For the purpose of this Hotspot Shield review, we are looking at the paid, “Elite”, version of the popular VPN service. While the free version may be among the most-used VPN services in the world, the paid version is where you will find all the best features, such as lightning-fast speeds, torrenting capabilities, and much more. Hotspot Shield Elite VPN is a fantastic VPN service so long as privacy and online anonymity isn’t a huge concern.

Usability & Speed

The first thing that we would like to cover in our Hotspot Shield review is that this VPN is incredibly easy to use. In fact, it’s one of the simplest that we have checked out. All users have to do is install the app, select a country, and press the button to connect.

Another thing that Hotspot Shield has going for it is the fact that it is blazing fast. We can easily say that this VPN is one of the snappiest we have seen. It is not uncommon to see download speeds of between 100 and 300 Mbps on a regular basis. This VPN service doesn’t have servers in as many countries as many of their competitors, but they certainly make good use of the 2,500 they run in 25 different countries. If all you are after is speed, this may be a good choice for you.

Security and Privacy

One area that users should be a bit wary about when using Hotspot Shield Elite is that many have called into question the company’s privacy standards. There are two important things that every VPN service should be able to do. One is that they shouldn’t keep logs of their users’ traffic, and the other is that they should not position themselves to be obliged by governments to give up information on their user base.

Neither of these issues are strong areas for Hotspot Shield Elite. Hotspot Shield does, in fact, collect logs (which they say is only for the duration of the connection) and they are located in the US which is a prime 5-Eyes country.

Streaming and P2P

Another thing that was a bit disappointing when putting together this Hotspot Shield review was its inability to unblock Netflix and other similar streaming services. The free version doesn’t get past region blocking with any degree of success due to the limited number of servers allocated for free users. The Elite version is better, but still gets blocked quite a bit. There are definitely a few other VPNs that can guarantee Netflix access better than Hotspot Shield.

The situation is better when it comes to P2P sharing since they not only allow torrent traffic but also provide fast download speeds. The only problem comes with how much you are willing to trust their dedication to protecting you should you download any material protected by copyright laws. Torrenting seems to be a bit of a grey area since they allow the traffic but state in their T&Cs that you shouldn’t use the ability for illegal downloads.

Our Recommendation

Check out https://www.lemigliorivpn.com/ for more VPN reviews. As for the Hotspot Shield review, our verdict is that ‘Hotspot Shield Elite’ is a solid VPN that should suite most users.

The issues in security are mainly concerns for people who deal in the type of ultra-sensitive data that governments might be interested in, and overly private matters. The security protocol itself is robust and unhackable, connections are fast, and the product is easy to use. According to us, this is a VPN service that the everyday user could benefit from. Power users should probably look elsewhere, however.