VPN speed benchmark - TunnelBear vs. ExpressVPN.

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A benchmark not bias by profit

Before we begin into the detail of the benchmark, I want to explain the reason why I did this. Googling for VPN review lead me to a lot of nonsense but well SEO optimized websites, those only rephrasing the features of the VPN provider they wanted and finally give out an affiliate link to lure you click and sign up. Not me, for the sake of being neutral to these two VPN providers, I won't provide any signup link here, just go and Google the name.

What matter?

Of course, as a VPN provider, providing anonymity is a must, and next comes the speed. But I can not find any good speed benchmark to compare these two. As a result, I decided to make one.

For those who don't know, the following are the recommendation speed to watch video online.

Megabits per second Recommend for
0.5Mbps Streaming mp3
1.5Mbps Watching Youtube
3.0Mbps Watching Video at SD quality
5.0Mbps Watching Video at HD quality
25Mbps Watching Video at Ultra HD quality

All you need is 5Mbps, anything beyond that threshold is a plus.

The benchmark

I signed up for a free bear plan in Tunnel Bear, and I had a subscription for Express VPN. After connecting to the target region, I use Speed test to test the speed.

Here is the result

Australia

TunnelBear

ExpressVPN

Brazil

TunnelBear

ExpressVPN

Germany

TunnelBear

ExpressVPN

Singapore

TunnelBear

ExpressVPN

Usa

TunnelBear

ExpressVPN

Final observations

The benchmark here may not show everything, but I get some ideas from it.

  • TunnelBear provides just enough bandwidth for HD videos in most of the region. It's ok if you suppose only to watch movie, and not doing anything else that consumes bandwidth.
  • ExpressVPN is super fast in some areas, and super slow in some areas.
  • TunnelBear gives you five devices at the same time, while ExpressVPN gives you 3.
  • ExpressVPN allows accessing to ways more countries than TunnelBear (consider if you need it).
  • TunnelBear gives me more impression of stable service, why ExpressVPN is good for speed but slow sometimes.