hide.me claims to be the most secure VPN with a free plan. This sounds too good to be true, so it got me wondering — is it really a good alternative to the premium VPNs? So, I put hide.me through a series of tests to see if it’s safe, reliable, and effective.
I found it offers great security, decent speeds, and a beginner-friendly user experience. It’s easy to use and brings robust privacy features with regular transparency reports, showing it’s committed to keeping your data secure.
My tests showed that hide.me unblocks many streaming platforms, too, such as HBO Max, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, Funimation, Netflix US, and other libraries. However, if you want the best of the best for streaming, gaming, and more, I still recommend using one of these VPNs instead.
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Streaming — Unblocks All Major Platforms
While using hide.me, I was able to unblock all the streaming services I tested. It comes with optimized streaming servers that you can use to access your favorite content in seconds. These servers were fast, allowing me to watch shows in full HD.
Unblocks: Netflix (US, UK, Japan, Australia), HBO Max, Disney+, Funimation, BBC iPlayer, and More
I could access the US, UK, Japan, and Australian versions of Netflix without any problems. You can find the optimized servers separately. Make sure not to select the servers from the standard tab as they won’t be able to unblock anything.
Funimation worked smoothly as well, and I didn’t experience any connection drops or buffering.
hide.me helped me watch the latest Disney+ Moon Knight episode.
My streaming test results were a pleasant surprise, as I didn’t expect hide.me to work with everything. It’s a great choice if getting around geoblocks on streaming platforms is your primary objective. The optimized servers are great, and I would highly recommend it for streaming.
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Speed — Provides a Fast Connection
I got fast speeds, even on longer distances. The speeds were good enough for HD streaming and more. Some of the servers farthest away from me had lower upload speeds and higher pings, but that is to be expected.
The measurements of speed are:
- Download speed. This helps you determine how quickly you can download data, browse the internet, or stream. It is measured in Mbps (Megaits per second).
- Upload speed. This determines how fast you can send or upload data, also measured in Mbps.
- Ping/latency. The lower the ping, the better. This is especially true for gaming. It is the unit that helps measure latency in milliseconds (ms) and shows the fastest response time of a server.
Local Speeds
Connecting to a server will always decrease your speeds because the VPN reroutes your data. So, expect to see some loss of speed. My baseline speeds were 38.27 Mbps download and 70.78 Mbps upload speeds with a 6 ms ping.
After connecting to a local server, my speeds dropped a bit:
This drop was expected, but it still gave me respectable speed, high enough even for 4k streaming.
Long-Distance Speeds
After connecting to the US server, I saw a drop and got the following speeds — 18.34 Mbps download and 32.70 Mbps upload. The ping increased from 6 ms to 265 ms.
Here’s a rundown of my speed results on all the servers that I tested:
So, my tests showed an average drop of 50%, but to my surprise, the browsing and streaming experience remained unaffected.
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Are hide.me’s Speeds Fast Enough for Gaming? No
While hide.me offers decent speeds for browsing and streaming, it isn’t the best for gaming. Online gaming requires you to have low ping with a fast connection. However, I was constantly averaging around 250 ms of ping, making the gameplay experience choppy and unreliable for FPS shooters or MOBA games.
So, I would recommend you use one of these VPNs instead for the best possible gaming experience.
Server Network — Present in 75 Locations With 2,000 Servers
hide.me offers a worldwide server network and also allows you to request additional new servers. It’s uncertain how often new servers will get added, but it’s nice to see a VPN taking instant feedback from its users.
The global server network means many servers will be close by for a better connection. For me, hide.me connected almost instantly — there was zero downtime, and it offered a stable connection.
Here is a list of the server regions that hide.me offers:
hide.me offers streaming servers specifically designed to help you unblock streaming platforms. You get servers in the following locations — Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
You also get the option to use a static IP address. With the fixed IP, you can reserve an IP address on a specific VPN server. This gives you better access to all the platforms wherever you travel to.
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Security — Adequate Protection With End-To-End Encryption
hide.me offers great security. It allows you to browse the internet with confidence, knowing that all your data is secure and protected at all times.
Encryption & Protocols
It uses AES 256-bit encryption to encrypt all incoming and outgoing data to ensure no one can snoop around your files. You also get multiple protocols — IKEv2, OpenVPN, SoftEther VPN, WireGuard, and SSTP. This might seem confusing at first but just know that all these protocols are great and offer fast speeds with great security.
IP, DNS, and WebRTC Leaks
Based on my server tests, hide.me protected me from all leaks. So, you can rest easy and browse without worries. These are the following leaks that you need to avoid at all costs:
- IP — Your actual IP can expose your current location and make you vulnerable to threats and attacks online.
- DNS — This means that your online traffic can be intercepted and used to harm you.
- WebRTC — The communication process between your browser and a website can reveal your IP address.
- IPv6 — This leak is a type of data that misses the VPN’s “tunnel.” So, generally, VPNs disable it.
