Hola's goal is to make the internet faster, more open, and cheaper
to operate. Hola is a collaborative
(P2P) internet --
Hola works by sharing the idle resources of its users for the benefit
of all. Hola provides several products based on this resource sharing
technology:
Hola's VPN network enables consumers to browse the
web privately, securely, and freely. Making the world wide web
worldwide again. Hola is used by over 58 million people!
Hola's Torrent Streamer enables video
publishers to distribute their torrent format content for free,
eliminating high CDN costs
Luminati has disrupted the
way businesses conduct brand monitoring (checking the prices of
their products in various stores), self test (checking how their
corporate site looks from multiple countries), anti ad-fraud, etc.,
by providing them a privacy network
Hola's Video CDN changes the game
in video delivery. It is a service for video publishers that makes
their videos start faster, buffer less, and at a fraction of the
costs of traditional businesses
Hola is the first community powered (Peer-to-Peer) VPN, where users
help other users to make the web world-wide again. This means that
Hola routes your traffic through other nodes (peers) in the Hola
network, as opposed to routing through power-hungry costly servers.
This allows Hola to provide you with a superior VPN service with
minimal underlying costs. Since it uses real peers to route your
traffic and not proxy servers, it makes you more anonymous and more
secure than regular VPN services. This also means that Hola is harder
to detect and block. Currently, Hola runs in a hybrid mode - combining
traditional VPN architecture and peer-to-peer technology. Chrome
browser extension and Opera browser add-on operate as a standard VPN
service and are not part of the Hola peer-to-peer network
We have built Hola for you, and with your privacy and security in
mind. Hola routes your traffic through other nodes in the Hola
network, making your IP harder to track, thus allowing you to be more
anonymous and secure. When your device is not in use, other packets of
information from other people may be routed through your device. Hola
does this securely, not allowing any access to any of your information.
Your device is used only as a router. As with any new technology, in
addition to the benefits it brings there can be work arounds (such as
in WiFi where malicious people can try to hijack your WiFi hotspot).
Thus, Hola invests in protecting you and closing these work arounds as
they are identified. We also do not collect, store or sell your
personal identifiable information (PII), and never will
Hola may be installed as a browser extension to Chrome, Firefox, or
Opera on Windows and Mac PCs. Hola can also be installed as an app on
Android or iOS. It is also available as an application (.exe) for
Windows. All downloads are accessible directly from our
home page (installation and use of Hola is subject to
our Terms of service and
Privacy policy). Our users satisfaction is
a top priority and if you found that Hola does not support a certain
platform, you can always visit our recommendation
page for complementary services
Hola is free for private (non-commercial) use on PCs and requires a
subscription on iOS and Android.
Commercial use of Hola for business class VPN is available through our
Luminati service. The Hola peer to
peer architecture makes Hola free and secure. However, some users may
prefer not to contribute their idle resources to the Hola network, and
thus can join the Hola premium service
which lets you use Hola without your idle resources being used in
return
About Hola premium subscription:
Payment is a monthly subscription ($5 per month) or yearly
subscription ($3.75 per month) that can be stopped at any time without any further obligations
Helps fund our efforts to make the internet better!
You are never used as a peer
You can use your premium membership on multiple browsers by signing
in to hola.org in each browser (you
must be signed in to hola.org for the
premium membership to take effect)
Like any P2P network, Hola is a "value exchange" network - you get the
Hola service for free (on PC) and in exchange you provide some network
and processing power when your computer is not in use. This is similar
to Skype and other P2P services. In order to provide you its
functionality, Hola sometimes needs to route your services through
nodes (other people's devices) on the Hola network. In return, some of
their traffic is also routed through your device securely. They cannot
access your device, they are only routed through it. Hola is free on PC
only to non-commercial users. For commercial use by businesses, Hola
provides similar routing functionality through the Hola network for a
fee. This is how Hola makes its revenues. The amount of traffic that
Hola passes through a node on its network per day on average is less
than a 20 second youtube clip. Premium users of the Hola network pay a
monthly subscription and in return only use the network and do not
contribute to it with their idle resources
Yes, consumers can pay a fee to only use the Hola VPN but not
contribute their un-used resources to the network. This would mean that
you will be using Hola as just any other paid-for VPN service. Sign up
for Hola premium here
VPNs have existed for almost as long as the Internet. VPN companies
need to setup and maintain servers in various countries. These servers
are then used to route your traffic in order to change your IP, make
you more secure and anonymous. In addition, these VPN companies need to
pay bandwidth bills for their users' traffic. This is very expensive.
