Hotspot Shield Review 2023

Launched in 2008, Hotspot Shield has amassed over 650 million users. It has also received high praise from Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, and many other renowned publications.

Often called “the big brother of Bitdefender VPN,” Hotspot Shield claims to offer breakneck speeds. Speedtest dubbed it “the fastest VPN” in 2019, but is it really the “world’s fastest VPN?” Is Hotspot Shield safe?

We assessed Hotspot Shield to see how it stacks up against the competition. We tested its speeds, security, and performance. Continue reading our Hotspot Shield VPN review below for the results of our hands-on testing.

7.75

Pros

• Ultra-fast Catapult Hydra protocol
• 3,200+ servers in 80+ countries
• AES-128 encryption
• Split-tunneling ("Smart VPN")
• Automatic kill switch
• Easy to install
• Beginner-friendly user interface
• VPN works with Netflix US
• It supports torrenting
• Great value for the price

Cons

• Privacy policy isn't ideal
• No dedicated IPs
• Subpar customer support
• No crypto payment option

Hotspot Shield is a powerful, beginner-friendly VPN. Its apps are intuitive and easy to use, without overly technical options and convoluted menus. And, its proprietary Catapult Hydra protocol provides blazing speeds and quick connection times.

Hotspot Shield offers 3,200+ servers in 80+ countries with dedicated streaming and gaming locations. It uses AES-128 encryption, keeps no identifiable activity logs, and hasn’t shared user data with the authorities.

While some advanced users may find Hotspot Shield lacking key features, it’s perfect for beginners. Hotspot Shield premium is packed with security and privacy tools, giving it one of the best price-to-value ratios of all the VPN services we’ve tested.

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Speed – How Fast is Hotspot Shield VPN?

Speed and security are the two most important aspects of any VPN service. However, they sit in a constant state of inverse proportion; reduced speed is often the cost of better security and vice versa.

So, it’s not just about finding the fastest VPNs, but VPNs that are safe and fast. While a VPN will always slow down your connection to some extent, it shouldn’t render browsing or other activities impossible.

Here are our first impressions after testing Hotspot Shield VPN:

• The VPN speed dropoff is considerably less.
• There were no significant speed drops during day-to-day use.

Speed test results Hotspot Shield

We first measured our benchmark speed (without the VPN), then compared it to other speed test results. We also monitored the speed fluctuations during daily use to spot potential server crowding and speed throttling.

We tested Hotspot Shield VPN from our corporate office in the Netherlands. Your results might differ depending on the quality of your connection and your location. So, this table is only an indicator of its potential performance.

With that said, this is still the best method of gauging the impact of Hotspot Shield on your connection speed.

Here are the results of our Hotspot Shield speed test:

Server	Download (MBPS)	Upload (MBPS)	Ping (MS)
No VPN	93.8	94.51	12
The Netherlands	92.2	92.9	15
Germany	92.34	93	68
The UK	91.93	91.04	41
United States East (New York)	73.36	48.98	162
United States West (Los Angeles)	49.91	26.82	150
Canada (Montreal)	81.85	39.01	192
Brazil	11.1	18.94	203
South Africa	4.22	21.26	199
Japan	36.87	18.93	225
Australia (Sydney)	24.52	17.18	251

Hotspot Shield VPN scored impressive results in our speed tests. Germany and the UK, which are close to our testing location (Netherlands), maintained at least 90% of our baseline speed. They also had decent latency, with ping values of less than 70.

Even on distant servers, Hotspot Shield performed well. Servers in Canada and New York maintained at least 73% of our original speeds. However, we noticed a drop in our speeds when we connected to a server in Los Angeles (United States West), although the ping held up remarkably well.

Our speeds also dropped when we connected to servers in faraway locations (Brazil, South Africa, Japan, and Australia). It’s worth noting that speeds often suffer significant dropoffs as ping increases. However, Hotspot Shields’ speed drops in faraway locations are much more noticeable than those of other VPNs, like Surfshark.

