HideMy.name VPN Review 2023 – Do We Recommend It?
HideMy.name VPN — did I say that correctly? Yeah, I think I got it right.
To be honest with you, before writing this review, I didn’t even know that this VPN service existed. But after getting to playing around with it for a couple of days, I can say that it can be considered worth getting if you don’t mind paying $4.00/mo, which is more than what you’d pay for a premium service like Surfshark VPN $1.99/mo.
Now, when I say you can consider purchasing HideMy.name VPN, I don’t want you to think that it is perfect. I like that it is decently fast, works with some streaming services, and also with torrenting.
Having said that, it doesn’t work with US Netflix, doesn’t offer too many servers, and only comes with limited features.
Overall, HideMy.name offers most of what you might need, but not everything. But how does it stand against its competitors? Does it have what it takes to be recommended on TheVPNExperts? Read on to find out or get started with HideMy.name now.
Key Findings from HideMy.name VPN Review
| Servers | 128+ servers in 40+ locations |
| Best feature | Secure protocols (IKEv2, PPTP, OpenVPN, and L2TP) |
| Does HideMy.name work with Netflix? | No, but it works with, BBC iPlayer & Amazon Prime |
| Is HideMy.name good for Torrenting? | Torrenting only allowed on Moscow server |
| Customer Support | Live Chat support |
| Money back guarantee | 30-day money-back guarantee |
| HideMy.name Pricing | Costly then close competitors $4.00/mo 1-year plan with 50% discount |
| Other findings | Zero Logs, built-in ping, and speed test feature |
HideMy.name Speed Test Analysis
When it comes to offering fast speeds, HideMy.name is pretty fast. I conducted multiple speed tests while connected to servers close to the Netherlands (my actual location) and also long-distance servers just to give you an idea of what to expect from HideMy.name.
But while conducting my speed tests, one thing I found disappointing was that there was no option to connect to the “best” or the “fastest server”. I had to just pick and choose servers manually which was a bit annoying.
Anyways, here’s a table with all the speed test results if you’re interested:
| Countries | Distance | Download Speed | Upload Speed | Ping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | 6,407.31 km | 92.41 Mbps | 83.27 Mbps | 211 ms |
| Egypt | 3,458.57 km | 95.5 Mbps | 80.67 Mbps | 262 ms |
| Turkey | 2,682.50 km | 43.11 Mbps | 65.45 Mbps | 170 ms |
| United States | 7505.72 km | 85.84 Mbps | 90.84 Mbps | 305 ms |
| United Kingdom | 677.04 km | 85.84 Mbps | 94.17 Mbps | 136 ms |
| Australia | 14792.34 km | 95.5 Mbps | 80.67 Mbps | 262 ms |
If you don’t know, the closer you are to any server, the faster your speeds are going to be. To test out how HideMy.name would perform when connected to a bunch of servers close to my actual location in the Netherlands, I first connected to the UK server and then moved on to other server locations like France, Germany, Greece, and Itay.
Close Distance Connection
Without HideMy.name connected, the speeds that I got through my ISP (T-Mobile) in the Netherlands was around 94.17 Mbps download, 89.45 upload, and 7 ms pings on my 100 Mbps connection.
Once I connected to the UK server of HideMy.name, which was only 677.04 km away from my actual location, I managed to get a download speed of 85.84 Mbps, an upload speed of 94.17 Mbps and a ping of 136 ms. That’s a 14.16% decrease in download speed and a 5.83% decrease in upload speed.
As you can tell, that’s barely a drop in my overall connection speeds. But I still tried streaming Netflix in HD quality and also 1080p videos on Youtube just for fun and didn’t notice any fluctuations.
If we talk about gaming performance, as usual, I played a couple of matches of PUBG to test out latency and gaming lag. During my testing, I noticed that my pings stayed mostly in the red and occasionally dropped down to yellow.
But despite high pings, the gaming experience was not too choppy. I guess what I’m trying to say is, HideMy.name is OKAY for gaming.
