Hide.me, a subsidiary of EVenture Limited, is a Malaysia-based company that has been making waves in the VPN business since 2011. Hide.me's network is a good size, with 1.900 servers (versus 1.800 the last time) spread over 75 locations. Not bad at all, but ExpressVPN (3,000+ servers in 94 countries) and CyberGhost (6,400 out of 90) give you even more options.
Hide.me supports a wide range of protocols (Image credit: hide.me) However, the company is piling on functionality. Extended protocol support includes WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, SoftEther, and SSTP; there is protection against DNS, IP and even IPv6 leaks; port forwarding is available if you need it; the service can be used on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, routers, consoles and smart TVs, you can connect up to ten devices simultaneously and 24/7 live chat support if you have problems. Hide.me claims to be P2P compatible on most servers. We verified this by logging into five different places and had a torrent without issue in each case. Hide.me apps direct you to specialized servers to unblock Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Now and more (RAI, DAZN, Blu TV).
MultiHop allows you to log in from one location and log out of another to avoid tracking (Image credit: hide.me) New features since the last patch include MultiHop VPN, where you log in to one location and log out of another. The extra hop may slow you down a bit, but it can help bypass VPN blocking and make it harder for anyone to keep up with who you are. Some VPNs have similar features, for example NordVPN's Double VPN, but they often limit the servers you can use. MultiHop VPN allows you to choose any incoming or outgoing server from your entire list of locations. A feature of VPN Bolt for Windows claims to speed up speeds by routing all traffic through TCP instead of UDP. Doesn't seem like the best idea since TCP is usually slower, but Hide.me also applies other tricks: hardware offloading, multiplexing over TLS 1.3 channels, encryption via AES-GCM (x64) or ChaCha-Poly-1305 (ARM ) - so there may be a value here. And it's completely optional, so if the technology isn't working for you, turn it off. Small mobile improvements include the ability to set up custom DNS servers on iOS, while Android users get dark mode, Android TV support, and landscape mode for tablets. Be warned, though: the company has also removed support for Android versions older than 6 (Marshmallow). It's not unreasonable since it's several years old, but you might not think so if you have old hardware and ExpressVPN, IPVanish, Private Internet Access, and others still support Android 5.
Plans and prices
Hide.me's Premium plan is a bit pricey, at least for short-term use, at €12.95 billed monthly. It's pretty much the same as ExpressVPN and CyberGhost, but Private Internet Access, Hotspot Shield, Ivacy, and many more charge around $10. A six-month plan was a better value at $6.65 per month, until we found out that the annual plan is just €3 per month for the first 15 months (that's three months free) and then €3.75 upon renewal. Or if we take a look at the totals, sign up today and you could pay $39.95 for six months of service, but that doesn't make much sense when you can get 15 months of coverage for just $45.
You can pay for your plan with a credit card, PayPal, or even cryptocurrency (Image credit: Hide.me) Whatever your preference, a wide range of payment options include cards, Bitcoin, PayPal, and many other providers. Hide.me's old refund "catch" (you may not get your money back if you "used up a significant amount of your transfer data") has, thankfully, been removed in favor of a simple money-back guarantee from 30 days. If you're not satisfied, email the company within 30 days for a refund. It's as good as you'll get with a one-year plan, but some providers drop their prices even more if you extend your term. Private Internet Access charges an effective amount of €2.69 per month for the first term of its two-year plan (€2.91 upon renewal), while Ivacy's five-year plan is priced at just €1.33 per month. Prefer not to pay anything at all? Surprisingly, Hide.could help me. Their free plan offers a reasonable 10GB of data per month, but you only have access to five locations (US, Canada, Netherlands, and two in Singapore), only one device can be connected at a time. automatic renewal at the end of each month (you can do this yourself online, so it's just a minor administrative hassle). Surprisingly though, it does support P2P, which is good news even with the data cap.