You can check Hotspot Shield speeds directly from the VPN client. It’s not advisable to do this too often if you’re using the Hotspot Shield free VPN. The speed test uses around 20 MB on average in a single cycle, and the Hotspot Shield free VPN offers limited bandwidth.

Hotspot Shield speeds during daily use

Testing Hotspot Shield was a real treat for our team. We experienced zero errors and didn’t notice any significant speed fluctuations. Everything worked smoothly; we could stream full HD videos on YouTube, Netflix, and other platforms.

Hotspot Shield is a decent gaming VPN that allows you to play your favorite games completely lag-free. We could also download torrents without any issues.

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Safety – Is Hotspot Shield Safe?

A good VPN protects your online traffic from prying eyes and keeps you anonymous at all times. Hotspot Shield VPN is one of the trailblazers in internet safety. It offers a solid security package. Below, we’ll discuss Hotspot Shield’s protocols, data collection, and the personal info required to create an account.

Here are the main takeaways:

• Hotspot Shield uses its proprietary Catapult Hydra protocol.
• It uses AES-128 encryption.
• It comes with an automatic kill switch for Windows.

Hotspot Shield VPN protocols

VPN providers are increasingly using established technologies to build proprietary VPN protocols like NordVPN did with NordLynx. Hotspot Shield VPN did the same thing. They were looking for a way to reduce latency and created their proprietary Catapult Hydra protocol (based on OpenVPN).

The advantages of this protocol include:

• Faster connection times to VPN servers
• Lower data transfer for optimal performance on slower connections
• 2.4x faster long-distance connections than OpenVPN

Catapult Hydra has over 30 patents. It has also been adopted by Bitdefender VPN, Betternet, Cheetah Mobile, McAfee, and many others. It uses TLS (Transport Layer Security) to establish a safe client-server connection and encrypt the payload.

Note: TLS is an encryption protocol that works with different encryption methods (or ciphers). Hotspot Shield uses AES-128 by default, but TLS also supports AES-256. Some believe AES-128 is not optimal, but that’s not true.

The AES cipher has never been cracked. If some futuristic attack manages to break AES-128, it will likely crack AES-256 encryption too. So, the difference in security is negligible, despite the different key sizes.

Hydra’s encryption strings have ECDHE prefixes, which means it supports ephemeral (as opposed to static) session keys. The last “E” stands for “Ephemeral.” Simply put, this tells us that Hotspot Shield supports perfect forward secrecy.

We can explain this security feature by looking at encryption as a lock/key combination. These locks and keys can change every time you connect to your VPN or stay the same. Naturally, the first option is much more secure, and that’s exactly what forward secrecy does for you.

Hotspot Shield will generate a new encryption key every time you connect. So, even if a hacker manages to steal your key, it will be rendered useless the moment you disconnect.

Windows and Mac users also have access to IKEv2/IPSec. It’s fast and secure but easily blocked. It won’t work in censorship-heavy countries like China. Hotspot Shield also supports Wireguard.

Contrary to what some Hotspot Shield reviews claim, the encryption used for the Hotspot Shield Android and iOS apps is unknown. Their developers haven’t disclosed this information.

Hotspot Shield mobile apps have a simple Settings menu without any protocols to choose from.

Hotspot Shield also offers browser extensions for Chrome and Mozilla. These offer a lot of functionality, including “Sword Mode.” This option feeds web trackers fake browsing data, keeping your info out of their reach.

It’s worth noting that both extensions were last updated in 2020, so we doubt their ability to tackle modern malware threats. On the other hand, they’re excellent for blocking trackers, ads, and cookies.

Hotspot Shield uses OpenVPN on compatible routers. This setup requires a bit of tinkering since you’ll have to change the settings in your router. We don’t recommend it unless you know what you’re doing.

If you mess up the setup process, connecting to the internet might be difficult.

