hide.me Review 2025: How Does This Independent Service Stand Up?

hide.me is a virtual private network (VPN) with a generous free tier that keeps your data private as proven by its audited no-logs policy. If you opt for a premium plan, you'll get access to 2,600 servers, an and tracker blocker, and options for streaming and extra security. 

Unfortunately, its streaming servers didn't always work for us but this wasn't a huge issue due to its extensive server options. Here's our full review of hide.me, including hands-on testing and an overview of all its features.

At a glance

Price	$2.69-$9.95/mo
Free version	Yes
Max # of connected devices	10
# of servers	2,600 servers in 91 locations
VPN protocol	WireGuard, IKEv2, SSTP, OpenVPN, SoftEther
No-logs policy	No logs
Headquarters	Malaysia
Netflix access	Yes
Learn more	Get hide.me

We last tested hide.me on March 18, 2025.

Our experience

Testing hide.me has been a struggle in the past, but we had next to no issues this time around. We installed the service on our Windows laptop and on our iPhone 13. 

hide.me provides tutorials of its dashboard and how to connect, which you can skip if desired. We always appreciate a tutorial, especially to accomodate anyone who may be using a VPN for the first time.  

In the past, it would take a while for us to connect to servers. This time around, it was pretty easy for us to switch from server to server as we tested our speeds and unblock Netflix. 

We like that hide.me has specialized servers for streaming and multi-hop (double VPN) connections. However, the Canada streaming location couldn't load Netflix at all. This was an easy fix once we switched to a regular Canadian server, just something to keep in mind if streaming is your VPN focus. 

The hide.me mobile apps are highly rated, with a 4.3 in the Google Play Store and a 4.5 in the Apple App Store. We had an easy time navigating the iOS app, with clearly labeled tabs for server locations, streaming servers, and settings at the bottom of the dashboard.  

Overall, the VPN is performed well for speed and streaming, plus we like its user-friendly dashboard. If you're super techy and love the extra customization options, this may be a gem for you.

Who is hide.me best for?

• Recommended for highly technical users who love to customize their VPN settings.

hide.me is a fantastic VPN provider for users that want high customization, strong privacy, and solid performance at an excellent price.

The service has a lot going for it: plenty of servers to choose from, good streaming support, an easy-to-use app, an independently verified no-logs policy, and a headquarters in a privacy-friendly country (Malaysia).

hide.me prices and subscriptions

hide.me offers a free plan and paid plan that costs $2.91-$4.95/mo. There are three term lengths you can choose from: one month, 12 months, or 26 months. The longer you’re willing to commit, the cheaper the monthly price, with each term increase roughly halving the cost.

Compared to competing VPNs, the prices themselves are quite good, especially if you opt for the 26-month plan. 

The starting price of $2.69/mo (billed every two years) price puts it right in line with the most affordable options on the market, such as CyberGhost ($2.19/mo (billed every two years)) and Surfshark ($1.99/mo (billed every two years)).

As such, hide.me is a great choice if you’re looking to save money on a VPN. Just note that you will have to commit to longer-term subscriptions if you want to save the most.

Plan	1 month	12 months	24 months Best Value
Price per month	$9.95/mo	$4.57/mo (billed annually)	$2.69/mo (billed every two years)

Free vs. paid plan comparison

hide.me's free plan is completely free, albeit limited in features and bandwidth allowance. It’s a good option to try out the VPN, although there’s also a money-back guarantee on the Premium plan.

The Premium plan ranges from $2.69-$9.95/mo and unlocks all the features of the service. That includes up to 10 device connections, a full server network of 2,600 servers in 91 locations, and bonus features like port forwarding and streaming support.  

Features	Free	Premium
# of device connections	1	10
# of server locations	8 locations	91 locations
Unlimited data
No-logs policy
Kill switch
Split tunneling
Multi-hop
Fixed IP address
Streaming support
Dynamic port forwarding
	View plan	View plan

Payment options

hide.me accepts the following payment methods:

• Credit cards
• PayPal
• Amazon Pay
• Google Pay
• Bitcoin

So, hide.me offers multiple ways for you to purchase your subscription and protect your privacy while doing it.

hide.me features

hide.me offers all the security features you’d expect from a premium VPN: a wide selection of servers and server locations, a strict no-logs policy, and tools like a kill switch, split tunneling, and multi-hop.

Server count and countries

• 2,600 servers in 91 locations

hide.me offers 2,600 servers in 91 locations spread across about six continents. Many premium services have more servers than this, like Surfshark at 3,200+ servers and Nord at 7,400+ servers, but hide.me's count is still plenty.

