There are only three groups of settings, but they're all valuable.
You can configure which encryption protocols Hola VPN Plus uses from an advanced settings menu (Image credit: Hola)
That is, it doesn't just protect your browser, like the free product all your internet traffic gets directed through Hola's encrypted tunnel. Once you're connected, Hola VPN Plus works like any other VPN. The fastest VPNs might connect within a couple of seconds via L2TP, IKEv2 or PPTP, and from around 6 seconds with OpenVPN. The system tray icon updates to show the flag of your current connection, though, and if you open the app window, you're also able to view your new IP address.Ĭonnection times proved a little slower than average at 10-15 seconds, even with our closest UK servers. The app doesn't use desktop notifications to tell you when you've connected or disconnected. This is just a basic menu with a list of countries, and has no city-level locations, no server load or ping times, and no Favorites system to save your most commonly used servers.
Hola's Chromium-based Windows app opened with a simple location picker, allowing us to connect to the US, or browse all 42 countries. Hola VPN Plus keeps things simple with a clean user interface (Image credit: Hola) Apps If anonymity is your top priority and you're looking to reduce even the possibility of monitoring, Hola absolutely is not for you. There are plenty of logging possibilities here, then, and when you factor in the lack of detail about other crucial areas of the service - how is your traffic encrypted and protected? We've no idea - this has to be a concern.
If you sign up with a social network account, this gives Hola access to details 'such as your full name, home address, email address, birth date, profile picture, friends list, personal description, as well as any other information you made publicly available on such account or agreed to share with us.' It also collects 'details of applications that are installed on the user’s device', which you might not expect. Personal data Hola 'may collect and retain includes your IP address, your name and email address, screen name, payment and billing information or other information we may ask from time to time as will be required for the on-boarding process and services provisioning.' The company says it may collect data including 'browser type, web pages you visit, time spent on those pages, access times and dates.' There's some support for this in the Privacy Policy, too. The company says it monitors some of what users are doing on the network, and that it can track back to identify the origin of any request it considers as 'misuse' or part of a 'security breach.' This is great for catching hackers, but it also requires more monitoring and logging than you'll see with standard VPNs. Some VPN networks don't see both ends of the connection, and are therefore much more attractive for these uses." This makes Hola VPN un-attractive to abusers. In addition, architecture modifications allow Hola VPN to see the origin of each request, thus if a cybercriminal were to use the Hola VPN network, the cybercriminal’s information may be passed on to the authorities. "Hola VPN regularly monitors the consumer network for traces of misuse or security breaches. Here's an interesting section from Hola's FAQ: Hola's model of routing data through its users might seem a better way to protect your privacy, but it's not quite that simple. Most VPNs route your traffic through their own servers, in theory giving them an opportunity to log some of what you're doing. Pay for a year up-front and this drops to a still expensive $7.69, but if you're willing to sign up for three years, it plummets to a low $2.99. The Hola VPN Plus monthly plan is more expensive than most at a chunky $14.99. VPN Plus allows you to connect up to ten of these devices simultaneously, and as you're a paying customer, no-one else will be able to use your bandwidth. It unblocks a few more sites, including Netflix.
Uncomfortable with that? Then you might want to upgrade to Hola VPN Plus (the product formerly known as Hola Premium.) The service supports Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices, and can be set up to run on routers, gaming consoles, smart TVs and more.