hide.meoffers excellent security, good streaming support, very fast speeds, and intuitive apps. In addition to industry-standard security features like 256-bit AES encryption, a kill switch, and a no-logs policy that’s been independently audited, hide.me also has:
- Split-tunneling.
- Full leak protection.
- Multihop.
- Perfect forward secrecy.
- SmartGuard.
- And more …
I really like hide.me, but there are some issues to consider. Its desktop apps have a somewhat outdated design, the Windows app also sometimes has laggy animations, it’s been a long time since its no-logs policy was audited, and it only has servers in 54 countries (most top VPNs have servers in 80+ countries).
hide.me allows 10 simultaneous connections with 1 account, which is well above the industry average of 5–7 connections. It has a really good free plan, and the paid monthly and yearly plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
| 🏅 Overall Rank | #18 out of 107 VPNs |
| 🌍 Number of Servers | 2,300+ |
| 📱 Number of Devices | 10 |
| 💸 Starting Price | £1.73 |
| 🎁 Free Plan | Yes |
| 💰 Money-Back Guarantee | 30 days |
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hide.me Full Review
I spent a few weeks testing hide.me to see how it compares to other top VPNs, and I can safely say it’s one of the fastest VPNs I’ve tested.
On average, I only experienced a 2–5% slowdown and maintained blazing-fast speeds on nearby and distant servers. Websites and HD videos loaded instantly, I had very fast torrenting speeds, and there was no lag when I was gaming (but if you’re interested in gaming, there are better options out there).
hide.me also provides high-end security features and has easy-to-use apps, and it has really good streaming support.
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hide.me Features
hide.me has the following industry-standard security features:
- 256-bit AES encryption — secures your data with bank-grade encryption.
- No-logs policy— doesn’t log your IP address and traffic. hide.me’s no-logs policy has also been independently audited.
- Kill switch — disables internet access if your VPN connection drops to prevent data leaks. There’s also a “Stealth Guard” feature that lets you customize the kill switch. For example, you can stop torrent clients from going online if the VPN isn’t enabled, to prevent accidental traffic leaks.
hide.me comes with OpenVPN, IKEv2/IPSec, SoftEther, WireGuard, and SSTP. I like that hide.me has support for WireGuard, because it’s very secure and much faster than OpenVPN and IKEv2/IPSec.
hide.me also provides DNS, IPv6, and WebRTC leak protection.Not all premium VPNs offer full leak protection. For example, VyprVPNmakes you manually disable IPv6 and WebRTC. I ran 10+ leak tests with hide.me and never saw any leaks.
The VPN also has advanced security features. These include RAM-only servers (every server reset wipes all data) and perfect forward secrecy — this changes your encryption key for each session to protect you from hackers compromising past or future browsing sessions.
hide.me also provides additional features:
Split-Tunneling
hide.me’s split-tunneling tool is actually really good. Split-tunneling means directing certain apps through the VPN while some go through your local ISP connection. This allows you to improve speeds and provides a lot of convenience. hide.me allows you to both include and exclude apps from the VPN tunnel. Split-tunneling is available on Android, Windows, and macOS.
For example, I used it to route uTorrent traffic through the VPN. That increased my P2P speeds by about 10%, and it also worked without any issues. Plus, I was able to stream a movie on my Netflix US home library on my local network at the same time.
Still, I like Private Internet Access’s split-tunneling feature more, as it allows you to split-tunnel websites as well as apps. I think it’s more flexible to just split-tunnel a site rather than the entire browser.
Overall, hide.me’s split-tunneling feature is pretty good. It allows the exclusion of apps from the VPN tunnel, works very well, and is really user-friendly.
SmartGuard
SmartGuard is a really advanced ad blocker with lots of customization options. On top of blocking ads and malicious sites, it also comes with parental filter settings — once turned on, there are 2 age limit options: 12 years and 18 years. Plus, there’s a setting to force SafeSearch in search engines.
It has a bunch of other cool settings, too. You can choose to filter trackers, filter malicious sites by possible, medium, or high risk levels (or any combination of these), and more. I didn’t find the redirect DNS feature very useful, but the others are great for safe browsing.
In my tests, SmartGuard performed pretty well. It stopped me from accessing all HTTP sites I tried to connect to, and it got rid of most ads on search engines and media outlets. But it still wasn’t able to block all ads like Private Internet Access’s MACE feature.
Overall, SmartGuard is a great ad blocker that filters malicious sites, blocks ads, and has good settings for parents. It’s easy to use and offers complex settings for advanced users.
Multihop
I’m a big fan of hide.me’s Multihop feature. This sends your traffic through 2 VPN servers instead of just 1, providing more security. I really like how user-friendly Multihop is, too — you can choose any entry and exit server you want, either by searching for a specific country or scrolling through the alphabetized list.
Multihop connections are normally slower, but I didn’t experience a big slowdown with hide.me (my speeds only slowed by about 26%). Multihop is similar to Surfshark’s Dynamic MultiHop feature, which also lets you pick whichever entry and exit servers you want.
