What Is VPN?
Most readers are probably familiar with VPNs in the context of working remotely, connecting to a secure network in order to access sensitive content. Consumer VPN services like Hotspot Shield work the same way; the software encrypts all Internet activity from the PC and routes the packets through AnchorFree's servers. When Hotspot Shield is turned on, AnchorFree assigns the computer an IP address belonging to its network. When a website tries to look up the user's IP address or location, it receives information about AnchorFree's servers instead.
All network data sent and received is encrypted, making it difficult for anyone trying to ferret out information about your online activity. Turning on Hotspot Shield allows users to surf vanilla HTTP websites as if they are actually HTTPS-secured sites.
Users behind a VPN can be assured that their traffic is secured against hackers and snooping governments. While using a VPN is a wise choice for securing important activities, such as online banking transactions, VPNs are essential for accessing the Internet while traveling or even just logging in from the corner coffee shop's public Wi-Fi network. On a larger scale, people living in countries with highly restrictive control over Internet access can circumvent that control with a VPN.
For some people, however, VPNs are a means to access region-locked content. By connecting from the U.S. to a VPN server in the U.K., for example, you could watch BBC shows for free instead of paying for BBC America. Note that Netflix is fighting back against this kind of cheating, however, as are other services.
Features and Pricing
Hotspot Shield is available in two flavors, free and Elite. The free version displays ads to the user while it is turned on, while Elite is ad-free. Users can pay via credit card and PayPal. This review looks at both versions, but the rating is based on Hotspot Shield Elite. We like that Hotspot has a variety of pricing plans available, starting at $11.95 per month to $49.95 for a two-year license. When you first sign up, you get one day of Elite usage for free. That's on the pricier end of the spectrum. Editors' Choice Private Internet Access$6.95 at Private Internet Access costs $6.95 per month, and Spotflux Premium$4.99 at Spotflux Monthly Subscription a mere $4.99 per month.
There are 16 servers worldwide to choose from for Elite members, though only nine for Mac users, and only three for Kindle devices. None of the servers appeared to be optimized for specialized scenarios, such as streaming video.
In addition to securing your traffic, Hotspot Shield can also warn users whenever they land on a known or suspected malicious or phishing website (as determined by developer AnchorFree's database of more than 3.5 million malicious sites). Hotspot also boasts malware detection, protecting you from dangerous software. We did not evaluate Hotspot's malware defenses for this review.
Ready, Set, VPN!
Once installed, Hotspot Shield appeared as a green shield icon in my system tray. Previous versions also changed the appearance of the browser, and we're happy to see that behavior removed in the current incarnation. Hotspot also no longer installs any toolbars, but does add browser extensions to modify proxy settings. AnchorFree says that these will likely be unecessary in future versions.
You interact with Hotspot Shield through a small blue window. The large button in the center connects or disconnects you from the VPN service, and a pull down menu shows you the available browsers. We are disappointed that Hotspot Shield did not include specialized servers like NordVPN's double encryption servers, or TorGuard's BitTorrent-friendly servers. Your session time is also displayed.
We really like that Hotspot clearly displays that you are connected to the VPN, and also shows your current network. As with previous versions of Hotspot, once the VPN is active you can browse the Web as you normally do, but the websites you visit see an AnchorFree IP address, and all Domain Name System (DNS) queries are handled by AnchorFree servers.
Clicking on the overflow menu reveals links for Settings and Account Information. However, the Account Dashboard website has more powerful tools, like managing multiple devices and changing payment information.
Advertisements appear only on the free version of the software. For example, an ad for the Elite version is shown on the bottom half of the Hotspot Shield window that appears on the free tool. Every single time we turned on the free version of Hotspot Shield, it opened a new page called Techbrowsing.com that is filled with ads and ad trackers. Interestingly, Hotspot Shield only opened this page in Firefox, which is installed on our test machine along with Internet Explorer. AnchorFree says that the company may use tracking pixels to support its ads.
In previous versions, Hotspot Shield also injected an ad linking back to http://hotspotshield.com/connected/ onto webpages. Considering how attackers inject code into websites to trick users into visiting malicious portals, we don't think legitimate software should ever engage in this practice. Thankfully, AnchorFree confirms that the company no longer injects ads into websites.
Speed Effects
Using a VPN usually means having to sacrifice some performance for security, but that impact isn't so severe with Hotspot Shield. For these tests, we use both Ookla'sSpeedTest.net (which is owned by our parent company, Ziff Davis) and HTML5-based speedof.me several times over a wired DSL connection and average the results. Because network performance can change very quickly, we run a comparative test without VPN running immediately after testing with the VPN. An increase in latency and reductions in upload and download rates are indicative of a slower Internet user experience.
With Hotspot Shield running, we noticed a 127 percent increase in connection latency in the Ookla test. That might seem like a lot, but both NordVPN and TorGuard VPN$9.99 at TorGuard increased latency by over 200 percent, which can make for slow browsing. Download rates were reduced by 9.7 percent and upload rates by 45 percent.
The difference in latency with SpeedOfMe was much more pronounced, increasing latency by 1,101 percent, and reducing our download rate by 21.4 percent and upload rate by 17 percent. On Speedof.me's test, Hotspot was outdone by TorGuard, which only reduced download rates by 8.2 percent. Both tests show that Hotspot will definitely affect your Web browsing experience.
All our tests were performed from the PCMag testing facility in Manhattan, with the VPN connection being routed through a server in Australia. All Ookla tests were performed when connected to a test server in Fairbanks, Alaska. Speedof.me does not allow us to select a test server, and defaulted to a server in Tokyo for our VPN testing and a server in New York when we tested without VPN. Obviously, your mileage will vary depending on your connection.
Despite these intimidating numbers, it's important to remember that latency is measured in miliseconds. Using a VPN won't be like surfing the Web with a dial-up modem. In fact, we had no trouble loading pages with primarily text while using Hotspot, though more media-heavy pages did take noticeably longer. HD video content loaded quickly and played back well on YouTube. Streaming 4K video is one way to see how the connection deals with large media files. Our 4K playback over the VPN was choppy, which is to be expected. Only TorGuard has performed well on this particular test.
Other VPN services like F-Secure Freedome$49.99 at F-Secure and Spotflux Premium provide a slightly zippier Web experience because they also block ads. It's a slight improvement, but no matter which VPN you chose, you will notice that pages take a bit longer to load.
Shield Your Hotspot
AnchorFree's Hotspot Shield keeps you and yours safe by encrypting all your traffic and routing it through the server of your choice. We especially appreciate its ease of use, since security products like VPNs are still relatively exotic for most users. Hotspot Shield also offers attractive pricing and, best of all, had very little impact in network performance in our hands-on testing.
The ad-delivery mechanism in the free version of Hotspot Shield tempered our enthusiasm for the service a bit. To be fair, the advertisements on the free version accomplish what they are supposed to do: provide the service while making the paid version look more appealing. And while HotSpot is an excellent paid service, it's slightly more expensive and doesn't have as many specialized security features as competitors. If you are going to pay for VPN, you're better off shelling out for our Editors' Choice winners NordVPN or Private Internet Access. Source
