I just learned why the fastest VPN isn’t always the best option

Hotspot Shield is an odd name for a virtual private network (VPN) service, but it’s one of the fastest you can get. However, speed isn’t everything. You need a VPN that works on all your devices, protects your privacy and hides your location, and offers good customer service, all at an affordable price.

I went hands-on with Hotspot Shield to see how well it fares against the best VPNs, and whether it’s the right choice for you.

Tiers and pricing

Hotspot Shield offers free and paid versions. We recommended Hotspot Shield’s free app, but we might have to rethink that suggestion since it now has a data cap of 250MB per day and includes ads. There are much better free VPNs to choose from.

Moving on to Hotspot Shield Premium, pricing and availability of subscription plans varies. Navigating the website to find pricing, I see only two options: $10 monthly or $80 annually, which works out to about $7 per month.

When I dug deeper, I found a much better deal. Browsing through blog posts, I came across a link to a VPN offer page with a price of about $3 each month if you pay for three years in advance. The total cost is $108, only $28 more than the annual plan to get two more years of service.

Hotspot Shield isn’t the only VPN with great deals, particularly if you’re willing to prepay for years of service. However, its 7-day free trial and 45-day money-back guarantee are quite generous.

Design

The Hotspot Shield app is easy to install and simple to use. A big, friendly Connect VPN button on the home screen automatically chooses the fastest server. For basic privacy protection, it only takes a click.

Unfortunately, the app’s window is small and isn’t resizable. On the left sidebar, I can do a speed test through the Hotspot Shield app, check my account status, get help, or dig into settings for more advanced options.

The settings tab is where everything of interest is placed. I can set up automatic connection, activate split-tunneling so select sites and apps bypass the VPN, choose which protocol to use, and enable a kill switch that cuts internet access if the VPN unexpectedly disconnects.

Hotspot Shield’s Catapult Hydra protocol is fast and includes obfuscation to help hide VPN use. That’s important when you need to bypass administrative firewalls. The best VPNs for school have similar features.

Those are fairly common features for top VPNs. I couldn’t find an option for port forwarding and Hotspot Shield doesn’t offer dedicated IP addresses.

Features

Any VPN can hide my IP address and encrypt data to help protect my privacy. When I’m paying for a VPN, I also expect great bandwidth and a large number of servers to choose from so I can stream video, download content, and browse news from around the world like I’m a local.

In my testing, Hotspot Shield proved to be one of the fastest VPNs available. I used Speedtest.net to measure download and upload speeds for servers in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Germany, and Australia.

My Ethernet connection handles over 900 Mbps speeds both for downloads and uploads. Hotspot Shield correctly identified a U.S. server as closer and faster for my location.

With Hotspot Shield connected, I got U.S. downloads as fast as 441 Mbps (94 milliseconds ping) and uploads at 134 Mbps (79 ms ping). That’s the best upload speed I’ve measured so far from my location in Canada and among the best download speeds.

Overseas, download rates ranged from 26 Mbps (823 ms ping) in distant Australia to 64 Mbps (352 ms ping) in Germany. Uploads were quite slow, reaching only 3 Mbps (232 ms ping) “down under” and a usable 6 Mbps (121 ms ping) in Germany.

In some locations, Hotspot Shield offers servers optimized for streaming and gaming. I checked whether there was a measurable difference and found the U.K. streaming server was faster and had lower pings.

Hotspot Shield should take inspiration from Proton VPN, a competing service that shows the server load to help me get the best speed.

Support

Hotspot Shield claims to offer 24/7 live chat support. When I reached out at 7 p.m. ET, a chatbot offered useful help with my first question about using Hotspot Shield as part of my Dashlane password manager subscription. I verified that a full Hotspot Shield Premium plan is included.

Next, I asked about the hours of live chat. The bot ignored that question the first few times I asked. I started a new conversation to clear whatever glitch was happening and this time was told to expect an email response within an hour.

I didn’t get a reply that evening, so I tried again the next day at 2 p.m. ET. The chatbot again collected my name and email with the doubtful promise that I’d hear back within an hour.

In my experience, Hotspot Shield live chat is limited to a virtual assistant that’s not as helpful as a modern AI. I tried the common keywords “agent” and “human” with no success. As for email support, it’s very slow with replies, taking more than a day even for simple questions.

Privacy and security

Hotspot Shield’s terms of service state that the free service may show third-party ads, but the paid version doesn’t. It also notes that you will be transferring personal information to the U.S.

That means the U.S. and its allies may request to access your data. Most of your information is end-to-end encrypted with Hydra, IPSec, or WireGuard protocols, so that should keep your activity private.

There have also been concerns about data leaks when using the VPN. Hotspot Shield confirmed a minor data leak of a Wi-Fi network name in December 2017. I couldn’t find any official statement about a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint made earlier that year.

Aura acquired Hotspot Shield in 2020, so hopefully any leaks or logging issues have been corrected. Hotspot Shield’s no-log policy hasn’t been audited, leaving some doubt about how much data it might collect.

Is Hotspot Shield right for you?

I can’t recommend Hotspot Shield’s free app, since it limits data to 250 MB and might show ads. Proton Free is a much better free VPN, and it includes free encrypted storage, a free password manager, and more.

Hotspot Shield Premium is fast, scoring the best uploads speeds I’ve measured. However, Hotspot Shield doesn’t have as many servers or locations as the best VPNs. For example, NordVPN lists 6,400 worldwide servers, which is more than triple Hotspot Shield’s 1,800 servers.

You might be able to find a good deal on Hotspot Shield, but most companies highlight the best VPN deals, so you don’t need to dig through blog posts to find them.

I like Hotspot Shield’s speed and ease of use, but I can’t recommend it when there are better and cheaper VPNs available.