Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Smartproxy VS Hotspot Shield

Compare Smartproxy VS Hotspot Shield and see what are their differences

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Smartproxy logo Smartproxy

Smartproxy is perhaps the most user-friendly way to access local data anywhere. It has global coverage with 195 locations, offers more than 55M residential proxies worldwide and a great deal of scraping solutions.

Hotspot Shield logo Hotspot Shield

Hotspot Shield is a software application developed by AnchorFree, Inc.
  • Smartproxy Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-08-26

Smartproxy has been a promising proxy provider since its first days in 2018. They offer a wide selection of proxies (residential, shared and private datacenter proxies) and three full-stack scraping APIs with 100% success rates and a no-code scraper. It has an easy-to-use dashboard, public API, and flexible payment methods. Being awarded for its consumer-centric approach, Smartproxy continues to look for ways to make public data gathering as simple and accessible to everyone as possible.

The key things Smartproxy offers for you:

  • 55M+ high-quality residential IPs with an average speed of <0.5 sec.

  • Global coverage – target 195+ locations, including cities and 50 US states.

  • Pay As You Go option - $3.5 per 1GB.

  • 500K+ shared and dedicated datacenter IPs.

  • Unlimited connections and threads.

  • Full anonymity and security.

  • Smart Wallet for easy payment management.

  • Fantastic 24/7 support with 40s average response time.

  • User-friendly dashboard with a quick and easy proxy setup.

  • Detailed documentation and an informative blog.

  • A bunch of free tools with any plan subscription.

  • Free trial for all products..

  • Hotspot Shield Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-17

Smartproxy features and specs

  • Large Proxy Pool
    Smartproxy offers a vast pool of residential and data center proxies, which expands the choice and decreases the chance of IP bans.
  • User-friendly Dashboard
    The service provides an intuitive and easy-to-use dashboard, making it simple for users to manage their proxies and monitor usage.
  • High Anonymity
    Smartproxy ensures high levels of anonymity and privacy, useful for activities requiring discreetness like web scraping.
  • Global Coverage
    With proxies available in numerous locations worldwide, users can access geographically restricted content or conduct broad market research.
  • 24/7 Customer Support
    Their customer support is available around the clock, offering reliable and prompt assistance to users via live chat and email.
  • Flexible Pricing Plans
    Smartproxy provides a range of pricing plans catering to different needs and budgets, including pay-as-you-go options.

Possible disadvantages of Smartproxy

  • Higher Cost for Premium Plans
    While they do offer flexible pricing, the more advanced plans can be expensive, making them less accessible for smaller businesses or individual users.
  • Usage Limitations
    There are bandwidth limitations depending on the plan you choose, which can be restrictive for tasks requiring large data transfers.
  • Shared Proxies
    Some of the proxies are shared, which can potentially slow down connection speeds or lead to IP bans if other users abuse the service.
  • No Free Trials
    Smartproxy does not offer a free trial, which could deter potential customers who are unwilling to commit without trying the service first.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    Utilizing some of the more sophisticated functionalities might require a learning curve, especially for users not familiar with proxy services.

Hotspot Shield features and specs

  • High-Speed Performance
    Hotspot Shield is known for its high-speed connections, making it ideal for streaming, large downloads, and gaming.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The application is designed with a simple, intuitive interface that makes it easy for both technical and non-technical users to operate.
  • Large Server Network
    Hotspot Shield provides access to a large number of servers in various locations around the world, which can help bypass geo-restrictions.
  • Strong Security Features
    It offers robust encryption and security features such as malware protection, which enhance user privacy and data security.
  • Free Version Available
    A free version of Hotspot Shield is available, allowing users to try the service before committing to a paid subscription.

