TunnelBear

Cuteness overload and Netflixcapable.

TunnelBear is another popular provider that also offers a free service, but in this case that free service is volumelimited to 500MB per, which makes it less than useful for streaming purposes. If you want a streaming-capable service, you’ll need to subscribe.

It’s available as a browser extension or a (very cute) downloaded app. You don’t get to choose the specific server you use, only the country, and the app has very few options besides that. It does have a privacy tool that provides tracker filtering similar to Disconnect.me. But there’s no kill switch or DNS/IPv6 protection.

Given its lack of specific server options, there’s not a lot of troubleshooting to be done if a given streaming service doesn’t work. For us, connected to the US, Hulu did not work. Netflix somewhat surprisingly did work, but whatever technique or server TunnelBear was using to make Netflix happen was clearly heavily overburdened. The Netflix playback suffered from long, long buffering times and was stuck in the lowest resolution playback. It still gets a technical pass, but be warned it’s not the best experience.

For non-Netflix activity, however, the US service was snappy enough. Ping times were too high, being 123ms over the no-VPN control tests, but the throughput was more than acceptable. The UK struggled rather more, however, so don’t expect to watch UK services in HD, or even in SD at times.

As one of the few services that will work with Netflix without the need for playing “find the magic server,” TunnelBear gets respect, but has speed issues. Try the free version before handing over your credit card.