This built-in cost and the need of any company to turn a profit makes a
traditional VPN service quite expensive for the end user (typically
around $10 per month)
Hola built a peer to peer overlay network for HTTP, which securely
routes the sites you choose through other Hola users' devices and not
through expensive servers. Hola never takes up valuable resources from
these users, since it only uses a user as a proxy if that users' device
is completely idle (meaning device is connected to electric power (not
on battery), no mouse or keyboard activity is detected, and device is
connected to the local network or Wifi (not on cellular)). This makes
Hola the first VPN service without underlying operational costs
Although Hola doesn't need to pay for bandwidth, we still need to pay
the engineers who create, maintain and keep improving the Hola service.
Hola generates revenue by selling a commercial version of the Hola VPN
service to businesses (through our
Luminati brand). This is what allows
us to keep Hola free for our PC users. Users who want to enjoy the Hola
network without contributing their idle resources can do so by joining
the Hola premium service for $5 per
month (or $45 per year)
We keep Hola free for PCs by selling the same VPN service that you use
to businesses
Hola works because it is a peer to peer network - you use the network
and contribute to the network. To provide this service without charge
to our community, Hola charges validated corporations for use of the
network. For Hola users that do not want to be a peer in this network,
we offer the Hola Premium service, which
lets you only use the network, but not be a part of it
Hola keeps your information private and does not pass it on to any
third party. Consumers have grown used to having Internet businesses
collect some of their personal information and sell that on to third
parties (either as advertisements or other). Hola's business model is
different -- we don't collect any of your personal information -- we
use a small fraction of your computer's resources when they are not in
use (so that we never slow you down) for the benefit of the network. We
find that to be much less intrusive than the existing business models.
You can always opt out by paying the $5 monthly subscription (or $45
per year)
Hola is free for non-commercial use. In order to keep hola free for
consumers on PC, Hola operates a commercial VPN under the
'luminati' brand allowing carefully
screened corporations to use the Hola VPN network for a fee.
Corporations use our VPN service for things like checking their web
sites from various countries, check how their brand is represented in
various web sites, etc. For more information see
luminati.io or contact
sales@luminati.io
Hola makes its money by selling its VPN service to businesses for
commercial purposes, such as brand monitoring (checking the prices of
their products in various stores), self test (checking how their
corporate site looks from multiple countries), anti ad-fraud (ensuring
that the adverts are not inserted enroute to use), etc. We vet our
customers carefully, ensuring that only legitimate businesses use
Luminati for legitimate uses. Hola can track packets from origin to
destination, keeping the network safe
Hola and Hola Premium are for private,
non-commercial use. Please see
Luminati servicefor a commercial
license to Hola. Your commercial license will provide you with these
additional features:
Hola For business:
License to use Hola for commercial purposes
Automation: developer API that enable controlling the routing of
your HTTP requests via software
Allow many concurrent sessions
High bandwidth/high request rate with multiple IPs
The Hola service is provided for each platform individually. If you
have a subscription on one platform, it will not work on another
platform, therefore; you need to buy another subscription if you want
to use Hola on an extra platform
Go to the site you want to access, then click the Hola extension
icon and choose the flag of the country you want to view the site
from
If that does not work, disable and enable the Hola extension
Try forcing the site to reload by pressing the CTRL
and F5 (or Shift + refresh button)
Clear your browser's cache, including the cookies (typically under
'Settings' > 'Privacy' or keyboard shortcut CTRL +
SHIFT + DELETE)
Close the browser,reopen it, and try again
Disable other extensions to check if any of them is causing the
problem
Uninstall Hola from the browser. Then, go to
Hola's site and click 'Get Hola, it's free!'
