While Hola VPN works, it is not for everyone. If you are one of the people looking for an alternative to Hola VPN, then the article below has been written for you as it presents some of the best alternatives to Hola VPN.
Keeping your IP address hidden and masked away from web services you access is possible even without a budget to pay for a VPN service, and the likes of Hola VPN have proven such.
The Hola VPN service has been able to offer a free VPN service to a good number of persons around the world, and it is seen as one of the best free VPN services provided you are ready to overlook its weaknesses and dark sides.
While some do not care provided they are able to use it for their tasks, some other users care and are looking for an alternative. Fortunately, there are a good number of alternatives that you can use.
Before we continue, it is important we stress here that we do not advise our readers to use free VPN services as almost all of them have cons you cannot overlook, as in the case of Hola VPN.
However, if you cannot afford to pay, then you will need to make a compromise and settle with the one you can use despite its downsides. Let take a look at an overview of Hola VPN and why you will need to make use of an alternative.
What is Hola VPN?
Hola VPN is a VPN service that you can use to access the Internet with your IP address masked. With this software installed, you can get alternative IP addresses from any country in the world. It has one of the largest customer bases with over 200 million users worldwide.
It is the first-community-powered VPN service where the IP addresses used are that of users that use the service. It has support for most devices and platforms, and you can use it to access many popular websites, including entertainment services such as Hulu and Netflix from anywhere around the world.
Why Use a Hola VPN Alternative?
While the service works, there are some reasons why you should avoid using it. These reasons are discussed below.
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Your IP and Device Resources is Used
As stated earlier, it is a community-driven VPN service. This means that your device resources, including IP address and data, are used for powering the network, and your device ultimately becomes an exit node for the network – see it as your device becoming a proxy server.
Unfortunately, your device is not only used by the Hola VPN service but also used by the Bright Data proxy service.
So basically, it is not even free since Bright Data uses it for making money aside from the fact that your Internet access is consumed – which consumes your data if you did not subscribe to an unlimited data service.
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Not Secure for Free Users
VPN service does more than just hide your IP address with an alternative one, but that’s the only thing Hola VPN does. It does not encrypt your traffic and data, putting you at a huge data security risk. It does not even have kill switch support and does not provide a leak-blocking feature.
Another thing you will find bad about this provider is that they keep logs and track you, which is not done by most high-quality VPN services. In fact, I do not see Hola VPN as a VPN service but more like a proxy service.
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Premium Features Available only for Paid Users
It might interest you to know that Hola VPN has a paid plan that you can subscribe to. This paid plan will not share your system resource and offers you security and privacy feature.
To be honest with you, the pricing for their free VPN is quick cheap, and I would rather advise you to pay the $2.99 monthly than use the free version. But this speaks volumes; free Hola VPN users would have to surrender their privacy and security – the reason most want to use proxies in the first place.
Best Free Alternative to Hola VPN
In this section of the article, you will learn about some of the top alternative free VPN services you can use in place of Hola VPN. Just like I stated earlier, you shouldn’t expect the kind of service you will get from premium paid VPNs from any of these.
ProtonVPN
The ProtonVPN is a paid VPN service that believes basic security and privacy should not cost you money, and as such, if that’s all you want, you can use their free tier with stripped-down features such as access to only about 23 servers in 3 countries as opposed to over 1200 servers in 55 countries.
For the free version, you can only use it on one device, and the speed you get is not high speed – high speed is for paid users – free users get medium speed.
However, you are assured of access to blocked content and a strict no-log policy. This is possible because the area of jurisdiction of the ProtonVPN service is Switzerland which has one of the strongest privacy laws in the world.
TuxlerVPN
The TuxlerVPN is one of the best alternatives to Hola VPN, and this is not without reason. Just like Hola VPN, its IP addresses are residential IP addresses.
Read more, 10 Best Residential VPN Services
It is available on a good number of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Chrome, iOS, and Firefox. With this VPN software, you can have access to the Internet without borders and any form of limitation.