Aside from the UK server, I also connected to three other servers close to my actual physical location and I was quite impressed by the overall speeds. With the French server, I managed to get a downloading speed of 83.44 Mbps, 76.9 Mbps with the Greece server, and 81.23 Mbps with the Italian server.
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Long-Distance Connection
After testing out a bunch of close distance servers, I wanted to see how HideMy.name VPN would perform when connected to long-distance servers in countries like the United States, Turkey, Australia, Canada, and Egypt.
To kick off my testing, first, I connected to a server in the United States, which was approximately 7505.72 km away from my location in the Netherlands.
Once I ran the test, I noted down my downloading speeds at 85.84 Mbps and my upload speed at 90.84 Mbps. But, my ping was a bit high this time maxing at 305 ms.
With the Turkish server, I noticed my speeds drop a bit, however, not too majorly. With my 100 Mbps connection, I managed to get a downloading speed of 43.11 Mbps and an upload speed of 65.45 Mbps with 170 ms ping.
As for the Australian, Canadian, and Egyptian servers, I managed to get 95.5 Mbps, 92.41 Mbps, and 95.5 Mbps downloading speeds respectively.
Overall, HideMy.name VPN performed quite well on both close and long-distance servers. That said, it is important to keep in mind that your speed test results might vary from mine depending on your internet connection and your geographical location.
HideMy.name Passed DNS Leak Tests
VPNs tend to leak, especially those that aren’t renowned or mainstream. This is why it is super important to always use a VPN that offers leak protection. Because you just can’t risk exposing all your browsing activities to your ISP.
Sadly though, HideMy.name doesn’t come with a DNS leak protection option and it also doesn’t use its own DNS servers. I talked to their support agent “Adam” and he told me that HideMy.name uses Google DNS 8.8.8.8.
But despite all that, HideMy.name VPN actually managed to pass my DNS leak tests without failing once. Here’s a screenshot of the test result.
As you can tell from the screenshot, since I was connected to a U.S server, both my IP and DNS addresses are appearing to be from the United States and not from the Netherlands. This means that HideMy.name clearly passed my leak test.
I also conducted several other leak tests as well with different locations, but instead of sharing too many screenshots with you, I’ve added a neat little table below with all the results.
| Countries | IP Leak | DNS Leak |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | Passed | Passed |
| Egypt | Passed | Passed |
| Turkey | Passed | Passed |
| United States | Passed | Passed |
| United Kingdom | Passed | Passed |
| Australia | Passed | Passed |
So overall, based on my extensive testing, I can confirm that HideMy.name isn’t going to leak or expose your IP address.
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HideMy.name Can Unblock BBC iPlayer & Amazon Prime But not Disney Plus, Hulu, & Netflix
When it comes to unblocking streaming services, HideMy.name VPN isn’t particularly the best. Out of five (5) major streaming services, I only managed to unblock two (2).
Another thing that I found quite annoying was that HideMy.name VPN doesn’t offer any optimized servers for streaming. You just have to guess which servers might work. I’m sure it makes sense.
When I tried searching for any shows that we’re only exclusively available on the US Netflix, I couldn’t find any of it. I tried all available US servers but with no luck.
Disappointing? Yes.
After having no luck with US Netflix, I tried accessing BBC iPlayer. Luckily, it worked in the first try. Here’s a screenshot of that:
Other than BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime also worked in the first try. I tried streaming a movie called “7500” and it played almost instantly. Here’s a screenshot of that:
But while I was lucky enough to unblock BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime, I was unable to unblock Hulu and Disney Plus. When I tried accessing Hulu, I was able to log in to my account using my credentials and search different content, however, when I tried played anything, I came across the proxy error.
Similarly, Disney Plus also didn’t work. When I tried accessing Disney +, I came across the “something went wrong error” message.
