The Worst VPN Services in 2024 - services to avoid at all costs

Hola is, in our opinion, the worst VPN provider currently on the market. This service certainly deserves mention here as well, simply because of how dodgy its operation really is. First, if you use its free service, Hola will turn your internet connection into an exit node for other Hola users to connect through. Basically, this means that anyone out there doing whatever it is they're doing online could be using your IP address to do it. Yup, and you can be held responsible for the online activity conducted using your IP address – an activity that's certainly not always legal.

Removed from Chrome

In September 2021, Hola was removed from the Chrome store for "containing malware". This isn't surprising given the way in which the service operates, but it serves as yet another nail in the coffin for an undeniably controversial service.

No real protection

Even if you opt for a paid Hola subscription (which I hope never even crossed your mind), there's still no guarantee that your connection won't be used by other Hola users as an exit node, regardless of what the company says. To add insult to injury, the prices being demanded are frankly ludicrous. Per month? It's $14.99 for "Premium" or $29.99 for "Ultra". These prices drop to $7.69/$19.99 for an annual payment and to the equivalent of $2.99/$7.99 if you're mad enough to sign up for a three-year deal with Hola.

Please don't use this service

Hola gives you essentially zero protection online because it leaks your IP, logs your internet activity, and will cooperate with authorities at the drop of a hat. Let's make no mistake about it; Hola doesn't care about you, or your privacy – it truly is one of the most unprincipled and morally bankrupt VPN providers on the planet. I wouldn't trust anything about this provider, no matter how innocent and sweet its happy little animated flame mascot appears to be. Don't get burned, stay far away from Hola VPN.

If you want zero privacy online and your personal data and browsing activity tracked, sold to third-party partners, and shared with government authorities, then go ahead, sign up for Hoxx VPN. You’re free to do whatever the hell you want to do, after all. But, if none of that sounds appealing, you’ll do well to give these guys a hard pass. It’s laughable that Hoxx’s Privacy Policy claims right off the bat that it’s "committed to protecting your privacy" when you consider that it will track your activity and sell you out in an instant, and considering its IP and DNS leaks rival that of an offensively overfilled diaper.

Intrusive surveillance

Hoxx not only logs your device's unique identifiers such as IMEI number, cell network and even your phone number, but it also tracks the location of your device and the speed at which it is traveling. The privacy policy claims this is to "facilitate your use of certain features", but why you would want Hoxx to know where you are or how fast you’re traveling at any given time is completely beyond me, as is it exactly what features this would possibly relate to unless they were planning to tell you off for using your phone while driving.

Weak security and slow speeds

The fact Hoxx are tight-lipped about what encryption (if any) it actually uses should be a massive red flag to anyone concerned about keeping themselves safe online. The service also lacks basic security features like a kill-switch, Hoxx’s server network is narrow and the provider is dreadful for unblocking the content you’ll likely be wanting to unblock, like Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime. You can also expect to see up to a 90% drop in your connection speeds depending on the location you pick, so even if it could reliably unblock streaming services, its service is all but unuseable for streaming or gaming.

While there's nothing outright sinister about Faceless.me, compared to some of the other services on this list, it's just a poor product all around that doesn't really work well, lacks basic features, allows only one connection at a time, and only has servers in three countries. It's also quite slow and you can only use OpenVPN through the third-party OpenVPN client. On top of all this, the free connection only allows 2Gb of traffic before it shuts you down.

Some decent features

Claimed support for torrenting, an apparent no-logs policy and a relatively easy-to-use desktop client don't make up for an all-around poor service that doesn't seem particularly interested in staying up to date. Their blog was last updated in early 2019, and their Twitter page has been gathering dust since 2014. Their Android app is still on version 0.0.1, and the Windows desktop app is still showing a copyright notice dated 2011! Frankly, their client also looks like it hasn't been updated since the era of Windows 98. The design is exceptionally dated and basic compared to sleek offerings from companies like NordVPN or Surfshark.

