Hotspot Shield Review 2023

About Hotspot Shield

Hotspot Shield is a VPN company based out of Redwood City, California. It started in 2008 and at last count, they had over 1,800 servers offering several thousand different IP addresses. Hotspot Shield servers are distributed in over 125 locations in different regions throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Africa.

When it comes to choosing a VPN, more servers often translates to better performance, especially in terms of speed and reliability. Connecting to a larger network means you’re less likely to experience network congestion, which results in faster and more stable connections. Not to spoil anything, but Hotspot Shield is one of the fastest VPNs we’ve tested.

One slight drawback of Hotspot Shield is its location. We love supporting homegrown companies, but as far as VPNs are concerned, the United States is not the best place to establish a VPN company.

You see, the U.S. is a founding member of the Five Eyes alliance and a part of the bigger Nine Eyes and 14 Eyes alliances of countries. Member countries of these alliances share communication intelligence among themselves. Additionally, a company within the jurisdiction of member countries can be compelled to share customer information; for instance, for the purpose of criminal investigation.

Of course, no company should tolerate criminals, but the Five Eyes alliance puts their citizens and the companies under their jurisdiction at greater risks of government overreach. Fortunately, Hotspot Shield understands that, and as you’ll see below, has a watertight logging policy that prevents it from collecting and subsequently sharing information with anyone outside the company.

Is the logging policy effective? According to Hotspot Shield, it received 56 government requests in 2018, but it hadn’t been able to produce any data because of the privacy policy.

Hotspot Shield Features

Moving on with our review, let’s talk about Hotspot Shield’s features. When we test VPNs, there are certain features we look for in relation to how secure VPNs are and how convenient they are to use. Here’s what we found out about Hotspot Shield.

Will Hotspot Shield Log My Data?

Data logging is a major concern when it comes to choosing a VPN. If a VPN logs your IP address, for instance, and the government asks it to provide the IP addresses that accessed a certain server at a certain date and time, they’ll be able to tie your browsing activity back to you.

That’s not good, and is a particular worry for VPN companies in the United States as discussed above. Fortunately, Hotspot Shield has a “no logging” policy just like many other VPNs. The scope of logging policies differ, however, so let’s look at Hotspot Shield’s in particular to get a clearer picture of how much privacy it provides.

Looking at Hotspot Shield’s privacy policy, the data it collects is pretty standard, such as diagnostic data like device and app versions and request timestamps. Once in a while, it may also request that you rate its services, but your response will not be tied to your account in any way.

There are a couple of important points to consider regarding Hotspot Shield’s data collection practices. First, Hotspot Shield does record your IP address at the beginning of each session, but it encrypts and deletes it at the end. This information is not linked to your browsing activity, ensuring your privacy. Secondly, Hotspot Shield also keeps a record of your bandwidth usage and the servers you’ve accessed, but these data points are collected anonymously.

Would it be fair to label Hotspot Shield untrustworthy because of those data collection practices? Not really. The company is forthcoming about what it collects and how it protects the collected data, and that’s a good sign. However, it would also be perfectly understandable if you choose not to use the service because of how much it logs. It’s your data, so only you can decide how much of it you’re comfortable sharing.

Does Hotspot Shield Have A Kill Switch?

If Hotspot Shield’s data collection practices don’t bother you, let’s move on to the inner workings of the VPN, starting with its features. The first thing you should look for when shopping for a VPN is the kill switch feature. In VPN terms, a kill switch is a built-in mechanism that blocks all traffic. That’s critical, because without it, your device will switch over to an unencrypted network without you knowing, exposing your online activity moving forward.

Fortunately, the kill switch is a common feature. Hotspot Shield has it, and it’s turned on by default. Moreover, all its apps, from the Windows and macOS desktop versions to the mobile app versions, offer a kill switch.

Does Hotspot Shield Offer Split Tunneling?

