Hide.me VPN Review
Our Verdict
With a huge range of low-level customizations alongside first-class speeds and streaming support, Hide.me is a very appealing service. While it could exist daunting for those newer to VPN, it'south a good choice, and its free version is 1 of the best out there.
For
- Excellent OpenVPN and WireGuard speeds
- Free version is powerful
- Unblocks Netflix, Disney+, iPlayer, Amazon Prime
- Tons of adept-level tweaks bachelor
Against
- In-depth apps could be intimidating
- Takes a little while to connect
- Some impale switch issues
- No independent security audit
Tom's Guide Verdict
With a huge range of low-level customizations aslope fantabulous speeds and streaming support, Hide.me is a very appealing service. While it could be daunting for those newer to VPN, it's a good selection, and its free version is one of the best out at that place.
Pros
- +
Excellent OpenVPN and WireGuard speeds
- +
Complimentary version is powerful
- +
Unblocks Netflix, Disney+, iPlayer, Amazon Prime
- +
Tons of proficient-level tweaks available
Cons
- -
In-depth apps could be intimidating
- -
Takes a lilliputian while to connect
- -
Some kill switch bug
- -
No independent security audit
Hide.me has been in the game since way dorsum in 2011, owned by Malaysian visitor eVenture Ltd, and in that fourth dimension it's built up a name for itself equally a configurable, reliable VPN.
With ii,000 servers in a healthy 75 locations, it's got a decent spread, and while it can't compete with the likes of ExpressVPN's 3,000+ and NordVPN'south five,000+, it should offer a skilful range of servers to option from.
Most interesting is Hide.me'southward wide range of configurable options. Ranging from enough of protocols (including WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, SoftEther and SSTP) to more niche features like port forwarding, and protection from DNS, IP and IPv6 leaks, in that location's a lot here to get stuck into if yous know what you're doing.
Hide.me also supports plenty of platforms including Android, iOS, Linux, routers and Smart TVs, all alongside Windows and MacOS, naturally.
A neat introduction to Hibernate.me's abilities is its excellent free VPN, which offers much of the premium product's features while limiting users to 10GB of data a month and a small selection of 5 servers.
In our full Hide.me review, we'll be running down exactly what the provider does right, what it could improve upon, and whether it's worth considering for you.
Hide.me on paper
Number of servers: 2,000+
Number of countries: 75
Platforms supported: Windows, Mac, Chrome Os, Android, iPhone, Linux, Chrome, Firefox, Routers, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Blackberry
Simultaneous connections: 10
Split tunneling: Yes
Impale switch: Aye
Supported protocols: OpenVPN UDP & TCP, WireGuard, IKEv2, SoftEther, SSTP
Country of registration: Malaysia
Support: 24/seven alive chat, ticket, email, knowledgebase, community
Hide.me cost: how much is information technology, and is in that location a Hide.me complimentary trial?
Hide.me'due south i-calendar month plan predictably works out the most expensive, at $12.95 per month. The provider does occasionally offer VPN deals, all the same, and at the time of writing at that place's a cheap monthly VPN offer for just $seven.95.
Sign upwardly for a yr, and you'll see that toll drop to $4.99 a month, for a total of $59.95 billed yearly. The two-year plan offers even better value, at only $2.96 a month, totalling $79.95. Again, this appears to be a bargain, then these prices are subject to alter.
Comparatively, so, Hibernate.me seems fairly affordable, but isn't exactly the cheapest VPN on offering. Providers like Surfshark and Private Internet Access offer similar plans for less than $ii.fifty a month, and certain deals often drib that even lower.
Yous can pay through PayPal, credit card, Bitcoin and a number of other options, and you'll also be covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee should you not bask the software.
Hide.me has an ace up its sleeve, however, with its strong gratis program.
Offering all the features of the paid app, you'll exist able to apply Hide.me free forever. The only restrictions are a 10GB per month data limit (not huge in the grand scheme), and a limited selection of servers in the US, Canada, The Netherlands, and Deutschland. Some users might complaining the lack of a United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland location, but merely paying customers can road through a British server.
Overall, if yous manage to find a Hide.me deal on offer, it offers decent value, just outside of this it'due south decidedly mid-range in terms of cost.
How private is Hide.me, and does information technology keep logs?
Strong claims from Hide.me here, with a 'no logging, ever' policy. It also has a fairly comprehensive Privacy Policy, which outlines that it doesn't collect session logs, your browsing, or whatever other identifiable information about you. Hide.me also never stores 'VPN connection logs and timestamps that match your incoming and approachable IP accost or session duration.'
To facilitate the free version, Hide.me does keep a log of bandwidth usage, simply without any other information this isn't really of whatever concern. You lot'll as well have to hand over your email on sign up, but almost every VPN provider requires this.
Something dainty to come across is that Hibernate.me claims to have undergone a 'comprehensive audit', but in reality this is from 2015 and there's no study of the audit available to read. It'due south impressive that Hide.me was clued into the importance of audits this early, but to be relevant, nosotros'd like to see a nice fresh one, accompanied by a proper report.
How fast is Hide.me?
Beyond privacy, speed is nearly people'southward primary concern when information technology comes to choosing a VPN – and thankfully Hide.me performed very well in our testing.
When using the tried-and-tested OpenVPN protocol, Hide.me delivered impressive speeds of upward to 390Mbps on our 1Gbps line. In fact, the only provider that outdid Hide.me when using OpenVPN was ProtonVPN, with speeds of up to 500Mbps.
Hide.me has a characteristic called VPN Commodities, and in a single test we saw speeds creep well above 400Mbps. We can't say for sure this was annihilation to do with the Bolt feature, but either way, this is a seriously nippy service.
