HMA Review 2023: Good and Safe VPN With One Major Flaw

Does HMA Provide High Speeds? Yes

Throughout testing, HMA provided me with quick speeds on most servers, but there was a noticeable drop when I connected to very distant servers. My speed dropped dramatically when connecting to servers over 9,000km away. It was still fast enough to have minimal buffering, but your results might vary if your internet speeds are already slow.

I also saw an increase in ping, or latency, when I ran speed tests on servers far away from my location. Although this won’t impact your daily browsing much, high latency can be annoying when gaming online. Chats may take longer to send, and you can experience terrible lag.

Speed Test Results

I was impressed by HMA’s fast speeds in nearby locations. On average, speeds decreased by 15% when I was connected to European servers. I tried servers in London, Belgium, Germany, France, Greece, Canada, the US, Japan, and Australia.

The fastest server location, in London slowed my speeds by 9% and produced a very low ping — perfect for any online activity, including online gaming. Canadian and US servers had more ping and dropped my speeds by around 70%.

HMA offers a Lightning Connect feature, which should pinpoint the fastest server for you. Unfortunately, it didn’t always work correctly. The automatically selected Spain server wasn’t faster than the servers I manually chose in London or even France.

The speed test feature built into HMA is a convenient addition. However, I found that its results didn’t line up with my external speed tests. It often said the traffic was slower than it actually was, so I wouldn’t rely on it.

HMA’s Speeds and Low Latency Make for a Perfect Gameplay Experience

I connected to an HMA server and played Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in an online lobby. My gameplay was lag-free and ran as smooth as ever — I experienced zero interruptions and loaded into every lobby extremely fast. This made it much more enjoyable and encouraged me to use HMA to play other online games, like Among Us, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Forza.

HMA even provided me with HD gaming when I traveled abroad. Normally, being far from home means that I have to deal with a lot of lag, and I’m always the last one to join my friends’ lobby. However, when I connected to a server close to home, I could play with no issues.

Large Server Network With Working Connections From Anywhere

HMA provided me with over 1100 city-level servers in more than 290 countries, including those in the Middle East and Africa — regions that most VPNs neglect. This is a much wider selection than what some top-tier VPNs offer. The high number of locations meant I didn’t have to deal with overcrowded servers (which happens when too many users connect to the same server at once). This allowed for more reliable connections with equally high speeds at all times.

Like many other VPNs, HMA rents a large portion of its servers from third-party data centers. While this practice is common, it means that third-party-owned equipment may handle your data when you connect through HMA. Though HMA states that it installs, maintains, and fully controls all of these rented servers, the arrangement may still worry you if you’re a privacy-minded user. If you want privately owned servers, I suggest you try CyberGhost’s NoSpy servers. They’re located in privacy-friendly Romania and are fully owned and operated by the provider.

Virtual Servers

The server network HMA offers is large because it has a wide range of virtual servers. These reroute your traffic through countries with physical servers and use the cloud to connect you to your desired country. For example, choosing a virtual server in the US connected me to a physical server in Germany, which had a database of American IP addresses.

They are also great because they can protect your data when you want an IP address in a country with VPN bans, strict internet censorship, or logistical issues. However, virtual servers can also put your data at risk. When you connect to a virtual server, it’s important to know where the server is physically located, so you are aware of the laws of that country.

Unfortunately, HMA’s app doesn’t tell you if you’ve connected to a virtual server until after you connect. Also, it often doesn’t say where the server you’re connected to is actually located. This is pretty standard, but considering HMA’s privacy issues in the past, I find it a little concerning.

Is HMA Good for Torrenting? It’s Hard to Say

HMA claims to support torrenting and even provides P2P-optimized servers. I easily downloaded 2-30GB files from the public domain in less than a few hours, some of them simultaneously. So whether you’re after movies, games, music, or software, you’ll have no problems getting the files on your devices fast.

However, the true stance HMA holds on torrenting is a bit unclear. I found contradictory info on message boards, where users complained their accounts were suspended for using HMA to violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

I contacted HMA directly to confirm the allegations, but the VPN representative didn’t give a concrete answer. Instead, they only confirmed P2P server locations and suggested restarting my torrent client after connecting, which wasn’t even a part of my question.

