One of the most widely used VPNs available today, Hotspot Shield has been around since 2008 and comes in both a paid and free version.
Although Aura, a reputable firm, is the owner, you should be aware of this before making a purchase because we have doubts about Hotspot Shield’s dependability and ability to protect your privacy.
In order to determine whether Hotspot Shield is a VPN you can trust, how successfully it unblocks geo-restricted streaming websites, and whether it’s safe to use, we evaluate both the free and paid versions in this review.
Who Needs to Use a Hotspot Shield?
The quickest VPN is what you desire. In our speed tests, Hotspot Shield received an impeccable score of 10.0/10, making it the quickest VPN that we have ever tested.
You desire a variety of IP addresses. 1,800 servers are available worldwide through the extensive virtual server network of Hotspot Shield Premium.
You wish to stream Hulu, HBO Max, and other content. In our streaming testing, Hotspot Shield Premium does well; from anywhere in the world, it can unblock the majority of foreign websites.
| PaidAdd to compare | FreeAdd to compare | |
|---|---|---|
| Data Cap | Unlimited | 500MB per day |
| Download Speed | 99Mbps | 97Mbps |
| Logging Policy | Intrusive Logging | Some User Logs |
| Data Leaks | Yes | No |
| Jurisdiction | US (Five Eyes Member) | US (Five Eyes Member) |
| Servers | 1,800 | Not disclosed |
| IP Addresses | 1,800 | Not disclosed |
| Countries with Servers | 80 | 3 |
| US Netflix | Yes | No |
| Torrenting | Unlimited | Restricted |
| Simultaneous Connections | 5 | 1 |
| Works In China | Unreliable | No |
| Support | 24/7 Live Chat | Online Resources Only |
| Cheapest Price | $2.99/mo over 36 Months | Free |
| Free Trial | 7 Days (Payment Info Required) | – |
| Money-Back Guarantee | 45-day Money-Back Guarantee | – |
| Official Website | Hotspotshield.com | |
Policy on Privacy and Logging Hotspot Shield Recorded Excessive Data
You shouldn’t rely on Hotspot Shield to safeguard your online privacy. Your initial IP address, browsing history, account information, bandwidth use, and connection timestamps are all recorded. Even though the most sensitive information is only combined and kept for the length of your VPN session, Hotspot Shield’s US location—a founding member of the Five Eyes alliance—means that this is still far too intrusive.
| Data Type | Logged by Hotspot Shield |
|---|---|
| Account Information | Yes |
| Browsing Activity | Yes |
| Date of Last Connection | No |
| Device Information | Yes |
| DNS Queries | No |
| Individual Bandwidth Usage | Yes |
| Individual Connection Timestamps | Yes |
| ISP | No |
| Number of Simultaneous Connections | No |
| Originating IP Address | Yes |
| VPN Server IP | No |
| VPN Server Location | Yes |
As you can see, Hotspot Shield maintains logs, many of which contain sensitive information that might be identified, such as your actual IP address.
Hotspot Shield argues that logging your IP address is justified because it only occurs while you are connected to a VPN. However, there’s never a need to keep this data on file. This is demonstrated by VPNs like Mullvad and Private Internet Access.
In addition, Hotspot Shield records your bandwidth usage, connection timestamps, VPN server location, and origin location, all of which it retains for an unlimited period of time.
Although your browsing history is collected, it is aggregated and cannot be connected to your individual account.
Because using Hotspot Shield Free requires disclosing personally identifying information to unaffiliated third-party advertising, it is much less private.
Owned by Aura, a US-based company
Aura is the current owner of Hotspot Shield. This is a US-based business, and US privacy regulations are somewhat onerous. Authorities in the US have the authority to order Aura to keep and distribute user data.
Along with other founding members, the US is part of the Five Eyes network of nations that collaborate to gather, exchange, and examine data from mass surveillance. Nothing here is conducive to privacy. Ideally, Hotspot Shield would be situated in a jurisdiction with no data retention regulations, such as Switzerland or the British Virgin Islands.