It also protects you by masking your actual IP address. Plus, you can make sure that no one can track you using your IP. I tested this with an IP and DNS leak test. The results — hide.me masked my IP and didn’t leak any data.
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Virus Test
You can rest assured that there is no malware or spyware on hide.me. I ran a test on VirusTotal and the hide.me installer resulted in zero issues or warnings.
Kill Switch
hide.me has an easy-to-use kill switch feature. This helps protect your data from leaking accidentally if the VPN connection drops. In addition, you can even customize it to limit your online LAN traffic, disabling any local traffic to the VPN.
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Stealth Guard
You also get access to hide.me’s stealth guard feature that helps provide an additional layer of security. You can limit or block apps from accessing the internet if your VPN isn’t connected. Select the “Stealth Guard” tab and choose the apps you want to limit or block.
Split Tunneling
hide.me’s split tunneling allows you to route only certain applications through the encrypted tunnel. This will enable you to keep other applications outside the VPN tunnel and access the internet directly. For example, you might prefer to not have your banking app use the VPN so that your real IP gets detected and the app won’t block you.
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hide.me Bolt
hide.me Bolt is a feature that avoids using UDP and routes your online traffic through TCP. Essentially, this results in faster speeds with the same security. So, you’ll be able to access web pages faster and with a secured connection. However, this feature is still in the beta testing phase, so there might still be some bugs to sort out
Multihop
Multihop servers let you rotate between multiple IPs for added security. You can even specify the servers to hop to. This enhances your online security by making it more difficult to track you. However, some websites may block you because of your constantly changing IP addresses.
You can rest easy and use hide.me without worries as it will definitely help you keep hackers and snoops away.
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Privacy — Independently Audited
I have been consistently impressed with hide.me and all that it offers. User privacy is no exception to the rule. The privacy policy is incredibly robust and ensures that hide.me doesn’t store any of your details unnecessarily.
It won’t pass or sell your details to any third-party organizations and only uses analytics cookies for internal improvements. Overall, you can be sure that hide.me is a secure and privacy-oriented VPN that helps users stay safe on the internet.
hide.me regularly releases transparency reports and independent audits, which provide further reassurance. It’s headquarters are in Malaysia, outside major surveillance alliances — 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, and 14 Eyes. So if it gets a formal request from the government to share user data, it won’t hand over any files, keeping your information private.
Plus, it is also involved with i2Coalition — an organization fighting for internet freedom. This further boosts its commitment to ensuring your online privacy.
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Torrenting — Allowed on All Servers
hide.me allows torrenting and P2P on all its servers. It offers fast speeds and great security features for safe connections and downloads. Plus, you can also take advantage of a specialized SOCKS (shadowsocks) proxy for even faster P2P connections.
The privacy policy supports hassle-free torrenting. However, my team and I don’t condone downloading files that infringe on copyright protection or using a VPN for any other illegal practices.
Does hide.me VPN Work in China? — With Limitations
hide.me should work in China. I contacted the customer support team and asked them about it. The agent told me that some servers and security protocols may not be available to use.
hide.me also use TLS-Crypt, which adds encryption and decryption operations on OpenVPN packets by using obfuscation of your entire internet traffic. This means that all OpenVPN packets get encrypted twice, and this is especially useful for accessing services in China.
However, before you proceed to use it in China, contacting customer support prior is highly recommended. China blocks many VPNs, although there have been no reports of prosecuting tourists for using them.
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Simultaneous Device Connections — Connect Up to 10
You can use a total of 10 devices at the same time with the paid version, more than most VPNs. This will help you use it on multiple platforms without needing to log out. You can have it running on your Windows laptop and switch to your iPhone instantly.
Device Compatibility — Supports a Wide Range of Devices
hide.me offers native apps for all major platforms. You can even install it on your router to work on devices that don’t support VPNs, like your smart TV.
Desktop Devices
You can install hide.me on macOS, Windows and Linux. It comes with a simple and easy-to-use interface with a big connect button that helps you connect to servers in just a single click.
For Linux users, the command-line app uses WireGuard protocol and is available as an open-source project on Github.
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Mobile Devices
hide.me also supports mobile devices (iOS and Android) and you can install it from the Apple Store or Google Play Store.
Gaming Devices
hide.me is also available on multiple gaming consoles. This includes the latest PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo devices. However, to use it, you would need to install hide.me on your router and then connect it with your console.
Routers
Installing hide.me on routers is easy. I followed the instructions online and was able to set it up within 10 minutes. Here is a list of all the routers that hide.me supports:
- Asus-WRT
- Asus-WRT Merlin
- DD-WRT
- DD-WRT Legacy
- Mikrotik RouterOS
- OpenWRT
- OpenWRT Legacy
- Tomato
Streaming Devices
You can also use hide.me on various streaming platforms such as Apple TV, Android TV, and Roku, but you would need to install it on your router and then use it. However, hide.me also has a native Amazon Fire TV Stick app.
Browsers
It also comes with browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. This is great if you just want to run it on your browser and use it in seconds. However, the browser extension requires a new subscription leaving only 5 available locations if you just use the free option.
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