Split tunneling lets you route some traffic through your ISP and some through the VPN. Think of it as using VPN on some apps on your computer or smartphone, and using the regular internet on others. For instance, you can simultaneously use your VPN to watch Netflix shows abroad and browse local news articles without a VPN.

The free version of Hotspot Shield doesn’t include split tunneling, which is unfortunate because split tunneling could lower your VPN bandwidth usage. When you turn on the free VPN, all your device’s traffic goes through the VPN server, including traffic from bandwidth-heavy apps. For premium accounts, though, split tunneling is available under the name Smart VPN.

Can I Use Netflix with Hotspot Shield?

Hotspot Shield optimized its premium plans for use with Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, and other streaming platforms as well as torrenting. Premium account users can obtain connection speeds of up to one Gbps (depending on your network’s speed, of course), which is perfect for high-definition streaming.

That is, if you pay for a subscription. Hotspot Shield has a free version that delivers only 500 MB of bandwidth per day. You can watch ads to surpass the limit, but isn’t the point of streaming to be able to watch your favorite shows without ads? Additionally, the free version has limited server access, which means you may not be able to connect to the specific Netflix region you want to access.

Hotspot Shield Encryption

The standard encryption for your data when using Hotspot Shield is 256-bit AES. This encryption method is pretty much unbreakable. They say it would take 14 billion years to decrypt AES-256 with the world’s current supercomputers using brute-force attacks.

Let’s just say your ISP probably won’t find how many gigabytes of Jackie Chan films you’ve been torrenting. Although, let us just remind you that downloading copyrighted content is illegal, even if you’re using a VPN.

Hotspot Shield Protocols

Internet protocols determine how data packets are dispatched across a network. You can think of protocols as the different routes cars can take to get between their origins and their destinations.

You could take a government highway to get to your safe house in the woods, but then security cameras might have recorded you. Or you could take back roads the whole way, but it might take you days. This is the kind of trade-off you often face between security and performance.

Hotspot Shield, however, developed its own VPN protocol that delivers fast speeds and impressive security.

Hydra

Hotspot Shield bucks the trend of VPNs using popular VPN protocols like SSTP or OpenVPN. Instead, it uses its own proprietary protocol, Hydra.

Hotspot Shield specifically developed Hydra because it found that popular protocols like IPSec and OpenVPN are bound by performance and latency challenges. Hotspot Shield claims that Hydra:

• Has a faster connection to VPN servers
• Uses less bandwidth when transporting data through encrypted tunnels
• Offers connection speeds 2.4 times faster for long-distance connections, compared to OpenVPN

As you will see in our Hotspot Shield speed test results below, there is some truth to these claims. Hydra, and by extension, Hotspot Shield, indeed performed incredibly fast. And when it comes to data security, Hydra did prevent our IP address from leaking out.

But is Hydra better than more widely used, open-source protocols like OpenVPN? We don’t think so. At best, it’s a good alternative that provides about the same speed and security as OpenVPN. However, it’s new and it’s proprietary, so it will take a lot more real-world testing to convince us, but kudos to Hotspot Shield for trying to innovate.

WireGuard

In addition to Hydra, Hotspot Shield offers the WireGuard protocol, which is a lighter and faster alternative to OpenVPN. Users can choose between Hydra and WireGuard, and although both protocols are good, WireGuard is more widely implemented in the VPN industry, so chances are, it will work in more situations.

That said, both protocols are secure, so you can switch back and forth freely depending on what works best for you.

Hotspot Shield Free Version

Whenever you hear the words “free VPN”, a little alarm should go off in your head. VPN companies have to make money somehow, in order to pay for their servers and infrastructure. And the saying “if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product” holds true for most free VPNs. This often means they are giving your data to advertising partners or other third parties; not ideal if you care about privacy.

