Hotspot Shield and Hola go head-to-head in this match to find out who will be the winner. Hotspot Shield is a popular VPN provider known for its speed and reliability, as well as its Catapult Hydra protocol, which compresses data to improve connection speeds and performance. Hola is a smaller provider that operates in a unique way. Rather than hosting dedicated VPN servers, Hola is a peer-to-peer network that routes user traffic through nodes provided by other users. Although Hola claims this system improves anonymity, they have received criticism for failing to protect users from vulnerabilities and safety concerns on several occasions. On the other hand, Hola is easy to install and use, and can bypass some geoblocks on popular websites. Hotspot Shield offers a free version powered by ads as well as a paid subscription service. Hola is entirely free to use, but you have to pay for the premium service if you don’t want your server to be used as a node for other users. Read on to find out which VPN comes out on top category by category.
This VPN’s biggest selling point is its lightning-fast connection speeds, thanks to the proprietary Catapult Hydra protocol. Hotspot Shield also delivers great user experience with attractive native apps that are easy to navigate, but their privacy practices could use some fine tuning.
Interestingly, if you compare Hotspot Shield with NordVPN, which is our top ranked vpn, you'll see that Hotspot Shield can learn a lot from NordVPN. Compare Hotspot Shield with NordVPN
Ariel Hochstadt
Katie Kasunic