Yes, it works well as a hotspot. Since it sounds like you're new to using the phone as a hotspot (tethering), I'll give you a bit more information about your hotspot options.
The default tethering method is through wifi. Because it would consume battery needless to continually broadcast a wifi network, the tethering needs to be activated. Introduced in iOS 8, iOS devices and relatively recent Macs (anything that can seamlessly Airdrop with an iOS device, pretty much) are able to activate tethering, themselves; previously, you had to use the iPhone first, go to the tethering screen, and then join the network from your other device. It's much simpler now. The benefit of tethering this way is that there's little to no speed loss; it's almost as if your tethered device has the cellular connection, itself. The downside is that, because of the battery usage, the connection will automatically drop if it's inactive for a certain amount of time (some time between 10-15 minutes, I believe). You would then need to reinitiate the tether if you wanted to share the connection again.
There are two alternate methods to tethering that people may not be aware of, particularly after "instant hotspot" in iOS 8 means that people aren't accessing the tethering screen much anymore.
If you want to tether to your computer, it's as simple as connecting your phone to your computer via USB. If you're using a Mac (and possibly a Windows computer, although I've never tried), the tether begins automatically and the computer will use your phone for internet connectivity. The benefit of this is that, because the phone charges over USB as well, you don't need to worry about your phone's battery running out. One word of warning about tethering to your computer (regardless of whether it's through wifi, USB, or Bluetooth) is that the computer doesn't cut back on its data usage just because the connection is cellular. iOS devices are designed with mobility in mind, and tend to hold back data-intensive operations if they're not on a wifi network. Tethering with your computer can potentially blow through your data plan if you're not careful.
The final tethering method is through Bluetooth. To set this up you'll initially need to pair your phone with the other device(s) that you want to tether with, which can be done through the Bluetooth settings. You only need to do that once per device. After that, you initiate the tether by going to settings > bluetooth on your device, and tapping the phone to initiate the Bluetooth connection (not very different from how to initiate an "instant hotspot", although you're going to Bluetooth instead of Wifi). Once the connection is made (and assuming you have "Personal Hotspot" enabled on your phone, just as would be required for all other tethering options), the tether begins. There are two benefits to tethering over Bluetooth. One is that it's very energy-efficient, and the other is that it doesn't time out. I have tethered this way to keep my iPad tethered for 8-10 hours, having an always-available connection, which is quite convenient. The battery drain to both iPad and iPhone were minimal, and that was with an iPhone 4S and a first-generation iPad Mini; newer devices will likely be even better. The downside is that Bluetooth seems to be a bit slower than wifi-based tethering. You probably won't notice the hit to your speed if you're doing email or web-browsing, but it may be more noticeable if you want to quickly update a large app over your cellular connection.
Lastly, it's worth mentioning that your tethering speeds are ultimately dependent on your cellular carrier and on your reception. The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus support the newer wireless chips that can handle transfers of up to 300 mbps, but that won't help if you're in an area where the infrastructure is slow or where there's a lot of network congestion.
Apple has done a lot of work to make tethering easier and more seamless over the past few years. Apple devices aren't cheap, but easy interoperability is one of Apple's strong points. Save some money and effort by utilizing those strengths. Happy tethering!
