Hotspot Shield

Hotspotshield.com
Overall User Rating – (Jump to user reviews)


Website: www.hotspotshield.com
Price: Elite version from $5.99 / Month. (If purchased via 12-month plan)
Our Rating: – 71.6%
Protection: 3/5
Software / GUI:
3/5
Features:
2/5
Speed:
3/5
Ease of Use:
4/5

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Service Overview and Reviews

Protocols: PPTP, L2TP

Service: Hotspot Shield offers a VPN service connecting to virtual locations in 28 countries including USA, UK, Australia, Japan, Canada and Germany.

There is a free version but this comes with ads loading directly into your web browser which most will find intrusive. The paid (Elite) version does away with these ads and boasts faster, less populated servers.

The software is basic and will protect you from snoopers at Wi-Fi hotspots such as at hotels, airports and corporate offices and allow you to unblock sites like Hulu, YouTube, etc that may be blocked from your location.

Versions are available for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android

The Android version includes ‘Smart Protection’ which automatically detects unsafe Wi-Fi networks and then turns on to protect you.

Note: p2p / torrents are blocked completely.

Privacy: They are a US company governed by US law. See their Policy/Terms/FAQ

Our Thoughts: We tested both the free and paid services and whilst the speeds were tolerable on the free service the intrusive advertising will not be for most people. The paid service is faster and reasonably priced for the 12 month option but the total block on p2p will put off many hardcore users.

If you are just looking for ultra-basic security and privacy at wi-fi hotspots or to unblock censored sites this could be for you. If p2p file-sharing or stronger security and anonymity is your thing you’ll really need to look at other VPN alternatives.

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Hotspot Shield Reviews

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Please rate Hotspot Shield from your own experience via the form at the bottom of this page.

Hotspot Shield Speed Test Results

Hotspot Shield Speed Test

Below you can see our testing results for Hotspot Shield. For more details of how we conduct our speed tests go to VPN Speed Tests

Test PC #1 – United States – OS (Mac OSX) – ISP (Cox)

SpeedTest.net (Firefox)LocationPingDownloadUpload
Not Using VPNUnited States3124.756.99
Using FreeVPN SoftwareUnited States829.874.29
Using Elite (paid) VPN SoftwareUnited States5313.095.49
Download Test (Curl)LocationFile SizeAv. Speed/secTime/mins
Not Using VPNUnited States845M1643k08:46
Using FreeVPN SoftwareUnited States845M999k14:24
Using Elite (paid) VPN SoftwareUnited States845M1156k12:28
P2P Test (Transmission)LocationFile SizeAv. Speed/secTime/mins
Not Using VPNUnited States695.3Mb1.65Mb07:02:00
Using FreeVPN SoftwareUnited StatesBlockedBlockedBlocked
Using Elite (paid) VPN SoftwareUnited StatesBlockedBlockedBlocked

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Test PC #2 – United Kingdom – OS (Win 7) – ISP (Sky)

SpeedTest.net (Firefox)LocationPingDownloadUpload
Not Using VPNUnited Kingdom3610.570.95
Using FreeVPN SoftwareUnited States1824.050.94
Using Elite (paid) VPN SoftwareUnited States1439.020.93
Download Test (Curl)LocationFile SizeAv. Speed/secTime/mins
Not Using VPNUnited Kingdom783M1228k10:52
Using FreeVPN SoftwareUnited States783M277k48:04
Using Elite (paid) VPN SoftwareUnited States783M997k13:23
P2P Test (uTorrent)LocationFile SizeAv. Speed/secTime/mins
Not Using VPNUnited Kingdom695Mb1.1Mb09:58
Using FreeVPN SoftwareUnited StatesBlockedBlockedBlocked
Using Elite (paid) VPN SoftwareUnited StatesBlockedBlockedBlocked

*P2P Blocked All Servers

Note: The handshake protocol (MSCHAP_V2) used by many PPTP connections has been cracked and therefore PPTP could now be considered unencrypted. For maximum security use OpenVPN or L2TP.

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3 Comments

  1. Protection
    Reliability
    Speed
    Support
    Price

    Hotspot shield is horrible and it just now started limiting my Bandwidth use even after I delete it? What the hell???? This is a terrible program and now I can’t search anything. Stupid Stupid Stupid

    Reply
  2. Protection
    Reliability
    Speed
    Support
    Price

    Its simply an awesome program, I have been using it for years trouble free and thank Hotspotshield crew for giving me the tools to enjoy TV that I normally could not watch and whats really amazing is that its FREE, no I am in no way associated with them but just expressing my gratitude, Thank you.

    Reply
  3. Protection
    Reliability
    Speed
    Support
    Price

    User since 2007 – just gets better and better. Now with the ability to choose point of presence. Also I have the iOS version and it includes data compression – paid for itself in a month. Keep up the good work guys

    Reply

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