Logging and privacy

Hotspot Shield VPN advertises itself as a “log-free VPN,” meaning it doesn’t collect or store data that could be used to trace your online traffic back to you. In other words, it doesn’t record your IP address, online activity, location, or device identifiers.

However, Hotspot Shield collects the following data:

• The duration of each VPN session and the bandwidth consumed.
• The domains accessed by users (this data is anonymized, so they can’t know which user accessed particular domains).
• Device hashes to identify devices and associate them with other collected data.

Keeping activity logs isn’t ideal for privacy, even if this data is anonymized. VPNs should offer complete privacy without any possibility (however remote) of linking your traffic back to you.

Hotspot Shield VPN is owned by Pango Inc. (formerly AnchorFree), which was acquired by Aura in July 2020.

Aura is a US-based company. This is relevant since the US is a 5 Eyes country with a long history of warrants and gag orders. In other words, it’s not an ideal location for a VPN. And according to its Privacy Policy, Pango Inc. is subject to the enforcement authority of the US Federal Trade Commission.

When you connect to Hotspot Shield, your IP address is recorded, encrypted, and ultimately deleted at the end of each session. While the company says your IP is not associated with your browsing activity, it uses your IP to obtain data about your approximate location and internet service provider (ISP).

So, what data can the government get from Hotspot Shield?

As it stands, authorities could potentially get their hands on data about your approximate location, ISP, device hashes, and the duration of your VPN sessions. With some cross-referencing, this may be enough to positively identify you.

So, it’s not exactly true that Aura has nothing to hand over to the authorities; they have plenty of info to share.

The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) outlined these concerns in its complaint against Hotspot Shield in 2017.

Kill switch

VPNs are just as stable as your internet connection. So, if your VPN connection falls for a second or two, on occasion, that’s more than enough time for your real IP to leak, exposing your location and possibly your identity. This defeats the purpose of using a VPN.

A kill switch suspends all internet traffic if your VPN connection drops. It activates in a fraction of a second and prevents your data from leaking.

Hotspot Shield offers an automatic kill switch on its Windows app. However, Mac, Android, iOS, and Linux users don’t have this fail-safe feature.

A kill switch is one of the most important safeguards against unwanted data exposure, and we think it’s a must-have for all VPNs. We hope other Hotspot Shield apps get this feature too.

What information does Hotspot Shield VPN need?

Every VPN provider needs some basic personal data to create an account. Ideally, this is limited to your email and billing data. Some VPNs, like Windscribe, don’t even require an email address.

On the other hand, some companies request a lot of personal info under the pretext of “providing better service.” Holding privacy above all else, though, we prefer handing over as little info as possible to create an account with VPN providers.

With that in mind, here’s what Hotspot Shield requires during sign-up:

• Email
• Password

Since Hotspot Shield doesn’t support crypto payments, you’ll also have to provide your full name if you opt for its premium VPN service. We’d like to see this changed in the future since crypto allows anonymous online purchases.

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Usability – How User-Friendly is Hotspot Shield?

Hotspot Shield is a beginner-friendly VPN with one of the most stylish clients we’ve ever seen.

After assessing its website, installation, apps, pricing, and customer support, these are our main impressions:

• Hotspot Shield’s website is easy to navigate.
• The setup process is quick and straightforward on all devices.
• Their apps are clean, futuristic, and beginner-friendly.
• The Premium plan offers amazing value for money.
• There’s a free limited version of the VPN.
• No crypto payments.
• The customer support team can’t tackle technical questions.

Hotspot Shield website and installation process

Hotspot Shield’s website is well laid-out and easy to navigate. You can create an account and download its software client directly from the homepage. Just click on the relevant buttons in the top-right corner of the screen.

After logging in to your personal dashboard, you can manage the installed apps, check your account info, and contact customer support. You can also download the non-VPN apps included in your subscription package.

The installation of Hotspot Shield VPN was quick and smooth on all our devices. You can download the setup file from the homepage, the pricing menu, or your personal dashboard.

