VPNs are always trying to one-up each other, which means they frequently introduce, remove, and rebrand features. These services can seem a bit complicated, each with their own constantly evolving set of jargon, so any attempt to research and compare different VPNs can quickly become overwhelming. What’s more, while services often tout their more advanced features, they often fail to adequately explain how these help you during day-to-day usage.

Don’t worry: we’re here to help. Below, you’ll find a clear and concise breakdown of every feature that ExpressVPN and Hotspot Shield offer. Just as important, we’ll let you know what each of these does, and provide additional context to give you a better understanding of what you’re paying for.

Highlights

Pricing and discounts

You’ll usually find that month-to-month subscribers pay the highest prices, but at around $13 USD per month, ExpressVPN and Hotspot Shield are a little more expensive than average. That said, it’s clear that these services are aiming to gain long-term subscribers. They offer steep discounts on longer terms and neither offer a mid-length (for example, three-month) subscription.

ExpressVPN

  • Many high-speed servers
  • Fantastic unblocking abilities
  • Top-notch security features
  • Keeps no logs and accepts payment in Bitcoin.

Hotspot Shield

  • Fast and reliable connections
  • Works with Netflix US and many other popular streaming services
  • Takes user security very seriously
  • Generous guarantee period

ExpressVPN users who choose the annual plan cut the cost by almost half ($99.95 for 15 month’s coverage, instead of $194.25). Hotspot Shield offers even greater savings with its three-year plan, though, slashing the price by more than 75% ($107.64 instead of $467.64 for comparable month-to-month coverage). There’s more to VPNs than just their price, though, so don’t make a decision just yet.

Both services offer a money-back guarantee, allowing you to try them out risk-free and cancel for a full refund. ExpressVPN’s guarantee lasts for 30 days, which is the industry standard, but Hotspot Shield goes a step further with a generous 45-day guarantee. It also offers a free plan, but you’ll only be able to access a few servers and are limited to 500MB of bandwidth per day.

Best Deal for ExpressVPN:Save 49% and get an extra three months free by choosing ExpressVPN’s annual subscription.

Best Deal for Hotspot Shield:Get an exclusive 77% discount on three-year plans.

Features

ExpressVPN has the edge here as it provides an easy-to-use Linux installer and custom firmware that simplifies the process of installing the VPN on certain routers. Conversely, Hotspot Shield users have to follow manual setup instructions for these platforms. Users can connect up to five devices at once on either service, which is about the average.

Both VPNs offer split-tunneling (though not on iOS). This is the ability to let specific apps or websites bypass the VPN. This can be helpful, for instance, if you want to ensure a download isn’t interrupted and don’t care whether it’s encrypted or not. Hotspot Shield comes bundled with a premium password manager and nuisance call blocker, which is great to see.

As you can see, ExpressVPN is the clear winner when it comes to sheer unblocking ability. Not only was it able to access a huge range of geo-blocked streaming services, it allowed us to access almost a dozen Netflix libraries. This is a difficult feat and extremely attractive to VPN users, more than a third of whom want to bypass regional restrictions. In fact, ExpressVPN used to be able to access all of the above platforms. This means that we can reasonably expect these results to change as new workarounds are found.

While Hotspot Shield didn’t fare quite as well, it certainly proved that it’s capable of standing alongside top VPNs when it comes to streaming. It only really had issues with the largest streaming services, and could unblock moderately popular channels without any problems. Notably, Hotspot Shield can unblock several of the most in-demand Netflix libraries, something many other VPNs fail to do.

China

The Chinese government restricts access to all kinds of content using a collection of web-filtering tools known collectively as the “Great Firewall.” The good news is that both ExpressVPN and Hotspot Shield let you bypass these restrictions and browse the web freely.

Here’s the best part: unlike with many other VPNs, neither ExpressVPN nor Hotspot Shield requires you to do anything differently to surf safely in China. However, as both service’s websites are currently blocked, you’ll have to install the service before actually arriving in China. It doesn’t hurt to save manual setup instructions too, just in case you find that you need to troubleshoot on your arrival.

See also: Best VPNs to use in China

Setup and interface

Both of these services come with user-friendly desktop apps. ExpressVPN’s features a large quick-connect button on the main screen and a server list that’s separated into categories. Users can view recommended servers or see all locations on a given continent. The settings menu is similarly spread across several tabs and uses clearly-worded descriptions. This helps keep things clutter-free and simple enough for just about anyone.

Hotspot Shield’s desktop app is similar, but it arranges its servers alphabetically, with the US and UK servers coming before any others in the list. Additionally, there’s a quick access section with your two most recently-used locations. If you’d prefer, you can search for your desired country directly. The settings are neatly organized and it’s easy to understand what they all do. There’s even the option to start a live chat session directly from the support tab.

ExpressVPN has clearly done its best to create a consistent user experience across all of its apps; in fact, the mobile version is almost identical to the desktop one. The only real difference is in the settings menu, as certain features (using only ExpressVPN’s DNS servers, for instance) are missing. It’s important to note that there is still a full suite of security features though.

Hotspot Shield’s mobile app is actually more enjoyable to use than its desktop ones. This is because it does away with most of the clutter on the sidebar, making it much easier to find what you’re looking for. Additionally, it allows you to connect or access settings directly from the main screen. For what it’s worth, the settings haven’t really changed; the only difference is that you can’t manually choose which protocol to use.

