Hola VPN review (Australia)

Hola elsewhere.

Hola VPN Logo
Hola VPN
2.3 out of 5 stars
2.25
Price
From $21.99/mth
Servers
1,500+
Simultaneous connections
10
Nathan Lawrence
Sep 29, 2022
Icon Time To Read5 min read
Quick verdict: Hola VPN

Hola VPN is a tough recommendation. The free version asks users to exchange no payment for use of “free” device resources. If you pay for a premium version, the best value comes from buying an expensive upfront three-year subscription. While Australian speeds were great in our tests, speeds were average for the US and UK. Meanwhile, streaming results missed as much as they hit. Hola may be easy to use and offers a respectable 10 simultaneous connections but, ultimately, there are better, cheaper VPN alternatives out there.

pro
Pros
pro 10 simultaneous connections
pro Good Australian speeds
pro Easy to use
con
Cons
con Free version uses device resources
con Incredibly expensive
con Average for speeds and streaming

If you go searching for a free virtual private network (VPN), it won’t be long before you come across Hola VPN. The VPN provider made a name for itself with its free browser extension that’s still around today and has been reportedly downloaded more than 160 million times.

Fast-forward to more recent times, and Hola VPN is now offering a couple of premium versions. While Hola VPN gets some things right with its premium version, it leaves a lot to be desired in key areas, particularly in comparison to its peers.

Hola VPN prices and plans compared

Expensive no matter which way you cut it.

Of the 16 VPNs we’ve reviewed, Hola VPN is one of the priciest. Hola Basic is the restricted free version, but we’d strongly advise against using that as you have to sign off on Hola using your device’s resources in exchange for not paying. That hardly makes for a great invisible background protector, which is something better VPNs do admirably with a minimal impact on system and internet performance.

For this review, I used Hola Premium, which has the most expensive monthly pricing of all the VPNs I’ve reviewed. To find decent value, you basically have to opt for the three-year version. Alternatively, pay an even higher fee for monthly, annual or triennial options for Hola Ultra to access “Ultra Fast” speeds (useless for anyone in Australia with 100Mbps or slower), 20 simultaneous connections and, reportedly, the option to select specific server locations.

Hola VPN deals in Australia
Hola VPN plans are charged in Australian or US dollars.
Plan
Monthly price
Upfront payment
View plan
One-month Hola VPN Premium$21.99$21.99
One-year Hola VPN Premium$10.99$131.88
Three-year Hola VPN Premium$52.68$158.04
One-month Hola VPN Ultra$41.99$41.99
One-year Hola VPN Ultra$27.99$335.88
Three-year Hola VPN Ultra10.99$395.64

Price and plan information only valid as of last page update. 

Compared to the other VPNs we’ve reviewed, there are lots of better options with higher scores. Look at Mullvad VPN or Windscribe VPN for cheap monthly pricing or PureVPN and CyberGhost VPN for cheaper annual fees. Meanwhile, Private Internet Access and Surfshark VPN offer better multi-year pricing if you want to save money on a long-term VPN subscription.

Compare Hola VPN prices to other VPN prices
Brand
Price
Countries/locations
Details
View plans
Hola VPN LogoHola VPN
From $4.39/mth42/Unknown10 simultaneous connections
ProtonVPNProton VPN
From $4.99/mth64/89Swiss-based anonymity
Nord VPNNordVPN
From US$3.99/mth60/83Best VPN
ExpressVPNExpressVPN
From US$8.32/mth94/160Very user-friendly
Hotspot ShieldHotspot Shield
From AU$11.99/mth99/135Fast speeds
SurfsharkSurfshark
From US$2.49/mth65/131Unlimited connections
CyberghostCyberGhost
From AU$3.19/mth91/114"Balance of servers, locations"
WindscribeWindscribe
From US$4.08/mth63/110Lifetime subscription
V P N Unlimited LogoVPN Unlimited
From US$5.00/mth57/80Lifetime subscription
Private Internet Access VPNPrivate Internet Access
From AU$2.89/mth84/110Stacks of servers
Privado VPNPrivadoVPN
From US$4.99/mth48/60Cheap monthly pricing

Hola VPN connectivity and user experience

Easy to use, slow to connect.

