Hola routes other users' traffic through the devices of its free users, so your IP address can act as an exit point for someone else's browsing. Hola's own FAQ describes this arrangement. Traffic from that peer network was also sold commercially through Hola's Luminati division, now Bright Data. We recommend against the free tier for this reason.
Hola VPN Review 2026
By ChrisFounder & Lead AnalystDANGER: Peer-to-peer VPN that sells your bandwidth
Hola VPN uses a peer-to-peer architecture where each user's device acts as an exit node for other users' traffic. This means other Hola users' traffic is routed through YOUR internet connection and YOUR IP address. The free tier is a proxy rather than a full VPN tunnel, so it does not apply VPN encryption of its own; AES-256 over IKEv2/IPsec is a premium feature.
In 2015, it was revealed that Hola sold user bandwidth through its Luminati (now Bright Data) service, which was used in a botnet attack. The free version has no encryption. This is not a VPN -- it's a liability.
We do not recommend this VPN for any use case. See the warning above for details.
Performance Scores
Privacy & Security
Hola Is Not a Conventional VPN
A conventional VPN routes your traffic through servers the provider owns or rents. Hola does that some of the time, and the rest of the time it routes traffic through other users. Hola's own FAQ describes an internal algorithm choosing between proxy servers, its own data centres, and the peer network, based on which route is most efficient and cost effective.
The consequence runs in both directions. Your traffic may leave the internet from a stranger's home connection, and a stranger's traffic may leave from yours. Hola states the arrangement plainly: in exchange for the free service you provide a certain amount of network and processing power when your computer is not in use. It puts caps on that contribution, describing less than 100MB per day on desktop and around 3MB per day on mobile.
This is the whole review in one paragraph. Whether Hola is acceptable depends entirely on whether you are comfortable with your connection being an exit point for other people's browsing, because that is the product rather than a side effect of it.
Luminati and Bright Data
The peer network is not only used to serve other Hola users. Hola founded Luminati in 2014 as a division selling commercial access to that network, so that paying business customers could route requests through the connections of Hola's free users. Luminati was later renamed Bright Data and now operates as a large commercial proxy and web-data business.
Read alongside the free tier, that is the exchange being made: the free product is paid for with the bandwidth and IP addresses of the people using it, resold to commercial customers. Hola has been consistent that it does not hide this, and today's FAQ says so directly. The criticism, then and now, is about how clearly a person installing a browser extension marketed on unblocking would understand it.
The 2015 Incident
The model came to wide public attention in 2015. The operator of the message board 8chan investigated an attack on the site and traced the traffic to addresses belonging to Hola users, routed through Luminati by a paying customer. Coverage at the time described the network as functioning like a botnet, in the sense that traffic was leaving thousands of consumer connections whose owners had not knowingly agreed to that particular use.
Two corrections are worth making, because the episode is often retold loosely. Luminati was a commercial proxy service rather than malware, and the attack was carried out by a customer of it rather than by Hola. What the incident demonstrated was the risk the architecture creates: once your connection can be used as an exit point, you do not control what it is used for, and the traffic traces back to your address.
Security researchers also raised the related point that a user could face questions about activity that originated elsewhere. That risk is inherent to any peer-routed system, and it is the reason we score Hola where we do rather than a lingering objection to a decade-old news story.
Who Hola VPN Is For
We do not recommend Hola's free tier. Not because the company conceals the arrangement, it does not, but because the arrangement itself puts your IP address behind traffic you cannot see and did not choose.
The premium tier is a different product and a more conventional one, though it is competing against audited providers with their own infrastructure at similar money. For free options funded by their paid tiers rather than by your bandwidth, see our best free VPNs guide.
Pricing & Plans
Pros & Cons
- 195 countries available
- Your device becomes an exit node
- Luminati botnet scandal
- No encryption on free tier
- P2P architecture risks
- Your IP used for others' traffic
- Israel jurisdiction
Bottom Line
Hola's free tier is not a conventional VPN. Your connection carries other people's traffic, and that same peer network is sold commercially. If you want a free VPN, use Proton VPN Free instead.
Hola VPN FAQ
Does Hola VPN route other people's traffic through my device?
On the free tier, yes. Hola's FAQ states that in exchange for the free service you provide a certain amount of network and processing power when your computer is not in use. It caps that at less than 100MB per day on desktop and around 3MB per day on mobile.
What is Luminati, and what is Bright Data?
Luminati was founded in 2014 as a division of Hola selling commercial access to its peer network, so paying customers could route requests through Hola users' connections. It was later renamed Bright Data and operates as a commercial proxy and web-data business.
What happened with Hola and 8chan in 2015?
The operator of 8chan traced an attack on the site to addresses belonging to Hola users, routed through Luminati by a paying customer. Luminati was a commercial proxy service rather than malware, and the attack was carried out by a customer, but the incident showed that a peer-routed connection can be used for things its owner never sees.
Is Hola VPN safe?
The specific risk is that your IP address can be the exit point for another person's traffic, which you neither see nor control. That is inherent to the architecture rather than a bug, which is why we do not recommend the free tier.
Does Hola Premium still share my bandwidth?
No. Hola states that premium users get unlimited use without providing network and processing power in return, on up to ten devices with a single purchase.
What encryption and protocols does Hola use?
It depends on the tier. AES-256 over IKEv2/IPsec is a premium feature. The free tier is a peer-to-peer proxy rather than a full VPN tunnel, so it relies on the transport security of the site you are visiting, normally HTTPS, and on Windows it can fall back to PPTP or L2TP. PPTP has been considered broken for years. Do not assume the free tier encrypts your traffic the way a conventional VPN does.
What should I use instead of Hola VPN?
For a free tier that runs on the provider's own servers and is funded by its paid plans, see our best free VPNs guide. For unblocking specifically, see the best VPN for streaming guide.
Where to Go Next
Builder, tinkerer, privacy advocate. I believe privacy is a right, not a product feature.