Hotspot Shield's Privacy Policy (opens in new tab) includes some reassuring details on the company's logging practices, as follows: 'Our VPN products do not log or otherwise record IP addresses, device identifiers, or any other form of identifier in combination with your VPN browsing activity. Save a chunk of cash with our exclusive Hotspot Shield offerĪccording to its privacy policy, Hotspot Shield does not keep any logs on its users (Image credit: Hotspot Shield) Logging.Which, translated, means it uses lots of top-notch encryption technologies which are more than enough to keep you safe. It's based on TLS (Transport Layer Security) 1.2, with AES-256 and AES-128 encryption, 2048-bit RSA certificates for server authentication and keys exchanged via Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDHE) for perfect forward secrecy (keys last for only one session, with new ones generated next time). Hotspot Shield does explain a little of how Hydra works, though. Unlike the open source OpenVPN, WireGuard or ExpressVPN's Lightway, the code isn't available to the public, so experts can't check for privacy issues. Hotspot Shield's Hydra protocol is more difficult to figure out, because it's the company's own proprietary technology. This can be hugely complicated, but just seeing that a service supports a secure protocol like OpenVPN gives some reassuring feedback about its safety. Understanding a VPN's security usually starts with looking at its protocol support, encryption and authentication details. Hotspot Shield allows you to choose your preferred VPN protocol from its Settings menu (Image credit: Hotspot Shield) Privacy There's no Bitcoin payment option, unfortunately, but you can use a card or PayPal, and if anything goes wrong later you're protected by an unusually generous 45-day money-back guarantee. If you'll use all those licenses, that translates to $2.40 per user per month. Hotspot Shield does have one handy option in the Family plan (opens in new tab), which gets you coverage for five people, with five devices each, for only $19.99 billed monthly, or $11.99 on the annual plan. Most providers charge around $3 to $5 a month for annual products, and even less for longer-term contracts ( Private Internet Access offers a three-year plan covering up to 10 devices for $2.19 a month). That's at the high-end of the normal VPN price range. The paid VPN (opens in new tab) starts at $12.99 billed monthly, dropping to $7.99 on the annual plan (opens in new tab) to protect up to five devices. There’s also a big plus – there are no annoying ‘per month’ bandwidth limits, and you can use it as much as you like – but unless you really have no VPN budget at all, it’s impossible to recommend. Hotspot Shield's free VPN plan offers one location (US), almost no features, no email or live chat support, and a host of annoying ads on the mobile apps. You can either pay by card or PayPal (Image credit: Hotspot Shield) Hotspot Shield pricing The service supports from 5 to 25 simultaneous connections, depending on your plan.

WireGuard support was added only recently, with OpenVPN or IKEv2 available as a backup in some situations. And if all that still isn’t enough, the support site has guides on manually setting up the service on these and other platforms (routers, too). There are apps for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS, a command line app for Linux, and a TV app for Amazon Fire TV or any smart TV with access to Google Play. 36 month plan - $2.49 per month ($89.64 total cost) (opens in new tab).

Want to try Hotspot Shield Premium? Check out the website here (opens in new tab).

All servers are P2P-friendly, and built-in blocking of malicious and phishing sites helps keep you safe online. The core service has a sizeable network of 3,200+ servers across 80+ countries and 125 cities. Hotspot Shield is a popular VPN with just enough interesting and unusual features to help it stand out from the crowd.

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