Hola VPN Review 2024 – Buyer’s Guide

Last Updated on November 18, 2023 by VPNPioneer

Pro

  • Great Speed – One Of The Fastest VPN
  • Exotic Server Location
  • 94 Countries

Contra

  • Above Average Price
  • No possibility to choose specific server


You may have a website or an application blocked in your country or some web contents may be banned from using in your country. If you are thinking what to do, how to access those applications and websites, can have one and only answer- VPN. Numerous VPN products have been introduced till this day by various multinational companies. VPNs have already got popular for their various features which are different in tremendous ways. Some have extended security; some have multiple IP inheriting facilities.

One of them is Hola VPN which is our topic today. Ofer Vilenski and Derry Shribman launched Hola in 2008 by investigating the idea of peer-to-peer overlay network in order to deploy peer-to -peer caching as well as peer-to-peer routing to get a faster internet connection by reinventing HTTP. As a result, we could get faster and cheaper internet connection to be operable by content distributors. They initiated Hola with $18 million from investors such as DFJ (SkypeHotmail), Horizons Ventures (Li Ka-shing‘s venture capital fund), and others.

As we all know, response times, round trip times, congestion etc. are responsible for slow Internet connection. This is where Hola put a huge mark by introducing caching contents resulting in a much faster and cheaper internet connection.

Comparison

HolaVPN

NordVPN

SurfShark


Visit


Visit



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1,000+ VPN servers 5,000+ VPN servers 1,500+ VPN servers
Super Fast Speed Fast Speed Fast Speed
10 Devices 6 Devices Unlimited
190+ Countries 62+ Countries 50+ Countries
Chrome, Firefox, Windows, iOS, Android, MacOS, More+ Chrome, Firefox, Windows, iOS, Android, MacOS, Linux Chrome, Firefox, Windows, iOS, Android, MacOS
Tested with Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu & HBO Tested with Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu & HBO Tested with Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu & HBO
Follow this Link for free Basic PlanFollow the Link to save 66%Follow the Link to save 83%
Dedicated VPN for Premium Plan Dedicated VPN Available (after signup) Dedicated VPN not Available
Best Encryption Military Grade Encryption Secure Encryption
2.99$3.49$1.99$
Click HereClick HereClick Here
30 Days Money Back 30 Days Money Back  30 Days Money Back 
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Review Video

Streaming Test

I have tried Hola VPN and found it delivering great speeds I must say! Although there are no strong encryptions working there if you think you need a simple cheap fast vpn, I would obviously say go for HolaVPN!

Features and Encryption

Free and Ad-free VPN service

Hola VPN utilizes resources of the idle devices of the users in exchange for a huge pool of residential Ips in order to have a free and unrestricted browsing experience. For advanced features there is Hola Premium Plan which offers those features for the premium customers. Not only this VPN is free, it also provides you with ad-free service. You can use this VPN as an extension in your browser or an app uninterrupted and free from ads from any parts of the world. So, if you ask, How Hola VPN is free in this ‘No free lunch’ life of current world, this is from the FAQ of Hola VPN website,

“Hola VPN built a peer-to-peer overlay network for HTTP, which routes the sites you choose through other Hola VPN users’ devices and not through expensive servers. Users that opt-in to the peers’ community agree to contribute their device’s resources to the network. Hola VPN takes up minimal resources from these users’ devices. This makes Hola VPN the first VPN service that has minimal underlying operational costs. Users who want to enjoy the Hola VPN network without contributing minimal device resources can do so by joining the Hola VPN Premium service.”

Nevertheless, in exchange of a minimal networking and processing power this VPN offers a value-exchange network which provides basically contents with absolutely no ads.

Community-powered VPN

A community-powered VPN is where in a p2p network, users help each other access contents across the globe by routing you IPs through other peers’ devices instead of expensive proxy servers. This as a result, offers a free accessible internet under affordable costs. This Hola VPN offers this service unconditionally free which not only makes your web surfing experience delightful but also makes you keep a hold on your money.

This way also, while using Hola VPN, your identity remains unrecognizable as this p2p routing helps Hola VPN IP addresses undetectable by your public network.

Premium VPN

If you upgrade to Hola VPN Premium Plan from as little as US$2.99/month, you will enjoy the power of the network without contributing idle resources. Hola VPN Premium also offers advanced privacy and security features until you keep yourself subscribed to this Hola VPN Premium plan. High performance servers are used by Premium Plan of Hola VPN for a dedicated network.

There are 3 types of Plans in Premium service.

  1. Monthly
  2. 1-year Plan
  3. 3-years Plan

Monthly plan bills you monthly. 1-year Plan saves you 49% where 3-year Plan saves you 80%.

