View Plans | Read Full Hotspot Shield Review This goes against a no logs policy, and since Hotspot Shield is based in the US, it could also mean your data is shared with third parties. One important detail to note with Hotspot Shield is that its parent company, Aura, does collect your personal information. The Hotspot Shield team noticed that most VPN protocols suffer from high latency, so they optimized Hydra to reduce latency, or shorten the delay between the time you send data (for example, click a link) and the time your device receives data (the link you clicked on loads). (Those sites trick you into thinking you’re on a legit site, then proceed to steal your credit card info and other personal data.) That’s a big plus.Īnother point in favor of Hotspot Shield: It created its own VPN protocol called Hydra. Hotspot Shield claims its VPN blocks 57 million malware and phishing scam sites. Hotspot Shield’s encryption is also well-known for being robust.
Your state or zip code may also be collected, but only to make sure PIA charges you the right amount of tax. Personal data collected is intended to maintain your user account and manage your payments. We’re also happy with PIA’s no logs policy. That means you don’t have to reveal your identity or share a credit card number. Private Internet Access also has an unusual security feature that lets you pay with a gift card from Walmart, Starbucks, Best Buy, and other locations. That’s an exceptional value-though we don’t like that you can’t manually select one of those thousands of servers. Private Internet Access lets you connect to one of over 33,000 servers.
But be aware that your free trial lasts only 24 or 48 hours, depending on whether you sign up for the trial on desktop or your cell phone. If you’d rather not commit to a full twelve months or two years of CyberGhost service, you can sign up for its free trial. Plus, CyberGhost lets you connect up to seven gadgets, a (small) step up from NordVPN’s and ExpressVPN’s limit of five each. That whopping 7,400+ server count is another excellent feature. It charges you $13 a month if you don’t pick its one-year or two-year plan, which is high compared to the month-to-month prices you’ll see from other VPNs. That brings your monthly cost down to a nearly unbeatable price of $2.25 a month.īut if you choose to pay month by month, CyberGhost can be costly. To get the most value out of CyberGhost, sign up for its two-year plan. On top of that, ExpressVPN restricts you to five devices, unlike IPVanish and Surfshark. It’s not as affordable as some of its competitors: NordVPN and Private Internet Access cost $11.99 a month. The biggest drawback to ExpressVPN is its price. It also doesn’t collect your IP address, connection timestamp, or session duration.īut it does collect the minimum amount of data to keep its VPN service up and running: your account info, app diagnostics, and user-registered IP addresses for those that use MediaStreamer. It also offers split tunneling in case you’d rather not use your VPN service for a game of Clash of Clans on your phone, but absolutely need it when you check your banking app.Īs for ExpressVPN’s privacy policy, it doesn’t collect your browser history, website content, or DNS queries. ExpressVPN’s customer service and user guides also contributed to its reputation as one of the top VPNs available.
Apps for streaming devices and gaming consolesĮxpressVPN is a top pick because of its interface and powerful features, plus a large number of servers and countries to choose from.