Far too expensive for what's on offer

On top of all this, Faceless.me's pricing is a mess. The paid plan for the desktop will cost you  $19.95 every three months, or $29.95 every six months and clicking on the payment link bring ups up a message suggesting that they haven't bothered to pay/renew their merchant to allow them to take card payments. They also offer a VPC, which is a Virtual Private Cloud, but all the tech on the page is talking in terms of a regular VPN client, and again trying to follow links to purchase this VPC will instead take you to... the Apple app store. You'll be asked to download a mobile client and encounter a third set of prices!

You'd be better off looking elsewhere for a superior VPN product with a full suite of features at a far more reasonable price point, such as any of the providers that we recommend in our best VPN list. With outdated clients, dodgy payment options and their apparent confusion over what a VPC is, there's simply nothing to recommend here.

Despite what this provider's name may lead you to believe, there's really nothing actually super about SuperVPN. First of all, the SuperVPN website isn't secured with HTTPS, which is quite curious considering this is supposed to be a service that protects your privacy and keeps you safe online. In any case, that should be your first red flag that something's not exactly right with this one. They also only offer a client for Android devices, nothing for iOS or any kind of desktop. Which is not necessarily a bad thing when there are so many other better options out there.

Big Brother is watching

SuperVPN will track your activity, store your session logs in the US and UK, and will sell you out to authorities in an instant. Customer support is basically non-existent, but if you're lucky enough to get in touch with an agent, they will have no idea what they're talking about. There's no dedicated client software for any operating system, meaning you'll need to set it up manually. The encryption is weak, there's no kill-switch, no network block or firewall, it can't unblock any streaming services and it even leaks user data. The best part is, it's ludicrously expensive!

Risky business

And good luck trying to get your money back if you're not satisfied with the service; support tends to get combative when you question the value of the product, and there's no money-back guarantee. Basically, SuperVPN is an absolutely awful product that will do nothing to protect your privacy and will not hesitate to throw you under the bus if it sees you doing something online it doesn't approve of – but you'll have to pay for that privilege. The icing on the cake is that the mobile client is filled with intrusive advertising. Just in case everything else wasn't enough to convince you to look elsewhere.

Going with SuperVPN is super risky, to the point of being outright dangerous. I wouldn't recommend SuperVPN to my worst enemy.

Expat surfer may look like something you'd want if you were an expat, right? I mean, the name of the service even has the word "expat" in it, so it must be good for expats, right? It's got all this talk about accessing UK TV no matter where you are in the world, and protecting you on public Wi-Fi hotspots, so it must be worth picking up... right? Wrong. Unfortunately, Expat Surfer is not good for expats. In fact, it's not good for anyone. Please don't use this service when so many better alternatives exist.

A specialist service?

This is a service geared towards UK expats looking to unblock UK TV from outside the country, so it only has servers in the UK. If you're not scared off by its horrendously dated website, and, for whatever ungodly reason, you decide to pony up the preposterous asking price for an Expat Surfer subscription, know that your privacy won't be protected via its outdated and woefully unsecure PPTP encryption. Oh, and they have no SLA for uptime, so if the service is down all the time? Oh well. You've no recourse as they offer no guarantee of availability. Their privacy policy is also barely four paragraphs long, and is very, VERY light on details about exactly what they might be logging, and provides no information about what they do with that information.

Manual setup or pay through the nose?

Naturally, there's no dedicated client software, which means you'll have to set the service up on your machine manually. But if you need help with the setup, a representative will be able to remotely connect to your computer to try and help with the setup. "Oh, that's a nice little service they provide their paying customers," you may be thinking. Yeah, but you'll need to drop £35 for about a half-hour of the representative's time. Oh, and if you do decide that everything we've said here isn't enough to put you off and you want to give them a try, you have a jaw-dropping two day free trial to make your mind up. Oh, and you need to provide payment details up front, so if you forget to cancel them before the end of that 48 hours then... tough. Because they don't offer refunds.