Free VPNs from reputable companies like Hotspot Shield, however, can prove useful for internet users on a budget. And surprisingly, the free version is quite capable. It no longer has a speed limit, so you can enjoy internet speeds up to 1 Gbps. If your internet is fast, you may even be able to stream or download with Hotspot Shield Basic (free).

That being said, there are a few caveats. For starters, you can only connect one device at a time. The premium version, on the other hand, lets you connect up to 10 devices simultaneously.

You can also access only one virtual server location, so you technically do not have access to Hotspot Shield’s entire network. Specifically, you won’t be able to access servers optimized for streaming and online gaming.

You also have to be wary of the bandwidth limit. Free users can only use 500 MB of data per day, although if you’re on an Android or iOS device, you can watch ads to surpass the limit.

Lastly, the free plan plan doesn’t include these features that are available on any of the paid plans:

• Anti-phishing
• Kill switch
• Smart VPN

Still, even with all the limits, Hotspot Shield’s free VPN can provide some level of protection. You’re still connected to a VPN tunnel, which is encrypted, so even if you can access only one location and there’s a bandwidth limit, you can make it work. The free Hotspot Shield VPN is particularly useful for students on a budget.

Testing Hotspot Shield

There’s only one way to find out if Hotspot Shield’s proprietary Hydra results in faster speeds: real-world speed tests of Hotspot Shield Premium. Additionally, we tested whether Hotspot Shield was impervious to DNS and WebRTC leaks.

Speed Test

Like most people, internet speed matters to us. After all, what’s the use of a secure connection if all we can do online is stare at a blank screen while we wait for our favorite shows to buffer?

Keep in mind that there are many factors that your internet speed will depend on when using a VPN – time of day, location, internet service provider, software, hardware, VPN server location, and so on. We tested Hotspot Shield Premium on a Macbook Pro running Mac OS X Catalina and a Lenovo Thinkpad running Windows 10, which we connected to our 70 Mbps internet.

Download Speed Tests

As you can see, Hotspot Shield Premium decreased our download speed by around 30 percent on Mac and 18 percent on Windows. While Hotspot Shield performed slightly better on Windows in this category, we’re impressed with the performance on both systems. The speed loss on Mac and Windows was barely noticeable.

We did another test, this time comparing the speed of VPNs, and Hotspot Shield performed even better in the download speed category. In fact, Hotspot Shield recorded the smallest percentage of download speed loss at just three-percent.

Upload Speed Tests

Next, we tested the difference in upload speeds with and without the Hotspot Shield Premium. In this case, the Windows connection performed a little worse with a decrease of 26 percent compared to only 0.2 percent on Mac.

Ping Speed Tests

Finally, we looked at the ping, or latency, in milliseconds. In this category, Hotspot Shield was quite slow.

We saw a ping increase of 540 percent for Windows and 430 percent for Mac. That’s bad news, especially if you’re playing online games competitively, but not so much if you’re browsing or streaming. Overall, besides ping, these are among the fastest speeds we’ve seen from VPNs.

DNS Leak Test

DNS leak tests are important to make sure your device is sending all DNS traffic through the VPN tunnel. If it’s not, then you have a DNS leak, which means your ISP and, possibly, hackers, can still see your real IP address. This type of leak can also happen if you configured your VPN manually, if an attacker got control of your router, or if you chose to do a manual DNS setup.

We used a DNS leak test tool to see if Hotspot Shield had any DNS leaks. And the result? Well, the IP address that the leak test tool detected was from the Bahamas, and we were nowhere near there when we performed the tests. That means that Hotspot Shield successfully shielded our IP address from DNS leaks.

WebRTC Leak Test

Do you want to use a VPN with Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or Opera? Then you need to know about WebRTC leaks.

WebRTC, otherwise known as Web Real-Time Communication, is a collection of standardized technologies that allow web browsers to communicate with each other directly rather than going through intermediate servers. WebRTC allows for faster speeds for video chat, live streaming, and file transfers. Who doesn’t want that?

