The first thing that caught our eye when it comes to Hola VPN is the fact that it’s entirely free. The question is, how? The company makes its profits by using your device as an endpoint in a connection chain once you install the software. You can avoid this practice by opting for its premium Illuminati subscription, which we can’t quite recommend given the issues we encountered using the free version (read our Hola VPN review for more details).
Be that as it may, we were still interested in learning whether Hola allows users from China to connect to servers all over the world and bypass the restrictions imposed by the government. Keep on reading to find out whether Hola VPN can keep your connection private and secure within China.
The Results
Hola offered mixed results during our testing, leaning toward the negative end of the spectrum. For the most part, the VPN didn’t work for us and we couldn’t connect to its servers from China. In some cases, however, we were able to catch a brief connection.
The real question here is, are those brief instances of conductivity enough to provide you with a smooth online experience? We would have to say no. As we already stated, the VPN didn’t work as promised and some minuscule holes we somehow managed to poke in the Great Firewall of China did little to change the overall experience.
Bottom line, functionality in China is almost nonexistent and even if we could use Hola VPN effectively, it wouldn’t redeem all the shortcomings of its overall security and business model.