Hotspot Shield VPN Review 2022

Wanna see the performance options of Hotspot Shield? Here we provide you with the answers to the following questions

• How quick IPVanish download and upload speed?
• What’s about ping?
• How well does it work on streaming platforms, i.e. Netflix?
• How good is it for torrenting?
• Are there differences in these options for different regions?

Our tests include connection tests, speed tests (download speed, upload speed test, ping), torrenting, streaming. Besides, the review contains information on DNS leaks, routers best for Hotspot, browser extensions, devices and operating systems, TV, prices, and finally – customer support report.

Our key finding about Hotspot Shield

	Country of Incorporation	USA
	Number of Countries	80+
	Number of Server Location	no information
	Number of Servers	3200
	Price
	Download Speed	avg. 16.71
	Upload Speed	avg. 18.43
	Dedicated IP	Yes
	Multiple Devices	5
	Netflix	No
	Torrenting	Yes
	Operation System	iOS, Android, Windows, macOS
	Browser extension	Chrome, Firefox, Edge
	Does it work in China	Yes
	Free Trial	Yes, full refund within 45 days
	Live Chat Support	7/24

Servers and Locations

There are 3200 servers in 80+ countries. The company does not present information about servers locations.

	Hotspot Shield	Industry average
Number of Countries	80	60
Number of Server Locations	no information	120
Number of Servers	3200	1000

The number of servers is essentially more than the industry average. As far as there is no information about server locations, it is very difficult to predict decreasing or increasing download and upload speed. But from the other hand, lack of such information means that Hotspot Shield pays much attention to security.

Speed Tests

Any VPN decreases download and upload speeds. So, we compare the test data with speed without VPN usage.

We tested Hotpoint Shields for the Americas (both – North and South), Europe, and the Asia Pacific. This section uncovers test data on download, upload, and ping speeds. The upload and download speeds are measured in Mbps, and ping – in ms.

Download speed

Totally we tested 85 downloads with different countries worldwide. In particular, 15 downloads for the Americas, 40 downloads for Europe, and 30 downloads for the Asia Pacific.

Header Label	Americas	Europe	Asia Pacific
Number of tested countries	15	40	30
Failed tests (number of countries)	0	2 (Bulgaria, Estonia)	0
Average Download speed	7.874 Mbps	12.544 Mbps	26.42 Mbps
Min Download speed	4.21 Mbps (Uruguay)	0.78 Mbps (Switzerland)	2.41 Mbps (Kazakstan)
Max Download speed	18.26 Mbps (Ecuador)	114.33 Mbps (Ukraine)	105.41 Mbps (Bangladesh)
No VPN	128.49 Mbps	128.49 Mbps	128.49 Mbps

The average speed for the Americas was 7.874 Mbps, for Europe – 112.544 Mbps, and for Asia Pacific – 26.72 Mbps. There was significant variation in these data across countries. In particular, the minimal download speed for the Americas was 4.21 Mbps (Uruguay), for Europe – 0.78 Mbps (Switzerland), and for the Asia Pacific – 2.41 Mbps (Kazakstan). The maximum download speed for the Americas was 18.26 Mbps (Uruguay), for Europe – 114.33 Mbps (Ukraine), and for the Asia Pacific – 105.41 Mbps (Bangladesh).

The quickest connection in the world was 114.33 Mbps (Ukraine). The average download speed for all tested countries was 16.71 Mbps.

Hotpoint Shield Download speed

Header Label	Country	Download
Slowest	Switzerland, Europa	0.78 Mbps
Quickest	Ukraine, Europa	114.33 Mbps
Average (all countries)	–	20.76 Mbps
No VPN Connected	–	128.49 Mbps

Hotpoint Shield Download speed compares to no VPN (for regions)*.

Header Label	Hotpoint Shield	No VPN avg	Difference
Quickest	114.33 Mbps
Slowest	0.78 Mbps
Average (all countries)	16.71 Mbps

*Note: We’ve tested, reviewed, and ranked many top VPNs and selected the top ten that are worth your purchase. To do this, we carefully studied their features, market reputation, feedback, and prices.

Upload Speed

Usually the upload speed is less than the download speed. And for streemers this option is crusial.

Totally we tested 85 downloads with different countries worldwide. In particular, 15 downloads for the Americas, 40 downloads for Europe, and 30 downloads for the Asia Pacific.