For this reason, I don’t feel comfortable recommending HMA for torrenting, even though I had no issues downloading files during my tests. After trying over a hundred VPNs, I found that CyberGhost’s downloading-optimized servers are great for torrenting. CyberGhost’s excellent security, no-logs policy, and fast speeds make downloading files a breeze.

Keep in mind, though — using a VPN doesn’t give you the right to torrent copyrighted content. Make sure to check your local laws before engaging in any P2P file-sharing.

Doesn’t Bypass Tough Firewalls in China

I wasn’t surprised to learn that HMA can’t bypass China’s notorious firewall because there are only a few VPNs that work in China.

If you need to use a VPN to maintain access to popular sites blocked in China, I suggest you use ExpressVPN instead. Its obfuscation technology gets past the country’s firewall, so you can use ExpressVPN to access the web in China — as long as you install ExpressVPN before arriving.

While using a VPN in China safeguards your connection from prying eyes, note that the protection of a VPN doesn’t give you the license to commit illegal acts. That said, there have been no reports of Chinese authorities harassing tourists or visitors for unauthorized VPN use. Instead, the government uses advanced technology to detect and block VPN connections in the country.

Security Features

Encryption — Strong Protocols That Stop Hackers From Snooping on Your Data

HMA uses 256-bit AES encryption, RSA-4096 handshake, and the SHA-384 hash algorithm which, means it offers extremely strong protection. This encryption is the best as it’s used by military and government agencies worldwide. If it’s safe enough for them, it’s more than enough for browsing, streaming, and torrenting.

Each of your browsing sessions (on every device) is protected by Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) — a process that changes encryption keys each time you connect to the VPN. Your key is fully wiped at the end of each session, so anyone who can hack your connection will only be able to do so once. If hackers wanted to try again, they would have to start the entire process from scratch when you reconnect to a server and get a brand new encryption key.

VPN Protocols — A Single, Industry-Standard Option (OpenVPN)

I was disappointed to see that HMA uses only the OpenVPN protocol over TCP and UDP. This is a lot fewer than industry giants like ExpressVPN or CyberGhost.

OpenVPN is used for great security and fast speeds that make your connection run almost as smoothly as regular traffic. However, the setup can be complicated (especially on iOS and macOS), and OpenVPN is getting increasingly more prone to being blocked by firewalls. It also takes quite a few steps to get OpenVPN working if you’ve got a macOS device.

Luckily, HMA provides a manual setup guide for installing OpenVPN on all platforms. I found the installation fairly simple, but it also comes with troubleshooting steps if you run into errors. So, if you’d like to download HMA on your macOS device, I’d definitely recommend following the OpenVPN setup guide.

A Smart Kill Switch Protects Your Data More Efficiently

On my Windows and Android devices, the Smart Kill Switch function blocked my internet connection each time I changed the server location or turned off the VPN. This process prevented DNS leaks in the brief period while I was disconnected from a VPN server.

I could also use HMA’s kill switch on Windows to prevent specific applications from sending data if the connection is lost. You can easily decide which applications should be closed if your connection drops by adding them to a list in the App Kill Switch feature.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the kill switch to work on macOS, and it’s not available on iOS devices. If you need a VPN that offers the kill switch and other protective features on iOS, try CyberGhost’s advanced security options on multiple devices instead.

Full Leak Protection on Every Server to Keep Your Details Safe

I found zero IP, DNS, or WebRTC leaks when I connected to the US, UK, Germany, Australia, and Japan servers. Even though HMA comes with its own IP checker feature, I used ipleak.net to run the tests and produce independent results. My testing showed that HMA hid my location every time, as the results displayed the provider’s server’s location and IP address instead of my own. This means no one can snatch your personal information as long as you’re connected to HMA.

Split Tunneling — Works Great on Android, But Not Other Devices

For such an established VPN, I expected HMA to provide the split tunneling feature across multiple operating systems, but the option is available only on Android. That’s really disappointing as it’s a convenient feature to have, especially if you control LAN devices (like light bulbs or printers) through your WiFi, or don’t want to encrypt your whole connection. Enabling split tunneling lets you select specific apps and websites to not use the VPN traffic, so you can still use them to access local content.

