In our review of Hoxx VPN, we take a closer look at some of its features, the pros and cons of the service, and other information that will help you decide if it’s the right VPN for you.
TLDR – We don’t recommend Hoxx at all. Why?
- It is US based with questionable privacy
- Outdated encryption
- Doesn’t allow torrenting
- No kill-switch
- Doesn’t work with Netflix or other streaming sites
- Logs activity and other information
- Slow speed overall
- Questionable reliability
Read our Best VPN guide to choose a VPN that we recommend.
Virtual Private Networks, or VPN services, are designed to give you a secure connection to another network over the Internet. When you use a VPN, you often have the ability to access region-restricted websites (which is ideal for international travel), and you can keep your browsing and your online identity private and secure.
Whether you are working on your laptop from a public place or writing an email while visiting another country, the right VPN can keep you safe.
What is Hoxx VPN?
Hoxx VPN is a Florida-based company (USA based VPNs are generally horrible for privacy) and has been owned by VPN1.com since 2014. Hoxx has over one million users with over 600 servers in over 30 countries.
Hoxx believes that “it’s your right to surf safely.” Although Hoxx calls itself a VPN, many users consider it as more of a proxy than a VPN (we’ll discuss this in further detail in our “Features” section).
What’s the Difference Between a VPN and a Proxy?
The fact that Hoxx says that it’s a VPN service while actually being something else can be a little unsettling for users who want a trustworthy service and also confusing for users who aren’t all that tech-savvy. Let’s try to simplify it and see what’s different between a VPN and a proxy.
A proxy and a VPN are similar because they both connect you to a remote computer, but it’s crucial to determine what’s different about the two.
Proxies are servers that act as a “middleman” between a server and a remote computer. You can connect to a geo-specific server and then connect to the website. A proxy makes your browser traffic appear as if it’s coming from the remote computer and not yours.
Proxies do a good job of bypassing restrictions to access sites and content, but while they do hide your IP address, they do a poor job of keeping you anonymous and protected. VPNs are very similar to proxies, but they do a better job at hiding your identity and keeping confidential information safe.
Features
The key to determining whether or not a VPN is right for you is to take a closer look at its features. While there are many features to explore, we take a look at some of the features that customers seek out the most. We also discuss the pros and cons, as well as touch briefly on the pricing and support so that you can determine if Hoxx VPN is right for you.
Ease of Use
If a VPN is difficult to install and use, or leaves you with more questions than you when you started, it’s likely a bad sign. Even if you consider yourself to be tech-savvy, a VPN should not be too difficult to use.
Like many VPNs, registering for and installing Hoxx is relatively easy. You can download a browser extension or the VPN for your desktop or mobile devices. To install the extension, all you need to do is go to your web store (such as Chrome), find the extension, click “install” and “add extension.”
If you want to register for Hoxx, go to the official site, download and open the software and click “Create an Account.” Once you register you receive an email from Hoxx and a random password. You log in with your email address, random password, and then follow the steps from there. As far as registering and installing, the process is easy and straightforward.
Multi-Platform Options
Hoxx VPN supports common platforms such as Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Chrome, and Firefox. You can get browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox and supposedly one for Opera is in the works.
One of the beautiful things about the browser extensions is that they don’t take up too much space or take over your browser menu. Just follow the easy download and setup instructions (as we noted earlier), and Hoxx is conveniently available when you want to use the VPN.
The browser extensions are a good option for beginners who just want some basic IP address protection, which is one of the reasons why Hoxx is more like a proxy than a VPN.
Privacy and Security
Privacy is one of the main reasons why people search for a VPN; they want to be able to browse the Internet privately without revealing their IP address or any other personal information that might get into the hands of the wrong person.
While Hoxx may hide your IP address, its encryption is not very strong, and some would even call it “out-of-date.” Many of Hoxx’s competitors use AES 128 or 256-bit encryption, which are top-rated and “military grade.” Hoxx uses 4096-bit encryption, which used to be the standard, but researchers were able to crack the encryption more than five years ago.
Hoxx doesn’t allow illegal activity or abuse of the service, which is understandable, but as a result, it logs information. Before you decide to use Hoxx as your VPN, it’s essential to take a look at its Privacy Policy.
The policy covers what information is collected and how it’s used. Although it’s nice that Hoxx is honest about its logging, it doesn’t really live up to what a VPN is supposed to be (anonymous).
This alone should make you choose a vpn like Expressvpn or Nordvpn who have outstanding privacy, don’t make restrictions on torrenting and don’t keep any logs.
Speed and Reliability
In numerous speed tests, Hoxx ranged from having better than average rates to significant slowdowns. Keep in mind that VPN speeds are greatly dependent on where you’re located, which server you choose, and other factors.
Hoxx’s reliability gets mixed reviews because it’s hard to say that a slow VPN with outdated security is “reliable.” There’s no built-in kill-switch, and the outdated encryption is likely to put your IP address and other personal information at risk. Is it reliable? Not really.
A Few Pros and Cons
Now that we’ve taken a look at some of the features let’s dive into the pros and cons of Hoxx.
What We Like About Hoxx
- Easy to use
- Browser extensions
- Affordable plans (see pricing section)
- A large number of servers
What We Don’t Like
- Outdated encryption
- Doesn’t allow torrenting
- No kill-switch
- Doesn’t work with Netflix or other streaming sites
- Logs activity and other information
- Slow speed overall
- Questionable reliability
Pricing
Hoxx has a free account and a premium account. The premium account starts at $1.99. Many of the features of both accounts are the same. If you’re interested in Hoxx and want to know more about its pricing, you need to download and register.
Support
Hoxx’s customer support is limited. It has an extensive FAQ section, and if you need contact customer support, you can send an email.
Our Verdict
Hoxx is not our first choice when looking for a VPN. While it is affordable (with the free plan), we struggle to find good things to say about the service. If the VPN had updated security, had a no-logging policy, and better customer support, we might be more eager to recommend the VPN.
Overall, we were left feeling underwhelmed with Hoxx. Given all the features that could be better, we think that other VPNs perform significantly better than Hoxx VPN.
References
- Advanced Encryption Standard Explained
- Difference Between VPN and Proxy?
- RSA Key Extraction via Low-Bandwidth Acoustic Cryptanalysis Research Paper
Disclosure: Blokt strives to provide transparent, honest reviews, and opinions. The writer of this article is a user of the product(s) or service(s) mentioned in this article and was not influenced by the respective owners.
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