To install Hotspot Shield on a Windows device, follow these steps:

1. Go to Hotspot Shield’s official website.
2. Click Account in the top-right corner.
3. Choose your credentials (email and password) and log in.
4. Click Get Hotspot Shield next to the Account button.
5. The app download will start automatically.
6. Click on the setup file.
7. Follow the instructions.

This will install the Hotspot Shield free VPN. If 500 MB per day is insufficient, purchasing a premium subscription is always an option.

Note: The 500 MB Hotspot Shield offers free users is not a lot and will drain rather quickly. If you’re a heavy internet user, it will certainly not meet your needs.

Hotspot Shield VPN’s appearance and ease-of-use

Hotspot Shield’s desktop client has a very simple interface. The home screen is clean and well-organized. All the important options are in the vertical menu on the left side. This makes for a simple user interface devoid of complicated options and endless menus.

The main screen features a large on/off button, a shortcut to the server list, and the data you’ve consumed that day. Your subscription type also appears at the top of the app (Hotspot Shield Free or Hotspot Shield Premium).

Once you connect, the client will switch to a screen with five tiles, indicating your:

• Virtual location: The server you’re currently using.
• Server information: Your IP, server load, latency in ms, and connection time
• Daily data: Bandwidth used in the last 24 hours
• Peak speed: Your fastest download speed
• Network: The name and type of your network

The hamburger menu on the left side allows you to:

• Perform an in-app speed test
• Check your account data
• Install other apps included in your package
• Contact customer support
• Access the settings menu

Hotspot Shield’s client doesn’t come with any overly complicated features. Beginners should have no problem finding their way around, but advanced users might find it lacking. You won’t have to deal with a lot of super-technical options, which might be good or bad, depending on your personal preference.

Hotspot Shield’s client is arguably the most stylish app we’ve ever seen. The black background with blue elements looks elegant and modern. You can choose between light and dark modes on mobile apps.

Pricing and payment methods

Hotspot Shield used to offer one of the cheapest VPN plans; a three-year plan at $2.99 per month. However, the VPN has scrapped that plan and introduced much more expensive plans, although it still offers a free VPN service. Hotspot Shield now offers two plans: yearly and monthly.

Here’s a snapshot of the different plans and their prices:

Monthly plan:

• Premium: $12.99 per month
• Premium Family: $19.99 per month (you can share your subscription with up to five people)

Yearly plan:

• Premium: $7.99 per month
• Premium Family: $11.99 per month (you can share your subscription with up to five people)

All plans are covered with a 45-day money-back guarantee. Considering most VPNs offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, this is quite impressive. This longer refund period should give you enough time to test the VPN risk-free. CyberGhost is another VPN that offers a 45-day money-back guarantee.

You can use the Hotspot Shield free VPN to test the service completely at no cost. The free app comes with some limitations:

• You can only use it on one device.
• Only one server location is available.
• The speed is capped at 2 Mbps.
• There’s a 500 MB daily data limit.
• You’ll have no access to Gaming and Streaming modes.
• No live customer support (on-site knowledge base only)
• No kill switch
• No Smart VPN (split-tunneling)

The free version of Hotspot Shield is a bare-bones version of the premium app.

The Premium package offers the best value for the money. It features three Aura apps; Hotspot Shield VPN, Hiya spam call protection, and the 1Password password manager.

The site also states that an antivirus program is included in the package, but we couldn’t find the option to install it.

For payment, Hotspot Shield accepts credit cards and PayPal. Crypto payments are not an option at the moment. That’s unfortunate because using cryptocurrencies allows you to bypass financial institutions and buy a VPN anonymously.

Customer service

When we assess the customer service of a VPN, we’re primarily interested in three things:

• The quality of the information on the official website
• The available ways to contact their customer support staff (email, live chat, tickets, phone)
• The responsiveness and expertise of the support team

Hotspot Shield’s website offers useful information, including FAQs, setup guides, and much more. However, we encountered some outdated articles. This is the only support you’ll have access to without a premium subscription.