Disable other VPN (Virtual Private Server), proxy
software, or other softwares which might conflict with Hola e.g.,
IE tab, Avast WebRep, Flash Blocker, NoScript
It should show the country which you are browsing from. Click the
Hola extension icon > under 'Select Country' choose United
States, or any other country. The ip2nation.com page will
refresh, and should show that the country you are browsing from
is United States, or the country you chose. If it does not,
continue with the steps below
Make sure you have the latest version of your browser:
Disable your antivirus or firewall (at your risk) to see if they
are causing the problem
If you still have problems, please see the
problem report
Disable all other extensions to check if any of them is causing the
issue. If it was, enable them back one by one to find the extension
which is causing the conflict with Hola
You could be receiving this message because you are behind a corporate
firewall that Hola cannot pass through, or the Hola system may be down,
or some other problem we are not able to pinpoint. If you are behind a
firewall (e.g. at work), try connecting to a different network
(different WiFi for example), or outside the company. Otherwise,
try the following:
Disable and enable the Hola, and try again
If that does not work, clear your browser's cache, including the
cookies (typically under 'Settings' > 'Privacy' or keyboard
shortcut CTRL + SHIFT + DELETE)
Close all of your browsers, re-open and try again
Un-install Hola (on your browser's extensions, and through
add/remove software), and re-install Hola from
Hola's site
Your premium membership is associated with the account you used to
register to Hola when you started the membership. As long as you are
signed in using that account you will appear as a premium user
For example, if you registered with your Google account and you are
using your Facebook account, Hola will not recognize you as a premium
user
The email you received from Hola after starting your subscription
indicates which account is associated with your membership
If you used PayPal to pay for your membership, it may take few minutes
for the membership status to get updated
In case you have a premium membership but still do not see that in your
status, check the following:
Use the same account you used when you have registered for Hola
Premium. If you are not sure which account to use, refer to the
email you received from Hola when you started your subscription.
Check the 'Premium Membership' section for your membership
status:
If it shows beside 'Active Until' a future date, it means your
membership is valid through that date
If it says 'You don't have a Premium subscription. Already a
Premium member?', you might have signed in using the wrong
account. Try logging out and logging in using a different email
and check the My Account page again.
E.g. if you signed in using your Google's account, log out and
try to sign in using your Facebook account, or your email
address
Please note: Hola service is provided for each platform
individually. If you have an account on one platform, it will not
work on another platform, therefore; you need to purchase a
separate membership for each platform
If the problem is not resolved, send us an
email along with the invoice
We update Hola often with bug fixes and new features. We keep your
version of Hola automatically updated. Android and iOS users:
Make sure to keep automatic updates on
If you have gone through the above
troubleshooting steps and are still facing problems, send us a
bug report,
and include as much of the following information as you can:
The platform you are using Hola on
Your Operating System: E.g. Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8), Android,
Mac (OS X version), etc
Screenshots of the problem
A brief description of the problem
Antivirus or Firewall you are using
Network type that your computer is on: Personal (like your Home)
or Corporate (like your work or University)
Other VPN or Proxy applications you are using/running
Which website(s) are you having problems with?
Purchase invoice, if the question is related to your premium
membership
Note: Many times resetting your PC/Phone and making sure that you have
internet connectivity will solve your problem.
Some old versions of Hola for Firefox which were installed from the
Mozilla Add-ons store don't get automatically updated to the newest
version of Hola
Uninstall the current Hola you have, and go
to Hola's website, click 'Get Hola, it's free!' to get
the latest version of Hola
Your antivirus or firewall might be blocking the Hola installation.
You can try to temporarily disable them (at your risk) and try
installing again to see if that fixes the problem.
On WinXP: Verify that you have service pack 3 installed
If the verification link is not clickable or part of the link is cut
off, please copy and paste the entire URL into your browser's address
bar and press Enter
The verification link might have expired. To request a new
verification link, visit
my account, sign in, and
then resend a verification link
If you are still unable to verify your email address within 48
hours, please send us an email
Ad-blocker apps: Some content might not appear/work because of
ad-blocker apps. Thus, try to turn ad-blocker apps off, and then
try again to load the desired content
VPN apps: Hola can not work with other VPN apps at the same time
DNS apps: Hola can't work with other DNS applications at the same
time
Press the 'menu' button then under 'Apps & Games' choose My apps &
games'
Look for Hola and uninstall it
Please note: This does not stop payments nor end the
subscription in case you have Hola Premium! To stop the subscription
visit 'Subscriptions' in 'My account' settings on the 'Play
Store'
Search on Google for the application's APK download. For example,
if you are looking for the Wikipedia app (which you might not
be able to download if blocked by your government), search for
'Wikipedia APK download' (this is the application's installation
file)
Once the APK is downloaded, click it to start the installation
Hola is the first community powered (Peer-to-Peer) VPN, where users
help each other to make the information on the web accessible for all
again. We take great care to be able to provide you this service while
protecting your privacy, security, and personal information
Hola is very easy to setup (one click) and is free and ad-free for PC
users. It is useful for seeing how a website looks like from a
certain country, for more secure browsing, for overcoming government
censorship (e.g. using Facebook from a country that blocks it), for
overcoming your corporation's internet site blocking, for seeing a site
in its native language (e.g. seeing the Spanish news site as it appears
to Spanish users), and more
Hola is free on PC for private use. For commercial use of Hola for a
commercial level vpn, please see
Luminati service
Go to a website which you wish to unblock, click Hola's extension icon
in your browser, and choose the country you would like to access the
site from. Hola will switch your IP (your internet address) to the
country you selected so that you are virtually browsing from that
country. Enjoy!