Switch over to WireGuard and things get fifty-fifty better. On the aforementioned 1Gbps line, we saw speeds of up to 780Mbps, which is right up at that place with the best of them. While super fast VPN services like CyberGhost and NordVPN can striking near 900Mbps, Hide.me certainly isn't going to be slowing you downwards – particularly if you lot're using a regular domestic Internet connection of around 100Mbps.
How good is Hide.me for streaming?
Hibernate.me certainly promises a lot when it comes to unblocking websites, just nosotros always take these kinds of claims with a pinch of salt – and test them out ourselves.
In previous testing, Hide.me hasn't been the all-time as a streaming VPN, only this time circular it really improved.
First upwards, Netflix. When tested on both United states of america and Britain servers, we were able to lookout exclusive content, which is better than many rivals, peculiarly since Netflix upped its VPN blocking game.
Amazon Prime Video was too effectively unblocked, as well equally Disney+ and YouTube – a full house then, and an splendid performance.
It's worth noting that when accessing these sites we did have some loading hangs where we were left waiting for a page to load for a up to a minute. Nonetheless, this wasn't regular, and once pages loaded, we could stream in HD like normal.
So, while that pocket-size outcome makes it tricky to recommend Hide.me equally the very best Netflix VPN, it's powerful and is better than much of the competition.
How proficient are Hide.me'south desktop apps?
When showtime opened, Hibernate.me's desktop app is fairly simple and intuitive to utilise. In that location's a big button which invites you to connect to the recommended server, but a single click takes you to a server list. Plus, at all times yous'll be able to come across your current IP address and location.
In the Locations carte, you'll go plenty of information about the servers including ping, and for some countries y'all'll exist able to toggle a drop-downward menu that shows individual cities.
A streaming tab within the Locations carte du jour delivers what y'all'd expect – the all-time servers for streaming on certain services, although they're sorted past location and not streaming service.
Multihop is another neat feature. By using this, y'all tin can route through two servers, pregnant that if one is compromised, you'll still exist protected past the other. In practise, this is actually more effective than, say, NordVPN's, due to the fact you'll be able to connect to any two servers, not pick from a predetermined list
Open up the Settings menu and things start to get really interesting, though.
Autoconnect is present, which makes sure Hide.me activates as soon every bit y'all kicking up your machine, and you can choose to connect to either your last used location, or the 'best'. You'll also get a kill switch to protect you if your connectedness drops.
As an aside, in light testing, the kill switch worked very well, simply when we put information technology under pressure by closing the OpenVPN.exe process. In every test the impale switch blocked our traffic – its master chore – but reconnecting after terminating the process proved problematic, and it took us around 10 minutes to get dorsum online.
It'due south worth noting that while this is abrasive, the kill switch never exposed u.s.a., and the tests we undertook are very unlikely to ever occur in real life.
The range of protocols is impressive (WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, SoftEther, SSTP), and there'southward tons of configuration available within these, like IKEv2'southward stealth mode, whether you tunnel using IPv4 or IPv6, and even more.
That 'best' location we simply mentioned – that's normally just dictated by the VPN, just Hide.me allows to define what's best for you, whether that'southward closest in terms of altitude, lowest load, or lowest ping.
Dissever tunneling support is present, of course, which allows certain apps to use the VPN and other to ignore it. And, the kill switch is more than powerful than merely nearly whatsoever. Rather than just cutting your connection until yous reconnect, yous tin set information technology to run custom scripts when the connection fails, which could be to automatically shut some other app, for instance. The scripts can fifty-fifty exist run every bit an administrator.
All in all, there's a ton here for experts to get stuck into, but while these menus might be intimidating to newbies, even if you just connect to the recommended server and shut the app every time, in that location's a lot to like.
How adept are Hibernate.me's mobile apps?
Naturally, Hibernate.me's iOS VPN app isn't as powerful as its desktop brethren, simply it's inappreciably basic. You'll become a overnice simple connect button, and you'll exist able to sort the server list by ping or name – more than many others can merits. You'll besides become a Favorites choice, and a search box for like shooting fish in a barrel server finding.
You'll also become support for IKEv2, OpenVPN UDP, OpenVPN TCP and WireGuard, an autoconnect feature which you can choose to burn down up when connecting to unknown Wi-Fi or mobile data networks. In that location'southward also a impale switch, and you lot'll even be able to choose a custom DNS server, should you have the inclination to.
All in all, it'south seriously powerful for an iOS offer, and much improve than many out in that location.
Hide.me's Android VPN is even ameliorate, with all the aforementioned features, and is very similar in appearance – great if you use both.
You'll also get split tunneling; the ability to allow your device to access other devices that are connected to your network. 'IKEv2 Culling Configurator' is also included, to help connections should the regular IKEv2 protocol fail.
While all this might be overkill for the full general user, that doesn't really matter. Just like the desktop versions, it'due south all tucked away in a Settings menu that you never take to touch, merely having the possibility is something nosotros really like.
Hide.me will undoubtedly appeal to users that appreciate depression-level customization, and it delivers a huge amount of features rarely seen in any other VPN services. However, for the greenest of VPN users, although these settings might be hidden away in menus, having access to all of these complex options could seem intimidating. For those, a simpler service like ExpressVPN or Surfshark could offering a improve experience.
Merely, while it lacks a little scrap of polish compared to the virtually premium providers, Hibernate.me's streaming prowess, searing connectedness speeds and excellent functionality make it a real contender for proficient users – and its free plan is definitely worth checking out, too.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/hideme-vpn-review
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