Hidemyass Checker (HMA) is a consumer-friendly VPN that works with US Netflix and BBC iPlayer. Its big server community, intuitive apps, and seven-day unfastened trial make it a good option for most users. despite the improved logging policy.

Connecting to a HideMyAss VPN server the usage of its macOS client.

the plus aspect, HMA’s devoted streaming servers unblocks platforms like Netflix and BBC iPlayer at high speed.

however, HMA’s security and privacy take a look at findings left us disillusioned. regardless of the use of enterprise-standard AES-256 encryption, the software’s kill transfer didn’t work optimally, and is best available on home windows and Android Hidemyass Checker.

We’re also worried by the corporation’s Hidemyass Checker:

jurisdiction and former cooperation with regulation enforcement in this HideMyAss evaluation we’ll provide an explanation for why the VPN is good, however, isn’t as private and relaxed as the very first-rate Hidemyass Checker.

expert recommendation: The first-rate VPN we’ve tested and reviewed is ExpressVPN. It’s faster than HMA, extra comfortable, and unblocks greater streaming systems.

Hidemyass Checkergives a free trial and a 100% refund guarantee. strive for Hidemyass Checker threat-free for 30 days.

Hidemyass Checkernow has a private logging policy, having in the end removed the invasive information retention that turned into as soon as its predominant drawback. HMA now not collects or ‘logs’ net records that would be used to perceive you. Your net activity will stay personal to you and hidden from HideMyAss.

Ranked #32 out of 56 VPNs for privateness & Logging policy Hidemyass Checker

Hidemyass Checker collects best the subsequent records:

Date of connection — whether you connect in the morning or night is also logged
amount of statistics transmitted at some stage in your consultation — this information is rounded to the closest hundred MB
right here is the records as it seems in HideMyAss’ privateness policy:

An excerpt of the HideMyAss privacy coverage, which info HMA’s no-logs privateness coverage.
Excerpt from HMA’s up-to-date no-logs privacy coverage Hidemyass Checker.

The constrained quantity of facts that HMA does log is aggregated and not tied to any precise person.

HMA’s updated logging policy has been proven through professional cybersecurity consulting company VerSprite, following an audit of HMA’s structures.

VerSprite offered Hidemyass Checker a “low-threat person privateness impact rating” — the first-rate feasible class. 0.33-birthday celebration security audits offer real evidence of a VPN’s sports, so you’re no longer forced to rely on what a VPN provider claims.

The only private information HideMyAss retains is your electronic mail address and username, which is a widespread exercise among VPNs.

The critical factor is that the Hidemyass Checker no-logs policy virtually states your internet pastime will now not be tracked or logged.

despite the logging coverage development, Hidemyass Checker is a VPN carrier with a really terrible music report in terms of safeguarding its customers’ anonymity. We’ll explain more about this underneath.

HMA has based within the Hidemyass Checker and launched its first subscription-based total VPN carrier in 2009 under the possession of parent enterprise Privax Ltd.

The VPN’s reputation led AVG, a Czech antivirus enterprise, to acquire it for up to $60 million in 2015. AVG turned into in turn sold via Avast, some other Czech antivirus company, in 2016.

regardless of the parent corporation, Avast, being based totally inside the Czech Republic, Privax Ltd continues to be located inside the united kingdom.

the UK is a horrible base for a VPN provider, because of its intrusive information retention laws now codified thru the UK Investigatory Powers Act, or the ‘Snooper’s charter’ as it’s miles popularly recognized.

HideMyAss is a challenge to all intelligence-sharing agreements contained inside the Snoopers constitution. The corporation admits it’ll supply statistics to regulation enforcement if vital.

the UK is also a member of the 5 Eyes Alliance (Hidemyass Checker), a global intelligence-sharing settlement designed to gather and proportion surveillance data most of the global’s most powerful countries.

