Before we start looking at Hola VPN in detail, we’ll be looking at some of the most common questions people ask about it. In this article, we’ll explain what Hola VPN is, what a P2P(peer-to-peer) network is, as well as what sets Hola VPN apart from its competition.
Hola VPN in Review
A VPN is a virtual private network. This means that everyone on a VPN is protected from the bulk of regular tracking content and location-binding material online. Hola’s goal with their VPN is to create a faster, more open internet.
Their version of a VPN is a P2P internet, working through sharing idle resources among its users so they can all reap the fruits. With their basis on this tech Hola has created a variety of products:
- The Hola VPN Free Network: The free version of the VPN will let you surf the web without any restrictions by using their P2P network with over 160 million members.
- The Hola VPN PLUS: The PLUS version of the VPN brings with it all of the free version’s benefits, as well as bringing its usefulness to your smart TV or phone. Furthermore, it has a network of excellent servers at your beck and call to ensure a truly seamless experience.
How Does A P2P Network Operate
Hola’s VPN is the first of its kind in the sense that it’s a fully P2P VPN. This means that the users are helping each other, making for a safer and more collaborative experience.
In essence, what this means is that Hola’s VPN will route your traffic through a variety of other users. This helps with power usage, as high-power servers are a much larger drain on electricity. This, in turn, means that Hola VPN can provide you with excellent VPN services at a low cost. Utilizing actual peers in order to route your traffic instead of servers is also great for places that block VPNs.
It’s worth noting that Hola VPN also has a hybrid mode, which will combine their P2P technology with larger servers in order to ensure a truly seamless experience. There are also addons for Chrome and Opera, however, these addons don’t have the P2P technology, and function as a standard VPN.
Why Choose Hola VPN?
The Hola VPN is made by Hola Networks Ltd. headquartered in Israel. Today, the VPN service Hola provides boasts a whopping 160 million active users.
Hola VPN gives all users access to a free, unlimited VPN service. It boasts one of the largest server networks out there, all thanks to its P2P technology. Because of this peculiar technology, it is harder to detect than standard VPNs and will help you get access to 99% of region-locked content online. The connection speed doesn’t suffer either, this is what makes Hola VPN the ideal free VPN for you to use.
For most of us, however, there’s only a few select sectors where we want to unlock region-locked content. Hola covers all of these, the list contains Hulu, Amazon Fire TV Stick, BBC, HBO, Youtube, Netflix, and you can even watch 4K HD content online without running into buffering issues.
When it comes to compatibility, this VPN works with essentially all devices. This means that regardless of if you want it to run on a Windows, Linux, smart TV device, or even game console, Hola will work with you. It is also available as an addon for Google Chrome, FIrefox, and Opera.
Furthermore, the VPN is also extremely user-friendly. Regardless of if you’re installing it onto your browser, or you’re getting the desktop version, you’ll have an easy time downloading Hola VPN. The whole process from downloading the VPN to setting it up only takes a couple clicks in total.
With that being said, if you’re someone that pays a lot of heed to their privacy, then you might find that their free VPN is not quite up to par with your needs. Some logs are still retained, leading to insufficient data protection for some users.
Pros
- It’s completely free of charge
- Hola free VPN is still quite fast
- There’s no cache when transmitting 4K video
- The VPN is very user-friendly and easy to use
- You can circumvent most region-locks
- The program unlocks Netflix, BBC, Hulu, and others
- Due to its P2P nature, the server is almost unlimited
- Using the paid version lets 10 different devices be connected simultaneously
- If you decide to purchase the paid version, it comes with a 30-day guarantee
Cons
- The free version simply doesn’t offer the same kind of protection that some people need.
- The only way of reaching Hola support is via email
It’s notable that with Hola’s headquarters being in Israel, that means it isn’t subject to any data retention laws.
This is due to the fact that Israel isn’t part of the 14-eye alliance. The 14-eye alliance describes an alliance of 14 countries, including the US, Canada, UK, Germany, and others which all share information with each other. In these countries, if one of them has any of your information, then that information is subject to be shared with the other 13 countries.
The paid version of the Hola VPN gives you access to strong, 256-bit encryption tech. This is extremely effective at protecting your privacy. Furthermore, the Hola VPN app will remove any need for a separate adblock software, as it blocks ads by default.
How about Logs
We’ve gone through Hola VPN’s privacy policy and analyzed it in order to determine if it kept its users’ logs. It turns out that while they do keep a marginal count of those, they will also never sell your information, and due to Israel’s laws on data retention, the police can’t ask Hola to provide them with your logs. All in all, this is amazing news for anyone who values their privacy.
In case you decide to pay for the paid version of Hola VPN, then they will not keep any of your logs, making that the ideal choice for the security-conscious customer.
Will This Tool Leak My Data?
Many free VPNs have issues with leaking out their users’ IP addresses. Fortunately, after doing many rounds of testing with the Hola VPN we were able to determine that it does not leak out IP addresses.
Next, we analyzed whether or not Hola VPN will leak out your DNS(Domain Name System) which is somewhat of a unique code for your device. Our tests were able to determine that Hola doesn’t leak this either.
