PrivateVPN vs Hotspot Shield: Which wins?

There are many different factors to consider when choosing a Virtual Private Network (VPN). While one user may prioritize fast server speeds, another may place particular importance on the level of security. Of course, you may be looking for a VPN that is simply strong in all areas! Part of the challenge is finding the VPN that best fits your needs.

PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield are both reputable VPN providers with more pros than cons. In this post, we’ll explore each and every aspect of their services. This includes pricing, features, security, customer service, and more. By comparing and contrasting the two VPNs, we’ll be able to determine an overall winner and, hopefully, make your decision easier.

Highlights

PrivateVPN vs Hotspot Shield pricing

The price you pay per month for PrivateVPN or Hotspot Shield varies based on whether you commit short-term or long-term. If you decide to go with the month-to-month option, you can expect to pay $8.10/month (USD) with PrivateVPN or $12.99/month with Hotspot Shield (or $19.99/month with Hotspot Shield Premium Family). This allows you to cancel at a month’s notice without having to pay a larger sum upfront. However, you’ll pay more per month as a result.

PrivateVPN offers a three month plan — this is fairly uncommon for a VPN (most offer monthly or yearly deals). With this, you can save 54% and pay $5.03/month. Beyond this, it has a special offer for its one-year plan. This gives you an extra 12 months free and works out at just $2.08/month, a saving of 82%. While Hotspot Shield doesn’t offer a two year option, its Premium annual plan ($7.99/month) allows you to save 38% while Premium Family (up to five member accounts) is 40% off at $11.99/month. It also has a three-year plan that’s only available to Comparitech readers; this comes with a 77% discount.

What’s clear is that PrivateVPN is significantly cheaper than Hotspot Shield. However, while PrivateVPN comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, the money-back guarantee of Hotspot Shield is even longer, at 45 days. Whichever you choose, you’ll have plenty of time to try the VPN out risk-free. If you change your mind, you only need to request a refund within the specified period for your money back.

BEST DEAL FOR PRIVATEVPN:SAVE 82% on the 12 month plan.

BEST DEAL FOR HOTSPOT SHIELD:Get 77% off a Hotspot Shield subscription and pay just $2.99 per month on average for three years.

PrivateVPN vs Hotspot Shield features

Both PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield offer apps for desktop and mobile (Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS). Additionally, both offer a command line interface (CLI) app for Linux, which is fairly rare. However, Hotspot Shield does have the advantage of providing a Chrome browser extension. In contrast, PrivateVPN doesn’t offer any browser extensions.

With these two VPNs, you can connect multiple devices simultaneously. In the case of PrivateVPN, you’ll be able to use it on up to six devices at once. Hotspot Shield allows up to five devices at the same time. As such, PrivateVPN is the better option if you have lots of devices to secure. However, the reality is that five or six simultaneous connections is more than enough for most people’s needs.

Hotspot Shield stands out for offering split tunneling via its desktop and mobile apps. This allows you to choose which apps or websites can bypass the VPN connection. One advantage is that you can then access local and international content at the same time. Unfortunately, PrivateVPN doesn’t come with a split tunneling option via any of its apps.

Another area in which Hotspot Shield edges PrivateVPN is in its free extra features. Its Premium plans include a password manager (1Password), and spam call blocker (Robo Shield). However, Hotspot Shield is more expensive than PrivateVPN. It’s therefore worth considering whether these extra features are worth the price difference.

Streaming and unblocking

If you’re planning on using your new VPN for streaming, you’ll find that PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield are more than up to the task. Both services include unlimited bandwidth which means you can stream as much as you like without restriction. This means streaming that is free of frustrating performance issues such as lag and buffering.

PrivateVPN is slightly faster than Hotspot Shield although speeds vary from server to server in both cases. Either way, you’re unlikely to experience slow speeds. When it comes to unblocking, PrivateVPN is marginally better. It works with BBC iPlayer and Sky Go — two services that Hotspot Shield has struggled with in our testing.

The two VPNs both work with various versions of Netflix (including Netflix US) as well as the likes of Amazon Prime Video. This makes PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield great options for traveling abroad. Aside from streaming, these two VPNs also allow torrenting on their servers.

Which of these VPNs work in China?

PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield are outliers in that, unlike the vast majority of major VPNs, they work in China. China has a high level of online censorship, making it difficult to unblock many websites and services. This includes the likes of Facebook and Google. Unfortunately, it also includes many VPNs. Indeed, most VPNs without government approval (this only comes from accepting extensive logging) find themselves blocked in China.

PrivateVPN is able to bypass the Great Firewall of China thanks to its Stealth VPN feature. This cloaking technology disguises the VPN traffic as regular web traffic, even when subjected to deep packet inspection. Hotspot Shield uses its proprietary protocol, Catapult Hydra and is also able to unblock geo-restricted and government-censored online within the country.

It’s worth knowing that the websites of PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield cannot be accessed in China due to censorship restrictions. This means that in order to use either VPN in China, you’ll need to set it up before your arrival. When it comes to the time of using one of these VPNs in China, you may need to try a few different servers before you find one that works. That’s because IP address blocking is one of the tactics used to enforce restrictions.

Setup and interface

Both PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield offer the option for the VPN to be set up automatically via the automatic setup wizard. This is available via the desktop and mobile apps. Between signup, download, and installation, the process should only take a few minutes.

When you’re logged in to the apps, you’ll find them to be very easy to navigate with minimal interface clutter. The desktop and mobile apps of both VPNs prioritize an on/off button and location selection that is list-based. This is in the form of a drop-down list to save on space. Servers are then ordered by country and city.

There are some differences to note. In particular, PrivateVPN’s apps let you favorite servers for faster access in future. Furthermore, its desktop apps provide both simple and advanced views, catering for both beginner and power users. One advantage of the Hotspot Shield mobile apps is that you can automatically connect to the fastest available server.

Whether you use PrivateVPN or Hotspot Shield, you’ll have quick and easy access to the settings menu. In both cases, you’ll be able to change protocol while PrivateVPN also lets you activate a kill switch as well as its Stealth VPN feature. Overall, there’s little to choose between the apps of these two VPNs.

Servers and performance

Of the two VPNs, Hotspot Shield has by far the larger network of servers. In total, it offers over 1,800 servers in 80 countries. In contrast, PrivateVPN has approximately 150 servers in 60 countries around the world. Despite PrivateVPN’s small network, most users are unlikely to need many more server locations. Furthermore, the low number of servers should only ever become an issue if there are too many users on each. Fortunately, in our experience, it’s always easy to find a fast, low-load server.

Both offer servers in countries such as the US, UK, and Australia. However, Hotspot Shield offers servers in countries that many other VPNs don’t. This includes Azerbaijan, Pakistan, and Uruguay. The larger network of Hotspot Shield means you’ll have access to a wider range of region-locked content. However, both VPNs provide reliable unblocking.

In terms of performance, PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield are among the fastest VPNs we’ve tested. PrivateVPN has an average global download speed of 71 Mbps while Hotspot Shield’s stands at 63 Mbps. Both VPN services include unlimited bandwidth which means you won’t experience much in the way of lag or buffering. Hotspot Shield has the advantage of offering more servers which means reduced risk of heavy server load.

Below, you’ll find a list of every country in which these VPNs have servers:

Security

You can quickly and easily change your VPN protocol with PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield. Of the two VPNs, PrivateVPN supports more protocols (OpenVPN, L2TP, and PP2P). Each protocol has its own advantages, be it faster speeds or stronger security. OpenVPN is the most popular and commonly used protocol among VPNs. Hotspot Shield supports IKEv2 as well as Catapult Hydra, the latter of which is its own proprietary protocol.

One area in which PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield (and indeed most reputable VPNs) are similar is in their use of 256-bit AES encryption. This ensures the security of your data and that, even if it’s intercepted, it’s virtually impossible to crack. While PrivateVPN has both DNS and IPv6 leak protection, Hotspot Shield only protects against DNS leaks. Furthermore, PrivateVPN also includes its Stealth VPN feature for bypassing VPN blocks and firewalls.

Another important security feature that’s available on both VPNs is a kill switch. In the case of PrivateVPN, this is offered for its desktop apps while Hotspot Shield’s kill switch is only on Windows. A kill switch ensures that if the VPN connection drops, your internet connection is also cut, preventing data leaks. PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield also use their own private DNS servers, meaning there’s no exposure to third parties.