Hidemyass Checker shared consumer logs with regulation enforcement:

alas, HideMyAss has an exceptionally terrible song file for logging in a single instance, a member of the hacktivist organization nameless become arrested after HMA supplied the FBI get entry to connection logs, following a UK courtroom order.

On some other event, a Texas decision changed into arrested for stalking and harassment. He became a HideMyAss user whose identity changed into uncovered using connection timestamps.

HideMyAss went to a few periods to justify its behavior, however, it was largely seen as a breach of agreement with for most VPN users.

It has to be said that each time facts sharing with law enforcement came about under the VPN’s old privacy policy. The VPN service formerly logged sensitive information like user IP addresses and unique connection timestamps Hidemyass Checker.

Such an intrusive policy made it easy for law enforcement to request individually-identifiable statistics from HMA to identify a specific person.

As we noted above, HMA’s new privacy coverage prevents any repeat of user identities being compromised. as long as the VPN doesn’t keep consumer web logs, it doesn’t have sensitive records to pass on.

The organization’s a good deal improved no-logs policy really offsets its privacy-unfriendly jurisdiction. however, actual-international checks and 1/3-celebration audits are vital to restore our confidence in Hidemyass Checker.

How private is Hidemyass Checkerin in comparison to other VPNs?

As we’ve discussed above, HMA compares fairly poorly to other VPNs in phrases of privacy.

The table beneath compares the privacy functions of HMA and four other VPN services.

VPN provider privacy score Logging policy Jurisdiction Independently validated

HMA can provide spectacular speeds across the board Hidemyass Checker delivered very rapid speeds in our tests, putting it up there with the pinnacle-appearing VPN services. Our download speeds only dropped by means of three% — from 99Mbps to 96Mbps while related to a close-by server.

 

We as compared our net download speeds earlier than and after connecting to a close-by HideMyAss server. This permits us to look precisely how a lot HMA slows down our net connection while linked to the closest server vicinity Hidemyass Checker.

HMA’s pace overall performance become stable and capable of managing information-extensive duties like Hidemyass Checkerstreaming, gaming, and video conferencing without troubles.

right here are our full local speed check outcomes:

down load pace loss when HideMyAss is going for Hidemyass Checker

As proven above, our download speeds dropped just 3% while linked to HMA, from 99Mbps to 96Mbps. you could count on comparable outcomes when connecting to a server close to you.

those speed check effects are sincerely brilliant. these days, Hidemyass Checker introduced 20Gbps servers to its community, which has helped it narrow the gap with the fastest VPNs available on the market.

expert advice: For the quickest neighborhood speeds, use the ‘Lightning join’ function. This robotically connects you to the quickest server based on distance and server load.

international pace check outcomes
We also examined Hidemyass Checker long-distance overall performance by deciding on a small group of take a look at servers inside the u.s.a., Germany, Singapore, and Australia.

under are the average speeds we noticed while connecting to these locations from London, uk with a 100Mbps internet connection:

worldwide speeds were a number of the best we’ve seen and connection instances have been extraordinary, at around 70Mbps seconds for most locations.

clearly, Hidemyass Checker’s VPN speeds start to fall when connecting:

to distant locations. that is because of the long journey a VPN connection has to make pace is without a doubt certainly one of HMA’s strongest attributes. It’s one of the fastest VPNs we’ve examined, and demanding situations very brief VPNs like ExpressVPN and NordVPN.

How fast is Hidemyass Checkeras compared to different VPNs?
To make sure our speed check findings are as correct as possible, we also examined HideMyAss and different popular VPNs using our bespoke VPN speed testing tool.

Our automatic assessments run every six hours, and we record the effects as we discover them, casting off the opportunity of any bias.

The graph below compares HideMyAss’ average loss of internet speed to other famous VPNs while walking on our the big apple server.