Header Label	Americas	Europe	Asia Pacific
Number of tested countries	15	26	30
Failed tests (number of countries)	0	2 (Bulgaria, Estonia)	0
Average Upload speed	15.806 Mbps	15.65 Mbps	23.25 Mbps
Min Upload speed	11.49 Mbps (Brazil)	3.51 Mbps (Turkey)	5.5 Mbps (Malaysia)
Max Upload speed	20.64 Mbps (USA)	18.7 Mbps (Italy)	37.77 Mbps (Nepal)
No VPN	31.24 Mbps	31.24 Mbps	31.24 Mbps

The average upload speed for the Americas was 15.806 Mbps, for Europe – 15.65 Mbps, and for Asia Pacific – 23.25 Mbps. There was no upload speed less than 11.49 Mbps in the Americas. The minimal upload speed for the Americas was 11.49 (Brazil), for Europe – 3.51 Mbps (Turkey), and for the Asia Pacific – 5.5 Mbps (Malaysia). The maximum upload speed in the world was 37.77 Mbps (Nepal, Asia) – bigger than no VPN usage upload speed.

Hotpoint Shield Upload speed

Header Label	Country	Download
Quickest	Nepal, Asia	37.77 Mbps
Slowest	Turkey, Asia Pacific	3.51 Mbps
Average (all countries)		18.43 Mbps
No VPN Connected		31.24Mbps

Hotpoint Shield Upload speed compares to average (for regions)*

Header Label	Betternet	No VPN avg	Difference
Quickest	37.77 Mbps
Slowest	3.51 Mbps
Average (all countries)	18.43 Mbps

*Note: We’ve tested, reviewed, and ranked many top VPNs and selected the top ten that are worth your purchase. To do this, we carefully studied their features, market reputation, feedback, and prices. The figures below depict test data in the context of regions and countries.

Ping time out

Ping is the number of milliseconds your server or your device needs to complete one data exchange cycle.

Hotspot Shield ping speed, ms

Header Label	Americas	Europe	Asia Pacific
Quickest	200 (USA)	198 (Italy)	34 (Taiwan)
Slowest	358 (Uruguay)	263 (Armenia)	380 (South Africa)
Average	212.494	212.494	212.494
No VPN connection	22	22	22

Hotspot Shield ping speed compared to other VPNs

Header label	Country	Ping
Quickest	Taiwan	34 ms
Slowest	South Africa	380 ms
Average	All countries	212.494 ms
No VPN connection	All countries	22

Hotspot Shield ping speed compared to the industry average

Header Label	Hotspot Shield	Other VPN avg	Difference
Quickest	34 ms (Taiwan)	65.83 ms	-93%
Slowest	380 ms (South Africa)	65.83 ms	+477%
Overall	212.494 ms	65.83 ms	+223%

Hotspot Shield outperforms the other VPNs in ping speed by the quickest of 212.494 ms.

DNS Leak Test

If a DNS leaks, your DNS (Domain Name System) requests are sent outside of the encrypted VPN tunnel. Your device continues to use your ISP’s DNS server.

No VPN connected	VPN connected (Hotspot Shield)	DNS leak test
172.217.42.3 (Taipei, Taiwan)	199.87.208.6 (Parker, United States)	Good
74.125.179.131 (Taipei, Taiwan)	–
74.125.41.2 (Hong Kong)	–
74.125.41.67 (Taipei, Taiwan)	–
74.125.41.71 (Taipei, Taiwan)	–

Our DNS leak test was successful with Hotspot Shield. NO DNS leaks were detected.

Streaming

Unfortunately, Hotspot Shield does not work anywhere (in particular, it does not work in the USA, Japan, and South Korea). 

Netflix

We were not able to unblock the library. This way, the libraries in the Americas (USA), Europe (UK), Asia Pacific (Japan and South Korea) were not unblocked – so our attempts here were not successful.

Hotspot Shield does not work with Netflix.

Torrenting

Here we present the results of our tests on BitTorrent and uTorrent.

Hotspot Shield is supported by all major operating systems, including Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux. 

You can even install the Hotspot Shield app directly on your router!

Besides, Hotspot pays attention to torrents and has the section “Torrenting Anonymously and Safely” on its Help page.

