#Hotspot shield free version upgrade
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#Hotspot shield free version software
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Editors' Choice winner TunnelBear offers a password manager, as does NordVPN, which also throws in an encrypted file locker. ProtonVPN is the sibling of ProtonMail and a host of privacy-focused tools. Some other VPNs offer additional services. It's certainly a lot for your dollar, and nearly puts Hotspot Shield in the same category as a security suite that includes a VPN, or a more privacy-focused tool like Ghostery Midnight. This review focuses on Hotspot Shield as a standalone product, but it's impossible to ignore this sizable bundle. A representative assured me that customers will not be charged extra for these services, and that they will remain available for as long customers maintain a Hotspot Shield account. While the previous branding, called Pango, has disappeared, the services appear to remain the same. These additional services are offered by Aura, which absorbed Hotspot Shield in July 2020. Recently, Hotspot Shield's parent company also launched an antivirus product as an optional add-on purchase for $5.99 per month or $39.99 per year.

With a paid Hotspot Shield VPN subscription, you get free subscriptions for 1Password password manager, Robo Shield call blocker, and Identity Guard identity theft protection service. You should also protect your machine with standalone antivirus, protect your accounts by activating two-factor authentication wherever it's available, and use a password manager to create unique, complex passwords for every site and service. To really disguise yourself online, you should route your traffic through the labyrinthine Tor network. It's important to know what a VPN can and can't do, however. Both Editors' Choice winner NordVPN and ProtonVPN offer these rare-if also rarely needed-features. Hotspot Shield also doesn't include multihop connections, which route your traffic through a second server for enhanced security. That's okay, since you don't need a VPN to access this free anonymization network. Hotspot Shield doesn't provide access to the Tor anonymization network. (Editors' Note: is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company.) Avira Phantom VPN, VPN, Ghostery Midnight, Surfshark VPN, and Windscribe VPN all place no limit on the number of simultaneous connections. Several competitors now offer more, and some have ditched this limitation altogether. It also includes a split-tunneling feature, which lets you designate what traffic flows through the tunnel and what can travel in the clear-handy for streaming video or using a bank that frequently blocks VPN traffic.Īs noted, a Premium subscription with Hotspot Shield lets you use five devices simultaneously, which is average for the VPNs we've tested. Cryptocurrency support is also fairly common among VPNs, but it's not an option with Hotspot Shield.Īs with nearly every VPN service we've reviewed, Hotspot Shield lets you use P2P file sharing and BitTorrent on its network. ProtonVPN, Mullvad, and Editors' Choice winner IVPN accept cash mailed to their corporate HQs. Other services offer more privacy-friendly options. You can pay for a Hotspot Shield subscription by using a major credit card or PayPal. Mullvad, an Editors’ Choice winner, costs a mere €5 ($5.55 USD at the time of writing) per month, and a limited ProtonVPN account can be had for just $5 per month. Other standalone VPNs come in significantly less costly than Hotspot Shield.

#Hotspot shield free version upgrade

So, grab the short-term deal or free version and then upgrade if the service works well for you. You won't know whether a VPN will work for you until after you try it. We advise readers to avoid long-term subscriptions-at least at first. Again, that's pretty hefty compared to an average of about $71.93 among the services we've tested. The Premium subscription costs $95.88 per year and the Premium Family subscription costs $143.88 per year. You can also opt for a one-year subscription. The highest tier, called Premium Family, increases the number of simultaneous connections to 25 across five member accounts and costs $19.99 per month.Īt $12.99 per month, Hotspot Shield is significantly more expensive than the $10.05 per month average from among VPNs we have tested. It costs $12.99 per month and is the tier we used in testing.

#Hotspot shield free version full

The Premium subscription offers five simultaneous connections, provides full access to Hotspot Shield's servers, and has no data limit. See below for more on the privacy implications of this practice. Hotspot Shield also monetizes its free version on Android. That's extremely slow, even for mobile devices. Hotspot Shield takes the unusual measure of throttling free accounts to just 2Mbps.

#Hotspot shield free version software

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