Premium users can send a direct message to the support team. You can expect a response within one business day.

Hotspot Shield’s AI-powered chatbot is not effective. It couldn’t answer even the most basic questions, as shown below.

Premium users also have access to live chat support. During our research for this Hotspot Shield review, we talked to three different chat operators. We were in the queue for less than a minute each time, so thumbs up for the quick response times.

However, none of them were very knowledgeable about Hotspot Shield. They could answer some basic questions but were not equipped to tackle more technical queries. Overall, we were not satisfied with Hotspot Shield’s customer support.

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Server Network – Can Hotspot Shield Unblock the Internet?

Generally, the bigger a VPN server network, the better. More server locations increase your odds of beating geo-restrictions and accessing blocked content on sites like Netflix. A wider network also allows you to bypass heavy censorship in countries like Russia and Egypt. More servers mean less crowding and server lag.

These are our main takeaways:

• Hotspot Shield offers 3,200+ servers in 80+ countries.
• Dedicated and static IPs are currently unavailable.

Number of servers and locations

Hotspot Shield offers 3,200+ VPN servers in 80+ countries. It has a solid server network, although it’s not as good as NordVPN’s (5,000+ servers).

You can access the list of available locations from the home screen on the VPN client. The app also shows the new IP address used to replace your real address. If you want to check some IP specifics, you can use our What is my IP tool.

The real-time server load info (expressed in %) will help you avoid server crowding and pick the best option for optimal performance. However, this info is only shown after you’ve connected to a server. Having these percentages before connecting would be much more useful.

Hotspot Shield has servers in the following countries:

• America: United States (28 locations), Bahamas, Belize, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Panama.
• South America: Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
• Europe: Armenia, Austria, United Kingdom (four locations), Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France (two locations), Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy (three locations), Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain (two locations), Ukraine, and Turkey.
• Asia-Pacific: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• Africa, The Middle East, and India: Algeria, Brunei, Egypt, India, South Africa, and UAE.
• Oceania: Australia (six locations) and New Zealand.

You can freely switch between servers, but the transition could be more seamless. Hotspot Shield will disconnect from your current location before switching to the next. You will be unprotected during the switch and could suffer IP, WebRTC, and DNS leaks.

Hotspot Shield features dedicated streaming and gaming servers in the US and the UK. Hotspot Shield’s mobile apps also come with a social network & chat server. This is an excellent option for WeChat users in China.

The client doesn’t allow you to create a list of your favorite servers for easier access. You also don’t have access to your connection history.

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Hotspot Shield and streaming (Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, BBC iPlayer)

Hotspot Shield is great for streaming. During our tests, the VPN successfully unblocked all major streaming services, including Netflix.

Platform	Can Hotspot Shield unblock it?
Netflix	✔
Disney Plus	✔
Hulu	✔
BBC iPlayer	✔
Amazon Prime Video	✔

All the top Netflix VPNs have one thing in common — they can unlock the US version without any proxy errors. Bonus points for unblocking other regional versions. We tested several Hotspot Shield servers with Netflix, and it worked when we connected to servers in the following countries:

• The US
• The UK
• The Netherlands
• Germany
• France
• Turkey

Apart from Netflix, we could also stream Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Crunchyroll, and Peacock. We are impressed with Hotspot Shield’s streaming capabilities.

Hotspot Shield and torrents

Hotspot Shield VPN supports torrenting on all its servers. So, if you use uTorrent frequently, it is a perfect choice for you. With its sheer speed, Hotspot Shield can give our best VPNs for torrenting a run for their money.

Dedicated IP address

Unfortunately, Hotspot Shield doesn’t offer dedicated IP addresses.

With a dedicated IP, you have the same IP address every time you connect to your VPN. Nobody else can use it since it’s linked to your account. Streaming Netflix with a dedicated IP is much safer since it’s less likely to be blacklisted. It also prevents CAPTCHA pop-ups and facilitates online payments.