One important thing is, all these plans offer you same sort of additional features, which are as follows:

  • Unlimited VPN time
  • Unblock any website
  • 10-devices connectivity
  • Streaming HD Videos
  • 1000 fastest servers
  • Best standard security with encryption

Moreover, you can subscribe to any Premium service with a 30-day money back guaranty. You are never used as a peer in the Premium, so if you are thinking not to contribute your idle resources, I recommend you subscribe to any of the above-mentioned Premium Plan.

Use of Different Technologies

Hola uses an amount of variety of technologies.

Using https proxy or IKEv2, all of their clients are connected to their data center proxy servers.

Once a request arrives at the proxy server, the user is then sent in one of 3 directions:

  1. Directly to the proxy itself
  2. Routed internally to a different data center
  3. Sent to our P2P network

They have this internal algorithm developed by their own that works finding the best route according to the needs of their customers.

Feature of using only VPN not contributing with resources

Obviously, Hola VPN offers advantages with using VPN only if you do not want to contribute with your idle resources over peer-to-peer network. For availing this capacity, you have to subscribe to any one of the Premium Plans offered by them.

After signing up for Premium Plan, you can either install the extension on your browsers or apps, in whichever way you want to use this VPN on your devices. Besides, free users can use the only VPN connection without contributing resources by installing the browser extensions only.

IP Exchange network

Hola VPN is basically an IP Exchange Network which when connected, it routes through peers’ IP locations providing you in exchange of numerous IP locations of the world. If you do not want to exchange your idle resources there are available 3 Premium Plans.

These plans make you use this Hola VPN without exchanging your idle resources on your devices. Also, in Free plans, use the browser extensions if you do not want to contribute your idle resources.

Safety

Well, routing through other peers’ resources and keeping logs of malicious activities and contents including other peers’ actions might make it vulnerable for the Hola VPN users. But no such case has been recorded till date on this. Besides, there are Premium Plans which are much safer and secured for using this Hola VPN in case if you want enhanced safety and security or if you run a business and need VPN service for that.

Security Features that Hola VPN Premium Plan supports:

  • Protect PC mode:
  • IKEv2/IPsec, PPTP/L2TP (default: IKEv2/IPSec)
  • Encryption: DES3,AES128,AES192,AES256 (default: AES256)
  • Integrity check: MD5, SHA1, SHA256,SHA384 (default: SHA1)
  • Diffie-hellman group: MODP1024, MODP2048, MODP2048_256 (default: MODP2048)
  • Protect browser/site mode:
    • SSL (HTTPS proxy)
  • Access site mode:
    • Proxy split tunneling (not all your traffic is encrypted)

Advanced Commercial-use Product

Hola VPN and its Premium plans basically are for non-commercial use. For more robust proxy business plan, you can use Bright Data Service. This offers:

  • Developer API that allows controlling the routing of your HTTP/S requests via software
  • Many concurrent sessions
  • Multiple Ips with high bandwidth/high request rate
  • More safe IP resolution
  • Access to 30+ million IPs across the world
  • Geo-targeting options like: country, city, ASN, and carrier
  • Faster IP changing
  • Availing technical support

Desktop-usable App

Hola Pro VPN proposes easy installing Desktop App which is supported for Windows. It is absolutely free with unlimited bandwidth and easy-to-install. Just download the exe file and install on your desktop.

Easy to use

Hola VPN is one of the easiest to handle VPN. The UI is fast and can be quickly learned to use. Anyone who have never used VPN before will be able to use it without any stress.

Installation and Usability

With an easy-to-use interface, Hola VPN is supported in mostly all common platforms basically if you ask me about supporting platform. Currently more than 234 million people are using this Hola VPN. This VPN helps you install it as an extension at any of your browsers, whether it is Chrome, Firefox, Edge etc. on windows or MacOS on computers or smart devices. Just download the exe file or install the extension on your browser and you will be able to experience an unhampered VPN service. 

Besides this VPN is also available on Android and IOS as apps. Moreover, this VPN is available as an exe app for personal Windows computers. Of course, all downloads can be done from the Hola VPN Homepage, accessible from any corner of the world. With thousands of servers in many countries and IPs you can enjoy any content through your devices from more than 190 countries of the world.

Furthermore, you can sign in to any of the Premium Plan at hola.org up to 10 devices in any of the platform. This facility is available if you sign in to hola.org from your devices.

Pricing and Payments

Hola VPN proposes Premium plans for a more secured connection. Otherwise, the free Basic plan is there for you too to provide you connectivity with the same features. There is also Hola Pro for Desktop Application. And these 2 software cost only 0$/ month where Hola Basic provides unlimited 30mins/hour and Hola Pro offers unlimited bandwidth.