 

The graph above shows how HideMyAss is one of the quickest VPNs to be had. On the big apple to big apple connections, HideMyAss is registering a pace loss of less than 10%.

however, speeds dropped greater evidently on a few global connections. as an instance, connecting to London from ny ended in a forty% pace loss. depending to your net velocity, this can result in buffering and lag in your video streams.

Hidemyass Checkerwithout difficulty unblocks US Netflix and BBC iPlayer

Hidemyass Checkeris a superb VPN for unblocking US Netflix and BBC iPlayer. even as it does not work with all of the content structures we tested, it did pass america Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Disney+ geo-blocks.

Ranked #10 out of fifty-six VPNs for Streaming

HideMyAss has committed servers exclusively for the most popular streaming offerings, for quicker and less complicated get right of entry to.

HMA’s committed streaming server for BBC iPlayer labored in our exams.

those devoted streaming servers are very rapid and most dependable. maximum of the time you’ll be capable of get admission to your favourite streaming sites without problems.

they’re also clearly easy to discover in the app and are continually available thru the sidebar. This makes switching among US, united kingdom, and German Netflix libraries very easy.

these streaming servers aren’t glaringly categorized, even though, so we’ve identified them for you.

right here are the Hidemyass Checker servers that paintings with streaming offerings:

but, HMA VPN simplest unblocks the yank Netflix library. this is better than nothing, however can’t compete with the pinnacle Netflix VPNs, which could circulate up to 32 areas.

however, we do want HideMyAss was capable of unblock Disney+ more often, like the fine Disney+ VPNs can.

In our modern day streaming assessments, we had to switch among several HMA servers until we discovered one which works with Disney+.

regrettably, HMA’s streaming talents have worsened recently. a lot so, the VPN not works with Hulu and HBO Max.

using a VPN with HBO Max and Hulu have turn out to be famous sports amongst VPN users. We examined NordVPN with each platforms, and it worked without a hitch.

Hidemyass Checker streaming overall performance compared to different VPNs:

We grouped our present-day VPN streaming test facts inside the desk below to compare HideMyAss to different popular streaming VPNs.

you may see what number of Netflix libraries every VPN works with, whether or not it has smart DNS functionality, and the way often it works with popular streaming systems.

HideMyAss gives many pricing alternatives to suit all budgets – almost too many, in fact. The carrier also offers a 7-day loose trial. however, its monthly and short-time period plans are overpriced for what you get Hidemyass Checker.

HideMyAss has three major subscription plans, every of which comes with the same features as Hidemyass Checker.

As with maximum VPN offerings, the longer subscription plans provide significantly better fees for your money. you will need to pay the overall subscription fee in advance, although.

 

while the rate of its long-time period subscriptions is affordable, HMA’s quick-time period plans are unusually costly. They’re additionally separate from the principle pricing page and tough to locate.

you could access the 1-month plan and the 6-month plan via the ‘prolonged’ pricing section of the website.

in case you want to increase your simultaneous connection restriction from five devices to ten, you could do so on the internet site’s pricing page.

For 10 simultaneous connections, the 12-month plan will increase to $ 7. ninety-nine consistently per month, even as the three-year plan comes to $five.99 consistent with month.

price & Refund alternatives
HideMyAss accepts an awesome variety of payment options, including:

Hidemyass Checker 30-day cash-lower back assure:

HMA additionally offers a 30-day refund guarantee, which is genuinely absolute confidence requested.

Even if you eat huge amounts of information within 30 days of purchase, you’re nevertheless eligible for a full refund.

automobile-renewal of subscriptions is enabled via default, which you can disable within the member’s region of the website.

al
HideMyAss offers a 7-day unfastened trial, making it smooth for you to test the software program without buying it first. you may submit price details on sign-up.

in contrast to other free trials, HMA’s loose trial helps you to use try the VPN for free on all platforms. You’ll have to get admission to all server locations as well as unlimited bandwidth.

do not forget to cancel earlier than the quit of your trial duration, though, otherwise, you’ll be charged the annual subscription price of $eighty three.88.

