HideIPVPN Review 2024: Before You Buy, Is It Worth It?

HideIPVPN Offers Good Speeds on Nearby Servers

I connected to multiple nearby, mid-range, and distant servers and my findings were consistent – HideIPVPN’s performance significantly drops with distance.

Speed Test Results

HideIPVPN only has servers in 12 countries, including the US and Canada. Since I travel a lot between North America and South Asia, I’m currently in a country that isn’t on HideIPVPN’s list. However, I was able to connect to a nearby server in Singapore and got decent speeds, enough to binge-watch Netflix in HD.

My baseline download speed was 10.49Mbps. When I connected to a nearby server in Singapore, my speeds dropped by 41% to 6.19Mbps. That’s a significant speed drop but just enough that you can surf the internet and stream videos without any problems.

When I connected to two long-distance servers – one in Los Angeles and the other in Luxembourg – I got ridiculously slow speeds. These servers gave me speed drops of 71% and 72.4%, respectively. At this point, I wasn’t even able to surf the internet properly, let alone stream videos.

When I searched something on Google, for instance, it took about 5 seconds for the page to load. Opening a website, especially streaming platforms, including Netflix and Hulu took ridiculously long.

Having said that, this slow down was much more apparent because my base speed was slow. If your internet is faster than mine, surfing the web won’t be a problem. If you want to stream, you might still have some buffering and the video quality may drop to SD from time to time.

HideIPVPN also offers a Smart Location feature, which connects you to the best available server depending on your location. When I tried it, I was connected to a server in Luxembourg, which is odd considering it’s a long-distance server. My speeds dropped to 2.89Mbps and there was a lot of buffering while streaming.

The Smart Location feature connects you to a server randomly and provides no better speeds than most long-distance servers. I recommend that you pick a short-distance server manually from the list of servers.

Overall, I was not impressed by HideIPVPN’s performance. It’s not suitable for streaming and doesn’t have a big server network. If you want a VPN that offers a large server network and provides blazing-fast speeds on both short- and long-distance servers, try out ExpressVPN.

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Server Network – Small Server Network

HideIPVPN is one of the lesser-known VPNs I’ve tested, so I wasn’t surprised to see it only had 20+ servers across a dozen countries. Servers are located mostly in Europe, with only a handful in the US and Asia. This puts HideIPVPN at a significant disadvantage, especially when you compare it to some of the other big VPN providers.

During my research, I also discovered that HideIPVPN doesn’t offer unlimited bandwidth (restricted to 1Gbps). Thankfully, you shouldn’t use that much bandwidth for general internet activity like streaming Netflix or browsing social media.

Apart from that, HideIPVPN’s native app doesn’t include the proxy feature and you’ll need to set it up manually. A proxy is an intermediary between you and the internet and it’s a must-have if you want to use HideIPVPN’s SmartDNS feature. I was able to set it up on my Mac using the step-by-step tutorial on HideIPVPN’s website.

If you’re concerned by HideIPVPN’s server limitations, you should check out other VPNs.  ExpressVPN has a vast server network of 3,000 servers in 105 countries, most of them in the US and UK – both popular choices for streaming geo-restricted content.

Security – Provides a Range of Encryption Protocols

HideIPVPN offers a wide range of encryption protocols, including OpenVPN, IKEv2, and many others. On my Mac, however, I could only see 3 encryption protocols – OpenVPN, IKEv2, and L2TP.

I prefer using OpenVPN because it’s fast, secure, and open source. Plus, it provides military-grade encryption and is the recommended choice when using any VPN. Apart from OpenVPN, you can also choose:

• IKEv2 — which is popular with mobile users because it provides exceptional security and is one of the fastest encryption protocols.
• L2TP — Another secure protocol great for maintaining complete anonymity online.

I asked one of my colleagues to check which protocols HideIPVPN offers on Windows. I found out that apart from the ones available on Mac, it additionally provides SSTP and PPTP.

Using HideIPVPN’s Application Killer prevents DNS leaks. Applications added to the App Killer list will shut down if the VPN connection drops, keeping your data secure.