Server count is important for a couple of reasons: First, the more servers there are, the less downtime a VPN is likely to experience. Second, more servers mean more flexibility in where you route your signal, potentially enhancing privacy. 

Finally, more servers can impact performance — the further away servers are from the destination, the slower the VPN connection.

No-logs policy and headquarters

• hide.me logs policy: No logs
• hide.me headquarters: Labuan, Malaysia

hide.me has a strict no-logs policy, which means it keeps no records of your activity on its servers, at least beyond the bare minimum that’s necessary to operate the service. Additionally, the headquarters is located in Labuan, Malaysia, a location that hide.me says was deliberately chosen for its privacy laws. As such, the company is not required by the government to store any information or to provide any information to the government.

Malaysia is also not part of the 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, or 14 Eyes alliances, which are groups of countries that share intelligence data with each other. This means that even if Malaysia does somehow get ahold of data, it’s under no obligation to share it with any other countries.

All this adds up to a fairly robust VPN from a privacy perspective. This bears out in the independent audit conducted by Leon Juranic of DefenseCode, Ltd. Independent audits are a fantastic way for VPNs to show that they mean what they say, so hide.me gets major bonus points for having one done.

Kill switch

hide.me offers a kill switch — a useful feature that restricts your network activity if your VPN drops its connection. This is important to prevent leaking your identity online. If the VPN loses connection and you don’t realize it, continued browsing could reveal personal information such as your IP address and location.

If you’re concerned about privacy, this feature is vital. Say you’re browsing the web and you don’t want sites or companies tracking your history. A VPN will help keep that information private, but if it drops for even a moment, all your data gets released to the internet trackers.

The hide.me kill switch can be enabled in the app’s settings with a simple toggle. Once turned on, it’ll cut your connection if the VPN drops and automatically restore it when the VPN reconnects.

Split tunneling

hide.me does offer split tunneling, a feature that routes some of your traffic through the VPN and some through your “regular” connection. You can choose which devices or apps go through which tunnel.

This is a useful feature if you need only some of your traffic to be private because you can still get the benefits of being on your local network, such as faster speeds or access to local devices. For example, you might use the VPN to do your shopping but stream over a regular connection.

You can find hide.me's split tunneling feature in the Features section in the menu.

Encryption

hide.me supports the AES-256 encryption protocol, which is used by banks and governments, so it is very secure. We generally consider this to be the industry standard.

The protocol helps ensure your data is as secure as possible. The encryption level may depend on which protocol you're using, but you can always verify your encryption level by hovering over the information icon when connected to a server.

VPN protocol

As far as VPN protocols, hide.me offers all of the most common options and then some:

• WireGuard
• IKEv2
• SSTP
• OpenVPN
• SoftEther 

Although not every VPN protocol works on all operating systems, there are offerings suitable for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.

You can choose which protocol your connection is using in the settings tab.

Multi-hop

Multi-hop is a customizable double VPN feature that enables you to select an entry and exit server. Your connection will then pass through both servers, giving you an additional layer of protection.

The company says this was developed because its connections were being blocked in certain locations. It also claims multi-hop can increase performance in some situations, such as gaming, presumably by reducing latency.

You can set up your multi-hop preferences in the server tab on the app.

SmartGuard

SmartGuard is a feature that uses DNS filtering to block ads, website trackers, and malicious sites. It functions essentially like an ad blocker in your browser but across your entire network. You can also get some level of parental control by blocking unsafe sites.

It’s also highly customizable — the controls can be accessed from the settings pane in the hide.me VPN app.

While a nice feature to have, DNS ad blockers do have some limitations. They cast a much larger net than browser-based ad blockers, so more things are likely to filter through. Mainly they don't work on YouTube and other more complex ads.

hide.me test results

We use standard tests available online to ensure the VPNs are working as expected. In our speed, streaming, and leak tests, hide.me performed decently, though there were some issues.

Speed tests

• Speed test results: hide.me had minimal impact on our internet speeds.

We run basic speed tests on all the VPNs we review. Due to their nature, VPNs are going to impact speeds — typically for the worse. After all, the service is adding stops along your signal’s path to the destination. 

However, some VPNs impact performance more than others, and that’s what we’re looking for here. Tests were performed on a Windows laptop from a physical location in the U.S.