Possible disadvantages of Hotspot Shield

  • Logging Policy
    Hotspot Shield’s privacy policy has been criticized for potential logging of user data, which raises concerns for privacy-conscious users.
  • Ads in Free Version
    The free version of Hotspot Shield includes advertisements, which can be intrusive and disrupt the browsing experience.
  • Limited Features in Free Version
    The free version offers a limited set of features compared to the premium version, which may not meet all user needs.
  • Cost of Premium Version
    The premium subscription can be relatively expensive, which may not be affordable for all users.
  • Inconsistent Performance
    Some users have reported inconsistent performance, such as occasional slowdowns or interruptions depending on the server or location.

Smartproxy videos

Residential rotating proxies. Why choose Smartproxy?

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Smartproxy review &amp; How to smartproxy
  • Review - Proxies for Scraping
  • Tutorial - How to Start Using Smartproxy
  • Review - Smartproxy Review 2023: Best Price To Value Proxies
  • Review - IPFighter| Review Smartproxy

Hotspot Shield videos

Hotspot Shield Review - Brutally Honest Review in 2019

More videos:

  • Review - Hotspot Shield VPN Review
  • Review - Hotspot Shield review: Should you get it? | VPNpro

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Smartproxy and Hotspot Shield)
Proxy
100 100%
0% 0
VPN
0 0%
100% 100
Residential Proxies
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud VPN
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Smartproxy and Hotspot Shield

Smartproxy Reviews

  1. Vladyslav
    · Backend Developer at KittenProperties ·
    Very good quality

    Residential proxy is quite good. High success rate with their proxies even though it is quite expensive

    🏁 Competitors: NetNut.io
    👎 Cons:    Expensive
  2. CPAScraping
    · Working at CPA Scraping ·
    My Review of Smartproxy Service

    Smartproxy, in my experience, is a solid choice for heavy-duty web scraping tasks. Been using it for bulk data mining. Their proxy pool's massive – good for avoiding blocks and captchas. Speed's decent, uptime mostly consistent. Setup? Straightforward. But yeah, pricing's a bit on the higher side, especially for large-scale operations. Overall, Smartproxy delivers, especially for those heavy scraping needs.

    👍 Pros:    Ip diversity|Quick data access|Minimal downtime|User-friendly interface:
    👎 Cons:    Pricey|Some geo-restrictions.|Ometimes slow response.

OxyProxy vs. Smartproxy: A Detailed Comparison
Set of Services Provided by Smartproxy Service TypeDescriptionResidential ProxiesOffers IP addresses from real residential connections, ideal for high anonymity and avoiding blocks.Data Center ProxiesProvides faster speeds, suitable for tasks requiring high-speed connections.Rotating ProxiesAutomatically rotates IP addresses, enhancing anonymity and reducing the risk of...
Source: oxyproxy.pro
Top 10 Alternatives to Bright Data (formerly Luminati Proxy Networks)
The proxy pool is one of the cleanest as it is regularly being updated. Currently, it has over 5 million residential IP addresses sourced from many locations. As stated earlier, Soax is affordable even though its pricing model is the same with both Smartproxy and Bright Data – bandwidth-based. Just like Smartproxy, all you need to use the Soax service is a minimum of $75.
17 BEST Residential Proxies to Buy in 2022 (Cheap & Premium)
Smartproxy offers both residential and datacenter proxies, but their residential ones have the best features. Unlike most other residential proxy providers, Smartproxy focuses solely on providing the best residential IPs to businesses.
Source: earthweb.com
10 Best Free Online Proxy Server List of 2022 [VERIFIED]
Smartproxy offers a residential proxy network with 40M+ IPs. It offers the solutions of data center proxies, search engine proxies, etc. Chrome proxy extension will help you with accessing the localized content. Proxy address generator provides the facility of exporting the proxy list for any software.
Best Data Scraping Tools
Smart proxy has about 10 million rotating residential proxies with location targeting and flexible pricing. There are rotating sessions, random IPs, geo-targeting, sticky sessions, and more. Smart proxy creates a room for unlimited connections and numerous threads which offer 99% SLA with low failure rates, functioning 24/7 with reliable support of 5 minute response time.