PrivateVPN vs Hotspot Shield privacy

While a VPN may offer a number of security features, that doesn’t necessarily mean it has a high level of privacy protection. Thankfully, PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield both allow you to increase your anonymity and browse privately. However, PrivateVPN has the stronger privacy protection of the two overall. It’s headquartered in Sweden, a country with a long history of pro privacy laws.

In contrast, Hotspot Shield operates out of the United States which is a Five Eyes member. This means your data can, in theory, be shared with other member countries. However, this shouldn’t be an issue because Hotspot Shield doesn’t keep any identifying logs of its users. Indeed, it only stores aggregate data which cannot be used to identify you. PrivateVPN has a strict no-logs policy which means it doesn’t keep any logs whatsoever.

When you sign up with PrivateVPN or Hotspot Shield, you’ll need to provide an email address. Of course, this could be a throwaway email account if you’d like to further safeguard your privacy. PrivateVPN even gives you the option to buy with Bitcoin which means that when combined with a burner email, you can sign up anonymously. Unfortunately, Hotspot Shield doesn’t accept any anonymous payment options as yet.

Configuration

Both VPNs use a shared address allocation system. As such, users that connect to the same server will share the same IP address. With user activity all mixed up and originating from one address, it makes it extremely difficult to know who accessed what. This is part of what makes using a VPN so advantageous for privacy reasons because you can essentially browse anonymously as a result.

Another option you have with PrivateVPN is that you can connect to what it calls “Dedicated IP” servers. These are servers that always have the same IP address. However, these are shared between multiple users. As such, PrivateVPN doesn’t actually provide true dedicated IP addresses that only you can use. However, Hotspot Shield doesn’t provide such an option either.

These VPNs don’t have specific DDoS protection although you are protected from DDoS attacks just by using them. That’s because a VPN hides your true IP address. If someone was to attempt to target your network, it would actually hit that of the VPN instead. You can then simply switch VPN server if needed. While neither PrivateVPN or Hotspot Shield have a NAT firewall, they automatically block incoming data anyway.

Customer Service

The ease of use of PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield means you’re unlikely to run into too many problems, even if it’s your first time using a VPN. However, if you do have any questions, customer support is available in both cases. In particular, there’s live chat and email support. Hotspot Shield’s live chat support is available 24 hours a day although PrivateVPN’s is only up to 22 hours per day.

When it comes to email support, we found that both VPNs provide fast replies. From our three email enquiries, PrivateVPN only took an average of 14 minutes to reply. Hotspot Shield took a little longer (3-4 hours) but is still fairly quick compared to some VPNs. Neither VPN offers phone support although this is not something that we can typically expect from a VPN service.

You can also take advantage of the searchable knowledge base of PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield. This includes a variety of setup guides as well as an FAQ section. In some cases, screenshots are also provided to help make things easier. PrivateVPN has a limited YouTube channel with some tutorials. However, Hotspot Shield doesn’t offer any video guides.

In order to compare the speed and quality of the customer service of PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield, we emailed three questions at different times of the day (morning, afternoon, and night):

The Winner

PrivateVPN

What’s clear is that PrivateVPN and Hotspot Shield are two very strong VPNs that are well worth your consideration. However, having compared all areas of the two services, we found that PrivateVPN is the stronger of the two.

In particular, PrivateVPN is slightly faster than Hotspot Shield, making it the better option if you’re looking to stream and torrent. Moreover, it’s a more reliable unblocker, particularly when it comes to streaming services. While Hotspot Shield has a larger network of servers, PrivateVPN is still available in 60 countries which is more than enough for most users.

Security-wise the two VPNs are very similar although PrivateVPN offers more flexibility because it supports more VPN protocols and provides additional security-focused extras like robocall protection. It’s also the stronger of the two when it comes to privacy. Not only is it headquartered in Sweden, it also has a strict no-logs policy and accepts Bitcoin. This lets you sign up for the service anonymously when combined with a burner email account.

While both VPNs have excellent customer support, PrivateVPN’s email support is the fastest we’ve come across. PrivateVPN also happens to be significantly more affordable than Hotspot Shield, making it our preferred choice of the two. Note that PrivateVPN comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. This means you can try it out and request a full refund within the 30-day period if at all unsatisfied.

See also: 

• PrivateVPN vs VyprVPN
• PrivateVPN vs CyberGhost
• NordVPN vs Hotspot Shield
• ExpressVPN vs Hotspot Shield