Hotspot Shield has long been known for its impressive speeds. But with the VPN landscape constantly evolving, how does it hold up against the competition in 2025? This review dives into Hotspot Shield’s features, performance, security, privacy, and pricing to help you decide if it’s the right VPN for you.
Features and Interface
Hotspot Shield boasts a sleek, modern interface that’s remained largely unchanged over the years. A prominent power button dominates the main screen, accompanied by tiles for location selection and daily data usage.
The server list is extensive, covering around 1,800 servers in 90 countries. While this number has decreased since the Aura acquisition, the company claims its current infrastructure utilizes more powerful, specialized servers. Dedicated servers are available for streaming and gaming, a welcome feature for users prioritizing these activities.
Additional features include a built-in speed test, account management, support access, and a comprehensive settings menu. Within the settings, you’ll find a kill switch, auto-connect for public Wi-Fi, split tunneling, and protocol selection.
Once connected, the app displays detailed information about your connection, including location, IP address, bandwidth usage, speed, and server load. Hotspot Shield supports up to five simultaneous connections and offers apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, as well as router configuration instructions.
Pricing and Free Version
Hotspot Shield’s pricing is on the higher end, at $12.99 per month or $95.88 annually. While previously bundled with additional services, the current pricing only covers the VPN itself, making it less competitive compared to other premium VPNs offering similar features at lower costs.
A free version is available, limited to 500MB of data per day, 2Mbps speeds, and a single U.S. server. It also includes ads, particularly on the Android app.
Performance
While Hotspot Shield’s proprietary Hydra protocol was once the undisputed speed champion, the rise of WireGuard has leveled the playing field. In our tests, Hydra achieved average download speeds of 61% of the baseline, while WireGuard slightly outperformed it at 64%. Upload speeds were consistent across both protocols, at around 70% of the baseline.
Despite no longer holding the absolute speed crown, Hotspot Shield remains faster than many competitors. It also excels at unblocking streaming content, consistently accessing geo-restricted platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, even on non-optimized servers.
Security and Privacy
Hotspot Shield offers WireGuard, IKEv2, and its own Hydra protocol. While Hydra’s specifics are not publicly disclosed, its use by reputable security companies suggests a degree of reliability.
A kill switch is included, but notably, it only functions with the Hydra protocol. This limitation is unusual and potentially problematic for users preferring WireGuard or IKEv2.
Privacy remains a concern. Hotspot Shield collects visited domains (not specific URLs), device attributes, and bandwidth usage data. While claiming anonymization, the lack of an independent audit makes verification impossible.
Conclusion
Hotspot Shield remains a strong contender for users prioritizing speed, particularly for streaming and gaming. Its performance is solid, and the interface is user-friendly. However, its privacy practices and higher price point, compared to competitors offering similar speeds and stronger privacy protections, are significant drawbacks. Ultimately, Hotspot Shield is a good choice for speed, but consider the privacy implications before subscribing.
