TunnelBear reshapes its free VPN model amid rising infrastructure costs

• TunnelBear has announced some changes to its free plan
• Changes include removing server selection and split tunneling support
• The company wants to remain ad-free amid rising operating costs

TunnelBear has announced a series of important changes to its free user accounts, citing rising operating costs and the goal of keeping the service sustainable.

According to TunnelBear’s blog post, existing users of its free VPN service will still be able to connect to servers, but will lose select features such as custom server selection, which will only be available to paid subscribers. TunnelBear's free users, however, will continue to have access to 2 GB of data each month.

The move by TunnelBear underscores a broader industry trend. As more people hunt for the best VPN for their needs, companies are forced to juggle the desire to offer rich, privacy-focused features against the financial realities of maintaining a secure Virtual Private Network.

What’s changing for TunnelBear free users and why

As part of TunnelBear Free’s overhaul, which won’t impact paid subscribers, free users will no longer be able to choose the country they connect to. Instead, they'll be randomly assigned to the best available location, removing any flexibility for bypassing geo-restrictions.

Free users also lose SplitBear, TunnelBear’s split tunneling feature, preventing them from choosing which apps or websites can bypass the VPN connection. With TunnelBear Free’s very limited data allowance, user data will probably get used up that much faster.

TunnelBear has been quick to reassure users who make up its Bandwidth Program – its initiative to provide people in countries with heavy internet censorship with extra free VPN data – that they won’t be impacted by changes.

All of these adjustments, TunnelBear said, are driven by rising operating costs for a global server network, the expense of regular third-party VPN audits, and the need to keep the service sustainable without resorting to ads or otherwise selling user data.

TunnelBear hasn’t specified when all of this will take effect, but free users who can’t do without server selection or split tunneling may want to start thinking about upgrading to TunnelBear Premium, or exploring other options.

A wider VPN dilemma

Running a VPN that is truly free to the end user is a costly proposition. Because a free VPN service can’t charge a subscription fee, providers either trim features, rely on ads or data monetization, or impose strict data caps to stay solvent.

Different VPN providers handle this trade-off in different ways. For example, Proton VPN Free has an unlimited data allowance and premium-level privacy, but offers a smaller selection of servers. Like TunnelBear Free, it doesn’t let you choose the server location.

Windscribe Free and PrivadoVPN Free cap free data at 10 GB, allowing them to offer a solid set of features while still keeping costs manageable. A newer free VPN to emerge, EventVPN, doesn’t limit your data or speeds at the cost of privacy-preserving in-app ads.

TunnelBear’s recent changes fall between these approaches. By removing country selection and split tunneling, it’s able to continue to offer its free tier without ads and with the same privacy guarantees as its paid version.

Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!