Last but not least, I tried using Kodi with HideMy.name, but I quickly realized that it doesn’t offer an ad-on and that I would have to install it directly on to my router or my computer to be able to use it with Kodi.
Just for the sake of saving time, I didn’t bother installing it on my router. Instead, I just ran it in the background and was still able to “The Crew” Kodi add-on without any issues.
So overall, HideMy.name VPN works with some streaming services, however, it definitely needs to up its game if it wants to compete with the likes of Surfshark.
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HideMy.name is Not a Great Option for Torrenting
When it comes to torrenting, HideMy.name VPN is not the best option out there considering that it only offers one server for torrenting (Moscow). Because of that, you can’t expect fast speeds when downloading or uploading torrents. In comparison, VPNs like CyberGhost actually offer a massive list of servers optimized for torrenting. You can check out my CyberGhost review to get an idea of what I’m talking about.
Anyways, the good thing about HideMy.name is that it offers unlimited bandwidth. This can come in handy if you frequently download large files.
As for features that might help you download torrents securely, HideMy.name doesn’t offer much. You don’t get leak protection or an option for split tunneling. The only security features you do get are 256-bit encryption, no logs, secure protocols, kill switch and an extra protocol by the name “Chameleon” which is supposed to bypass strict firewalls like the ones present in China.
To test out the torrenting performance of HideMy.name, I connected to the only supported Moscow server.
After establishing a proper connection, I managed to achieve a downloading speed of around 0.6 kB/s and an uploading speed of 0.5 kB/s on my 10 Mbps internet connection reserved only for torrenting.
I’ve seen better results. The only explanation for such slow torrenting performance could be overcrowded servers. If only HideMy.name offered more locations, I think it would manage to offer faster speeds.
Even after switching to different servers from Moscow S2 to all the way to Moscow Z2, I didn’t notice any improvement in my torrenting performance.
Overall, just because of HideMy.name’s slow torrenting performance, I think it only deserves a 6/10 rating in this category.
Apps for Most Platforms
The app situation of HideMy.name is decent. I say decent in the sense that it supports most platforms we all use every day.
But as far as look and feel goes, HideMy.name has an appearance that only a mother could love. Its very bare bore is what I’m trying to say. They’ve not done much to make their app look appealing to customers.
Anyways, the file size of both their Windows and macOS apps is very small. It only takes up 7.3 Mb and 3.4 Mb of space respectively on both platforms. Being so small in size means that their installation process is super quick and only takes a minute or so to get installed.
As for the iOS and Android apps. Both are very basic to look at but easy to use. The iOS app has a 4.4/5.0 star rating and the Android app has a 4.5/5.0 star rating. We’ll talk more about these apps in the compatibility section of this HideMy.name review.
So, their apps are small in size, but how intuitive or easy to use are they?
Well, their apps are easy to use, however, it has a lot to do with the fact that HideMy.name doesn’t offer too many features.
I like that the interface for their desktop apps is divided into different tabs. It makes it easy to browse through the app and search for different options.
Overall, if you’re not a features freak, or if looks don’t bother you too much, then you’re not going to have any problems with HideMy.name.
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HideMy.name Has a No-Logging Policy
If we talk about logs, HideMy.name doesn’t keep any of it. Like most top tier VPNs, this VPN also offers a legit no logs policy.
In their privacy policy, they clearly mention that they strictly do not record any of your data. Here’s a snippet from their privacy policy:
“Our browsing behavior is not monitored or recorded by us. It is impossible to log your browsing behavior with our technical backend. All the data you use remains anonymous and not connected to your real, public IP address.”
They only information that this VPN service retains is a randomly generated username and an internally assigned, non-public IP address maintained for troubleshooting purposes. That’s about it.
One thing I really like about their privacy policy is that HideMy.name claims that they will inform their clients in case they are legally required to comply with the law and will do everything from moving jurisdictions to terminating their service just to protect their customers.
This is a very bold statement and I appreciate it.