Test type	No VPN	US to US	US to CA	US to EU	US to AU
Download speed	470.72 Mbps	518.65 Mbps	505.81 Mbps	399.92 Mbps	319.47 Mbps
Upload speed	482.81 Mbps	520.45 Mbps	449.97 Mbps	458.22 Mbps	433.29 Mbps
Latency (ping)	16 ms	12 ms	64 ms	124 ms	240 ms
Download speed % difference	N/A	+10.18%	+7.45%	-15.04%	-32.13%
Upload speed % difference	N/A	+7.80%	-6.80%	-5.09%	-10.62%
Latency % difference	N/A	-25%	+300%	+675%	+1,400

hide.me actually increased our speeds with the U.S. and Canada servers. At most, we typically see VPNs maintain the same download speed so the speed increases of 10% and 7% were a great sign. 

Our speed began decreasing once we connected to servers in the U.K. and Australia, but this is expected. The distance between your physical location and the server you select can impact your speeds. 

So servers in Australia having larger impact on your speeds is to be expected. Luckily, hide.me didn't impact our browsing or Netflix streaming. 

Netflix tests

• Netflix test results: hide.me unblocked all the Netflix libraries we tested. 

We tested hide.me to see if we could watch Netflix with a VPN. Netflix is the most persistent against VPNs, which is why we test with this streaming service specifically. 

No VPN	US to US	US to CA	US to EU	US to AU
Did it work with Netflix?

We were able to unblock Netflix U.S., Canada, U.K., and Australia, with help from hide.me's streaming-optimized servers. 

The only issue we encountered was with the Canadian streaming server. The Netflix page never loaded, no matter how many times we refreshed. But after we switched to a regular Canada server, we had no issues streaming. 

DNS leak test

• DNS leak test results: hide.me passed its DNS leak test.

We conduct Domain Name System (DNS) to verify that a VPN is actually doing the thing it’s supposed to do — keep our personally identifiable information private. These tests help verify that no info is being leaked by the VPN as you browse.

hide.me passed and successfully masking our IP address. All we were able to see was information associated with the VPN server we were connected to, which is the expected behavior. 

WebRTC leak test

• WebRTC leak test results: hide.me passed its WebRTC leak test.

Another leak test we conduct is a WebRTC leak test. This occurs when the connection between two devices exposes the IP address of one or more of these devices. WebRTC is what allows you to connect to others online through video or audio. 

Luckily, hide.me hid our IP address and kept our information private.

Kill switch test

• Kill switch test result: hide.me failed its kill switch test. 

To test kill switch functionality, we open up IPleak.net and let it run while we switch servers. If our real IP shows up in between the old and new server, then the kill switch isn't working.

We started by connecting to a server in Spain then switching to a server in France. Two Texas servers slipped through the cracks, so we consider this a failed result. 

hide.me compatibility

hide.me offers compatibility with a wide range of devices — all the expected options are there for operating systems and mobile devices:

• Windows
• macOS
• Linux
• Android
• iOS
• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Edge
• Amazon Fire TV
• Wireless routers

hide.me also allows for 10 simultaneous connections, so depending on the size of your household, a good amount of your devices will be connected.

hide.me customer support

hide.me offers a variety of ways to get in touch with them if you need support. There are options for live chat, opening a support ticket, or getting community support from other users. There’s also an extensive knowledge base with tons of articles that walk you through setting up and using the VPN.

Overall, we’re happy with the level of support offered here. It’s worth noting that there is no telephone option available, which may be an issue for some.

Online guides

There are plenty of online guides available for support, including:

• Full setup guides tailored to your system
• FAQs
• Video guides

Honestly, this is one of the better knowledge bases we've seen, which is improved by the inclusion of a forum to interact with the community.

Live chat

We tried the live chat option, which can be found in the bottom right corner of most pages on the website. We were connected to a representative almost immediately, and it appeared to be a real person and not a chatbot.

We asked for clarification about the level of encryption offered by hide.me, and the agent pointed us to an article we had already read.

Obviously this wasn't the most helpful interaction, but at least we were connected quickly. More simple conversations like billing issues may go better.

Tickets

You can also submit tickets to the support team via the help page or directly through the app.

Since they claim to offer 24/7 customer service, these tickets should be answered fairly reliably.

Top alternatives

If hide.me isn't ticking off all your boxes just yet, check out some of the highest rated VPNs available:

hide.me FAQs

Bottom line: Is hide.me good?

As a security and privacy product, hide.me checks several boxes: price, privacy, performance, and features. The fact that it’s independently owned is an additional bonus — when it comes to privacy, we just feel better about a company that’s not owned by a mega-conglomerate.

That said, its streaming-optimized servers haven't always worked during our testing and it failed the kill switch test. So if you're looking for an all-rounder, check out our list of the best VPNs available.