For complete multitasking freedom, I recommend you use ExpressVPN’s split tunneling feature for Windows, Android, macOS, and even routers. ExpressVPN is also backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you aren’t risking anything by signing up to test it yourself!

IP Shuffle Adds an Extra Layer of Anonymity When Needed

HMA takes your anonymity one step further with its IP Shuffle feature, which refreshes your IP address without disconnecting you from the VPN. 

There are 2 ways to use IP Shuffle — you can either do it manually by pressing the “Refresh” button on the main screen, or set a frequency for the IP address to change. Personally, I turned it on to refresh my IP address every 30 minutes, but you can create a custom interval. This makes it a lot harder for your online activities to be tracked.

Ad-Blocker Available Only Through HMA’s Chrome Extension

HMA offers an ad blocker with its Chrome extension, which is extremely useful, especially if you visit ad-heavy websites, like torrenting platforms or YouTube. It worked perfectly when I tested it — I had zero ads while browsing on Chrome.

Privacy Features

Company Jurisdiction Puts HMA’s Privacy Policies at Risk

HMA’s headquarters are in the UK, where the company was first launched in 2005. This means HMA is subject to the UK’s extensive data retention laws, which were passed with the UK Investigatory Powers Act. They allow the government to:

• Intercept electronic communications without a warrant.
• Force ISP, VPNs, and other companies that handle user data to design backdoors that would allow government agencies to bypass encryption.
• Hack devices such as laptops, smartphones, and more.

Located in the UK also places HMA under the 5-Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance’s jurisdiction. The location isn’t ideal for a VPN, as any collected user data can be shared with alliance member states, including the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. I found this alarming, especially since HMA’s history has several instances of cooperation with government authorities.

Data Breaches

In 2011, Sony was hacked by the LulzSec group, which used HMA to carry out a cyber attack. HMA turned over evidence to the authorities in the hacking case, which resulted in the user’s arrest. Another incident in 2017 led to the arrest of an ex-judge who used HMA to harass an ex-girlfriend. Though it isn’t clear if HMA actively helped in this case, investigators uncovered his IP address using VPN connection timestamps.

At the start of 2020, there was another incident. Avast, HMA’s parent company, was selling user data through a subsidiary company called Jumpshot, which collected internet activity through a browser extension. Apparently, the data was anonymized to protect users, but people discovered the information could easily lead to individuals. Once the scandal became widely known, Avast closed down Jumpshot.

HMA’s past cooperation with authorities, combined with its undesirable jurisdiction, keeps me from trusting HMA 100%. For total confidence that a VPN doesn’t meddle with your personal information, you should use ExpressVPN instead. ExpressVPN is located in the British Virgin Islands, where the laws don’t require businesses to keep, analyze, or share user data. When Turkish investigators seized ExpressVPN’s server in 2017, they didn’t find any personally identifiable information — solid proof of its no-logs policy. This assures me that my information won’t be sold or shared with third parties without my approval.

New No-Logs Policy to Bring Back Trust

After many users turned away from the service, HMA implemented a strict no-logs policy that prioritizes customers’ privacy protection. This means HMA doesn’t check or record your original IP address, browsing activity, connection timestamps, or any other data that could identify you. It’s an industry-standard level of privacy VPNs are expected to provide their customers, so I was relieved to see HMA is taking this seriously.

It’s worth mentioning that HMA does collect a small amount of data for analytical purposes. It keeps the data for 35 days before deleting it from the servers. The collected information consists of:

• The day and general time a connection is made (morning or evening)
• The amount of data that is transmitted (rounded to the hundredth Mb)

Note that the collected data can’t be used to identify you or check your browsing habits. It’s the bare minimum needed to keep HMA running at its best, and it’s a common practice even by most secure VPNs. If anything, HMA collects even less information than its competitors as I’ve seen some VPNs openly storing your IP address — which could be linked to you.

HMA is also very open about the third-party trackers they use too. I found that HMA’s desktop apps use no third-party tools, but iOS and Android apps rely on 3 analytics programs: Google Firebase, Google Fabric Crashlytics, and Appsflyer. These collect various types of unidentifiable data to help find existing issues and tweak HMA’s marketing approach. Luckily, I could easily opt out of the data collection by toggling the option in the Personal Privacy settings.

