Hotspot Shield’s browser extension leaks WebRTC. However, as you can see in the image below, our test found that all ingoing and outgoing network packets were encrypted, and none of the websites we visited were decipherable. If Hotspot Shield did not encrypt our data, Wireshark would show the websites we visited. We tested to see whether Hotspot Shield actually encrypts your traffic by running it through the packet-sniffing tool, Wireshark. Hotspot Shield Passed Our Encryption Test But Hotspot Shield does not include OpenVPN in its list of protocols, preferring to push its Hydra protocol. We typically recommend WireGuard or OpenVPN, as they are secure and open-source. If you trust this, you should use Hydra without concern. Hotspot Shield claims the code is assessed by experts from cybersecurity firms like BitDefender and McAfee. However, the problem with closed-source proprietary technology like Hydra is that there’s no way for independent experts to examine it. Hotspot Shield offers three protocols: Hydra, IKEv2 & WireGuard. This allowed us to play online games while connecting to a VPN without any lag. This is particularly true on its mobile apps, which come with gaming-optimized servers.Ĭonnecting to a local server, we saw a ping time of 6ms. Hotspot Shield’s record speeds and low ping make it a good VPN for gaming, too.

Hotspot Shield’s Low Latency Is Good for Gamers Hotspot Shield Free’s local New York connection delivered identical speeds to the Premium version, and connecting to a long-distance server in the UK was the same - we recorded speeds of 55Mbps.

Hotspot Shield Free and Premium only seriously differed in our tests when connecting to the US West Coast, where we picked up speeds of 72Mbps using the free version - 23% slower compared to the Premium alternative. Hotspot Shield Free is just as fast as the Premium version, but it’s limited to four server locations in three countries. This protocol is designed to fix latency issues with other protocols, like OpenVPN. Hotspot Shield achieves these speeds through its exclusive connection protocol, Hydra VPN. This is very impressive.Ĭonnecting to a US West Coast server, we experienced a speed loss of just 10%, which is faster than rivals like Surfshark and NordVPN. In our tests, we measured little difference between our normal internet connection and a Hotspot Shield connection, regardless of which server we connected to.

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