Hola VPN Review: Pros, Cons & Best Alternatives

Servers – Rating: 7.5/10

Hola uses an unusual server architecture that depends on users for exit points. This indicates that, despite its network’s propensity to be rather sizable and dispersed geographically, server locations may fluctuate.

HolaVPN has servers available in 190 countries, but neither the website nor its apps reveal the exact city locations. This is due to the absence of a dedicated server network for premium users.

There’s no Auto Connect option to automatically select the best server. Additionally, it took me more than 15 seconds each time to connect to a server, which is quite slow.

If we talk about its free version, Hola VPN operates on a peer-to-peer network powered by the community. Every time you connect using its free servers, you use someone else’s IP address while a stranger uses yours. We’ll also tell you about how it leaks your DNS address later in this article.

This is extremely risky and goes against how a VPN works as your IP could be used for criminal behavior, and that activity will be linked to you. According to the website for Hola, if you don’t want to share your device’s resources with anyone else, you can choose the Premium edition. Even so, you’ll continue to utilize Hola’s P2P network. It seems more like a low-cost substitute that will solely serve the interests of the firm, not the people.

So, why use Hola VPN and put your privacy at risk when you can use other top secure VPNs?

Security – Rating: 1/10

As we already told you at the beginning of this review, Hola VPN keeps logs. It clearly admits to logging your data in its privacy policy. Here’s a short snippet of the Hola VPN privacy policy:

We log data and this may include the following information – browser type, web pages you visit, time spent on those pages, access times and dates.

Additionally, there are no security features to protect your private information, such as a kill switch or leak prevention. However, its Windows app does include one advanced feature and that is an Ad-blocker.

If you are thinking is hola VPN safe? No, because Hola VPN doesn’t encrypt users’ internet traffic. Instead, it utilizes a peer-to-peer network to mask your online identity. However, encryption is something we all want from a VPN service. Consequently, the lack of encryption means there is always a safety risk with Hola VPN.

If you opt for the paid version, however, you will get a few basic security features like IKEv2/IPSEC and strong 256-bit encryption. But even after paying a premium, you will still not get a basic feature such as a built-in kill switch. This is where this VPN seriously lacks in features.

The only additional feature that Hola VPN offers is an Ad-blocker. This feature works as you would expect, however, I still feel like it lacks a lot of features for a paid service that costs $1.49/mo.

Moreover, it doesn’t operate at an OS level and only routes traffic exclusively within the web browser or app.

Leaks – IP, DNS, WebRTC & Virus Tests

Moreover, Hola’s free edition does not conceal your IP in any way; rather, it allows users to share bandwidth and IPs. We have done several testing to see if this statement is true or not.

IP Leak Test:

First, we checked for any IP leaks. As you can see from the screenshot below, only a UK IP is being displayed and my original IP address is nowhere to be seen. Pretty good if you ask me.

DNS Leak Test:

Next, we checked for DNS leaks. As you can see from the screenshot below, it didn’t hide the DNS address.

WebRTC Leak Test:

We also checked for WebRTC leak and Hola VPN failed this test too. Even after multiple tests, Hola VPN didn’t hide my WebRTC leaks

Virus Test:

Last but not least, we checked if there were any viruses in its Windows client so we ran a virus test. There were no viruses found in their files.

Speed – Rating: 2.9/10

Since Hola is more of a proxy service than a VPN, we won’t compare its speeds to those of the other free VPNs we’ve evaluated.

Hola employs an unencrypted connection, resulting in reduced slowdowns but substantially greater risk, and only browser traffic is sent through the peer nodes.

Your connection speeds can also be impacted by the node you’re connecting to. As a result, your internet speeds can be affected if the peer you’re using to route your traffic has slow connections.

In our most recent tests, Hola’s speeds across long distances somewhat decreased and its ping times rose, but that was to be expected. The speed and latency of a connection decrease with increasing distance travelled.

Here are the speed results when we connected to its nearby (US) vs faraway (UK) servers on a 20 Mbps base connection:

With the US location, we got slightly better speeds. On average, the US location managed to output at 14.41 Mbps download speeds. We managed to get decent speeds considering its whole infrastructure is P2P based

We got these speed results using Hola VPN nearby servers.

With the UK location. Again, the results were neither too impressive nor too bad. At max, the UK location pushed out 9.64 Mbps download speeds.

We got these speed results when using hola VPN distanced servers.

If you want VPNs that work best in the UK check out our blog on the best free VPN for UK for American Users.

However, don’t get distracted by its fast speeds, lack of encryption, and the security risks Hola free VPN poses. You can check our list of the fastest VPNs with exceptional security features and fast speeds.

Streaming – Rating: 2/10

Hola VPN’s free version is incompatible with well-known streaming services including Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Hulu.

We were unable to unblock services like BBC iPlayer or US Netflix using Hola Free VPN.

However, when used the Hola premium version we were able to access Netflix and other streaming platforms, which was quite unexpected for us.

With the Hola premium version, we easily accessed the US Netflix library

Note: To stream on your favorite platform, you must choose the best VPN for streaming to ensure your online privacy remains intact.

Torrenting – Rating: 0/10

We would suggest you stay away from using Hola free VPN if you want to stay anonymous while torrenting.

Since Hola Free VPN does not offer connection encryption or a kill button. If your VPN connection drops, everyone will be able to see your actual IP address.

You can also see their claim on their official site making sure they block torrenting traffic:

However if you are constrained by the budget concern then we would suggest that you must check our recommended best free VPNs for torrenting instead of using Hola VPN to download torrents.

Installation Apps and Easy to Use – Rating: 7/10

Hola VPN download and installation is quite simple and easy to use. Hola VPN extensions are also available for Chrome, Edge, or Opera. There is also an app available to be installed on iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac. However, we didn’t find its app on Android devices.

We installed its windows app with just one click

Choose your device and click on it, and the app will start downloading automatically.

Compatibility – Rating: 6.5/10

Hola VPN offers free but unencrypted VPN apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices. However, these are more like proxy browsers and not actual VPNs.

Since it doesn’t work like a VPN but as a proxy service, it only encrypts the traffic within the app and not the overall device traffic just like a web browser does.

Hola VPN Windows App

The Windows app of Hola VPN looks like your average browser. You open it up and you’ll see an option on the top right corner to pick country locations. In terms of user experience, the app is decently lightweight and quite fast. That’s what you expect when the app doesn’t offer a lot of features.

Hola VPN macOS App

The macOS app is also similarly designed. It has the same browser-like look and feels and works just as fast. It too has the option to pick locations and that’s about it.

Hola VPN Android App

As for the Android app of Hola VPN, it boasts a simple design and looks more like a proper app than a browser. It is very easy to use and pretty fast too in my opinion. As for app rating, the Android app of Hola VPN has around 4.5 stars on Google Play Store.

Hola VPN iOS App

The iOS app also boasts a simple design. It has the same look and feels as the Android app and works just as well. As for ratings, the iOS app of Hola VPN has a 1.8-star rating on the Apple App Store.

Bypass Censorship – Rating: 4.3/10

Since, there are no obfuscation features or stealth mode included with Hola VPN it will be impossible to bypass censorship in highly restricted countries like China, Russia, and Iran.

We also verified using its Shanghai server, and because the service lacks encryption and the Great Firewall uses DPI (Deep Packet Inspection), we couldn’t able to access content that is restricted in China.

Customer Support – Rating: 7.5/10

The customer support system of the Hola VPN is quite weak. There is no live chat option on the website and you can only contact them through email. However, on its website, Hola provides unhelpful FAQs and other few resources to offer help support.