Overall, hide.me’s Multihop feature is very good — it’s really user-friendly, it doesn’t slow down your connection too much, it lets you choose the entry and exit servers, and it has a large selection of countries to choose from.
Obfuscation
hide.me has obfuscation on all servers. This feature hides your VPN traffic to make it look like normal internet traffic, providing extra privacy and allowing the VPN to work in restrictive countries.
I really like that it’s enabled by default whenever you use the OpenVPN protocol, so you don’t have to manually change any settings. Plus, it works on all servers, which is really convenient.
Overall, hide.me’s obfuscation is very good since it’s available on all servers, it’s enabled by default via OpenVPN, and it works in restrictive countries.
hide.me Bolt
hide.me Bolt is a super-fast proxy available only on Windows. The acceleration technology works by sending traffic through TCP instead of UDP. This feature significantly increases your speeds — in testing, my speeds with WireGuard were 50% faster when I enabled hide.me Bolt.
But this feature is still under development, so it doesn’t always work well. For example, once it crashed my operating system when I ran speed tests.
Overall, hide.me’s Bolt feature is very good for boosting VPN speeds, but it’s not 100% stable yet.
hide.me Privacy & Security
hide.me has a transparent no-logs policy — it doesn’t log your IP address or traffic. It only collects your email address, which is needed on signup, and bandwidth usage (only with the free plan). hide.me’s no-logs policy was independently audited in 2015, but I’d like to see it undergo a more recent audit, like ExpressVPN and Surfshark.
hide.me is located in Malaysia, which is not part of the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliances (a group of countries that share surveillance data with each other). It publishes an annual transparency report, disclosing how many data sharing requests it received from the government and proving that it didn’t disclose any data.
Overall, hide.me has a strict no-logs policy that’s been independently audited,publishes an annual transparency report, and isn’t based in a 5/9/14 Eyes Alliances country.
hide.me Speed & Performance
I ran a series of speed tests on my Windows 10 PC, using servers in all countries where hide.me has servers to determine my average VPN speeds. I had the fastest speeds on a local server in the US. When I used distant servers in the UK, Australia, France, Germany, and South Africa, I maintained fast speeds for browsing, streaming, and torrenting.
Overall, hide.me provided fast speeds on both nearby and distant servers. When I used a nearby server, my speeds didn’t decrease at all.HD videos on YouTube loaded instantly and didn’t buffer when I skipped through them. When I tested distant servers, I only experienced an average 2–5% slowdown, which is really good. I downloaded large torrents fast (10 GB files in 10–15 minutes), HD videos loaded in under 5 seconds, and VoIP calls didn’t drop or freeze.
hide.me Servers & IP Addresses
hide.me has 2,300+ servers in 54 countries. It has a big presence in Europe, North America, and Asia, but only a few servers in Africa, the Middle East, and South America. Other top VPNs have much larger server networks — ExpressVPNand CyberGhost VPN both have servers in 100+ countries.
I like that hide.me shows which are the fastest servers. It has an icon next to certain server locations that tells you if the server is operating at 10 GB speeds. During my tests, these servers were always faster than those without an icon. That said, some VPNs include more precise details like ping or server load, which are more helpful.
I really like that hide.me allows torrenting on all servers.Some top VPNs, like Proton VPN, only allow torrenting on dedicated servers.
hide.me has dedicated streaming servers in 20+ countries, including Australia, the US, the UK, France, and Japan. I connected to my local US server and it let me watch my favorite shows here in the US on sites like Netflix US and Amazon Prime US. I also tested hide.me’s regular VPN servers, but they don’t work with popular streaming sites. Other top VPNs (ExpressVPNand Private Internet Access) do work with streaming sites on all servers.
The provider also has Multihop servers, and I really like how it lets you choose whichever entry and exit server locations you want — Surfshark provides something similar via its Dynamic MultiHop feature, though you get more variety than hide.me since you can choose entry and exit servers from 100+ countries.
Overall, I’m happy with hide.me’s server network — it’s pretty big, it allows P2P traffic on all servers, and it has dedicated streaming servers for popular streaming sites in 15+ countries.
hide.me Bypassing Censorship
hide.me uses obfuscation to work in restrictive countries that censor the internet like China, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia. These countries block access to things like social media sites, news outlets, and even sometimes VPNs (China has banned VPNs entirely).
hide.me works in restrictive countries reliably, but only the paid version works in China and Iran. I also like how the VPN has servers all over the world, so users in restrictive countries can use a nearby server to get the fastest speeds.
hide.me Streaming & Torrenting
hide.me is great for streaming — it works with all the services I like to use here in the US, including Netflix US, Disney+ US, Amazon Prime US, and Hulu. If you’re in other parts of the world, you can watch shows on streaming sites in your area like BBC iPlayer (confirmed by my colleague in the UK).