Hola is a 'community VPN' -- it is a generic routing platform provided
by Hola, with thousands of 'routing scripts' which are created by the
community. These scripts define how information is routed to the
selected sites. Better routing rules mean faster browsing, more secure
and more open use of web sites
When Hola identifies a webpage that many people in your country are
using Hola to access it, Hola assumes that you may want to access
this page via Hola as well. You can click the 'unlock' to access the
page via Hola, or click 'x' to continue browsing
normally. According to your decision, Hola will create a rule which you
can change afterwards
Hola has created a video player that lets you
stream torrent based videos instantly. Just hover over the download
link and press 'play' on the Hola player that pops up. Content sites
can embed the Hola player into their web
site, thus enabling their users a great HD streaming experience without
incurring any CDN costs. You can see an example of that
here
While on the internet you are constantly being tracked by the sites
that you are looking at (which products are you browsing? which
articles are you reading?), and possibly by your government, ISP and
corporation. You are probed and sniffed, and thus open to identity
theft. Changing your IP when accessing sites is an extended measure in
addition to your browser's 'incognito mode', so that others cannot get
information from your browser, and cannot track requests coming from
your IP as belonging to you. Depending on the proxy rule you choose,
Hola will also encrypt some or all of your traffic, making you even
more secure from outside sniffing
Hola works on several different levels to ensure a high level of
security:
Developing the product with strong security in top of mind
On the architectural level, through third party security audits
and reviews
By monitoring our consumer network, policing it against illegal
content and misuse
By validating the businesses that use our commercial network
(Luminati) to ensure only legitimate use, and by correlating
requests to those businesses so that in a case of misuse we
would be able to report that to authorities
By monitoring the network for traces of misuse or security
breaches
Through expert/third party security audits (Most recent one
conducted on June 2015 by one of the top 4 global auditing
firms)
The overall security of the Hola network is reviewed and managed by our
CSO (Chief Security Officer). We also run occasional vulnerability
bounty programs to have our products and networks analyzed by external
researchers
Hola's networks are not attractive to people or entities with malicious
intent since we can see the real origin and destination of each request
- thus if a cyber criminal were to use the Hola network, the cyber's
criminal information may be passed on to the authorities. There are
other VPN networks that don't see both ends of the connection, and thus
are much more attractive for these uses
Hola has zero-tolerance for misuse of its network, and will cooperate
with the authorities on any such conduct
On May 27th a group of researchers ("Adios") found several
vulnerabilities with the Hola client. Within hours Hola patched those
and updated the network. In addition, we reviewed and modified our
security architecture, got external security audit from one of the 'big
4' auditors and have also appointed our Chief Security Officer
Every technology may be vulnerable to misuse. For example, home WiFi
access points may be hacked into by passer bys, and used for illegal
activity. Hola is a P2P product. P2P architecture has its own
challenges, and Hola works to minimize those challenges whether through
technological measures, filters, and certain policing of the network.
