Hola VPN

Written by: Per-Erik Eriksson

Summary

If you are looking for a quick and secure VPN that is perfect for streaming, then Hola VPN is certainly an option to consider.

This service has a very easy to use UI, allows for streaming in 4K quality, can unblock all the most in-demand streaming sites such as Netflix or Hulu, and thanks to the peer to peer proxy approach, you’ll see insanely fast speeds that most other VPN services simply cannot compete with.

Then best of all, you can try the free version before you buy.

In short, Hola VPN should be on your radar if you are searching for a new VPN.

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Hola Free VPN – Performance tests

vpn benchmark speed test hola vpn
Our baseline while performing speed tests of Hola VPN.

Hola VPN currently has 1000+ VPN servers.

But if you are using the freemium version, you will only have access to 1 USA server.

Results

Baseline: 92.29 Mbps download, 95.24 Mbps upload.

  • USA: 84.50 Mbps download, 90.29 Mbps upload.

These tests were performed with https://speedtest.net/.

As you can see, even though we only had access to 1 server, the speed was extremely fast.

This is very impressive considering that we are “sharing resources” with other users and are using a free service.

This highlights the fact that Hola VPN may be the best free VPN for Netflix.

Logging-policies and encryption

In terms of privacy and logging on to their free service, Hola takes an alternative approach to other VPN services you may have heard of.

They will record some aspects of your traffic and data such as IP addresses, timestamps, and billing info but Hola urges users that all info will only be shared if they deem it absolutely necessary to do so.

This is supported by the fact that the company is based in Israel which has no obligation to abide by the closest surveillance alliance, the Fourteen Eyes Surveillance Alliance.

So even though Hola will keep track of some of your data, you can rest assured that it won’t be going anywhere.

Then with regards to encryption, in short, there isn’t any form of encryption.

This service primarily focuses on speed over anything else and aims to provide that with a service that is much closer to a proxy.

It’s a unique approach and although it can sound like a bad thing, it can be ideal for those that enjoy streaming in other countries at 4k quality.

Not to mention that this approach allows the service to be much more cost-effective, but we will get to that later.

If the industry-standard 256-bit AES encryption is a must for you then you might want to look elsewhere.

However, if you decide to opt-in for their premium VPN service, you will get all of the expected privacy and security that we expect from a paid VPN service.

Hola.org vpn website screenshot review

Transparency – Who are Hola.org?

Hola is considered an open and transparent VPN provider when compared to many other competitors.

Any information you could possibly need is made available on their website.

The company operates out of Israel with investors located in the USA, Hong Kong, and France.

The information on the founders and team is also readily available on their website.

Founders Derry and Ofer began their business career in 2006 at Jungo where they would create the leading operating system for home routers which was promptly sold to Cisco for $107 million.

After this successful venture, they decided that it would be possible to recreate the HTTP service and make it much more open and faster.

So Hola VPN was formed.

Can Celo VPN unblock Netflix?

Hola is fantastic at unlocking streaming services and doing so with a great deal of quality and fast connection speed.

If you use the free service, you will have access to ninety counties around the world and you can access premium streaming services such as Netflix for up to one hour.

However, if you opt for the Hola Premium service, you will gain access to any country around the world within Hola’s network and you’ll have an unlimited connection time with the premium streaming services.

Overall, it’s the real strong point of the service as not many other VPN providers can match this level of cost-effective and fast streaming capabilities.

Is Hola VPN Suitable for Torrenting?

If you really wish to torrent there are ways that you can exploit Hola to allow for bit torrenting services.

However, due to the peer-to-peer proxy approach the service makes it noticeably clear that you shouldn’t take part in these activities.

Really this is Hola looking out for you as a user as if you do torrent using this VPN, you’ll be visible to hackers and potentially to authorities who aim to stop torrenting within their respective regions.

Hola aims to negate the act of torrenting with their service by blocking all bit torrent connections which we see as a positive as it protects you as the consumer.

DNS-leak test

Zero DNS leak detected with Hola VPN.

Please note: I recommend you test for DNS-leaks yourself when using a VPN on your own machine, even if my tests didn’t detect anything.

You can do so easily and for free on this site: https://www.dnsleaktest.com/

Customer service

The customer service for Hola is rather simple but by no means less effective.

While live chats can be effective, this usually means limited windows of contact and potential technical errors.

Hola does away with all these possibilities for a tried and tested email service.

They will aim to answer your query within 24 hours and will usually be able to clear up the problem with a great deal of clarity and expertise.

The operators are also very polite and friendly so you can expect a pleasant customer service experience when dealing with Hola representatives.

Price

Hola has a lot going on it in terms of value for money.

In fact, you can get a lot out of the service completely free of charge.

You’ll be able to unblock various services in ninety different countries including premium apps such as Netflix for example.

However, if you wish to pay for the Hola Plus service, you will see some added benefits.

You’ll have an added sense of privacy as Hola will remove your traffic from the peer-to-peer services, you’ll have access to the services from ten different devices as opposed to the single device on the free service.

Plus, the premium services for streaming will not have any time restraints when using the Hola Plus service.

The pricing is very fair when referring to the premium service.

If you want a monthly subscription, you’ll only pay a one-time fee of $14.99 which is steep but a nice option to have if you want to try out the service before committing long-term.

When you make the decision to commit for the long haul, the big savings begin to show themselves.

For a one-year subscription, you’ll only pay $7.69 per month which is a competitive price.

Then if you commit to a three-year deal, you’ll only pay a measly $2.99 per month which is incredible value when compared to other providers.

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