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HideMy.name Offers a 30 days Money-Back Guarantee – Proven
Getting a refund from HideMy.name VPN is pretty straight forward. You just to comply with their terms of use and their money-back guarantee.
By that I mean, you can only claim a refund once, you can’t consume more than 5 gigabytes of bandwidth, you have to show proof that you contacted customer support to resolve any issues and you can’t exceed the 30-day refund period.
Too much too process right? Fortunately, I read through everything before claiming a refund.
Anyways, to get my refund, I filled out the feedback form with my email address along with my account code and the reason why I wanted my money back.
After submitting the form, I quickly hopped on to live chat support and asked how long will it take to process my refund. To which, the support representative told me that it’ll take around 7 to 14 days.
So after patiently waiting, I finally got my money back, but with some deductions. If you’re going to claim a refund, definitely go through their money-back guarantee to see what amount each payment processor will potentially deduct.
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Key Features of HideMy.name VPN
If we talk about the key features of HideMy.name VPN, I would say that there’s not much that you’re going to get. That’s something I do wish gets improved in future updates. But anyway, here are some of the features of HideMy.name VPN:
256-bit AES Encryption
For security, HideMy.name offers 256-bit AES encryption. It also offers 128-bit encryption as well, but we’ll just focus on the much safer 256-bit encryption. If you don’t know, this level of encryption is the industry benchmark and is the most secure option out there.
Aside from powerful encryption, this VPN also offers a variety of VPN protocols too. You can choose between IKEv2, PPTP, OpenVPN, and L2TP.
But do keep in mind that protocol selection may vary depending on which device or operating system you use.
Kill Switch
Like most VPNs, HideMy.name also comes with a built-in Kill switch. If you go into settings, you’ll see three options for the Kill switch feature. You can choose between the following;
- When connected to VPN
- When logging into the program
- Never
The Kill switch option works exactly as advertised so that’s good too. I selected the first option for the Kill switch feature and didn’t notice any issues with it.
Auto Connection
This feature, or should I say option, is pretty self-explanatory. It basically auto establishes a connection to the VPN server when you turn on your computer. It is pretty helpful for people who always forget to turn on the VPN before browsing the web.
Ping & Speed Test
One feature I really like about HideMy.name is the built-in option to test ping and speed. You just have to pick any server and you can see the ping and speed of that particular server in real-time. It is a pretty helpful feature I must say.
Chameleon Protocol
As I mentioned before, HideMy.name VPN comes with a “Chameleon protocol”. This protocol is meant to be used in counties like China with strict geo-restrictions. Stick around to find out if it actually works in China or not.
SOCKS5 Proxy
Another cool feature that this VPN offer is an option to select HTTP and SOCKS5 proxy. You can simply select the proxy, the host, and the port to get everything set up. I’m sure you know how proxies work.
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Analysis of Servers
The server spread of HideMy.name VPN is just about okay but not impressive by any means. Despite costing $4.00/mo, this VPN service only comes with 128+ servers in 40+ countries. In comparison, Surfshark which only costs $$1.99/mo and offers 3200+ servers.
Although it only offers a few servers, I like that its server network is very diverse. You can find VPN servers in some Middle Eastern countries, you can find servers all over Europe and in even North America. Even more impressively, it freaking offers Russian servers.
While we’re talking about servers, I would like to mention that HideMy.name doesn’t offer any servers in China. It doesn’t even offer any servers in the nearby country of Hong Kong. That’s something I found to be a bit disappointing.
Overall, their server network can be better. They should definitely offer more servers.
HideMy.name Apps Compatibility
As I mentioned earlier, HideMy.name is compatible with most operating systems and devices. You can ever configure it on your router so that’s pretty great.
Here are all the devices that HideMy.name supports:
| Windows | Android |
| macOS | iOS |
| Linux | Android TV |
| Routers |
HideMy.name for macOS & Windows
Design-wise, I’m not a big fan of HideMy.name VPN. Their Windows and macOS apps are very basic to look at. The UI definitely needs improvement. But it all comes down to personal preference at the end of the day.