Premium Plans are of 3 types:

  1. Monthly- It offers monthly billing of $14.99
  2. 1-Year Plan- It offers yearly billing of $92.26 saving you 49% with monthly payment benefit
  3. 3-Years Plan- It offers you a 3-year billing of $107.55 saving you 80% with monthly payment benefit

All these plans are offered to you by providing a 30-day 100% money back guaranty. Furthermore, no credit card information is required and no hidden fees is charged.

Support

There is a technical team there for supporting you through your problems while using this Hola VPN. In their website, there are troubleshooting steps and also there is a contact form you can connect to. Also, there is an email address you can mail your issues to. Above all, there is their Help Center answering all your most common queries you are likely to face using this VPN. On a qualified vulnerability report, they also are going to offer you modesty bounties.

In their language,

“We appreciate any contribution that help us keep our users safe.

We will provide a modest bounty of $50 for a qualified and unknown vulnerability report. For critical and high-impact security vulnerabilities we will provide a higher bounty at our discretion.”

Nonetheless, in case you do not want to use the Hola VPN Premium anymore or need to unsubscribe you can mail to their supporting team to remove your Hola VPN Premium Account for free.

Speedtest

Hola VPN offers you free service with ad free connections and contents via routing through peer-to-peer network instead of connecting to a proxy server. When the connection reached a server, it routes to a peer device IP. This way it connects users with the p2p network sharing their idle resources like network and processing power which ideally increases the network speed.

Hola VPN provides unlimited bandwidth. Besides without ads and sale information this Hola VPN provides you with a hassle-free internet connection and experience. Moreover, if users just install the browser extension, they won’t be contributing any resources anymore, which gives a problem free experience to the free users.

Few tips in terms of Hola VPN Premium speed:

  • Connect to the closest country if you just need a proxy IP not specific.
  • Connect to wired LAN instead of WiFi
  • Clear your network cache by rebooting your device

Hola VPN gave 30-35Mbps as an average upload speed and 70-72Mbps as an average download speed based on your selected server location. You can verify yourself by using this VPN service.

Verdict

Hola VPN is quite a competitive VPN comparing with others especially if you think about its speed. There are other VPNs providing you with better encryption, safety and also better streaming experience I must say. But if you purchase the Premium version of this VPN you will have some much better experience no doubt!

FAQ of HolaVPN

Is HolaVPN easy to use?

Yes, HolaVPN is very easy to use.

Does HolaVPN sell your data?

Yes, HolaVPN does collect your data but you cannot say they ‘sell your data’. There are no sensitive information that they collect along with your bandwidth from your idle device resources.

Does HolaVPN work in China?

No, Hola VPN does not work in China. The network will simple be blocked by the firewall of China.

Is HolaVPN owned by China?

No, HolaVPN is not owned by China. It is run by individuals and the headquarters are in Israel.

Is HolaVPN legal?

Yes, HolaVPN is legal. But you should not do any illegal work by the help of VPN services. Although VPN services are not illegal.

Is HolaVPN free?

Yes, the Basic and the Pro Plan is free.

Is HolaVPN good?

HolaVPN is a great VPN service. You can browse seamlessly and stream any web service using this VPN.

Does HolaVPN slow Internet?

No, preferably not. They offer fast connection by using peers’ idle device resources. So, the speed is undeniably strong.

Does HolaVPN work on smart TV?

Yes, HolaVPN is compatible with smart TVs.

Does HolaVPN have ad blocker?

Yes, HolaVPN does have ad blocker.

How do I get HolaVPN?

You can sign up for the Premium account on HolaVPN’s website. You can also download the extension from the website or even the desktop app for free. Just install and use it.

Is HolaVPN legitimate?

HolaVPN is legitimate. Many users have used this service and expressed their gratitude in their reviews for their trustworthy and loyal service.

So, looking for a VPN but don’t want Ads or Marketing information on your connection?

Need a free Unlimited adblocking VPN Service?

I would highly recommend using this Hola VPN service if you need a seamless uninterrupted unlimited VPN. If you need more secured version VPN, you can subscribe to the Premium Plan. No worries, your safety and security are their responsibility.

Want to report an issue?

Contact their support team. You can mostly find your issue and its solution in their FAQ, even if it is not, you get to use their contact form or email to their email address.

Used enough of Hola VPN, not going to use their Premium Plan anymore?

Just contact their email address. They will remove your account out of any charges. So, no worries, happy using VPN!

User Reviews

Does Hola VPN work with Netflix?

Yes, Hola VPN is a great service that works with Netflix. We have found this is one of very few that will actually allow 24/7 access to Netflix.

Hola VPN has really fast speeds when it comes to working with Netflix. With other VPNs, you may find that there are network-wide blocks, but with Hola VPN, this has never happened to us. And if you are traveling around the world, you can also have this VPN work with Netflix.

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