Beware of HMA’s free proxy browser extension — it keeps logs of your IP address, what websites you visit, and the files you download. Even though you can bypass geo-restrictions quickly with a proxy, it doesn’t fully encrypt your connection. Unlike a VPN, a proxy leaves you vulnerable to being monitored or hacked. To keep your device safe online, I wouldn’t recommend installing or using its proxy extension. Instead, download HMA directly onto your device and use a VPN server to secure your connection.

Independent Audits Verified No-Logs Policy

As a step to rebuilding its reputation, HMA underwent an independent audit to prove its no-logs policy. Trusted cybersecurity firm VerSprite conducted extensive privacy checks in August 2020 and confirmed the policy seems legitimate. However, the HMA website fails to discuss the report details, which I find odd considering the positive findings. I contacted VerSprite directly online to ask, but the support representative has yet to reply.

Supports 5 or 10 Simultaneous Device Connections

HMA allowed me to connect up to 5 devices at the same time. The simultaneous connection limit is a standard VPN offering and I find it enough for a regular user.

Don’t worry, though HMA offers a Family Plan which lets you use the service on as many as 10 devices. It’s perfect for protecting your whole family without affecting your speeds. I maxed all of the available connections on the Family Plan and found my traffic was still as fast as when I used HMA only on 1 device. So no matter how many people log in to your account, your personal browsing experience won’t deteriorate.

If you need more than 10 simultaneous connections, I suggest you check out IPVanish, as it doesn’t limit how many devices you can connect on. IPVanish also provided me with equally fast speeds (even when I connected 15 different devices), so I could make the most of the unlimited bandwidth.

Compatible With Limited Devices and Operating Systems

I found HMA’s device compatibility quite basic compared to the top VPNs on the market. HMA allows you to use a VPN on:

• PCs: Windows (10, 8, and 7), macOS (Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, and Mojave), and Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fedora, and more).
• Mobile devices: iOS and Android.
• Smart TVs: Android TV.
• Routers: AsusWRT, Netgear, and Linksys.

Out of these, HMA has a dedicated app for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, which you can download from the respective app stores. If you’d like to get HMA on Linux, you’ll need to manually set it up on your device following HMA’s videos and guides from its online Knowledge Base.

After testing the service, I discovered that all of HMA’s apps are intuitive and user-friendly. The app is almost identical, so I didn’t struggle when swapping from one platform to another. I loved that HMA’s apps even offer useful pop-up tips about various features — these little hints can help you navigate the user interface if you’ve never used it before.

When I opened VPN settings on any device, I found that HMA includes a short description of each option to let you know what each feature does. I like when VPNs do this, as it makes the settings much easier to understand, even if you’re a VPN beginner. Swapping the settings was quick as I only had to tick or toggle anything I wanted to enable.

While the HMA apps I tested had a similar look and feel, their feature selection varied significantly. Here’s a quick table to help you compare these apps’ features:

Seeing how HMA’s iOS and macOS apps lack the basic security features, I can’t recommend HMA for security-conscious Apple users. The VPN helps you access geo-restricted content and encrypts your connection with a military-grade cipher. However, you can find higher-quality VPNs for your Mac, iPhone, and iPad that will protect your device with all the standard security essentials.

Like most other mid-range VPNs, HMA doesn’t have a native app for most Smart TVs, the Fire TV Stick, Chromecast, or gaming consoles. However, you can still protect all the devices you own with the VPN as long as you install HMA on your router. Though the installation process requires a bit of work in the router settings, the reward may be worth your effort as you’ll get blanket protection for all your devices. If you need help, HMA’s online Knowledge Base is a great resource if you’re attempting router installation.

Chrome and Firefox Browser Extensions Are Free but Intrude on Your Privacy

HMA has free browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox, which offer unlimited bandwidth and unblock Netflix. They come with servers in the Netherlands, Germany, France, the UK, and the USA.

