Tunnel Bear and Cloak share a number of features and characteristics that make their services worthwhile. Both offer free trials, Open VPN, and incentivize social media spam. Cloak, however, does not advertise any limit on simultaneous server connections; while Tunnel Bear offers about five at once. One perk Tunnel Bear possesses in comparison to Cloak is that it gives back to privacy causes, making it an activist in the world of internet data protection. It is also much cheaper than Cloak. This may be for a very good reason, however, as Cloak incentivizes social media and rewards its customers when they post about the service on social media platforms. Cloak also logs the start and end of each outgoing connection, allowing no limit on the amount of server connections; while Tunnel Bear logs bandwidth usage and enables spam. Although both are listed in Five Eye countries, Tunnel Bear does not require ethical copy nor provides full disclosure. Neither VPN services meet the Privacy Tools IO Criteria, in fact, Tunnel Bear allows its users to connect using obsolete encryption standards. As far as the information shared between the web servers and the clients’ web browser, Cloak scores slightly higher in its SSL rating, but not by much. It is safe to say that neither services are entirely safe, as the users’ privacy is not guaranteed. Although clients have an advantage with Cloak in that it offers a thirty-day refund window, both Tunnel Bear and Cloak are similar in their little to no security protection.
Whilst the quality of Cloak is there for all to see, its limitations are exposed by its focus on only serving Apple devices, coupled with the fact that it retains partial usage logs and therefore puts elements of each user’s privacy at risk. TunnelBear is therefore our preferred option of the two, although those looking solely for a VPN that serves Apple will find that they’re very closely matched. Simple to install, and with an outstanding customer service reputation, TunnelBear is a highly cost effective option, particularly when taking into account the additional discounts made available by purchasing an annual plan.
Interestingly, if you compare TunnelBear VPN with NordVPN, which is our top ranked vpn, you'll see that TunnelBear VPN can learn a lot from NordVPN. Compare TunnelBear VPN with NordVPN
Alex (Shurf) Frenkel
Mel Snyder
Kate Veale