Hide.me does not keep any logs of its users (Image credit: Hide.me)
Privacy
Hide.me has a strict “no logging, ever” policy, the company claims, saying: “Newspapers can easily link actions to you, and some VPN providers pass them on to law enforcement officials when they are prompted to do so. I don't have one. Simple." The privacy policy excludes both session and activity logging, explaining that: "We do NOT keep logs of your VPN sessions, your browsing behavior, the websites you visit or any activity related to your VPN connection. Also, we NEVER store VPN connection logs and timestamps that match your incoming and outgoing IP address or session duration." Hide.me keeps a total of data transfer in use, but that's not a surprise for a service where some plans have bandwidth caps. You also keep your email address, but that's to be expected as well. No data is shared with third parties. The company uses Google Analytics on its website, but even there it notes that "in order to improve its anonymity, Hide.me has chosen to allow Google to collect only part of the IP address." Hide.me tells me that it will comply with court orders received by recognized judicial authorities having jurisdiction over them. But again, that's to be expected, and if the newspapers don't show anything significant, it won't matter. Everything looks and sounds great, but there is still room for improvement. Big VPN names including TunnelBear, NordVPN, and VyprVPN have now verified their privacy credentials with public audits. It's an effective way to reassure potential customers that a VPN is delivering on its promises, and we hope other providers will follow suit.
This is the Windows application UI from Hide.me (Image credit: Hide.me)
applications
Hide.me's Windows application is simple and straightforward. The home screen has little more than a large connect button that connects you to the nearest server, but the full list of locations (countries, expandable to cities in some cases) is just a click away, as well as information about the location. status of your current IP address and your location. it is always visible.
Hide.me shows your available servers in a list instead of a map (Image credit: Hide.me) The server list now includes ping times for each location to help you judge speeds, an addition since our last review . A search box makes it easy to find locations by name, and a bookmarking system lets you group your most-used servers together for quicker access later. Connection times were a bit longer than usual at times, but only a few seconds, and that's unlikely to be a problem in the real world. The app generates notifications when you go online and offline, so you're always safe when you're online.
You can change many aspects of the Hide.me VPN service in its settings menu (Image credit: Hide.me) The Settings dialog starts with all the main options you'd expect. It can start when the system boots; possibly connect to the best location, or the last one you used; Protect your traffic with a kill switch if the VPN goes down and automatically reconnect to get back online quickly.
There is real depth here. The app supports no less than five protocols (WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, SoftEther, SSTP), for example, with a stack of configuration options: IKEv2 stealth mode, custom and random ports, tunneling via IPv4 or IPv6, etc.
Advanced features continue, everywhere you look. For example, split tunneling support allows you to define which apps should use the VPN and which will use your regular connection. And the client doesn't have a single on/off switch setting to define what happens if the connection is broken. You can also run custom scripts when the connection is broken, and it gives you so much control that you can even set whether they run as the current user or administrator.
Even Hide.me's system tray icon is supercharged. Right-click on most VPN status bar icons and you'll get the options to "view" and "exit"; here you can connect to the default server, select one of the others, browse your favorites, close the current connection, and also open the settings box.
Hide.me's new MultiHop feature has proven to be very easy to use. Pick an incoming server from New York, for example, that's where you'll connect and be redirected through the Hide.me network to the outgoing servers of your choice: let's say London. Websites will think you're in the UK, and even if an attacker manages to compromise the London server, they won't be able to link the activity to your account (you accessed it using the New York server, not your IP). It's really necessary is debatable, and the extra hop will slow it down a bit, but we're glad users now have the choice.
Hide.me's Bolt acceleration technology didn't make a clear difference to performance in our tests. However, the speeds were so fast that it really wasn't an issue (more on that in a bit). Bolt is still in beta, and you may see wildly different results depending on how you set it up, your network, and your device, so we're reserving judgment for now. As we suggested above, give it a try and see. If Bolt works for you, so much the better; if not, turn it off until Hide.me releases an update.
Mobile apps can't compare to all this desktop power, but they still outperform most of the competition.