Reports on Transparency Are No Longer Released
Transparency reports describing the demands for information from law enforcement that Hotspot Shield gets and how it handles them were formerly made public. This increased confidence and supported its promises of safe logging. But since 2019, Hotspot Shield hasn’t published a transparency report.
Because Hotspot Shield lacks transparency reports and an independent audit, it is impossible to fully trust it and has no proof to back up its promises about protecting privacy.
Hotspot Shield’s Differing Background
There have been several disputes regarding Hotspot Shield:
- A CSIRO investigation from 2016 brought attention to several dubious actions taken by Hotspot Shield. “JavaScript codes were injected for advertising and tracking purposes” by the Android app. This indicated that Hotspot Shield was gathering user data through the use of tracking tags and selling it to advertising.
- In 2017, the free version of Hotspot Shield was accused of “unfair and deceptive practices” by the Center for Democracy and Technology (also known as CDT). In essence, Hotspot Shield has exaggerated the security and privacy advantages of their VPN, even contending that gathering your IP address does not constitute personal data.
- An independent researcher discovered and reported a Hotspot Shield problem in 2018, revealing that users’ private information, including location and Wi-Fi name, had been exposed. Hotspot Shield subsequently conceded that this reporting was accurate.
A corporation with a past as blemished as this is difficult to trust. But since then, Hotspot Shield has changed hands, and its privacy statement has been updated. Users can now easily see what information the VPN collects and does not gather, as well as how the free service is used for commercial purposes.
We are compelled to conclude that Hotspot Shield cannot be completely trusted to protect your privacy due to its present logging policy, US jurisdiction, failure to give transparency reports or audits, and history of selling user data.
The VPNs With the Fastest Speeds We’ve Tried
When it comes to VPN speed, Hotspot Shield is the best. With practically no performance difference between a Hotspot Shield VPN connection and your regular internet, it’s the quickest VPN we’ve tested. Anywhere in the world that you connect to, this is the case. File sharing is fast, ping is very low, and UHD (4K) streaming is buffer-free. Hotspot Shield Free is only available at four server locations, but it is also incredibly fast.
Hotspot Shield’s effect on our typical 100Mbps internet speed was evaluated by connecting to servers located across six continents.
| No VPN (New York) | US (New York) | Canada (Toronto) | US (Los Angeles) | UK (London) | Germany (Berlin) | Brazil (São Paulo) | Japan (Tokyo) | South Africa (Johannesburg) | Australia (Sydney) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Download Speed | 100Mbps | 98Mbps | 100Mbps | 100Mbps | 99Mbps | 99Mbps | 98Mbps | 99Mbps | 99Mbps | 99Mbps |
| Upload Speed | 100Mbps | 90Mbps | 91Mbps | 61Mbps | 56Mbps | 47Mbps | 37Mbps | 30Mbps | 18Mbps | 30Mbps |
| Ping | 1ms | 4ms | 22ms | 67ms | 80ms | 90ms | 112ms | 145ms | 600ms | 217ms |
| Distance | 0mi | 5mi | 300mi | 2,500mi | 3,500mi | 4,000mi | 4,800mi | 6,700mi | 8,000mi | 9,900mi |
Regardless of the server we connected to, as you can see, there is nearly no difference between a Hotspot Shield connection and a regular internet connection. This is really outstanding.
We saw a 1% drop in performance when we connected to a UK connection. Nothing is better for long-distance connections than that. In actuality, we only noticed a 63% decrease in performance when connected to Brazil, which was the source of our largest speed loss.
Hotspot Shield uses Hydra VPN, a proprietary connection mechanism, to reach these speeds. The purpose of this protocol is to address latency problems with OpenVPN and other protocols.
Free Hotspot Shield is Likewise Quick
Hotspot Shield Free has four servers and is just as fast as the Premium version.
For instance, Hotspot Shield Free’s local New York connection was the same as the Premium version, and we experienced 97 Mbps when connected to a long-distance server in the UK.
