Launched in 2012, Hola VPN is a well-known VPN provider based in Israel. Unlike most VPN providers, Hola VPN offers free services to help its loyal customers overcome Internet censorship. Having been installed over 189 million times, Hola VPN is one of the most popular Internet services for secure browsing and geo-unblocking.
Fun fact about Hola VPN – it is the first community-powered P2P VPN, where users help each other make the web accessible for all by sharing their idle resources. This unique VPN provider runs in a hybrid model – combining traditional VPN architecture and peer-to-peer technology.
What it is that makes Hola VPN that special for users to be tempted to download the app 189 million times? This Hola VPN review will look at the answers, but our ultimate conclusion is that you’re better off going with a provider from our Top 5 Cheap VPNs instead.
Hola VPN isn’t packed with the traditional features we usually find in a VPN provider. That seems about right, given that Hola VPN is not a traditional VPN provider. Anyway, here are some of the features that Hola VPN offers:
Even though there are some good features, like allowing you to connect 10 devices simultaneously, Hola VPN lacks certain fundamental features. They have no kill switch feature, and there was no mention of the type of encryption method they use. Plus, they don’t support the use of torrents on their network. These are not quite the features that you would expect from a top VPN provider.
Hola VPN fails to provide any concrete information about the countries where they have servers. On their website, they don’t disclose any information about the countries from which you can connect to their VPN servers.
The only information we were able to find is that users can browse from “any country.” In their FAQ section, they explain how users can change their GPS location with Hola VPN. Of course, this is not nearly enough to provide any conclusive proof of their server network and the countries they cover.
Once again, there was very little information on their website about the speed and stability of their VPN connection. In their FAQ section, they advise users to connect to the VPN server with the closest physical connection, but apart from that, they don’t disclose any information about whether or not they limit your bandwidth and speed. That’s very disappointing.
Hola VPN is free, but there are also paid plans. Obviously, the paid plans allow users to have access to bigger perks than the free version. There are five different pricing plans available:
Their three-year plan offers the biggest savings, allowing users to save up to 75% by committing to this long-term subscription plan. That is a long commitment, especially for a VPN with their unusual business model.
Payments can be made via PayPal, Credit Cards, AliPay, GiroPay, and others.
There are a couple of ways you can reach Hola VPN’s support team. Additionally, there is a wide range of useful content that is found on their website. The customer support found on Hola VPN’s website can be divided into the following categories:
Unfortunately, there isn’t a live chat feature. That means that if you want to contact their support them, you’ll have to do it in an old-fashioned way, by contacting their email support. While we liked their customer support, content-wise, we can’t say the same for their accessibility, as there isn’t an easy way to contact their support team.
A top VPN provider is expected to offer iron-clad customer protection policies. Let’s see how Hola VPN protects its customers:
Furthermore, Hola VPN states that the company may disclose your personal information to their trusted third-party service providers or partners. All in all, without a no-logging policy and with a weak privacy policy, Hola VPN can’t compete against the top No-Log VPN providers in the industry.
Creating this Hola VPN review was tricky. We tried to give this provider leeway given their popularity, but our strict professionalism doesn’t allow us to recommend them for any kind of online activity:
In other words, choosing Hola VPN as your VPN provider would basically mean you’re shooting in the dark. There is no conclusive information on their website that would describe the nature of their VPN services, thus, we’re unable to give any positive recommendations.
Overall, Hola VPN looks average at best, and we can’t recommend their services to you. If you want to indulge in safe, anonymous, and secure online browsing, we recommend that you check out our reviews of other top VPN providers.
Our ratings for hola vpn review are based on our professional experience and extensive tests with VPN providers between April 2014 – July 2014, taking into account user feedback and reviews we receive. As a friendly disclosure, some VPN providers do compensate us for customers we refer them, but this in no way effects their ranking on our website, nor our reviews.
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