Hotspot Shield vs RUSVPN

​​Hotspot Shield, developed by Pango (formerly AnchorFree Inc.), is a prominent VPN service headquartered in Redwood City, California, with additional offices in Boston and Ukraine. Founded in 2005 by David Gorodyansky and Eugene Malobrodsky, the company has grown significantly, boasting over 3,200 servers across over 80 countries. This extensive server network allows users to bypass geo-restrictions and access region-locked content, enhancing privacy and security online. Hotspot Shield offers both free and premium plans. The free version includes limited server access and a daily data cap, while the premium version provides faster speeds, a broader server selection, and additional features like antivirus protection. A standout feature of Hotspot Shield is their proprietary Catapult Hydra protocol, which aims to deliver enhanced speed and security compared to traditional VPN protocols. Despite their strengths, Hotspot Shield has faced criticism for not conducting third-party audits to verify their no-logging policy. However, they maintain a strict no-logging policy to protect user privacy. The service is available on multiple platforms, including iOS, macOS, Android, Windows, and Linux. As of December 31, 2024, Hotspot Shield will discontinue support for router-based VPN configurations.

RusVPN was a budget-friendly VPN provider offering online privacy and security through 390+ servers in over 50 countries. They prioritized user anonymity with a strict no-logs policy, AES-256 encryption, and multiple VPN protocols, including OpenVPN and IKEv2. Their service was compatible with Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, and routers, ensuring broad accessibility. Additionally, they provided dedicated IP options for users needing a consistent and secure connection. While RusVPN had strong privacy features, they lacked split tunneling and RAM-based servers, which some users found limiting. Their streaming performance was inconsistent, working with certain platforms while struggling with others. Customer feedback was mixed—many users praised their affordability and ease of use, but others reported slow response times from customer support and difficulty canceling subscriptions. Despite its strengths and drawbacks, RusVPN has since rebranded as Planet VPN and no longer operates under their original name.