The only significant difference between Hotspot Shield Free and Premium in our tests was in the US West Coast connection, where we saw speeds of 72Mbps, far lower than the result of 100Mbps for the Premium version.
The Low Latency of Hotspot Shield Is Beneficial for Gamers
Hotspot Shield is an excellent VPN for gaming due to its lightning-fast bandwidth and low ping. This is especially true for its mobile apps, which have servers geared for gaming.
Pinging a local server revealed a 6 ms latency. This eliminated any slowness when we connected to a VPN and played online games.
Technical and Security Elements Hotspot Shield: Is It Safe?
From a security perspective, Hotspot Shield is safe to use even with its privacy flaws. It includes an industry-standard security suite that includes the top connection protocol, WireGuard, and the encryption cypher AES-256. Nevertheless, the browser extensions leak personal information, there are relatively few extra functions, and there is no kill switch on macOS.
Protocols for WireGuard, IKEv2, and Hydra Available
In addition to the widely used WireGuard and IKEv2 protocols, Hotspot Shield also has a proprietary protocol known as Hydra (previously Catapult Hydra).
Hotspot Shield created Hydra with the goal of delivering extremely fast speeds, and our speed tests confirm this. Hydra is safe in terms of security because it is built on TLS 1.2, employs perfect forward secrecy, 2048-bit RSA certificates for server authentication, and 128-bit AES encryption.
Closed-source proprietary technologies, such as Hydra, have the drawback that impartial specialists are unable to evaluate them. According to Hotspot Shield, the code is evaluated by professionals from cybersecurity companies like McAfee and BitDefender. You should use Hydra without anxiety if you believe this. If not, WireGuard is a better option.
Since WireGuard and OpenVPN are open-source and safe, we usually suggest them. However, Hotspot Shield promotes its Hydra protocol over OpenVPN in its list of protocols.
Encryption Test Passed by Hotspot Shield
We used Wireshark, a packet-sniffing tool, to investigate whether Hotspot Shield genuinely encrypts your communication. The websites we visited would be visible in Wireshark if Hotspot Shield had not encrypted our data.
Nevertheless, our test revealed that all incoming and outgoing network packets were encrypted and that none of the websites we visited could be decoded, as you can see in the screenshot below.
No DNS, IP, or WebRTC Exposures
We used our internal program to test the Hotspot Shield apps and look for any data leaks. Our true IP address stayed hidden the entire time, and no IP, DNS, or WebRTC leaks were noted in the results.
Hotspot Shield does not allow IPv6 traffic, though, therefore using IPv6 connections puts your personal information at danger. Some VPNs, such as Hide.me, have developed a dual-stack approach to address this problem, while others, such as Surfshark, just block IPv6 traffic to stop leaks.
Our Leak Test Was Failed by Browser Extensions
Although the Hotspot Shield apps returned without leaks, its Firefox and Chrome browser extensions did not. Our investigations revealed that, even with the WebRTC leak blocker turned on, the Firefox add-on and the Chrome extension both leak DNS queries and WebRTC requests.
This implies that if you use the Chrome extension, your ISP can still view the websites you visit, and if you use the Firefox extension, your real IP address and location are visible. We advise against using the browser extensions for Hotspot Shield.
On macOS, there is no kill switch
For macOS, Hotspot Shield lacks a kill switch, not even an automated one that operates in the background. When we utilized our kill switch test program to test it, we discovered that if we switched servers or unexpectedly disconnected the internet, our real IP address was made public.
Fortunately, some apps function flawlessly with the kill switch. It isn’t turned on by default, though, so be aware of that.
Security Features That We’d Prefer
We hope Hotspot Shield improves its privacy and security features. It may include the following features in order to accomplish so:
- Kill switch that is always on for all apps, ensuring that all Hotspot Shield clients have the same degree of security.
- Dedicated IP addresses are used to counteract the CAPTCHA’s frequency.
- Diskless servers to stop data collection from hardware centers and logging.
- Double VPN (multi-hop) servers for additional security.
- applications that are open-source that allow users to verify the security of Hotspot Shield services.
