hide.me: The Basics/At a Glance
Now known as eVenture Ltd., hide.me was founded in 2012 by former Forbes-profiled entrepreneur Sebastian Schaub. The company is based out of Malaysia and currently only has one product, hide.me VPN. The VPN offers solid features including 10 simultaneous connections, split tunneling, multihop and peer-to-peer support for gaming and torrenting. It scored well on our list of best VPN services.
Pros
The hide.me VPN has a lot going for it, thanks to a strong commitment to privacy and a nice selection of customization options such as multihop and a kill switch. The commitment to privacy, in particular, impressed us. Unlike other providers that adopted it later, hide.me’s no-logs policy has been a foundational piece of the app since its creation. On top of that, it supports anonymized payments, meaning the company collects even less of your data than some of its competitors. Its peer-to-peer support makes it great for users looking for a better gaming or torrenting experience.
Cons
As good as hide.me is, it isn’t perfect. During our speed tests of all the VPN’s supported protocols (see below), we found its results fairly underwhelming. On top of that, hide.me’s interface, while offering rich customization, might be a little intimidating to new users just dipping their toes into VPN configuration. If you just want to download the app, however, it’s very easy to use: click “Connect” and let hide.me do the rest. Finally, its value for the money isn’t as high as others, thanks to somewhat steep pricing and the aforementioned mediocre speed tests.
How hide.me Works
The hide.me VPN, as the name suggests, is meant to hide your internet traffic from prying eyes, in particular your ISP or any streaming services that want to keep you from accessing region-locked content. Once you turn the VPN on, your traffic will be routed from your computer to a server in a different location in the provider’s network. That’s really about it. There are other features of hide.me that help with rerouting your internet activity, such as multihop to bounce traffic across multiple servers, but these features only serve to aid the overall goal of hiding your activity from ISPs or other prying eyes.
hide.me Core Features
Many of hide.me’s features are shared with other VPNs in the space—from Dedicated IP to split tunneling to browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Edge. The VPN also comes with dedicated streaming servers, though we didn’t notice much, if any, difference in streaming speeds while using these servers during our test. It supports five different VPN protocols as well, including the popular WireGuard protocol.
These features functioned exactly as intended during our test. From top to bottom, hide.me’s overall user experience was solid. It wasn’t flashy, and the features weren’t overly complicated. If you’re looking for a no-nonsense VPN option, this is definitely one to watch.
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hide.me Speed Test
While we regularly test the average speeds of all VPNs we cover, that usually involves only testing one protocol, the set of instructions the VPN uses to communicate with a server, per provider. However, most VPNs support using several different types of protocols, which can each have an effect on security and speed. To illustrate this, we’ve run a version of our normal speed test for each protocol hide.me supports. Each protocol is tested multiple times using speed.cloudflare.com and with the same or the nearest possible server. The statistics below are the average compiled from those multiple tests.
| Protocol | Average Upload Speed | Average Download Speed | Average Upload Ping | Average Download Ping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No VPN | 10.238 Mbps | 33.18 Mbps | 457.2 ms | 48 ms |
| IKEv2 | 7.24 Mbps | 18.95 Mbps | 164.9 ms | 149.4 ms |
| OpenVPN | 9.49 Mbps | 28.46 Mbps | 109.8 ms | 133.3 ms |
| SoftEther VPN | 12.74 Mbps | 26.06 Mbps | 308.6 ms | 104.7 ms |
| SSTP | 10.584 Mbps | 24.9 Mbps | 339.2 ms | 293.2 ms |
| Wireguard | 12.92 Mbps | 25 Mbps | 382.4 ms | 96.5 ms |
What Sets Hide.Me Apart
While hide.me lacks any standout features that separate it from the pack, what sets the VPN apart is its commitment to privacy. While every VPN we’ve reviewed so far has a no-logs policy, hide.me’s policy was baked into its app from the start, which not all of its contemporaries can say. This is on top of being located in a country outside the 14 Eyes sphere (Malaysia). The hide.me VPN was also independently audited by cybersecurity expert Leon Juranić in 2015, who confirmed the company does not keep any logs of user data or IP addresses. Transparent, independent tests like the one conducted by Juranić are important in building trust between a VPN provider and its user base, and it can also help the provider find security flaws it would otherwise miss.
