Hola VPN vs CyberGhost: Which Wins?

Choosing a VPN can be a confusing process. After all, how are you supposed to know which provider has all of the features you’ll need? To help out, we’ve compared two of the best-known services around, Hola VPN and CyberGhost. Below, we’ll break down everything these VPNs have to offer and explain how exactly they differ.

Let’s get started. We’ll let you know about all of these VPNs’ strengths, shortcomings, and functionality to give you a better idea of what you’re paying for. Here’s the short version:

Summary: Hola VPN vs CyberGhost

Hola VPN vs CyberGhost: Price comparison

Note: Hola offers a free plan but as we’ll cover, there are some pretty significant downsides. For the fairest comparison, we’ll only be discussing paid plans.

Hola VPN is one of the most expensive services on the market. If you sign up one month at a time, it will set you back a whopping $14.99 per month. For this price, we’d expect some serious bang for our buck. Unfortunately, as we’ll get into later, Hola doesn’t justify the cost.

We also consider CyberGhost’s monthly $12.99 charge to be on the higher end when compared to competing services like NordVPN and Surfshark.

The good news is that both providers offer big discounts on their multi-year plans. Hola VPN users can cut the cost by more than 80 percent by choosing the three-year plan. CyberGhost, meanwhile, goes even further with an 83 percent discount and three months of extra coverage for free.

Both of these services include a money-back guarantee: Hola VPN has 30 days and CyberGhost offers a 45-day cooling-off period. This means you can try them out for about a month (or a month and a half in the case of CyberGhost) and get a full refund if you’re not satisfied.

BEST DEAL FOR HOLA VPN:Save 80% when you sign up for a three year plan.

BEST DEAL FOR CYBERGHOST:83% discount on two year plans plus three extra months free.

Hola VPN vs CyberGhost features

CyberGhost apps are available on almost all operating systems and devices, including Linux. It’s also capable of blocking ads and malware automatically, plus it includes split tunneling functionality (allowing you to let certain apps pass through the VPN unencrypted). Users can secure up to seven devices at a time.

Hola VPN allows more devices to simultaneously connect with 10 on the top-tier plan, and it supports split tunneling on Android. Free users don’t get true VPN support — instead, their traffic is routed through another user’s device. Using Hola VPN for free could theoretically allow somebody else to use your IP address to commit crimes online.

Both VPNs come with what is known as a VPN kill switch, a feature that cuts off all data if your VPN connection drops out. Also known as an Internet Kill Switch, or Network Lock, it is an absolutely necessary feature for a VPN. Otherwise, your privacy, security, and anonymity are compromised if the VPN connection drops or is disrupted.

Streaming and Netflix comparison

This is where the cracks begin to show for Hola. While it works with some of the less popular streaming services, it has major difficulty securely accessing platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or BBC iPlayer. In contrast, CyberGhost worked with every service we tested and even has a list of streaming servers so that you can start watching as quickly as possible.

China

China has some of the toughest internet restrictions in the world and has blocked most VPNs outright. There are a handful of services that still work in China but unfortunately, Hola VPN and CyberGhost aren’t two of them.

Setup and interface

CyberGhost’s desktop version was simple to install on Windows and other platforms. Basic settings are available on the main page with both programs offering a quick tour of the software upon first opening. We really liked that the server list was separated based on the use case; this means you can quickly find a server designed for torrenting, streaming, gaming, or enhanced privacy.

Hola VPN also has its own apps. These are as basic as they come, with the main screen devoid of anything except a location submenu and quick connect button. There are a few settings you can change, including a kill switch and automatic reconnection, but users can’t change their connection protocol.

Both providers offer a range of browser extensions so that you can use them on Chromebooks and other devices without full app support. However, it’s worth mentioning that these only encrypt browser traffic. If you use any dedicated messaging apps, torrent clients, or other apps, this traffic will remain unencrypted unless you use the standard VPN app.

Servers and performance

Hola says that it has servers in 218 countries including Aruba, Tuvalu, and Vatican City (which, as a reminder, has fewer than 900 people living there). It’s unclear whether this means that there are physical servers in these locations, or whether Hola is referring to its ability to use its users’ systems as routing points for others’ traffic.

This is actually a huge sticking point. Unless you pay for a premium subscription, Hola VPN is not technically a virtual private network in the true sense of the word. Instead, for free users, it’s really a peer-to-peer proxy network. Essentially, you’re piggybacking on another user’s connection, which gives you a different geographical location and IP address. Not only is this a massive security risk, but it also reduces your speeds as multiple people are now using your connection.

Paid Hola VPN plans stop other people from connecting through your device and encrypt your data, but as we’ll see later, this still isn’t enough to protect you.

CyberGhost is, thankfully, much more transparent. It has over 9,000 servers spread across 90+ countries and actually lets you know where each of these is. With CyberGhost, there’s virtually no slowdown on the network unless your base internet speed is really fast. This gives you low latency and a high-speed connection, which is better than anything Hola VPN can offer, even on the most expensive paid subscription.