If you are concerned about P2P technology you should un-install Hola
Hola regularly monitors the consumer network for traces of misuse or
security breaches. In addition, architecture modifications allow Hola
to see the origin of each request, thus if a cyber criminal were to use
the Hola network, the cyber's criminal information may be passed on to
the authorities. This makes Hola un-attractive to abusers. There are
other VPN networks that don't see both ends of the connection, thus
much more attractive for these uses
Before a business can use Hola’s business VPN network (Luminati),
Hola’s compliance officer runs that business through an “onboarding”
process to validate the customer, its corporate entity and its use of
the network. Hola allows only legitimate businesses to use the
commercial network for legitimate business uses. In addition, Hola’s
architecture allows Hola to see the origin and destination of each
request, thus if our network was abused, the abuser's information may
be passed on to the authorities. This makes Hola un-attractive to
abusers. There are other VPN networks that don't see both ends of the
connection, thus much more attractive for these uses
We care about your privacy. Hola does not make this information public,
and does not disclose or sell it to any third party
In order to route your traffic through other IPs, Hola must act as a
proxy for your data thus requiring various data permissions We only ask for the permissions we need for the app to be at its
best
More details about the Android permissions needed can be find
below. Device & app history: Hola allows you to launch the apps we can
unblock which you have installed in your device Identity: Hola also needs to create an ID for your Android
device which it does from the various hardware readings Photos/Media/Files: We use the external storage of the device
for caching and storing data Device ID & call information: Hola uses peer to peer technology
as a VPN proxy so we need to identify when the device idle, connected
the WIFI and power supply so we won't waste your data plan, battery or
slowing down your phone
No. Hola handles your HTTP requests exactly like HTTP web proxies do
according to the HTTP RFC standards, and in a similar way to how ISPs
do it in the normal course of your browsing. That also covers 'Cache:'
public/private HTTP headers and the correct handling of them
This is a false positive report. The file it's catching is part of the
Hola smart cache (you can mark it as safe, don't delete). We are
working with the top antivirus vendors to get Hola completely
whitelisted, so that these types of false positives don't disturb our
users
Like other commercial networks, Hola is a managed and supervised
network and thus any illegal activity such as CP, etc. would be
reported to the authorities with the real IP of the user. Criminals
will typically not use a commercial service since their identities are
at the hands of that commercial entity
Non-commercial VPNs such as TOR are completely anonymous, and nobody
has access to the source of the requests on that network. That makes
these networks ideal for criminal activity, and running an exit node is
most likely helping the wrong people, as well as putting the operator
in danger. Hola is a commercial network, run by a commercial company
that has its customers and its business in mind. Thus, when sensing any
dubious activity on our network we are able to see the source of the
request and help law enforcement get to the cyber criminal. We've never
yet heard of a case where a Hola user had any such problems despite
having an install base which is thousands of times bigger than any
other comparable network such as Tor. If you are still concerned about
these risks, you have the option of not installing or un-installing
Hola
Hola’s Chief Security Officer (CSO) is responsible for the
overall security of the Hola network. Hola’s CSO leads the
development, implementation and management of the
organization’s security vision, strategy, and programs. Recent
actions include internal and external security audits, security bounty
program, securing the consumer and commercial onboarding processes, and
changes in the Hola network architecture
In order to expose Hola’s products and networks to external
scrutiny, we occasionally offer a vulnerability bounty program by which
researchers can receive recognition and compensation for reporting
security vulnerabilities. This program allows Hola to discover and
resolve security issues before the general public and thus prevents the
abuse of the Hola networks
At the moment we do not have plans to open source the product as a
whole, but we do have portions of Hola that accelerate open source
projects submitted to them, including: jemalloc (the FireFox mallocer),
tcmalloc (Google Chrome's mallocer), Cygwin, sqlite, openssl and other
projects
Using two VPN services at once can cause an unexpected behavior. If
you'd like to use two VPN services, simply quit Hola while using the
other VPN service, and when you want to use Hola again close the other
VPN service
Yes, Hola works on Windows, even if running under VMWare. Our browser
extensions work on all operating systems that support Chrome and
Firefox (except mobile). However, you should close the Hola client on
the host system before you open the virtual machine, and never try to
run Hola on both the host and guest operating systems at once
Hola provides a service for Windows, Mac, Chrome, Firefox, Opera,
Android, and iOS. For other devices we provide you with a
list of the best VPN's for your
needs, as chosen by our users who needed these services. Prefer not to
pay for a VPN? There's always Hola!
Not right now. At this point Hola only supports Windows, Android, or
other platforms through the Chrome or Firefox extensions. If you wish
to use a similar VPN solution in your modem, please visit our
recommendation page