Hotspot Shield Reviews

The Best Top 10 VPNs for Spotify 2025
Hotspot Shield is a popular VPN solution for Spotify users, offering fast and secure connections to its vast network of servers. With a user-friendly interface and 24/7 customer support, Hotspot Shield is perfect for music lovers.
Turbo VPN Alternatives – Best Free VPN Apps For Android in 2022
Hotspot Shield is the best and most popular VPN proxy application for Android smartphones. It takes security and privacy very seriously. Since it’s a VPN app, it can be used to unlock geo-restricted websites and content.
Source: techviral.net
112 Best Chrome Extensions You Should Try (2021 List)
Hotspot Shield extension is a freemium security tool. It uses WebRTC technologies to hide your IP and uses military-grade encryption to protect your data. Yes! it offers both free and paid plans, but as free, it only connects to one location and provides primary security. But premium subscription plans come with a 45-day money-back guarantee. However, for beginners, the free...
8 Best Turbo VPN Alternatives for Android and iOS
HotSpot Shield is yet another VPN that offers unlimited data just like Turbo VPN. It does not throttle the speed and the servers are always up which translates to excellent performance. However, bear in mind, under the free service, you have servers only from the US region which could be a bummer for some. Nevertheless, the best part about Hotspot Shield is that it offers...
Source: beebom.com
8 Similar Apps like Psiphon that are Actually Better
Hotspot Shield VPN is yet another incredible app like Psiphon. However, it does require you to subscribe to a plan to be able to utilize the VPN service. The pricing plans are similar to the ones offered by other VPN providers.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Smartproxy seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 6 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Smartproxy mentions (6)

  • Best Amazon Scraper APIs To Check Out in 2024
    Smarproxy is another proxy provider that offers a dedicated section for scraping e-commerce platforms including Amazon. Their Amazon API is known for its speed and quality and can be used just with a simple POST request. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Basic Web Browser with Electron +APIS
    Smartproxy: Offers residential proxies with support for HTTP(S) and SOCKS5. It is known for its high success rate and 24/7 technical support. Smartproxy provides a balance between price and performance, making it accessible to less experienced users (Smartproxy). - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Cheap Residential Proxy: Affordable and Reliable Proxy Service for Anonymous Browsing
    For instance, imagine you are conducting market research and need to scrape data from various websites for analysis. By using a residential proxy service like anyip.io or Smart Proxy, you can ensure that your scraping activities are secure and undetectable while maintaining anonymity. Additionally, these services effortlessly handle throttling of threads and swiftly manage captchas. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Proxy for Instagram: What is It and How to Get It?
    Smartproxy Rotating residential IPs for multi-accounting. Large rotating residential proxy pool, 195+ countries, no subnets, an easy setup process. The IPs are from both desktop and mobile devices. Different tools for IG automation and affordable price plans ($75/5 GB ($15/GB). However the residential IPs are still P2P, so you have sticky sessions up to 30 min and then proxies rotate. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Smartproxy Review
    Smartproxy is one of the latest rotating residential proxy services to hit the market. Smartproxy offers its users immense features and functionality at affordable rates. If you’re looking for a long-term proxy service to stick to, it’s worth looking at Smartproxy’s unique offerings. - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago
View more

Hotspot Shield mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Hotspot Shield yet. Tracking of Hotspot Shield recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Smartproxy and Hotspot Shield, you can also consider the following products

Bright Data - World's largest proxy service with a residential proxy network of 72M IPs worldwide and proxy management interface for zero coding.

ProtonVPN - ProtonVPN is a security focused FREE VPN service, developed by CERN and MIT scientists. Use the web anonymously, unblock websites & encrypt your connection.

Oxylabs - A web intelligence collection platform and premium proxy provider, enabling companies of all sizes to utilize the power of big data.

OpenVPN - OpenVPN - The Open Source VPN

NetNut.io - Residential proxy network with 52M+ IPs worldwide. SERP API, Website Unblocker, Professional Datasets.

TunnelBear - Really simple VPN to browse the web privately & anonymously.