Highlights
Large Server Network
45-days Money-back Guarantee
User-friendy
Work with
Overall Rank
4
Money-back Guarantee
45-days
Setup time
10 minutes
Device count per license
5
Mobile apps
Android, IOS & Windows
Best price
$7.99
Hotspot Shield Ratings
Security
Speed
Servers
Support
Prices
General overview
Hotspot Shield VPN is a well-known virtual private networking service in the market. The US-based AnchorFree Inc owns the service and released the VPN in 2008. Hotspot Shield cover’s wide range of features for excellent speeds and privacy-focused activities. It has over 3200+ servers in 73+ countries. The VPN unblocks streaming sites, including Netflix, YouTube, and HBO Max. Hotspot Shield also allows torrenting; a kill-switch feature, DNS and IP leaks protection make it an excellent choice for torrenting.
Moreover, Hotspot Shield isn’t ideal for bypassing censorship in China. Hotspot Shield’s apps are simple, intuitive, and easy to use. The VPN allows five simultaneous connections per license and is compatible with major platforms and devices, including Windows, IOS, Mac, Linux, and Android. Apart from that, Hotspot Shield provides dedicated and efficient customer support and comes with cheap subscription plans, especially for a more extended VPN plan.
Features
| Operating System |
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| Simulaneous Connections | 5 |
| Protocols | Catapult Hydra protocol, IKEv2, Kill-switch, Smart Mode, Split Tunneling |
| Logs Policy |
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| Works With |
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| Payment Methods |
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| Money Back Guarantee |
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Company Information
Overview - Conclusion
Hotspot Shield is one of the fastest VPNs in the market. It has all the features required for safe and secure browsing, but its logging policy needs a bit improvement
Security
The VPN is overall secure as it uses various privacy-enhancing features to keep customers’ anonymity. The VPN doesn’t use standard OpenVPN. Instead, it uses Catapult Hydra – the proprietary tunnelling protocol which provides relatively fast speeds and incorporates perfect forward secrecy. You can use the IKEv2 protocol enough for mobile devices to maintain stable connections. It is a top-notch kill-switch feature, which could stop all the coming traffic in case your connection drops.
Moreover, the VPN uses advanced Split-Tunneling and Smart VPN features. Besides, the VPN is protected from all IP, DNS, or WebRTC leaks. Considering its features, the VPN overall provides a secure service to its customers.
Speed
Hotspot Shield is one of the fastest VPNs you can get. It has breakneck speeds on all server locations. You can experience streaming or gaming without any delays or buffering. The VPN can record similar speeds on both local and international servers. Having most virtual servers, you can expect fast speeds on distant servers and even slow speeds on servers near your location. Since there isn’t any main address of the servers, you can never really know if you would get fast speeds or not.
Speeds would always drop since the VPNs reroute your traffic. But the drop should be no more than 10-20% to remain undetectable. The Hotspot could meet your expectations, as it only drops 8% to 10% likely on all server locations. Unlike most VPNs, Hotspot Shield doesn’t automatically connect you to the nearest or fastest VPN server. To enjoy fast speeds, you should connect to the server close to your location.
Servers
Hotspot Shield’s server network consists of 3200+ servers in 73+ countries. All the servers are well-spread out throughout the globe. The VPN also provides city-level servers in 27 different cities in the US, Australia, Canada, and the UK. The free version of the Hotspot Shield lets you choose only the US servers, whereas the paid version users enjoy all the server locations.
With many servers, the VPN’s premium version can unblock streaming sites, including Netflix, Amazon, HBO Max, DAZN, Disney+, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer. Although it doesn’t have dedicated streaming servers, you must connect to a few before it works consistently.
Hotspot Shield allows torrenting on all premium servers. However, it has an untrusted logging policy and lacks critical features for secure torrenting like port-forwarding and slow P2P speeds.
However, the kill-switch, DNS and IP leaks protection, and fast speeds would support torrenting, but that’s not the ideal scenario.
Support
Hotspot Shield offers a variety of options for customer help and support. The premium version includes 24/7 live chat support, email support, online resources, and an FAQs option. At the same time, the free version is only limited to FAQs and a knowledge base.
The live chat support of the Hotspot Shield is swift, and they address your queries knowledgeably. The FAQs option would display the popular questions which might address your queries. The knowledgebase also provides all the necessary information like payments, troubleshooting, and management of accounts/devices.
Prices
Hotspot Shield comes in both free and premium versions. The free version only lets you do secure and private browsing. Whereas all the enhanced features, fast speeds, or unblocking content are allowed through the premium version. The premium version comes with three subscription plans:
- 1-Month plan costs $12.99/per month
- 3-Year plan costs $2.99/per month; billed $107.64 every three years
- 1-Year plan costs $7.99/per month; billed $95.88 yearly
Refund Policy
The VPN doesn’t provide the standard 30-day money-back guarantee but a better 45-day guarantee, which only a few VPNs offer in the industry.
Payment Methods
The VPN accepts the following modes of payment:
- PayPal
- Visa
- American Express
- Master Card
- JCB Card
- Discover
- Diners Club International
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