Interestingly, the service makes use of military-grade encryption technology to offer you true security and full anonymity as you surf the Internet using its network. It has got support for a good number of locations and has got a paid plan for advanced features.
Hide.me VPN
The Hide.me VPN software is another free VPN service that serves as an alternative to Hola VPN. This VPN software has been designed to provide you true digital privacy and enhanced security by encrypting your data and passing it through a secure server, making it useless in the hands of eavesdroppers.
Some of the advanced features Hide.me VPN offers advanced IP leak protection, WireGuard, stealth guard, among others. Currently, the service has over 1900 servers located at more than 75 locations across the globe. In terms of OS and platform support, Hide.me has support for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux.
Windscribe
The Windscribe VPN tool is marketed as a free VPN, but if you go to their website, you will discover that it does have a pro version with extensive location support compared to the free version. However, not minding some of the stripped-down features, the Windscribe VPN is one of the alternatives to Hola VPN.
This VPN does not only encrypt your data and hide your IP address; it also blocks ads just like Hola VPN. With this VPN, you can take your browsing history to the grave as they also do not keep logs. You can use this to access geo-targeted content and bypass IP limitations put forward by websites.
Betternet VPN
There is something unique about this VPN service that you will come to love – it requires no registration in other to be used – that’s privacy taken to another level.
Without even requesting you’re your details and not also keeping logs, you can be assured of true privacy, not only from your government and ISP but also to the VPN service provided they keep to their words.
It is a completely free VPN service available on Windows, Mac iOS, and Android.It is trusted by a good number of users and would provide you secure access to the Internet while maintaining your anonymity.
Urban VPN
The Urban VPN pride itself on being the “only 100% free, 100% fast & 100% anonymous VPN in the world,” and a look at their website does not reveal a pricing section. Another thing you will observe from their website is that the VPN service has been made to be undetectable to most of the popular web services on the Internet.
The Urban VPN has extensive location support cutting across both North and South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and Africa. In terms of OS support, Urban VPN has got support for Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS. It is also available as a browser extension for Google Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.
Hotspot Shield
The Hotspot Shield is not in the league of many of the VPN services described in this article. It can be regarded as one of the popular paid VPN services in the market. However, aside it paid plans, it also got a free tier for those that cannot afford to spend money on a VPN.
Using the free tier will provide you many of the benefits except for the fact that you cannot use the service to stream videos and play online games.
It also does not offer you advanced features such as kill switches, malware, and virus protection, among others. So, in essence, using this only offers you basic VPN support – for their advanced features, you will need to pay for a subscription.
Opera Browser
The Opera browser that you know acts as a VPN server even though most people do not know. I have observed my IP address is not the IP I used when surfing the Internet using Opera on my smartphone. Interestingly, on PC, there is an option to toggle VPN on and off depending on if you want that feature.
One thing you will come to learn about this is that it is completely free to use. It adheres to a strict no-log policy, allows you to enjoy unlimited downloads, and does not even have a paid tier. However, aside from encrypting your data, masking your IP address, and keeping you anonymous, you do not get other VPN features that other VPN servers offer, such as choosing locations, among others.
- The Best Free Proxy Browser for Anonymous Web Browsing
- Top 20 Free Web Proxy Server to surf website anonymously
TunnelBear VPN
The TunnelBear VPN has been designed for secure browsing and can be seen as one of the alternatives of Hola VPN even though, unlike in the case of Hola VPN that the free tier is the focal point, TunnelBear has its paid plan as the main focus but offers a limited free plan. One thing you need to know about the free version is that you are provided only 500MB.
This VPN software has got support for the popular OS as well as web browsers. In terms of location support, we can say that it has got good location coverage. the VPN servers are undetectable, and they have been engineered for speed.
Conclusion
Make no mistake about it – free VPN almost always have their weakness, and as such, none of the alternatives described above can be said to be 100% the VPN software you need.
If you need a flawless VPN service or one that is an embodiment of a true VPN service that will provide you a high-quality service, then you will need to pay for a premium VPN service.