Finally, we looked at whether or not Hola VPN will leak out your WebRTC. Much like the past two subsets of data, we were able to ascertain that Hola VPN doesn’t leak WebRTC.
Review of Speed & Quality
Most free VPNs face a variety of restrictions on them. This is because companies have to make money, and it’s quite difficult to do that off of a free product. The most common restrictions are restricting the bandwidth or speed of the connection.
After doing throughout testing with the VPN, we’ve determined that Hola VPN has no such restrictions, and it’s quite fast to boot. This makes it the cream of the crop in terms of free VPNs.
We’ve tested out the speed of the connection with the VPN by comparing and contrasting two servers. In this case, we opted for the United Kingdom, and United States servers.
UK Server Results:
UK Ping: 38 ms
UK Download Speed: 83.2 Mbps
UK Upload Speed: 36.3 Mbps
US Server Results
US Ping: 176 ms
US Download Speed: 31.2 Mbps
US Upload Speed: 8.4 Mbps
These results are excellent. Through our testing with these two servers, we’ve determined that Hola VPN’s connection speeds are quite close to some of the world’s top VPNs. This includes paid ones like NordVPN and PureVPN. This is essentially unprecedented in the world of free VPNs.
FAQ
Q: Will Hola VPN work with my streaming?
A: Yes, Hola VPN unlocks streaming
Q: Will I be able to watch Netflix with Hola VPN?
A: Yes, Hola VPN works with Netflix. Not only can you watch Netflix securely, you can also access other countries’ versions of it.
Q: What about the BBC, Hulu, Popcorn Time etc.?
A: Hola VPN provides you a free way to browse through pretty much all online streaming services privately. This does include all of the ones above, as well as dozens more.
Q: Can I torrent while I have Hola VPN up and running?
A: While Hola VPN can be used for torrenting and other P2P activities, it is not advisable to do so with the free version. This is largely due to the fact that its privacy features simply aren’t up to par. On the other hand, if you’ve got the paid version of Hola VPN, then it’s probably one of the best VPNs out there for this kind of task.
Q: Will Hola VPN work on my device?
A: When it comes to devices it’s compatible with, Hola VPN boasts a large list. It’s compatible with almost any commonplace platform out there. Regardless of if you’ve got a desktop running MAC, Windows, or even Chrome OS, you’ll find yourself enjoying Hola VPN. You can even put it onto your smart TV or Xbox. Even if you aren’t planning on downloading Hola VPN, you can still put it onto all mainstream browsers.
How Much Does it Cost?
Hola VPN is a free way of browsing the internet in a more secure and private fashion. There are also no restrictions put in place on your traffic even in the free version.
On the other hand, if you decide that you want the added speed and security of the paid version, then you should know it has three different subscription plans:
- The 3 month plan costs $11.99 a month
- The yearly plan costs $6.99 a month, which is 42% less than the 3 month plan.
- The 3 years plan costs $2.99 a month, which is 75% less than the 3 month plan.
If you opt for the paid version of Hola VPN, then you’ll be able to connect 10 different devices all at the same time. Furthermore, if you decide you don’t need it, or simply don’t like it, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee. There are absolutely no conditions for this, so what are you waiting for?
Hola accepts a vast array of payment options, among those are:
- PayPal
- VISA
- Amex
- MasterCard
Supported OS & Mobile | Where to Download?
There’s a wide variety of sources where you can download Hola VPN from. The easiest way to accomplish this is by downloading it for your chosen platforms off of Hola’s website. If you aren’t able to figure out how to do that, here are all the links:
Hola VPN for Google Chrome
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hola-free-vpn-proxy-unblo/gkojfkhlekighikafcpjkiklfbnlmeio
Hola VPN for Firefox
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hola-unblocker/
Hola VPN for Opera
https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/hola-better-internet/
Hola VPN for Microsoft Edge
https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/nfjgmgjhcihmkobljembcfodkajehoej
Hola VPN made for Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.hola
Hola VPN Mac
Hola VPN iOS
https://apps.apple.com/il/app/hola-privacy-vpn/id903869356
Hola VPN For PC, Hola VPN For Windows
Hola VPN For xBox
https://hola.org/plus_setup?platform=console&version=xbox_one
Hola VPN on PlayStation
https://hola.org/plus_setup?platform=console&version=ps4
Hola VPN on Consoles
https://hola.org/plus_setup?platform=console
Hola VPN on Routers
https://hola.org/plus_setup?platform=router&version=netgear
Hola VPN on Apple TV
https://hola.org/plus_setup?platform=mac&version=appletv
Hola VPN on Smart TV
https://hola.org/plus_setup?platform=smarttv
Hola’s Customer Support
While the Hola VPN excels in most areas, the same can not be said for its customer support. It does not have live chat support, relying exclusively on email support instead. Fortunately, Hola has an excellent FAQ on their website, so you probably won’t need to resort to customer support.
Conclusion
We wholeheartedly recommend Hola VPN as one of the best free VPN options out there.
This VPN features blisteringly fast connection speeds, in addition to having servers all around the world which let you bypass almost all region-locks. Furthermore, the Hola VPN will give you unlimited bandwidth, at no cost, without forcing you to look at ads.
We Hope this HOLA VPN Review was sufficient to answers any questions or doubts you had about his versatile software tool.