VPN | Hot VPN |
Based In | Singapore |
Logs | No Logs |
Speed | NA |
Network | 6 countries (est.) |
Refund | No |
Price | $3.00 a month |
Website | Google Play Store |
The company that created Hot VPN, Autumn Breeze PTE. Limited, lists it as a free unblock proxy. That said, they offer a premium service as well as the free version. It is one of several VPNs the parent company offers. Others include VPN Robot and Snap VPN. As with the other VPN products that the company offers, Hot VPN is only available for mobile devices natively. Though you can use it on a PC or Mac, you need to use an Android emulator like Bluestacks. That is because there is no real desktop support.
Not surprisingly, there is no website for Hot VPN. However, they do offer some information in their Google Play Store listing. One of the things they include is a rating of 4.5 from 100k reviews and over 5 million downloads. Even though there is a paid version of the service, most VPNs that use models like this make us wary. We have reviewed other products from Autumn Breeze and have seen the same issues for all of them. However, we will take a look at the specifics for this one and see how it holds up to our testing.
Be aware that there seems to be another VPN product on the market that is called HotVPN. The difference in spelling is minor. As you can see, though, there is no space in-between in the words Hot and VPN. They are dramatically different products. HotVPN has a base of operations in Belize. Additionally, there is another VPN with the same name made by a company called WECR TECH. Whereas they seem to be different companies with different logos, the wording is very similar.
Hot VPN Pricing and Payment Options
Hot VPN has the same pricing structure as the other products by the company. As you can see in this image, the one month plan is quite the steep amount of $11.99. When we compare that one month price to some of the more well-known companies, we struggle with that pricing. Of course, the longer lengths of service make the prices cheaper. For the 6-month plan, the monthly cost drops to $4 a month. The best value, however, is the 12-month plan and the price comes out to $3 a month.
About the Parent Company, Autumn Breeze PTE. Limited
Our sources show that Autumn Breeze PTE. Limited is headquartered in Singapore. That means that you are subject to the jurisdiction of the country. Interestingly enough, we also see that the company is a data analytics firm. Their information states they specialize in data analytics, processing, and related activities. To us, that is concerning. It suggests their main motive is to collect data instead of having the goal to protect your privacy.
Where are the VPN Servers?
Hot VPN is extremely vague with the number of countries they offer. Oddly, if they do not have a server available, it gives you the message that “all the servers are sleepy”. Only when that message is gone can you use the VPN. We have yet to see a free server available and the only ones we see show a total of 6 premium server locations. If you are not using the premium version, you may be stopped from using the service at all. For a product that is supposed to be free, that is misleading.
- Canada
- US
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- Japan
- Australia
Security
Security is always a big deal. Despite the lack of VPN protocols mentioned in the app itself, examining the play store page shows they use OpenVPN TCP/UDP protocols. Unfortunately, we do not have a way of knowing specifically what servers are where, but at least that part is encouraging. As far as the privacy policy goes, you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Google page. Just like with its other products, they provide you with the same privacy policy. However, they did swap out the name of the VPN. Here is the privacy policy from Hot VPN.
Testing and Operation
Unfortunately, we are not able to test the free version nor the premium version. Even after subscribing, the app never showed that we subscribed. Even when we tried to log-in or create an account we had no luck in doing that, either. As you can see in these images, we can’t access any of the servers or subscribe.
Customer Service
Sadly, the company’s customer service is terrible. We are accustomed to a quick turnaround time. When we started having connection issues, we emailed the company (the only way to get ahold of them) twice. In our view, it should not take 3+ days to hear back from any VPN provider, especially since we subscribed to the service.
Our Verdict on Hot VPN
While we have reviewed other products from Autumn Breeze, Hot VPN is poorly executed and has a lack of features. As we see it, this VPN has no redeeming factors. We tried to use it on multiple Wi-Fi networks as well as using our data plan on our Android phone. It states that the service is free, but that is no good if you can’t access the servers. Even after subscribing to the premium version, we could not get the app to recognize we were subscribed.
We are not able to test this VPN, so we can not make a fair judgment on the speeds, security, or ability to unblock content. When you add the high first-month price to all of the other failures of this provider, this is one that you will want to stay away from unless you want to waste your time.