If you ask this question, you probably know that not every VPN is capable of unblocking streaming services. TunelBear is a popular choice for IP masking and security. But does TunnelBear work with Netflix? To answer your question, we tested the service out and here is what we discovered.
Table of Contents
Why Watch Netflix with a VPN?
Netflix produces a ton of in-house content including shows, movies, and animated series. Along with that, it purchases titles from the third-parties – TV networks, movie studious, etc. When the streaming giant buys a broadcasting license, it works only in a certain country. If it wants to make content available elsewhere, it must pay for every single country additionally. Economically-wise, it is unprofitable for Netflix to purchase a lot of titles for smaller markets. As a result, some countries, such as the USA, the UK, Canada, Japan, etc., boast huge video libraries while others have twice or even three times fewer titles.
Netflix’s clients surely know about this situation. They believe that it is unfair that some people have more for basically the same price, and we agree with that. To solve this issue, more subscribers began accessing Netflix with a VPN.
A VPN is a solution to hide your virtual location and pretend you are from another country. What it does is changes your IP address. For example, with an Italian IP, you can access only Italian Netflix but once you get an IP address in the USA (do you have an article about getting a US IP? If so, you can link it from here), you can get your hands on titles in the American catalog.
Why Does Netflix Block VPNs?
Till about 2016, Netflix turned a blind eye on the attempts to access it with unblockers. However, it did a 180-degree turn under the pressure from the copyrighters. The streaming service came up with an anti-proxy policy that means a war against VPNs and similar solutions. It introduced a sophisticated proxy detecting system that recognizes suspicious traffics and blacklists involved IP addresses. So, in this day and age, watching Netflix with a VPN is pretty difficult. Difficult but not impossible.
To avoid the Netflix ban, VPNs have to constantly expand their server networks. Once their IP addresses get blocked, they need to add some new ones to retain access. Some providers had to inflate their networks to thousands of servers just to keep going with this cat and mouse game.
Can I Watch Netflix with TunnelBear?
It gets us to the questions ‘Does TunnelBear work with Netflix?’. The provider claims on its website that it ‘changes your virtual location so you can access global content anywhere’. Sounds good but whether it’s true. To find the answer, we subscribed to TunnelBear and hand-tested it. We already knew that the service had been doomed to failure with its free plan so we carried out our research after getting a premium subscription.
First of all, we were interested to find out whether TunnelBear works with US Netflix since its catalog is the most popular. We connected to several servers in the USA and got the same result – streaming error. Further, we tried a few other locations to see if we get any luck. Unfortunately, TunnelBear fails to unblock Netflix in every country we tested it in.
Why does TunnelBear fall flat when it comes to accessing Netflix? The answer is simple – it just doesn’t have a big network. To date, it delivers about 1000 servers in 22 countries within the premium plan. At some point, Netflix detected and blacklisted all of its IP addresses. Since TunnelBear didn’t wish to expand, it remained banned for good.
In the future, if the service decides to expand its server count, it may restore its capability to bypass the Netflix ban. But until then, TunnelBear doesn’t work with Netflix.
TunnelBear Alternatives to Watch Netflix
If TunnelBear doesn’t do what you expected it to, you don’t have to stay with it forever. There are plenty of services that can get easily get past geo-restrictions. Here are our top-3 VPNs to watch Netflix:
- Provider
- User Rating
- Price
NordVPN- 14827 Votes
- $3.29 / month
PureVPN- 7715 Votes
- $3.24 / month
ExpressVPN- 6930 Votes
- $6.67 /mo
Conclusion
Unfortunately, TunnelBear doesn’t work with Netflix. It doesn’t mean that other services are useless, too. Check out the list of VPNs for Netflix we listed below and watch your favorite video platform anywhere and anytime.
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