- support for OpenVPN to provide users more options for protocols.
- Stop IPv6, DNS, and WebRTC data exposure with leak protection.
Most streaming sites are compatible with streaming hotspot shield premium
The majority of popular geo-restricted streaming services, such as Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video, may be unblocked with Hotspot Shield Premium, however you may need to test a few servers before settling on one that works. Its UK server also allows access to British TV. Nevertheless, Hotspot Shield Free doesn’t unblock any streaming services at all, and it can’t access US Netflix.
| Streaming Platform | Works with Hotspot Shield | Works with Hotspot Shield Basic |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Prime Video | Yes | No |
| BBC iPlayer | Yes | No |
| Channel 4 | Yes | No |
| Disney+ | Yes | No |
| Hotstar India | No | No |
| Hulu | Yes | No |
| ITVX | Yes | No |
| Max | Yes | No |
| Netflix US | No | No |
| YouTube | Yes | Yes |
Most Global Streaming Sites are Unblocked
Hotspot Shield Premium can be used to access the majority of geo-blocked streaming websites, such as HBO Max, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video, according to our tests.
It’s also helpful when viewing British television on websites such as Channel 4, ITVX, and BBC iPlayer.
Nevertheless, Hotspot Shield is incompatible with Hotstar and US Netflix. This is disheartening because all platforms are unblocked by the best VPNs for streaming.
Streaming websites are not unblocked by Hotspot Shield Free
Hotspot Shield Free is a pretty bad VPN for streaming. It did not succeed in unblocking any of the popular streaming websites that we tried it with. Instead, we suggest Windscribe Free as a free streaming VPN.
Not All Torrents Are Safe to Download
All of Hotspot Shield’s servers allow P2P traffic, however we are concerned about the VPN’s invasive logging practices and the lack of a kill option on macOS. Compared to other VPNs, its average download bitrate is substantially lower, and port forwarding is not an option. Hotspot Shield Free has a 500MB daily data cap and does not support torrenting.
| Torrenting Attribute | Hotspot Shield Premium | Hotspot Shield Free |
|---|---|---|
| Average Download Bitrate | 4.3MiB/s | 5.25MiB/s |
| No. of P2P Servers | 1,800 | 0 |
| Logging Policy | Some User Logs | Some User Logs |
| Kill Switch | Yes | Yes |
| Port Forwarding | No | No |
Despite Hotspot Shield’s explicit endorsement of torrenting, we do not advise using it because of the VPN’s unsatisfactory average download bitrate, its invasive logging policy, and the lack of a kill switch on macOS. Using Hotspot Shield for torrenting is not risk-free.
Using torrent clients such as uTorrent and qBitTorrent, we tested Hotspot Shield and found that the average download bitrate was 4.3MiB/s. This is a poor performance that can cause sluggish file-sharing, particularly in contrast to the best VPNs for torrenting.
We are concerned about Hotspot Shield’s invasive logging policy that gathers a lot of user data from a privacy perspective. We are unaware of the number of DMCA requests that Hotspot Shield receives and handles because it no longer releases transparency data.
Moreover, macOS lacks a kill option, which increases the risk of unintentionally exposing your actual IP. And lastly, if you’re an experienced torrenter, stay away from Hotspot Shield because it doesn’t support port forwarding.
The Use of Hotspot Shield Free Prevents Torrenting
You cannot use Hotspot Shield Free for torrenting. It has no P2P functionality at all, and even if it had, it would still be subject to the same risk and invasive logging policies as the premium version.
Its 500MB daily data would likewise severely restrict you.
Large and Diverse Server Network Locations
With 1,800 virtual servers spread across 80 countries, Hotspot Shield offers a wide variety of servers. Compared to most other VPN services, the network is less Western-centric, with a good representation of South America, the Middle East, and Asia. However, a larger number of countries offer more IP addresses than ExpressVPN and other VPNs. Conversely, Hotspot Shield Free is limited to just four nations.
| Continent | Number of Countries |
|---|---|
| Europe | 40 |
| Asia | 21 |
| South America | 9 |
| North America | 6 |
| Africa | 3 |
| Oceania | 2 |
The majority of Hotspot Shield’s servers are located in North America and Europe, just like all VPNs. That being said, there are unusually more alternatives in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Seeing servers in nations like Algeria, Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal, and Peru is a welcome sight.
