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

hide.me is best known for its free VPN service, but how does its premium plan stack up? We had a pleasant experience testing hide.me, considering it increased our speed with every server we tried and unblocked all the Netflix libraries we tested. 

The premium plan also includes 2,600 servers, an ad blocker, and specialty servers for streaming and multi-hop. But hide.me doesn't have the best functionality, with some servers not working and the kill switch not preventing IP address leaks.

Read our full review of hide.me, including hands-on testing and an overview of all its features.

At a glance

Price	$2.59-$9.95/mo
Free version	Yes
Max # of connected devices	10
# of servers	2,600 servers in 57 countries
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 July 30, 2025.

Our experience

Testing hide.me has been a struggle in the past, but we had next to no issues during our latest testing. We installed the virtual private network (VPN) on our MacBook. 

hide.me provides tutorials of its dashboard and how to connect, which you can skip if desired. We always appreciate a tutorial, especially to help out any users 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, switching servers was almost always instantaneous. We only had one issue with the Australia streaming server, which never connected. But once we tried connecting again, it worked without a hitch.

We like that hide.me has specialized servers for streaming and multi-hop (double VPN) connections. 

The hide.me mobile apps are highly rated, with a 4.4 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 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. Its starting price of $2.59/mo (billed every two years) makes it one of 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 maximum savings.

Plan	1 month	12 months	24 months Best Value
Price per month	$9.95/mo	$4.57/mo (billed annually)	$2.59/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 $2.59-$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 57 countries, and bonus features like port forwarding and streaming support.  

Features	Free	Premium
# of device connections	1	10
# of server locations	8 locations	57 countries
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
• KuCoin Pay

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 57 countries

hide.me offers 2,600 servers in 57 countries spread across about six continents. Many premium services have more servers than this, like Surfshark at 3,200+ servers and Nord at 8,000+ 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 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. It's 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, a kill switch 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 secure and nearly impenetrable. 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 increased our download speeds by an average of 5%.

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 Macbook 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	461.98 Mbps	495.29 Mbps	501.99 Mbps	477.54 Mbps	471.19 Mbps
Upload speed	428.70 Mbps	253.65 Mbps	233.75 Mbps	80.17 Mbps	173.07 Mbps
Latency (ping)	18 ms	27 ms	71 ms	124 ms	226 ms
Download speed % difference	N/A	+7.21%	+8.66%	+3.37%	+1.99%
Upload speed % difference	N/A	-40.83%	-45.47%	-81.30%	-59.63%
Latency % difference	N/A	+50.00%	+294.44%	+588.89%	+1,155.56%

Unlike typical VPNs, hide.me actually increased our speeds with every server we tested. At most, we typically see VPNs maintain the same download speed so the speed increases of 2% to nearly 9% were a great sign.

hide.me mostly impacted our upload speeds and latency as we started selecting servers across the world, but this is expected. The distance between your physical location and the server you select can impact your speeds because it takes longer for your data to travel. 

Even still, hide.me impressed us with its stellar results. We'd recommend hide.me if speed is your priority when shopping for a VPN. 

Netflix tests

• Netflix test results: hide.me unblocked Netflix U.S., Canada, U.K., and Australia. 

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?

hide.me didn't have any issues with Netflix, unblocking all four libraries we tested. The service makes this easy by providing a tab of streaming servers directly on its dashboard. 

Considering how well hide.me maintained our speeds, it was no surprise we didn't experience any lag or buffering while streaming. 

DNS leak test

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

We conduct Domain Name System (DNS) tests 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 masked 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. Our real IP address and internet service provider (ISP) slipped through the cracks, so we consider this a fail. 

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 10+
• macOS 10.15+
• Linux
• Android 6+
• iOS 12+
• 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, 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's frequently failed the kill switch test. So if you're looking for an all-rounder, check out our list of the best VPNs available.