I monitored HideIPVPN’s connection and noticed it disconnected every few minutes before immediately reconnecting to the network, causing the App Killer to shut down my browser. Once reconnected, it failed to notify me or reopen the closed applications, proving it to be more annoying than helpful.

For this reason, the App Killer isn’t as effective as a kill switch. If you’re doing a more sensitive task like accessing your bank account, and the connection to the VPN server drops, a kill switch wouldn’t close your browser like the App Killer. Instead, it will kill your internet, protecting your data. That’s why HideIPVPN’s Mac app could definitely use a kill switch.

HideIPVPN offers a smart DNS service with unlimited device connections. Smart DNS lets you route your internet traffic from a different IP and is handy for avid streamers. You can access smart DNS within the app, but I’d recommend caution if you decide to use it. Your data is unsecured when using this DNS service, meaning your IP address can be traced by your ISP, government, or any malicious users.

Privacy – Has a Questionable No-Logs Policy

HideIPVPN keeps a strict no-logs policy, which is a promising start, but it fails to back up the claim with independent audits. Without an audit to support their claim, you have to take HideIPVPN at face value.
According to its Privacy Policy, HideIPVPN collects necessary data to log into VPN and DNS servers. It doesn’t define what it means by ‘necessary data,’ though. Technically, it can store your personal information or your online activity.

During my research, I came across lots of conflicting information over the actual location of HideIPVPN. I decided to contact customer support for a clear answer.

I discovered that HideIPVPN is located within the US, so it’s within the 5/9/14-eyes alliance. As a member, the U.S. can share data from HideIPVPN with other affiliated nations — exposing your online activities and destroying your privacy.

Torrenting – Few Servers for Torrenting

At first glance, HideIPVPN doesn’t appear to have P2P servers that support torrenting. I tried torrenting a copyright-free file while being connected to servers in the UK, the US, Canada, France, and Australia, but none of them allowed torrenting.

I researched for hours on end and stumbled upon one of HideIPVPN’s blog posts, which said that torrenting is only allowed on servers in Germany and the Netherlands. After reading this, I connected to a server in Germany and was able to download a 1.7GB file within 10 minutes, which is good enough. Then, I connected to a server in the Netherlands and was able to download the same file within a similar span of time.

Although I was satisfied with the torrenting performance, HideIPVPN should mention that it only supports torrenting on servers in Germany and the Netherlands. Upon consistently testing these torrent-compatible servers, I found that my speeds dropped by 52%. That’s because Germany and the Netherlands are far from my location. So, you’ll likely get great speeds if these countries are nearby you.

Having said that, my team and I don’t condone illegal torrenting, so it’s always wise to check the rules and regulations in the country you’re in.

Does HideIPVPN Work in China?

During my research, I found mixed views on whether HideIPVPN works in China or not. Therefore, I decided to contact the support team.

I didn’t receive a concrete answer from the support team, though. It stated that HideIPVPN can’t guarantee whether it will work in China on all VPN protocols since the internet is highly restrictive there. The team, however, recommended some VPN protocols that might be able to do the job. Oddly, it recommended all the protocols that the VPN supports.

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Getting past the Great Firewall of China is something only a handful of VPNs are capable of doing. If you want a VPN that works in China, I highly recommend you use ExpressVPN. If you’re travelling to China, make sure you install ExpressVPN’s app on your devices beforehand, otherwise, you won’t be able to.

HideIPVPN offers you 2 support options: a ticketing system and a live chat. With over 6+ years of testing VPN services, I know that support can make or break the deal for getting a VPN.

Getting in touch with HideIPVPN’s support team through the ticketing system was easy, and I received a reply within 2 hours of submitting a ticket. Apart from that, HideIPVPN also has a detailed FAQ section, which will provide answers to most of your queries.

I also tested HideIPVPN’s live chat support. Most often, I got a response immediately, but at other times, it took hours to get a response. That’s because live chat has specific working hours that aren’t specified. If you message the team after working hours, you won’t get a fast response.

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