Seven countries (Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the US) offer city-level possibilities.
Although it’s unfortunate that Hotspot Shield only has city servers in Western nations, there are still plenty of possibilities, particularly in the US where there are 25 locations to choose from.
Hotspot Shield does not say how many distinct IP addresses it keeps up to date, but because it employs virtual servers, it can provide IP addresses across the world. This indicates that even though it lacks physical hardware in the nation, it can nonetheless unlock content that is geoblocked.
Hotspot Shield, TouchVPN, Betternet, and VPN360 are all on the same server network. This is strange because it indicates that a lot more people are using the server network, which could cause congestion. In addition, it seems unjust that free VPNs have access to the same network as I pay for Hotspot Shield service.
Hotspot Shield Free Is Only Available in Four Nations
The server network of Hotspot Shield Free is far smaller than that of the Premium edition. Its servers are located in Singapore, the UK, the US West Coast (Los Angeles), and the US East Coast (New York).
This is really little—much less than the 11 free nations that Windscribe Free offers. It is still somewhat superior to Proton VPN Free and Atlas VPN Free, which only provide three and three servers, respectively.
Getting Around Web Censorship Is Not a Reliable Way to Avoid Censorship
Hotspot Shield is no longer a reliable option for getting around internet restrictions. After several years of testing on our China server, we’ve noticed a significant decline in its capacity to get beyond stringent web filters. It only functioned 37% of the time during our final testing year. Additionally, Hotspot Shield Free is inoperable in nations with strict censorship.
We evaluate VPNs against the world’s most advanced web censorship, the Great Firewall of China, unlike other VPN websites.
We can reveal that, during an annual period, Hotspot Shield has only been successful in accessing the open internet within China 37% of the time, using our server located in Shanghai.
This is unexpected because Hotspot Shield states to have obfuscation technology for its exclusive Hydra protocol, which is meant to obfuscate VPN traffic and get over blockages.
Hotspot Shield might function in nations like Russia and Iran where internet filtering is less severe. But our data indicates that there are more trustworthy VPNs out there.
For instance, Astrill VPN is still the greatest VPN for China and has a 100% success rate in getting past Chinese censorship.
Conversely, Hotspot Shield is one of the few services that offers you a virtual China server with a Chinese IP address if you wish to connect into China and utilize the Chinese internet.
Apps for Most Devices’ OS and Device Compatibility, But No Smart DNS
The majority of popular devices and operating systems, including macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android, support Hotspot Shield Premium as a VPN program. Additionally, it offers Linux, Fire TV Stick, and Android TV apps. Each Hotspot Shield subscription has a five-device restriction, which is fewer than those of popular VPNs like PIA and Surfshark. Sadly, just one device can use the free version, and there is no Smart DNS available.
Applications
The following operating systems have native apps for Hotspot Shield Premium: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux.
Hotspot Shield can be installed and used simultaneously on up to five devices. While this is standard practice in the market, rivals like IPVanish, PIA, and Surfshark go above and above with no device restrictions.
Video game consoles and streaming gadgets
Your home router can have Hotspot Shield manually installed, making it work with devices that don’t support native VPN programs. This implies that you won’t have to worry about exceeding the five connection limit because you can cover any connected device in your home.
Hotspot Shield can be used on the following devices by installing it on your router: Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Chromecast, Nintendo, PlayStation, Roku, Smart TV, Xbox.
Sadly, Hotspot Shield lacks the Smart DNS feature, which would have made geo-restricted content viewing on gaming consoles and streaming devices considerably simpler. You should check out ExpressVPN‘s MediaStreamer for this.
Extensions for Browsers
There are extensions for Hotspot Shield available for Chrome and Firefox.