The UI, however, is very easy to navigate. You can connect to the VPN service by just clicking on the connect button from the screen.
If you go into settings, you can customize how the app behaves in different situations, which I find quite helpful. You can checkmark “Autoloading”, “Auto connection” and “Auto-minimize” to make the app more intuitive to use.
Another thing I like about the UI of their Windows and macOS apps is the implementation of tabs. I like how it makes finding different options so much easier.
If we talk about the things that I don’t like, I would say that not having an option to filter servers for streaming and torrenting tops the list. I found this so annoying. But to make up for it, it does give you an option to add different servers to your favorites list.
HideMy.name VPN for Android & iOS
The mobile apps of HideMy.name VPN are also very basic in design. You don’t get many options at all. You can just pick servers from a drop-down list, enable or disable Kill switch, switch protocols, and contact support. That’s about it. But in comparison, the Android app looks better and offers more options than the iOS app.
On top of the app interface, it shows your local IP address along with the remaining days of your current subscription. Below that, you can select different servers from the list and hit the green connect button underneath it to get connected.
Again, one thing you’re not going to find is any kind of filter. Want to search for a particular server quickly, yeah that’s not going to happen. You’ll have to scroll through the list like a neanderthal.
Overall, both the desktop and mobile apps could use a fresh makeover with better UI, animations, and an overall modern look.
HideMy.name Browser Extensions
Although I should have technically skipped this heading, I wanted to highlight that HideMy.name VPN doesn’t offer any extensions for any browsers. You might think I’m joking but I’m not.
I found this quite disappointing. I love using browser extensions all the time because they’re so convenient. I would really love to see a browser extension added to HideMy.name in the future.
HideMy.name Router App
Even though HideMy.name doesn’t offer browser extensions, it makes up for it with its decent support for routers. Here’s are all the router brands that are compatible with HideMy.name:
- Asus
- TP-Link
You can simply head over to their router setup page, pick the brand of your router, and follow the step by step up guide to get everything configured. I was able to configure HideMy.name VPN on my Asus router within 15 minutes max.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, even if you’re a newbie, you should have no trouble configuring it on your supported router. Sadly though, you can’t purchase pre-configured routers from sources like FlashRouters.
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Does it Work in China?
According to my foreign colleague in China, HideMy.name doesn’t work in China. I contact their support team regarding the matter and they told me that the only way to tell if HideMy.name works in China is by testing it on the spot.
Now we all know that’s just silly.
Besides that, their support agent subtly mentioned that their service is blocked in different regions of China and the only way to make it work is to try out different servers and settings.
But in all honesty, I can’t be too hard on HideMy.name VPN considering that a lot of VPNs don’t tend to works in China because of strict restrictions imposed through the Great Firewall of China.
Best Alternative to HideMy.name
So by now, I’m sure you have an idea of what I think about this VPN service. While I can’t call it the best, I can’t also call it the worst option out there too. It kind of sits in the middle, if that makes sense. It is good, but not good enough.
So, if you don’t want to go for HideMy.name VPN, what else should you get? Well, your best options are Surfshark or ExpressVPN. These providers offer a better value for money and offer way more features at a much more attractive price.
Now I’m not saying I don’t like HideMy.name VPN, but if the value for money matters to you, then you should definitely consider checking out the other alternatives I just mentioned.
If you want to get a VPN that’s more affordable and offers more features, you might find my in-depth Surfshark vs NordVPN and ExpressVPN vs Surfshark comparisons helpful.
Do I Recommend HideMy.name?
Well, yes. I do recommend getting HideMy.name VPN, but only if you can pay $4.00/mo and can live with blend and plain-looking apps every day knowing that there are better options.
If you don’t have any problem with that, HideMy.name can be a good choice for you. After all, it works with BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime, offers strong 256-but AES encryption, is easy to use, and offers apps for a variety of devices.