Privacy and security are the two most important factors in a VPN, and a good, independently audited no-logs policy is an essential step in keeping users’ data private. This is why every VPN we review at least claims to have a no-logs policy, though not all of them undergo an independent audit. In terms of privacy, hide.me checks all our boxes, though we wouldn’t mind if it undergoes another audit sometime in the near future.
hide.me Pricing and Plans
| Plan | Free | Premium (one month) | Premium (12 months) | Premium (27 months) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $9.95 per month | $4.99 per month; $59.95 per year | $2.59 per month; $69.95 every 27 months |
| Data Traffic Limit | 10GB per month | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Number of Server Locations | Eight | 68 | 68 | 68 |
| Number of Simultaneous Connections | One | 10 | 10 | 10 |
hide.me Setup
Thankfully, setting up hide.me is straightforward. After setting up your account, you simply need to download the installer, run the installer, open the app and log in to your account on the app. After that, you’re ready to start using the VPN.
hide.me Ease of Use
If you just want to let hide.me pick which server you connect to, it’s an incredibly simple app to use. Looking under the hood, however, you’ll find a solid amount of customization options that can be a bit unwieldy for first-time or less tech-savvy users. For example, when you tab over to the Settings section, you’ll be hit with a bunch of options such as StealthGuard, Kill Switch and “Bolt ‘Fast Proxy.’” If you’re not familiar with these terms, it can make the app feel more intimidating than we would like. That said, the customization options provided are easy to use once you have a grasp on the terminology.
hide.me Customer Service and Support
Options for hide.me’s customer support are straightforward and standard for the industry. It has a knowledge base and community forum that act as a solid first line of support. If that doesn’t work, you can put in a support ticket with your email and the issue you’re having, after which you’ll be able to chat with a live representative from hide.me. You can also contact support directly through the app, which is nice. During our test, customer support took less than one business day to respond to our ticket.
hide.me Alternatives and How They Compare
| hide.me | NordVPN | Proton VPN | Surfshark VPN | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting Annual Price | $60 | $59.88 for first year then $99.48 for Standard plan | $71.88 | $47.88 for first year then $59.76 for Surfshark Starter plan |
| Trustpilot Rating | | | | |
| Number of Countries With Servers | $49 | 60 | 65 | 100 |
| Is the Company Located in a 5/9/14 Eyes Country? | No (Malaysia) | No (Panama) | No (Switzerland) | Yes (the Netherlands) |
| Is Live Chat With a Human Available? | Yes | No (bot available) | No | No (bot available) |
| Learn More | ||||
| Read Reviews | – |
hide.me vs. NordVPN
Nord is currently in the top spot for our Best VPN Services of 2024 list, but hide.me puts up a strong fight, boasting many of the same features as its competitor. Nord has the edge in number of server locations, but hide.me offers live chat customer support with a human, as opposed to Nord’s bot-based support. Coupled with their similar pricing, we’re hard-pressed to pick a winner between these two.
hide.me vs. Proton VPN
These two VPNs are neighbors on our Best VPN Services of 2024 list for good reason. Both have a strong commitment to privacy and solid features. That said, Proton VPN’s comparatively high pricing and lack of Dedicated IP make it a difficult recommendation for small businesses.
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hide.me vs. Surfshark
Surfshark and hide.me, at a glance, seem fairly even in terms of pricing and server locations. However, Surfshark’s presence in a 14 Eyes country (the Netherlands) makes us wary of fully recommending it as a way to surf the web more privately. We have also experienced significant trouble getting the popular WireGuard protocol to work on Surfshark. The provider also previously lacked a Dedicated IP feature. However, since adding Dedicated IP, Surfshark’s unlimited simultaneous connections make it a better choice for small businesses.
Who Is hide.me Best For?
The hide.me VPN is best for small businesses and freelancers looking for a VPN with a strong commitment to privacy based outside of a 14 Eyes country. At the end of the day, trust is the most important factor when considering a VPN. You’re essentially handing your data to the VPN provider instead of to your ISP. The location, foundational no-logs policy and solid reputation of hide.me make it a trustworthy pick in our eyes.
Conclusion
With a rock-solid focus on privacy, hide.me is an excellent VPN. During our test, its decent speeds and industry-standard features made it an easy-to-use, consistent experience overall. While its speeds are middling, and its pricing is a bit steep, we also think those negatives are vastly outweighed by its positives.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is hide.me VPN safe?
Yes. With strong encryption and a thorough no-logs policy, hide.me is one of the safest VPNs you can use if you’re concerned about privacy.
Does hide.me work in China?
Maybe. China is notorious for its aggressive anti-VPN stance, blocking most major VPN providers. And hide.me is no exception, though it offers a guide on how you might be able to get its VPN to work in China.
Can I stream Netflix with hide.me?
Yes, though only with its Premium plan. Free VPN users are out of luck.
Is hide.me VPN completely free?
Yes, hide.me offers a free plan that doesn’t require a trial period, sign-ups or payments.