You may add these extensions to your browser for free and with ease. They can block adverts, cookies, malware, trackers, and even spoof your location.
Browser extensions just encrypt the traffic of the browser they are installed on, not your entire online traffic, in contrast to the full VPN program.
“Sword” is one special extension feature that feeds trackers with fictitious online activity. You may also list the websites that are automatically encrypted or not using the Auto Protect and Bypass list. The primary settings menu of the extension has a function called “Browser Settings,” which when selected, opens a browser tab.
We advise against utilizing these extensions, nevertheless, as our security tests revealed that they expose your personal information.
Although Hotspot Shield’s browser extension is technically compatible with Opera browsers and can be installed through the Chrome web store, our testing revealed that it was not functioning properly.
Simple, easy-to-use apps with few customization options
The programs on Hotspot Shield are enjoyable to use because of their elegant design and straightforward UI. There is no complexity involved, as the applications share much of the same features and designs. But when testing the VPN, we came across far too many CAPTCHAs, and the macOS program lacks the same customization and shortcut options that are accessible on Windows.
The apps from Hotspot Shield are straightforward, nicely made, and largely device-consistent.
Here’s a summary of our experiences with Hotspot Shield across various hardware and OS versions:
Computer and tablet (Windows and macOS)
With settings for auto-connect, minimization, and start on launch, Hotspot Shield is more configurable on Windows than it is on macOS.
On Windows, there are other helpful shortcut options, like Ctrl + Shift + C for connecting and disconnecting from a VPN. This is an uncommon feature that improves the effectiveness of the user experience.
The macOS app is far more basic and lacks all of these capabilities. It has three major buttons: a list of servers, a settings menu with options for split tunneling and protocols, and a primary connect button. You cannot resize the window or use any customization options other than split tunneling.
Those looking for a straightforward click-and-protect experience might find this appealing, but if you’re a seasoned user who wants complete control over your VPN experience, you might want to look at the Windows version or something else entirely.
Both apps are easy to use and offer split tunneling, which is helpful when using the Hydra protocol exclusively.
Smartphones and Android devices
The mobile versions of Hotspot Shield have the same settings menu, a server list, and a sizable connect button as the desktop versions.
The presence of gaming and streaming servers on mobile devices is the primary distinction between the desktop and mobile apps.
The apps for Android and iOS are nearly exact replicas. They are equally user-friendly and smooth.
The addition of Always-On VPN, an iOS technical feature that guarantees you never use apps or visit websites without Hotspot Shield protection, is the sole modification.
Numerous CAPTCHAs
When using Hotspot Shield to browse the web, we frequently encountered CAPTCHAs. When a VPN does not update its IP addresses, their excessive use is deemed suspicious and results in CAPTCHAs. Proving your humanity again and over again gets old fast, and we started to feel impatient.
Hotspot Shield needs to refresh its list of IP addresses. Additionally, having the option to purchase a dedicated IP address would stop this, but none of Hotspot Shield’s subscription options presently offer this.
Client Assistance Only Paid Customers Are Eligible for Live Chat Support
The live chat component of Hotspot Shield is always open to subscribers only, therefore those using the free version cannot receive the same quality of support. The website offers written tutorials and other materials, but no videos.
| Customer Support | Available in Hotspot Shield |
|---|---|
| 24/7 Email Support | No |
| 24/7 Live Chat Support | Yes |
| Chatbot | No |
| No | |
| Email Support via Online Form | Yes |
| Online Resources | Yes |
| Tutorial Videos | No |
Hotspot Shield provides live chat assistance around-the-clock with knowledgeable and prompt responses. This is by far the most effective approach to have your inquiries addressed and issues fixed. However, in order to take advantage of this function, you must be a paid subscriber.
This slows down the process of asking basic questions because you have to check in with your account information.
You may get helpful live chat without having to verify your subscription with Hide.me and Surfshark. If customers want rapid, interactive service, Hotspot Shield should at least provide a chatbot.