BitTorrent with Hotspot Shield

Here we present data for BitTorrent. To test Hotspot Shield’s torrenting performance, we used Hotspot Shield to download the movie of 3.5 GB. Here we observed the download speed of 263.4 kB/s with only 0.673 seeders. So, the 3.5 GB file was completed within 4h 9 min. It’s a disappointing result.

Header Label	File size	Seeders	Download Speed	Time
Hotspot Shield	3.5 GB	0.219	263.4kB/s	4h 9 min
Other VPNs	1.85 GB	0.878	2.1 Mbps	11 min

uTorrent with Hotspot Shield

To provide the close conditions, we downloaded the file of the same size for 3h 46 min. There were 0.545 seeders, and we observed a download speed of 294.1 kb/s.

uTorrent with Hotspot Shield

File size	Seeders	Download Speed	Time
3.5 GB	0.545	294.1 kb/s	3h 46min

uTorrent with other VPNs

Header Label	File size	Seeders	Download Speed	Time
Hotspot Shield	3.5 GB	0.545	294.1 kb/s	3h 46min
Other VPNs	1.85 GB	0.219	2.1 Mbps	22 min

Router

Hotspot Shield Router App

Hotspot Shield has no native apps for routers. But routers can be configured manually on selected devices. They are:

The VPN supports the following types of routers:

• Asus (Asuswrt) router;

• Asus (Merlin) router;

• DD-WRT router;

• FreshTomato router;

• GL.iNet router;

Besides Hotspot Shield presents an installation guide for each type of router.

Netgeat Routers	Linksys Routers	Asus Routers
Netgear R6700	Lynksys WRT 3200 ACM	RT-AC 53000
Netgear Nighthawk R7000	Linksys AC3200 MU-MIMO	Asus Merlin
Netgear Nighthawk AX4	Linksys WRT32X	Asuswrt

Best Router for Hotspot Shield

The best routers for Hotspot Shield are:

• Netgeat R6700 – Best Router with Hotspot Shield for medium apartment/ 1-5 Devices;
• Lynksys WRT 3200 ACM – Best Router with Hotspot Shield for large apartment and/or medium sized homes / 4-9 devices;
• Asus RT-AC 53000 – Best Router with Hotspot Shield for large homes and small business / 10+ devices.

You can download the configuration site if you live in Australia, Canada, Germany, the UK, Japan, New Zealand, and the USA.

Hotspot Shield Installed Router List

There are no routers with Hotspot Shield preinstalled.

Router Manually setup

Hotspot Shield may be configurator through your browser.

From January 26, 2022, Hotspot Shield is compatible with Linksys, Netgear, TP-link, D-link.

Browser extension

Hotspot Shield maintains extensions for Chrome and Firefox.

Devices and Operating Systems

Hotspot Shield makes its VPN app available in these devices and operating systems including:

• Windows: Windows 10, 8, 7, XP and Vista;

• Android: Oreo, Marshmallow, Nougat, Jelly Bean, Kitkat;
• iOS: iPhone X, 8, 7;
• Mac: High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite;
• Linux: Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian and Fedora.

TV

Hotspot Shield is compatible with the following smart TVs:

Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO, BBC iPlayer;

NOT: Amazon Prime Video.

Price

Hotspot Shield offers 3 different subscription plans.

• basic –  free;
• premium – $7.99 per month;
• premium family – $11.99 per month (5 devices), which is $2.39 per 1 device;

Plan	Hotspot Shield	Industry Avg	Difference
1 month	US$7.99	US$9.00	-12%
1 month (family)	US$2.39	US$8.00	-70%

Hotspot Shield price is less than the industry avg. But there are a lot of disadvantages (like no Netflix).

Discount

Hotspot Shield offers a 40% off the regular yearly price! No other website has a lower offer for Hotspot Shield.

Free Trial

Hotspot Shield offers a free basic version at this time.

Customer support

And some words on customer support. Hotspot Shield provides 365/24/7 customer support. The maximum time of our waiting was 7 seconds and the reply speed.

Header label	Hotspot Shield	Industry AVG	Difference
Connect to an agency	7 second	10 second	30% Quicker
Reply speed	9 second	15 second	40% Quicker
Quality of the answer	Great	Good

Conclusion

In general, service speeds are inconsistent. Online reviews are very mixed. Many services don’t work.