HolaVPN vs CyberGhost for gaming

When it comes to playing games online, we strongly favor CyberGhost VPN. CyberGhost has a supermassive network of fast Tier-1 servers. It uses the modern WireGuard protocol to give you faster speeds. This makes it perfect for playing multiplayer games, including titles like Fortnite, PUBG, and Warzone.

HolaVPN, by contrast, has a reputation for providing unreliable security and connections that are inconsistent. Some servers will perform much better than others, and you may find that a server is quick one day and sluggish the next.

Both of these VPNs have large server networks that will allow you to access international game servers with ease. CyberGhost bypasses geographic restrictions thanks to its huge network of over 9,000 servers in 100+ countries.

If you suspect that your ISP is throttling your bandwidth, then you can use either of these VPNs to rectify the situation. Using a VPN conceals your gaming and other online activities from your ISP, which significantly reduces their ability to discriminate against online game connections.

Security

Hola VPN and CyberGhost use the IKEv2 protocol. CyberGhost has configuration options for OpenVPN and WireGuard as well. Both use 256-bit AES encryption, which given current technology (and allowing for future advancements) is for all intents and purposes an unbreakable standard.

These services both provide a kill switch, but CyberGhost also protects against DNS and IPv6 leaks. Conversely, there have been many reported instances of DNS information leaking with Hola VPN. CyberGhost also lets you create smart rules, ensuring that the VPN connects automatically in certain circumstances. Users can even connect via a random port, which might help you get around some less strict forms of VPN-blocking.

In short, even on paid plans, Hola provides the bare minimum security functionality. If you’re concerned about keeping your online activities private, CyberGhost is the far better option.

Privacy

CyberGhost is based in Romania, a privacy-friendly country. It keeps limited logs, but nothing that could personally-identify you. In fact, unlike Hola, CyberGhost has been independently audited to prove its privacy claims. Further, it publishes regular transparency reports detailing how many legal requests it has received.

Hola VPN’s location in Israel should be a cause for concern. This country has a history of surveilling its citizens and has previously shared data with the with the Five Eyes Alliance (the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK).

The problems don’t end there, either. As Hola uses a P2P network rather than a dedicated server system, privacy and security are massive issues. While getting a premium plan stops you from being used as a peer, most users will not be aware that they’re not properly secured with a free account.

You might think that Hola VPN being free is a warning sign in itself. However, there are plenty of free VPNs that refuse to log details of your browsing activity. ProtonVPN is one example that Hola could really learn from.

Hola VPN collects quite a bit of information including your IP address, operating system, which browser you’re using, connection timestamps, which sites you visit, and how long you spend on each. Hola says it doesn’t sell any personal information, but this is still a lot of data that could be used to identify someone.

Customer service

Only CyberGhost has a live chat feature that enables you to ask questions directly. Hola VPN relies primarily on an email-based support system. To keep tthings as fair as possible, we sent each provider three questions over email. You’ll find the average response time below, as well as whether our question was answered or not:

These services had email response times that were similar to each other but CyberGhost’s replies were much better and informative. Public reviews suggest that you may have an issue getting support from Hola VPN, but it wasn’t too bad with our testing.

The winner: CyberGhost

Apr 2024

CyberGhost comes out on top as a clear winner here. It’s very fast (averaging over 277 Mbps in our latest tests) and has great privacy and security features. What’s more, it’s cheaper than Hola, offering slightly lower-cost subscriptions over the long term.

CyberGhost lets you securely access Netflix from anywhere while also letting you connect to most of the other major streaming services too. Conversely, Hola struggles with most major platforms and only offers general-purpose servers.

Ultimately one of the biggest reasons users opt for a VPN is for privacy and security. As the developers of Hola VPN have decided on a P2P network, privacy and security are massive issues. Even if you choose the premium plan (which does offer encryption), you’re still stuck with barebones apps costing well over market price.

Methodology: How we compare VPNs

We conducted a number of tests before deciding the outcome of Hola VPN vs CyberGhost. Here are some of the areas we looked at:

• Servers: We look at the number of servers and geographical coverage provided by both VPNs. We also assess whether they have specialty servers for streaming or other specific activities.
• Speed: Our speed tests ensure that we only choose the fastest option. We test both VPNs with streaming, torrenting, downloading, and gaming.
• Security: A VPN that doesn’t keep your traffic secure isn’t worth using. Some of the things we look for in this area include uncrackable encryption, industry-respected protocols, and safeguards like leak protection and a kill switch.
• Privacy: The less information your VPN logs, the better. Our experts examine each provider’s privacy policy, audit history, and more advanced privacy tools to see just how much protection they offer.
• Usability: The apps need to be novice-friendly but also satisfying for more advanced users. We look for multi-platform support, clean and well-rganized menus, and other quality of life features like 24/7 support and high connection limits.
• Value: The cost of a subscription, discounts for longer commitments, and the money-back guarantee period are just some of the things we look for when assessing value.

Read the full Comparitech VPN testing methodology for more information on how we assess VPNs.

Other VPN comparisons:

• Hola VPN vs PrivateVPN
• Hola VPN vs Windscribe
• ExpressVPN vs CyberGhost
• CyberGhost vs AtlasVPN

Hola VPN vs CyberGhost: FAQs