Servers and Performance

There really isn’t too much of a difference between these two VPNs’ networks. ExpressVPN covers more locations than Hotspot Shield (or any other major provider).

They offer similar speeds, too, with ExpressVPN averaging 58 Mbps compared to Hotspot Shield’s 63 Mbps. Considering streaming 4K video only requires a 25 Mbps connection, either of these VPNs should be fast enough for anything you throw at them.

Below, you’ll find a full list of the countries where these providers offer servers:

Although ExpressVPN has the wider network, Hotspot Shield actually has servers that can get you an IP address from a few places that its rival doesn’t. These include China, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates, all countries with histories of internet surveillance and anti-freedom of speech legislation.

Since these virtual servers aren’t actually located in their respective countries, there’s no need to worry about government interference. That said, as both providers have a no-logs policy, you can’t be traced regardless.

There is a slight issue with Hotspot Shield, though. Its server list includes several locations that you can’t actually access, like Myanmar, Kenya, and Sri Lanka. To be fair, there is a support article explaining that some locations are only available on specific operating systems, but these countries’ servers can’t be found anywhere. Support suggested this could be because the list was recently updated. As such, it should only be a temporary issue.

Security

ExpressVPN users can connect using the standard OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols, or switch to the older, more secure L2TP protocol. Hotspot Shield, however, only lets you use IKEv2 or its proprietary Hydra protocol. It claims that Hydra allows you to connect faster (anecdotally, this checks out;  the Hotspot Shield apps connect in a couple of seconds) and provides higher speeds on long-distance connections than OpenVPN does.

Both services use 256-bit AES encryption — this is so secure that without the correct decryption key, it would take an attacker hundreds of years to crack. ExpressVPN uses 4096-bit RSA keys, though, which are twice as long as Hotspot Shield’s. While neither is especially likely to be cracked, this extra length makes ExpressVPN’s keys more difficult to guess in a brute force attack.

Each of these VPNs includes a kill switch that stops sending data the moment your connection drops. This way, you’ll never inadvertently browse without protection. What’s more, they both cloak your data in different ways.

ExpressVPN encrypts each packet of data using the one that came before, so an attacker would have to capture your entire session’s data and then break the encryption to see what you’ve been up to online, which is effectively impossible. Hotspot Shield hasn’t revealed any details about how it’s able to bypass strict web-filtering, but we can speculate. It’s likely a feature built directly into the Hydra protocol, and may involve disguising your VPN traffic as standard web traffic.

Privacy

These services both have solid privacy policies, but ExpressVPN has a slight advantage. To begin with, it’s based in the British Virgin Islands, a country with no data-retention laws. Conversely, Hotspot Shield is based in the US, a member of the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance.

On the plus side, neither service logs any data that could identify you. Hotspot Shield does keep session duration data and a record of the sites you visit but stores this in such a way that it’s impossible to trace anything back to one specific user. ExpressVPN keeps minimal connection logs including the date of your connection. However, none of this data can identify you. One major advantage ExpressVPN has is that it accepts Bitcoin payments. Conversely, at the moment, it’s not possible to sign up for Hotspot Shield anonymously.

Configuration

Both of these VPNs use shared address allocation systems. This means that all users connected to a specific server share the same IP address. In other words, it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to tell which user visited a particular website.

Some VPNs include a NAT firewall, which helps filter out suspicious incoming packets. ExpressVPN and Hotspot Shield both block all incoming data by default, so this is unnecessary. Neither service allows you to get a dedicated IP address, with ExpressVPN claiming that its current IP address rotation policy helps increase your anonymity.

Customer Service

Generally, if you need help, live chat is your best option. However, this feature may not always be accessible, for instance, if you’re traveling in China. That’s why we decided to conduct an experiment, reaching out for assistance over email and recording the average response time. You’ll find the results of our testing below:

Usually, you’d expect to hear back from email support in a few hours but both services shattered these expectations. In fact, Hotspot Shield had an average response time of just 15 minutes! This will vary based on several factors, but it’s still one of the fastest we’ve seen. Both providers addressed the questions asked and provided links to relevant knowledge base articles. Just as important, they encouraged users to reach out again should they have any more issues.

The winner: ExpressVPN

                    Jan 2023

Apps Available:

  • PC
  • Mac
  • IOS
  • Android
  • Linux

Website: www.ExpressVPN.com

Money-back guarantee: 30 DAYS

If our research has shown anything, it’s that it’s a mistake to dismiss Hotspot Shield. After all, it’s very fast and more than capable of handling any streaming or torrenting you might want to do. What’s more, it’s packed with powerful security features.  and doesn’t log any data that can identify you. It even works in China, which isn’t something many VPNs can claim.

Today’s victory goes to ExpressVPN though. While marginally slower, this service offers access to a higher number of countries and unblocks a wider range of streaming platforms. Further, it boasts an impressive array of security and privacy protections, including the ability to sign up anonymously with Bitcoin, which Hotspot Shield lacks. Whether you’re looking to browse free from government surveillance or simple to stream Netflix abroad, ExpressVPN would make an excellent choice.

See also:

  • Zenmate vs ExpressVPN
  • NordVPN vs ExpressVPN
  • NordVPN vs Surfshark