For my testing on a Windows 11 PC, Hola VPN was easy to sign up for (a good choice of either AU or US pricing) and easy to install. Then the weirdness started. When I went to log in, I was greeted with a pop-up telling me I could exchange free system resources for the ‘free’ version or sign in for premium. The former option is incredibly icky, so I opted for the latter.

Signing into the Hola portal in a browser presents a diverse list of popular sites, supposedly the top ones in Australia. It’s not surprising to see Netflix there, but there are also other regions like Hulu and BBC, not to mention more nefarious sites like The Pirate Bay. Speaking of torrents, Hola VPN didn’t work at all with peer-to-peer software in my tests.

Clicking on one of these popular sites opens it and gives you a prompt to access it with a particular compatible VPN server, which is a nice touch. But you can just use the Windows software instead for greater control that’s not reliant on a Hola browser portal. By default, Hola VPN starts with Windows and, frustratingly, there’s no way to stop that in the settings, plus it requires both the software and Hola Background Services to run in your system tray.

Whether you’re connecting automatically or manually selecting servers, it takes around 15 seconds to connect. Comparatively, that’s a long time to wait, and it’s an absolute killer for real-time services, including music streaming. It was so bad in my tests that streaming music sometimes wouldn’t start playing again. Outside of visible server load, manually selecting servers is pointless, given Hola Premium doesn’t display regions.

Reportedly, you need to pay for Hola Ultra to connect to specific locations, which is a feature I’ve never seen paywalled in other premium VPNs. There’s also some confusion over how many servers and countries there are: the website claims there are 1,000+ servers in 218 countries, but my manual counts within Hola VPN were 399 and 42, respectively.

Hola VPN supported devices

Not many devices to choose from.

Hola was primarily built to run on browsers, which is why you can find extensions for Chrome, Opera and Edge. There’s also Android (disappointingly, Huawei and Samsung only) and iOS apps, as well as Windows and Mac software. You can also use Hola on Fire TV, Apple TV, as well as smart TVs, but this is via a Smart DNS service rather than native VPN apps.

Smart DNS is also how Hola justifies device support for consoles, including the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. But a Smart DNS isn’t the same as a native VPN app. Those with a Keenetic Ultra router can also configure it to work with Hola VPN. The only impressive thing Hola VPN has going on in terms of devices is the 10 simultaneous connections for Hola Premium and the 20 that come with Hola Ultra.

Hola VPN speeds and latency

Decent latency but speeds drop noticeably outside of Australia.

Generally speaking, whenever you connect to a VPN, you can expect it to slow your overall connection speed. This includes latency as well as download and upload speeds. For reference, the table below outlines the daytime speeds I received in my Hola VPN tests with a Superloop NBN 100/40Mbps FTTC connection.

Hola VPN server latency and speeds from Australia

VPN server
Download speed
Upload speed
Latency
No VPN80.17Mbps35.66Mbps6ms
AU VPN75.42Mbps (~6% slower)35.14Mbps (~1% slower)6ms (no change)
"US VPN (auto, fastest)"64.66Mbps (~19% slower)5.35Mbps (~85% slower)156ms (150ms slower)
"UK VPN (auto, fastest)"28.22Mbps (~65% slower)3.31Mbps (~91% slower)284ms (278ms slower)

Because Hola Premium only lets you manually select servers with no locational information, all of these test results are from the server Hola automatically chose to connect to in each region. Things start off great with very minimal impacts to download and upload speeds in Australia, with no change in latency (great for a gaming VPN). For the US and UK tests, though, the speeds go from bad to incredible slow, even if the latency is still decent.

