Hide.me review

Supported Devices

You can use Hide.me on Mac, PC, Android, and iOS. Advanced users can also configure the service to work with Linux, routers, game consoles, and Smart TVs.

Ease of Use

Reviewers found the apps straightforward and user-friendly. You can connect and choose your location in a few clicks or taps. Pinning your favorite servers also makes it easy to reconnect later.

Despite — or perhaps because of — its simplicity, a few experts actually found the interface slightly confusing and disappointing. Some basic features -- such as changing servers --   are hidden away in menus.

PC Magazine states, “In short, the app needs a refresh.”

Simultaneous Connections

For the free version, you can only connect one device at a time. Upgrading to the premium subscription allows you to connect up to five devices.

Included Features

While Hide.me might seem simple on the surface, it offers a nice range of features, including:

• Killswitch
• Secure   256-bit AES encryption
• P2P servers
• Several VPN protocols, including OpenVPN, SoftEther, IKEv2, L2TP/IPSec, PPTP, and SSTP
• Split tunneling support
• Stealth Guard

Privacy and Logging

The main reason you’re getting a VPN is to protect your privacy.

So how does Hide.me fair? Pretty good, actually.

The company states they keep zero logs in their marketing. This is backed up in their Privacy Policy, where they repeat that they do not keep any logs of your VPN sessions, browsing behavior, website history, or any other activity connected with your VPN connection.

They do, however, keep track of your total data usage. This isn’t a surprise since their free plan has bandwidth limits. They also store your email address, which again, is not surprising. You can pay by credit card or go for the more private option of Bitcoin.

When tested, experts didn’t notice any DNS or IP leaks.

Performance

Whenever you connect to a VPN, your speeds will always go down. But some VPNs reduce your speed more than others. While not horrible, Hide.me’s overall performance did not impress reviewers.

Some reviewers achieved decent speeds. But most servers could not maintain speeds. Mostly, speeds were average veering into somewhat slow.

Support

If you run into any issues, then you’ll probably be happy with Hide.me’s support. They offer 24/7 live chat with a representative ready to answer in less than a minute. However, answer quality disappointed experts on occasion. Most of the support agents directed questions to the tech team for more difficult questions. This meant opening a support ticket and waiting 24-48 hours for a response.

You will also find a community forum to post questions or search through previous posts to see if someone has had a similar issue. Reviewers found the forums quite active and recommended them for solving problems instead of waiting for a response from the tech team.

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Summary

Hide.me offers serious privacy protection. Their customization options also exceed many other VPNs on the market. With that said, its high price, average performance, and limited server locations make it harder to recommend over similarly priced VPNs such as ExpressVPN.

The Best VPN states, “Overall, with its P2P support, and stellar security and privacy measures it would be a great fit for people using the service to stream or download. However, there are some serious drawbacks to consider…”

Macworld adds, “Hide.me is a pretty good service. It has the right privacy promises... and doesn’t ask for much in the way of personal information. We have seen better speeds, however. Anyone who needs better speeds for gaming or other uses... should probably look elsewhere.”