Hidemyass Checker is the main VPN for desired VPN server places:

with servers in 190 international locations. In essence, HMA has servers in every united States of America of arena. That stated, its total server remember is low, which may cause future server congestion.

 

HideMyAss is the leading VPN for preference of VPN server places, with over 1080 VPN servers in extra than one hundred ninety international locations. this indicates 96% of all nations in the globe are covered.

HMA’s large choice of servers makes it the in particular right VPN in case you’re placed far away from the typical VPN server locations, like Western Europe and the united states.

We had been specifically inspired to look HideMyAss cowl areas of Africa and the Middle East some distance better than some other VPN companies we’ve examined.

if you are in this type of region, HMA’s nearby servers suggest your connection isn’t always routed thru servers placed a ways away, resulting in quicker speeds.

 

whilst different VPN services boast about their big server counts, server presence is concentrated in Europe and North America. We’re very happy to peer HMA place servers in less-popular places.

HideMyAss additionally has a splendid amount of metropolis-level server locations, along with:

The benefit of town-level servers is less congestion and quicker speeds. HMA’s preference of sixty-five US places in particular helps to pass US sports activities blackouts.

Like maximum other VPN providers, HMA has positioned its city-degree servers inside the usual countries. We desire there had been extra city-degree servers in Asia, Africa, and South the united states Hidemyass Checker.

Hidemyass Checker makes use of many virtual server locations:

HideMyAss is capable of offering servers in so many countries, as it makes use of digital server locations alongside physical ones.

not like a ‘bodily located’ server, a virtual or “fake” VPN server location presents an IP deal within one us of a while the server is bodily located in every other.

The screenshot suggests how when we linked to a Kenyan HMA server, the real bodily place of that server become in an Avast server park in Hallandale, Florida.

IP leak take a look at showing HideMyAss the use of digital VPN server places
HMA’s ‘Kenyan’ VPN server is virtually placed in Hallandale, Florida.

There are some professionals to use virtual places. as an instance, your internet site visitors can on occasion take a shorter path, with resulting pace advantages.

digital locations also allow HMA to assign IP addresses for geo-places in which website hosting bodily VPN servers is complex (e.g. China).

however, virtual server locations also carry positive downsides. firstly, it is able to be hard in order to find out where the bodily server is definitely placed and how it’s operated, which poses a few safety dangers.

Secondly, digital server places also can lead to connection slowdowns. This occurs while you’re connecting to a VPN server supposedly near you, however that’s in reality positioned a long way away.

preceding versions of HideMyAss’s apps marked every virtual server location as “virtual.” To our disappointment, the modern-day variations of HMA have removed this option, with this statistics only available on its internet site.

Does HideMyAss hire Its VPN Servers?
some VPN services choose to lease servers from records centers, in preference to owning them outright.

Renting servers allows reduce operational fees, but it provides detail of threat, with every other birthday party (the server host) additionally answerable for the security of your records.

A verbal exchange with an HMA representative who confirmed HideMyAss rents a large quantity of VPN servers.
A representative confirming HMA rents a big quantity of VPN servers from 0.33 events.

A HideMyAss customer support agent showed the organization rents a “tremendous percentage” of the hardware utilized in its VPN community. in keeping with the agent, HMA keeps full manipulation over their installation and management.

when it comes to privacy, we suggest VPN services that personalize and function most of their server community outright, reducing the variety of third parties worried.

while we reviewed VyprVPN and tested IPVanish, we tested both VPN offerings operating big self-owned server networks.

HMA does function a few non-public DNS servers, which might be owned with the aid of its discern corporation, Avast. however, we’ve got privacy concerns round those servers.

We do no longer recommend HideMyAss for torrenting. The VPN service has a history of mistreating consumer privacy and cooperating with law enforcement. For now, we can’t consider HMA to preserve your P2P activity non-public.

