently-audited providers reviewed on this site, TunnelBear's audits consistently surface real, non-trivial findings each year rather than clean reports — presented here as a distinct trust profile (transparent about real issues, not a spotless record) rather than smoothed over.

JurisdictionNetherlandsUnited States
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Operating entity TunnelBear LLC (Delaware). Data storage and operations remain under Canadian law, per TunnelBear's own privacy policy.

Anonymous accountsNoNo
Network
Servers4,500+ servers
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100 countries — consistent across Surfshark's pricing and features pages.

47 countries
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Per TunnelBear's own homepage; exact total server count not published on the pages checked for this review.

Protocols
WireGuardOpenVPNIKEv2Dausos (macOS only)
WireGuardOpenVPNIKEv2
DevicesUnlimitedUnlimited
Features
Kill switchYesYes
Split tunnelingYesYes
Torrenting allowedYesYes
Double VPNYesNot specified
Rotating IPYesNot specified
Streaming unblockNot specifiedNot specified