Hotspot Shield offers shared dynamic addresses. This means you’ll share an ever-changing IP with hundreds (or thousands) of other users. This can be beneficial if you torrent frequently.

Shared IPs allow you to “get lost in the crowd,” making it impossible to trace your P2P activity. Losing your digital footprint among hundreds of users will also increase your online privacy.

Hotspot Shield’s Options

Split-tunneling

Hotspot Shield VPN offers split-tunneling with its Smart VPN feature. You can find it in the Settings menu and toggle it on or off.

This useful feature allows you to route the traffic from some apps through the secure VPN tunnel and leave others out. For example, you can use Hotspot Shield to get a US IP address to access Netflix and route the traffic for other apps outside the VPN tunnel.

Split-tunneling can boost your speed since all your internet traffic doesn’t go through a VPN tunnel. It also conserves bandwidth, which is especially important for free users working with the 500 MB daily limit on Hotspot Shield’s free VPN.

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Our Experience With Hotspot Shield VPN

Hotspot Shield is a reasonably fast VPN, especially when using its Catapult Hydra protocol. It has over 3,200 servers and can unblock all major streaming services, including Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video.

Hotspot Shield only has a few advanced features, but everything works perfectly. Its apps are easy to use and have a stylish design. It offers a generous 45-day money-back guarantee, but the free version of its app is very limited. Also, Hotspot Shield is based in the US, and its privacy policy could be better.

If you’re looking for a highly secure VPN located in a privacy-friendly country, we recommend NordVPN.

Alternatively, browse through these articles to find an excellent alternative to Hotspot Shield:

• Best VPN Providers of March 2023
• Top 7 Truly Free VPN Providers of March 2023
• The Best No Log VPNs for 2023: Stay Anonymous Online
• The Fastest Gaming VPN: Top 3 Secure VPNs That Don’t Lag
• Top 5 Best VPNs to Buy with Bitcoin and Other Crypto in 2023
• Best Free VPN for Torrenting & P2P (2023): Tried and Tested!

Hotspot Shield Review: Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have questions about Hotspot Shield? Click one of the questions in the FAQ below to see the answer.

Can Hotspot Shield be trusted?

Hotspot Shield can be trusted, but there’s a small caveat; it logs some data. All the data it collects is anonymized, but we’d prefer if VPN providers don’t record any personal data whatsoever.

Is Hotspot Shield really anonymous?

Yes! Hotspot Shield masks your IP address and replaces it with another one to conceal your identity. This means your online traffic can’t be traced back to you. Your ISP, hackers, and the government won’t be able to link your online activities to you.

Does Hotspot Shield work with Netflix?

Yes! Hotspot Shield can unblock Netflix US and many other regional versions. It even has dedicated streaming and gaming servers. While it didn’t make out list of the best VPNs for Netflix, it’s an excellent option.

Is Hotspot Shield safe?

Hotspot Shield is quite safe. It comes with an array of security features, including its proprietary Catapult Hydra protocol. It also uses AES-128 encryption. Unfortunately, it only offers a kill switch on its Windows app and logs some user data.

Personal Opinions of VPNOverview’s Experts

“A beginner-friendly VPN that works with Netflix”

7.75

Wisdom Sablah

Tech Journalist

I found Hotspot Shield to be a high-performing VPN. It allowed me to unblock and stream Netflix without any interruptions. I didn’t notice any lags while streaming and gaming. Overall, I recommend this VPN, although we have some reservations about its Privacy Policy.

Naj Ahmed

Tech Editor

Hotspot Shield has been around for quite a while, and the company continues to improve its services. This is a fantastic VPN if you want something that’s trusted and reliable. We’re deducting marks because of its questionable Privacy Policy, but apart from that, this is a solid VPN that can protect your online privacy without affecting your browsing experience.

Visit Hotspot Shield

From $7.99 a month