The knowledge base and FAQs area of Hotspot Shield is fairly thorough and easy to read, so you should be able to find answers to most of your fundamental questions there.
Beyond this, Hotspot Shield has a very limited customer service program that lacks an online forum and video tutorials. It lags far behind VPNs like Hide.me and ExpressVPN that offer expert-driven, user-friendly support.
Value & Price Competitive Cost, but Highest Quality VPNs on Offer
Hotspot Shield Premium’s lowest subscription level is $2.99 a month. Although this is a competitive pricing, there are more affordable and superior VPNs out today. There is a substantial 45-day refund policy in place, along with a 7-day free trial. However, there is no guarantee that you will receive your money back, and you are unable to pay with privacy-preserving cryptocurrencies.
The current price tiers for Hotspot Shield Premium are as follows:
- Monthly $12.99/mo Billed $12.99 every month
- 12 Month(s) $7.99/mo Billed $95.88 every 12 months Save 38%
- 3 Year(s) $2.99/mo Billed $107.64 every 3 years Save 77%
For $2.99 a month, Hotspot Shield provides a three-year subscription plan. While this is a wonderful deal, the value for money is significantly lower than that of competitors like Surfshark or Private Internet Access. These VPNs, which cost $2.03 and $2.21, respectively, are both better and less expensive.
The “Premium Family” plan, which is available in addition to the usual subscription offers, enables you to have five distinct accounts under a single subscription with a five-device restriction each, for a total of 25 devices. This is $19.99 for a single month or $11.99 for a full year.
Methods of Payment
Visa, American Express, Mastercard, and PayPal.
This is a small range of payment options that excludes payments using anonymous cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. For users who value their privacy and wish to erase all traces of a transaction, this is a setback.
45-Day Return Policy, but No Promise
Hotspot Shield customers are eligible for a 45-day money-back guarantee. This refund term is the most generous that we have observed, along with CyberGhost.
Hotspot Shield, on the other hand, demands you to fill out a refund form, unlike CyberGhost. It is in Hotspot Shield’s choice as to whether or not you receive a refund. This seems quite stingy to us and isn’t even close to the “no questions asked” assurance that most other VPNs offer.
Hotspot Shield Free: Information, Assistance, and Server Limitations
In addition to a seven-day free trial, Hotspot Shield Basic is also available for free. With limitations, you can use the VPN indefinitely with this version.
Hotspot Shield Basic has a 500MB monthly data cap and only supports three countries on its network. Additionally, there are obtrusive pop-up advertisements on the Android version, and live chat help is unavailable.
You cannot access a wide pool of overseas IP addresses with Hotspot Shield Free due to server constraints, and it is not compatible with torrenting.
Additionally, the free edition sells user data to other sponsors. Because of this, Hotspot Shield Free is not one of the best free VPN services that we suggest.
In summary, is Hotspot Shield a worthwhile investment?
The main advantage of Hotspot Shield is its quickness. Your internet speed is little affected, and there aren’t many VPNs that can match its lightning-fast local and international connections. Hotspot Shield is well worth the investment if fast internet is your top priority.
It also does well in terms of streaming capabilities and server count. Although it can’t unblock US Netflix, it can access the majority of geo-restricted streaming services, such as HBO Max, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer.
Hotspot Shield still needs a lot of work in practically every other testing category, though. Firstly, it maintains an excessive number of logs. Look elsewhere if you’re interested in using a VPN for privacy.
Second, it has not had a great performance in China. The decline of Hotspot Shield from being among the top VPNs for evading censorship since we began testing it is disheartening.
Additional enhancements to Hotspot Shield would consist of:
- Ensuring reimbursements
- Raising the maximum number of devices
- Disseminating reports on transparency
- starting up a logging audit
- Including a kill switch in the macOS application
- How to Avoid CAPTCHAs
- Enabling public access to the live conversation
- Taking cryptocurrency payments
- Relaxing the severe server and data limitations for the free service
Our testing suggests that Hotspot Shield might be worthwhile for certain users, but only if those drawbacks are acceptable to you.