Despite the pros, I’m not convinced that the browser extensions are worth using because of how much data they collect. HMA’s browser extensions log your IP address and which sites you visit, and they don’t encrypt your connection. This means your ISP and hackers can see exactly what you’re doing and use it against you.

To stay safe, I recommend you protect your devices with HMA’s VPN app instead of the free proxy. While the app isn’t free, you can try it first with a 7-day free trial. Once the trial ends, you can still use HMA risk-free for additional 30 days with its money-back guarantee. This gives you a lot more time to decide if the VPN is worth keeping and get a refund if you want to cancel your subscription.

The customer support options were underwhelming. According to the website, I could expect support through live chat, email, and the website.

However, not only could I not find a live chat option anywhere on its website (even though HMA says it has the feature), I waited a week to receive an email reply to my inquiry.

Thankfully, the online resources are very detailed and often provide step-by-step instructions to solve common issues, so it only took me 5-10 minutes to get the answers I was looking for.

Live Chat — Unavailable At All Times

Even though HMA says its live chat is available in one of its FAQs, I couldn’t find the option to contact an online representative no matter when I tried. When I clicked on the “Help” button in the bottom right corner, I was only presented with FAQs related to my query and an option to contact the Support team through an online ticket.

Live chat is my favorite way of getting help, as it usually lets me get detailed answers quickly. After scrolling through the forum, I found that the live chat has been temporarily disabled due to a high influx of requests. However, there’s no set date for it to come back yet and an agent was only able to say it’ll be on “as soon as possible.” The fact that it’s not available in HMA’s support options meant I had to craft a long message and wait for an email response. This is extremely disappointing because I know HMA used to have a live chat feature.

If instant customer support is important to you, I recommend you use ExpressVPN instead. It’s live chat is available 24/7 and offers very responsive and detailed help. It took less than 15 seconds for me to connect to the available advisor and an extra 2 minutes to get easy-to-understand answers, even to the most technical questions. Plus, ExpressVPN offers ultra-fast streaming speeds, a wide choice of servers, and unbeatable security — and it’s backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Email Support Team Is Slow to Respond Even to the Most Basic Queries

When I failed to contact live chat support, I turned to HMA’s email ticketing service to get help, only to find it took almost a week to receive a simple answer.

About 5 minutes after submitting my request, I received an automated email saying someone would get back to me as soon as possible. From experience with other VPNs, I expected to hear back within a maximum of 48 hours — but that didn’t happen. After 5 days, I had to send a follow-up email to chase whoever was responsible for resolving my query.

I finally had a response — which disappointed and bewildered me at the same time. The HMA agent was friendly and apologized for the delay, but gave me the same information that already exists on the website. Then, he asked why I wanted to cancel my account, even though I never asked to cancel. This made me think that he didn’t properly read my question and focused on the most common issue he had to deal with.

I didn’t get the in-depth answer I was looking for from HMA’s email support team

The only good thing about HMA’s email support is that it doesn’t seem to prioritize paying customers over the free trial users. In both cases, I had the same experience when chasing customer support, so at least you’ll get help regardless of how much you pay for the service. To reach out, simply fill in the request form on HMA’s website and wait for a response.

Website — The Best Way to Get Detailed Help Fast

Out of all available options, Knowledge Base and FAQs are the best way to find troubleshooting help without much delay. I had no problems navigating through these as the Help page comes with a handy search bar, so I only had to type in a word or a phrase I was looking for. Alternatively, all articles are sorted into categories based on the operating system they relate to or general troubleshooting solutions, which I browsed to find setup guides and more.

Each article contains in-depth information on a selected topic, and some even include step-by-step guides with relevant images or videos to guide you through. This massively sped up the process as I knew exactly which buttons to press and what to look for when troubleshooting.

Even though HMA offers community forums, I found the threads weren’t very active. Many user questions were left unanswered, which made me think the page isn’t a priority for HMA’s agents, so they don’t check it that often. The questions that were answered usually said that the customer team would get in touch with the user through an email too. I only found a handful of threads that contained useful information everyone could benefit from.

If you get HMA and need some help, turn to the Knowledge Base articles first. Simply type in a term you’re struggling with, like “refunds” or “can’t connect,” and HMA will automatically generate a list of related posts that could help you.