That said, I think ExpressVPN is much better for streaming — it works with 100+ streaming platforms, which is also why it’s one of the best streaming VPNs out there.
hide.me is also great for torrenting — all servers allow P2P traffic and it works with top torrenting apps (I had the fastest speeds with uTorrent). hide.me also has port forwarding, which lets you connect to more peers to get faster speeds. In my tests, port forwarding provided a 5–10% speed boost.
Overall, hide.me is really good for streaming and torrenting. It works with popular streaming sites like Netflix US and Amazon Prime US. Also, hide.me supports torrenting on all servers and works with popular P2P apps.
hide.mePlans & Pricing
hide.me has a free plan, monthly plans, and annual plans. It allows 10 simultaneous device connections with 1 account, which is above the industry-average of 5–7 devices.
The free plan is one of the best out there. It’s ad-free, has speeds as fast as the paid plan, allows torrenting, allows unlimited data, and comes with a no-logs policy. But it doesn’t have streaming support or port forwarding, you’re limited to 1 device, and you’re limited to servers in 5+ countries.
The provider’s prices start at £1.73 / month, which is pretty affordable. That said, its long-term plans are more expensive than Private Internet Access and CyberGhost VPN’s long-term plans, and those VPNs provide better value.
Payment options for hide.me include credit cards, PayPal, and cryptocurrencies, and all plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
hide.meEase of Use: Mobile & Desktop Apps
hide.me has apps for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android TV, Apple TV, and Fire TV, and browser extensions for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. The apps are easy to install, intuitive, and bug-free.
The Android app has more features than the iOS app, but I like that the iOS app has a kill switch (some VPNs don’t have a kill switch on iOS).
The desktop apps are user-friendly and look almost identical to the mobile apps. The interface is easy to navigate and all settings and features have quick definitions, so you know what they do. That said, there are better VPN apps for both Windowsand Mac.
Overall, hide.me has easy-to-use apps for most platforms, and the iOS app even has a kill switch.
hide.meCustomer Support
hide.me provides good customer support, including 24/7 live chat, responsive email support, and a comprehensive support library. However, it doesn’t offer any setup guides for its apps.
I found hide.me’s support section to be excellent, with a plethora of useful FAQs and troubleshooting guides that were easy to follow. In many cases, I didn’t need to reach out to customer support because the provided guides answered my questions.
Upon testing the live chat support, I typically got connected to a representative in less than 10 seconds. The reps consistently gave me satisfactory answers.
I also tested hide.me’s email support multiple times, and I usually got a response in 1–2 hours, which is very fast. The reps consistently came back with helpful information.
Overall, I really like hide.me’s customer support — it has an in-depth support library, there’s 24/7 live chat, and email support is very responsive.
Is hide.me Safe & Fast in 2024?
hide.me is very secure, really fast, easy to use, and it works with top streaming sites. It protects your data with industry-standard security features, including a no-logs policy that’s been independently audited. And it also has advanced security features like full leak protection, SmartGuard, Multihop, and perfect forward secrecy, and extra features like split-tunneling.
Honestly, hide.me is a great VPN with only a few minor drawbacks. Its desktop apps look a bit outdated, the Windows app has some laggy animations, and the provider has servers in 54 countries (it’s pretty good, but most top VPNs have servers in 70+ countries).
You can connect 10 devices simultaneously with 1 hide.me account. hide.me also has a really good free plan and paid monthly and yearly plans, and it provides a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is hide.me free?
Yes, hide.me has a free plan, which is pretty good — it allows torrenting, provides access to servers in 5+ countries, has unlimited data, and comes with strong security and fast speeds. But you don’t get port forwarding or streaming support, and you’re limited to 1 device.
But I still recommend getting its paid version instead, as it provides access to more perks — good streaming support, up to 10 connections, and access to all servers and features.
Does hide.me work with Netflix?
Yes, you can watch Netflix with dedicated streaming servers in 15+ countries, including the US, the UK, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, France, and Turkey. For example, if you live in the US, you can watch your favorite shows on Netflix US while connected to the VPN. hide.me also works with BBC iPlayer, Disney+, and Amazon Prime if you live in one of the countries where they’re available.
That said, I thinkExpressVPN is better for Netflix, as it works with the platform on all of its servers, and it also works with 100+ other streaming apps.
Is hide.me good for torrenting?
Yes, hide.me is very good for torrenting.It allows P2P traffic on all 2,300+ servers, andworks well with top torrenting apps like uTorrent and qBittorrent. The download speeds are very fast, and it has port forwarding. hide.me also has an independently audited no-logs policy, a kill switch, and full leak protection, so it’s safe for torrenting.
Is hide.me safe?
Yes, hide.me is a very safe VPN — it has bank-grade encryption, a strict no-logs policythat’s been audited, and a kill switch. It also comes with advanced security features like full leak protection, RAM-only servers, perfect forward secrecy, obfuscation, and double VPN connections.