Well, there are some security issues that arise from the fact that WebRTC needs your public IP address. Let us explain the difference between public and private IP addresses.

Private IP addresses are what local networks use to identify each other. When you connect a laptop to a router, for example, the router assigns a private IP address to it. Now, private IP addresses aren’t unique, thus, are not traceable; two different networks can assign the same private IP address to two different devices.

Public IP addresses, on the other hand, come from your ISP. They’re globally unique and no two devices can share the same public IP address. Public IP addresses allow users to access the internet directly.

Now, when you’re using a VPN, it should hide your public IP address and block leakage such as WebRTC leaks. A simple WebRTC leak test would tell you if there are leaks; if the IP address on the test tool matches your public IP address, then your VPN is not doing its job. Fortunately, when we tested Hotspot Shield, it didn’t reveal our public IP address.

Hotspot Shield Subscription

So now that you know what Hotspot Shield Premium has to offer, the real question is… what’s it gonna cost you?

Options

Hotspot Shield Premium Price Plans

Hotspot Shield offers three different subscription options: Basic, Premium, and Premium Family. Premium and Premium Family share the same VPN features.

However, Premium only gets you one VPN account which can support up to five devices. Premium Family, on the other hand, gets you five VPN accounts that you can share with family members. Each member gets the same features as Premium: A VPN they can use on five devices. So if we do the math, that’s like having five Premium subscriptions for $19.99 per month, only $7 more expensive than the Premium individual plan. That’s a pretty nice deal, and it’s perfect not only for families, but even a group of friends or roommates.

You can choose to pay for Hotspot Shield every month or every year. Like with most VPN services, the monthly price gets lower as your commitment increases. If for some reason, you don’t like Hotspot Shield Premium, you can get a refund using the company’s 45-day money-back guarantee.

Manual Configurations

Hotspot Shield has native apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux devices as well as a browser extension for Chrome. On smart TVs, Hotspot Shield is available for Fire TVs and Android TVs. However, for routers, you need to configure Hotspot Shield manually.

Hotspot Shield Customer Support

Hopefully, you won’t need to use Hotspot Shield’s customer support, but just in case, here are the details on how you can troubleshoot problems.

Features

Hotspot Shield has 24/7 support via live chat, but there’s a catch. You can only access the live chat support if you’re a Premium or Premium Family account holder. If you are, then good! All you need to do is sign in with your account on your browser.

If you’re using the free version, however, or if you have questions before buying services from Hotspot Shield, your only options are Hotspot Shield’s email ticket support and knowledge base. Waiting to hear back after submitting a ticket can take days, but fortunately, Hotspot Shield’s knowledge base covers a wide range of topics, so hopefully, you can get your answers from there.

The Hotspot Shield App

The Hotspot Shield App has applications for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. The Android app has a 4.1 rating on the Google Play Store. The iPhone app has a 4.5 rating on the iOS App Store.

These are excellent ratings, which shows that users enjoy using the Hotspot Shield app. Of course, we tested it ourselves on an iPad that we use for browsing and research, and we liked the app’s no-nonsense approach. On the homepage was a single power button that connected us to the nearest server automatically. There were no other buttons and no settings to tinker with when connecting.

Of course, if we wanted to change our locations or use a different server, we could pull up the server list from the bottom of the screen and select which server location we wanted to connect to. The best part is that there were options to connect to servers that Hotspot Shield optimized for gaming and streaming, perfect for when we wanted to catch an episode or two of “The Office” during our breaks.

Recap of Hotspot Shield

Overall, we liked Hotspot Shield’s speed and that it has a free option that is only ad-supported on Android. It is fast, it performs smoothly, and it allows us to go on Netflix and torrent movies.

However, we didn’t like its privacy policy, particularly how much data it collected. Also, it didn’t help that the company is based in the U.S., subject to international surveillance alliance laws. But since everyone has their own priorities, we’ll break it down further.