FileHippo is one of the most popular software download sites for free software programs that don’t require a license.
From browsers to antivirus software, you can find lots of useful, free programs on FileHippo, but is it legit?
In this article, we will be taking a closer look at FileHippo, its legitimacy, and whether it’s safe to download software from it.
Verdict
Our Rating: ⭐⭐✩✩✩
FileHippo, while legal, is a site that should be avoided for free software downloads. Instead, always download software from the developer’s site directly.
Pros
- The site loads quickly and offers a good UX
- All the popular programs are available
- Direct submissions from software developers are not allowed
- It’s legal to use
Cons
- It has been known to bundle unwanted, extra programs into software downloads
- The software is usually available from the developer’s site at no added cost
- Google Chrome may block downloads from FileHippo due to safety concerns
The best feature of FileHippo is its list of popular programs. However, for downloading software, always use the developer’s site directly, when possible.
What Is FileHippo?
FileHippo, founded in 2004, is a popular site offering precompiled software downloads for Windows. Some of the most downloaded programs from FileHippo include Google Chrome, WinRAR, uTorrent, WhatsApp Messenger for Windows, and Avast Free Antivirus.
Some people use FileHippo because they enjoy having all the software they want in one place. Others simply don’t know better and land on the FileHippo site after searching for a software on Google, not realizing that they could simply download the software for free from the developer’s site directly.
In any case, FileHippo has lots of users. Over 43,000 software programs are currently available, and over 5.7 billion downloads have been made on the site since its founding.
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Is FileHippo Legit and Safe? Risks of Freeware Sites
While FileHippo offers legitimate software, it often comes with a catch. Any free software distribution site has to make money somehow, and FileHippo is no different.
FileHippo promises that its downloads are safe and verified. However, a lot of people have found additional software bundled into their downloads, software that they did not ask for or want.
Image via TrustPilot
At some point, FileHippo was bundling the software on its site with unwanted programs.
Freeware download sites may get paid to put these extra programs there.
Users who only want to download the program they are looking for, such as WinRAR, are often unaware that other software is being downloaded to their computers as well.
Sometimes, the software is bundled with adware, which is a type of program that shows you ads. Adware might not be obvious when first installed, and you might only become aware of it when you suddenly notice weird advertising pop-ups on your computer for no reason.
In the worst case scenario, software from free download sites such as FileHippo may contain viruses or other types of malware. These malware programs may steal your information; for example, a keylogger is a type of malware that can keep track of whatever you type and record your password.
A very scary type of malware is ransomware. Ransomware, once installed, slowly encrypts the files on your computer without you even realizing it.
Then, once everything is encrypted, it blocks access to your files and demands that you pay a certain amount, usually in cryptocurrency (which can’t be tracked) to get your files back. Many people who don’t have backups of their files end up paying this ransom.
FileHippo, on its about page, claims that “all software is 100% spyware and virus free” and that its goal is to provide the community with software “without the usual excessive pop-ups or spyware.”
However, just because it makes that claim doesn’t mean you should trust it.
Softonic did buy FileHippo in 2022, as you can see by the copyright and licensing information on the bottom of the site. However, Softonic itself is not that much different from FileHippo; it’s a free download site that compiles available software.
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What Happened When I Tried Downloading From FileHippo?
I tested out downloading a few software programs from FileHippo, so you don’t have to.
The first thing I noticed was that the website itself seemed clean. There were no annoying pop-ups and redirects, so that gave FileHippo a small bump in my rating.
The site also loaded pretty quickly, and it wasn’t clunky or laggy.
I was able to quickly navigate to the list of the most popular programs on FileHippo, and I tried downloading the first five:
- uTorrent
- Google Chrome
- WinRAR
- WhatsApp Messenger
- 2007 Microsoft Add-In: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS
For uTorrent and Google Chrome, FileHippo simply redirected me to the official download sites. So, there was really no benefit at all of using FileHippo; I could have saved the time and effort and gone to the official developer sites directly.
For WinRAR, WhatsApp, and the Microsoft Add-in, the downloads came directly from FileHippo. However, I ran into an issue.
Google Chrome blocked the downloads, claiming that they were dangerous:
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In fact, Google Chrome seemed to flag every download coming from FileHippo as dangerous, and it blocked all of them.
I wondered what that meant, so I did some more digging. Here is what I found on Google’s help page.
Google Chrome will block downloads if it thinks they may contain viruses or perform unwanted actions on your computer, such as changing the settings, installing adware, or compromising your financial accounts.
It also said that it blocks several categories of software:
- Dangerous downloads, such as malware and viruses
- Suspicious downloads, such as those that look legit but may secretly contain malware
- Unverified downloads
- Insecure downloads from sites not secured with HTTPS (FileHippo is)
Scrolling down a bit more, I found some more useful information. Google states that it “maintains a list of websites that are known to host malicious downloads and a list of trusted software publishers.”
Remember, FileHippo has been around since 2004. It is a well-known site, so Google must be aware of it and have it on either the list of trusted software publishers or the list of sites that host malicious downloads.
Given that Google Chrome was blocking all the software programs I tried to download from FileHippo, I think it is safe to conclude that Google has placed FileHippo on the list of sites known to host malicious downloads.
Thus, I would not trust FileHippo, and I would not download any programs from there.
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Where Does FileHippo Get Its Software From?
FileHippo doesn’t accept software from developers directly. Instead, it searches for available software on the internet and compiles them.
On the one hand, that does decrease the risk somewhat, because submissions from third-party developers may include bundled adware. On the other hand, it does mean you have to trust FileHippo itself to always offer clean downloads, and that is a risk you might not want to take.
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Should You Download From FileHippo?
I don’t see any reason why you would want to download from FileHippo when you could just download the software from the developer’s site directly.
FileHippo isn’t a piracy site. That’s a common misconception.
Instead, it simply offers the same free software downloads already offered by the developers. For example, Avast Free Antivirus can be downloaded from the Avast site.
People usually end up downloading from FileHippo because they don’t know any better. They search for “Avast antivirus” on Google, and since sites like FileHippo are well-established, they often show up on the first page.
People who aren’t that tech-savvy don’t realize it’s not an official site. If they were a bit more informed, they would look for the official Avast site.
For example, take a look at the Google search results for “WinRAR download.” The official WinRAR website shows up first, but FileHippo shows up right after.
Some people may be unaware that FileHippo is a third-party site. In some cases, depending on the popularity of the software, there is a chance FileHippo could even outrank the official developer’s site on Google!
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At other times, ads for sites like FileHippo may show up across the web on third-party websites. People may click on such an ad, not realizing that the ad was created not by the official developer but by a third-party software download site.
There are only a few cases when you would want to download software from FileHippo, such as when the software you want is outdated (made for an older version of Windows) and no longer available on the developer’s site.
Even then, there are usually other, safer sites you could download it from.
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Wrapping It Up: Is FileHippo Legit?
FileHippo is a risky site to download software from.
Google seems to block all downloads from FileHippo, which indicates that it thinks it is an untrustworthy software publisher.
Besides, there is typically no reason to download software from FileHippo when you can download it directly from the developer’s website without having to worry about bundled adware or malware.
If you do need to download something from FileHippo, make sure to scan the download with an antivirus program to check for viruses.
