General Overview
When most people subscribe to a VPN service, the assumption is that they will be connecting to highly secure, well-managed servers which are tightly integrated to ensure optimum security. All of which means that access to their traffic, for the most part, will be near impossible. However, that’s not how HolaVPN works.
Based in Israel HolaVPN is described by the company behind it as being so-called community powered, i.e., Peer-to-Peer. The software allows users to choose a country through which their traffic can be routed. Currently, there are 33 countries from which to choose. However, unlike a conventional VPN, your traffic is routed through other people’s computers and not Hola’s network. So, the billion-dollar question is how well does it all work? That’s precisely what we’ll attempt to answer in this review.
HolaVPN Special Features
Free Browser Extensions
One of the best features of Hola is that the browser extension is free for home users or non-commercial users. There are no data caps or speed caps. However, because it uses a P2P architecture, you’re using as much bandwidth of other nodes as they are using yours. Though Hola claims that the average daily traffic to any one particular node is equivalent to just a 20-send YouTube clip.
Does not use nodes running on battery
Hola says that the software only uses nodes or computers as peers if they are completely idle. Also, if they are not running on battery power. So, there isn’t going to be any noticeable difference in operation.
Low Price
Compared to other VPN service providers Hola is a lot cheaper. One reason for that is perhaps the service does not need to pay for an extensive network of VPN servers, and so the savings are passed down to the end user.
Privacy & Anonymity
Hola’s comparatively low price shouldn’t distract you from the numerous privacy and security issues that it poses.
People who are using the free browser extension should be concerned with the fact that if their computer becomes the exit node for someone who is hacking, spamming or engaging in some other illegal activity, it is their IP address that’s recorded. However, those who are uncomfortable with that happening can upgrade to Hola VPN Plus.
Interestingly Hola Plus isn’t going to solve all your problems. The company keeps quite about the encryption algorithm it uses and states that depending on what users choose only some of the traffic may be encrypted.
We browsed through the Hola VPN’s pages and found the Windows 10 manual in which the company states that they recommend connecting using a PPTP protocol. The PPTP protocol is outdated and known to be insecure which is why many premium VPN services don’t support it.
Hola VPN isn’t shy to state that they do monitor user activity on the network and possibly even log it. Not to mention that they collect a great deal of information about users’ activities. So in an industry where no-logging policies are taken for granted by those worried about their privacy and security, Hola VPN does exactly the opposite.
Now for someone who wants to access geo-blocked websites and YouTube videos all of this shouldn’t be very alarming. However, if you value anonymity, then Hola VPN isn’t the right choice.
Hola VPN Speed and Performance
The fact that Hola routes traffic from users’ computers means that you’re bound to run into all kinds of issues with speed and performance. However, contrary to what we went in believing the speed isn’t always slow. We used SpeedTest and Fast.com to check speeds when we connected to nodes in Australia and New Zealand. In some cases, the speeds were much better than other commercial VPN services. Using a 10Mbps connection we were getting a stable 7Mbps when connected to Australian Nodes. That said one reason for the excellent speed is that the service isn’t applying a layer of encryption over the traffic like other VPN services.
When connected to European and American nodes the results weren’t consistent. On average we got around 4Mbps. Yes! You won’t be able to stream HD video uninterrupted but if that’s a concern you shouldn’t be on a slow connection anyway.
Ease of use (Desktop and Mobile)
Desktop
Windows and Mac users will mainly be greeted by a Chromium-based app which fires up with a location picker. You can choose to connect to the UK, US, Australia in addition to 33 other countries. However, you don’t get any information regarding node availability, city information, ping times, etc.
The app does not send a desktop notification telling you if the VPN has disconnected. However, the app’s icon in the system tray does show the current location’s flag and if you click on it the IP address.
Mobile Devices
The iOS and Android versions of the service do not have many features either. The app works as a sort of launcher for other apps on your mobile device, and you can specify a location associated with them. For instance, you can launch the Chrome browser with a US location and the Firefox browser with a UK location. You also get the option to change your GPS location to match that info.
Hola VPN Servers and Locations in Australia
Apart from mentioning that they have servers in 33 countries, the app nor the website specifies the number of servers in each country. That could be because the figures vary. So, there is no way of knowing how many local Australian servers users will have access to except that you can connect to servers in Australia.
Customer Support
Support is virtually non-existent. Apart from being able to email and glance through the repository of information on the official website.
Value for money
We would say that despite being comparatively cheap, it offers the worst value for money compared to competing services.
Our Verdict
Hola VPN is free and ideally suited for people who want to unblock otherwise geo-locked websites. While people would expect better encryption and more security from the paid version of the service it is unfortunately non-existent. Plus, throw lots of logging into the mix, and this is a service we can’t recommend.
