IPVanish vs TunnelBear

Two services with no device limit, both owned by larger companies, both with a kill switch that an independent lab could not get to behave. The choice is between a narrow product and a broader one with a worse record.

What each will actually do

IPVanish has multi-hop, ad blocking, obfuscation, IPv6 protection and first-party apps for Apple TV, Android TV and Fire TV. TunnelBear has split tunnelling, obfuscation, a leaking kill switch and nothing much else — no multi-hop, no ad blocking, no port forwarding, nothing for a television, and support pages that say regional blocks are not something it pursues.

Both are missing a first-party Linux app, which for two products that otherwise chase breadth is an odd shared gap. Neither runs servers from memory and neither publishes client source.

For covering screens around a house, IPVanish does the job and TunnelBear does not.

Two kill switches, neither of which held

IPVanish's was found to leak after a reboot, a crash and a dropped connection. TunnelBear's leaks after a reboot and after a crash. This is the protective feature whose failure is silent, and both of these failed it in a lab. Verify it yourself after a restart whichever you choose, or choose something else — Windscribe and Proton VPN both pass.

On record they differ sharply. In 2016, under previous ownership, IPVanish told Homeland Security it kept no usage information and then supplied a subscriber's name, email address, home IP address and connection times. TunnelBear has no such episode, and Cure53 has assessed it most years since 2017 — though no report was ever published for the 2024 audit.

Both are inside the five-country intelligence agreement. TunnelBear has been owned by McAfee since 2018 and contracts through a Delaware company; IPVanish is a Florida affiliate of Ziff Davis applying California law.

Price separates them clearly. TunnelBear's yearly plan renews at what it charged. IPVanish charges a low first year and far more every year after.

Which should you choose?

Choose TunnelBear if the bill staying flat matters and nobody will need a feature it lacks. Choose IPVanish if you need television apps or multi-hop, and the 2016 affidavit does not stop you.

If neither the leaking switch nor the record is acceptable, Windscribe covers the same unlimited-device ground with a switch that holds and open-source clients.