What's the difference between the browser extension and the desktop applications?

TunnelBear for Chrome, Firefox and Opera are light-weight browser extensions/add-ons that secure your browser traffic and help you browse privately as if you're in another location. The browser extensions only encrypt your traffic for that particular browser, unlike the TunnelBear desktop and mobile apps, which encrypt all traffic from the device (including apps and services outside of the web browser).

For maximum privacy, we recommend using the TunnelBear application for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. However, if you spend all of your time in the browser, and ease-of-use is your priority, then the TunnelBear browser extension or add-on should more than meet your needs.