Hola VPN streaming

Mixed results for streaming locally and abroad.

One of the popular uses for VPNs is to sidestep geoblocks on international streaming services, even if that’s typically a violation of a streaming service’s user agreement. If you want to use Hola VPN to bypass geoblocks, expect mixed results. Check out the table below to see how well Hola VPN performed in our tests of popular US, UK and Australian streaming services.

Hola VPN performance with popular streaming services

Streaming service
Hola VPN compatibile?
Buffering speed
Netflix USYesFast
HBO MaxNoN/A
HuluYesModerate
PeacockYesFast
BBC iPlayerYesFast
KayoNoN/A
Stan (including Stan Sport)YesFast

These Hola VPN streaming results are hit and miss. For hits, Hola offers fast streaming results for Netflix US, Peacock and BBC iPlayer and Stan, though I did have issues properly loading the Netflix US library. The same was true of Hulu, which had moderate streaming speeds. Meanwhile, Hola VPN didn’t work with HBO Max (usually an easy win) and failed to stream Kayo content on any of the available Australian servers. If you want a VPN for streaming, go with either Windscribe, ExpressVPN or NordVPN.

Meanwhile, the table below paints a picture of how Hola VPN should theoretically work with your NBN connection. By using the fastest available download speeds of the plans in our comparison engine, the table uses the best-case 19% and 65% hits to download speed (from my tests) for US and UK servers, respectively. The three right columns show the number of simultaneous streaming per connection.

Note that Hulu and BBC iPlayer have options for unlimited streams while Netflix maxes out at four. While it’s not practical to stream dozens of streams in a home, it does give an idea of how much a VPN can slow a connection.

Hola VPN speeds for popular 4K international streaming services

NBN speed tier
Max NBN TEDS
Hola VPN TEDS
Netflix US 4K (25Mbps)
Hulu 4K (16Mbps)
BBC iPlayer (24Mbps)
NBN 1212Mbps9.72Mbps (US), 4.2Mbps (UK)Too slowToo slowToo slow
NBN 2525Mbps20.25Mbps (US), 8.75Mbps (UK)Too slow1 streamToo slow
NBN 5050Mbps40.5Mbps (US), 17.5Mbps (UK)1 stream2 streamsToo slow
NBN 100100Mbps81Mbps (US), 35Mbps (UK)3 streams5 streams1 stream
NBN 250250Mbps202.5Mbps (US), 87.5Mbps (UK)4+ streams12 streams3 streams
NBN 500500Mbps405Mbps (US), 175Mbps (UK)4+ streams25 streams7 streams
NBN 1000600Mbps486Mbps (US), 210Mbps (UK)4+ streams30 streams8 streams

Should I buy Hola VPN?

Okay in some areas but there are far superior alternatives.

Hola VPN asks you to pay something even if you opt for the free version. It’s got great Australian speeds and low latency, but those speeds start to suffer the farther out the server. I’m also not a fan of two premium versions that are expensive and don’t offer a whole lot of value when it comes to the service. While 10 or 20 simultaneous connections is respectable, there are better, cheaper VPNs more worthy of your investment.

Hola VPN FAQs

We strongly advise avoiding the free version of Hola VPN as it isn’t a great VPN choice for all-important privacy and security. For a free VPN, consider PureVPN, PrivadoVPN, PureVPN, Hotspot Shield, Windscribe or TunnelBear.

Yes, there’s a free version of Hola for Chrome, which is how Hola was popularised initially. These days, though, there are premium versions of Hola VPN.

Like all VPNs, Hola VPN will change your IP address once you’re connected to a server, even if that server is in the same country.

Nathan Lawrence
Written by
Nathan Lawrence has been banging out passionate tech and gaming words for more than 11 years. These days, you can find his work on outlets like IGN, STACK, Fandom, Red Bull and AusGamers. Nathan adores PC gaming and the proof of his first-person-shooter prowess is at the top of a Battlefield V scoreboard.

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