 

we can’t advise HideMyAss for at ease torrenting due to its preceding mistreatment of consumer privacy, and its history of cooperating with law enforcement.

inside the beyond, HMA users stated money owed suspensions for violating virtual Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) laws, too.

An HMA consultant confirmed that HMA “haven’t any mechanism of identifying character customers following a DMCA record.”

electronic mail from a HideMyAss representative claiming that torrenting is authorized while the use of the VPN provider.

however, HMA’s stance on torrenting is muddled and pressured. A specific HideMyAss aid agent stated torrenting copyrighted material is in opposition to the VPN phrases of the provider, and threatened this will result in an account suspension.

A customer support agent from Hidemyass Checker confirmed that torrenting is against the HideMyAss phrases of the carrier agreement Hidemyass Checker.

HideMyAss needs to provide tons of extra clarity right here. As matters stand, and given the company’s beyond-logging controversies, we recommend no longer using HMA for torrenting.

It’s a shame because HMA’s fast torrent speeds and devoted P2P servers could have made for a superb torrenting VPN.

HideMyAss is secure to apply. It masks your IP cope with DNS requests with AES-256 encryption and primary-celebration DNS servers. however, HMA failed our security checks on iOS and macOS, and it’s one of the most effective fundamental VPNs to no longer support WireGuard.

Hidemyass Checker VPNs for protection & Technical Capabilities:

HMA VPN’s advanced protection functions HMA’s apps include cut-up tunneling and the Refresh IP device, which assigns you a new IP deal with within the identical region in case your modern-day IP is all at once blocked.

there may be a system-extensive kill transfer to be had for the home windows, Android, and Mac customers too. This prevents your statistics from leaking if your VPN connection drops.

HMA’s kill switch isn’t always available on iOS devices, and it does not paint with macOS.

HMA VPN’s encryption and protection
We observed that HMA’s protection could be very sturdy. HideMyAss implements its encryption as follows:

Connection is established via a comfortable RSA-2048 handshake.
ideal forward Secrecy is furnished thru an Elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) key alternate.
The integrity of the statistics has authenticated the usage of an SHA-384 hash.
statistics transmitted throughout the consultation have encrypted the use of the AES-256 cipher.
using Wireshark (packet-capturing software), we ran exams to ensure the VPN’s site visitors are definitely encrypted. we will, fortunately, verify the VPN securely encrypted our data transfers.

We examined HMA’s encryption ability with the use of Wireshark:

HideMyAss securely encrypted our network site visitors Our net records changed into rendered as random strings of text and no longer undeniable text. statistics like your passwords, e-mail deal with, and credit score card information, are therefore invisible to hackers and snoopers on public WiFi networks.

HMA VPN leak test results in IP cope with leaks allowing advertisers, governments, and websites to look at your true place and match your identity again on your hobby.

Like most famous VPN offerings, HideMyAss includes built-in protection in opposition to IPv4 and IPv6 leaks.

We ran HideMyAss thru a series of leak tests and lamentably discovered it leaked our IP deal with on iOS (due to our VPN connection dropping).

HMA’s different software didn’t go through IP or DNS leaks, although. The screenshot beneath suggests how the home windows app hid our real IP cope with:

HMA’s IP leak test, shows the VPN did not leak our real IP deal.
HMA’s windows app did not leak our IP address.

HideMyAss additionally owns and operates its personal no-log DNS servers, which resolve all DNS requests as you browse the web. however, those servers are owned with the aid of Avast, which become stuck in a facts-harvesting scandal Hidemyass Checker.

HMA’s security shortfalls on Mac and iOS Hidemyass Checker:

even though HMA’s utility protection is exceptionally sturdy, HMA’s macOS and iOS software program has a concerning history of protection flaws and missing features.

In 2017, several protection vulnerabilities have been located in the HideMyAss Mac app. those vulnerabilities allowed for malware to be established on the foundation of the tool if a hacker had bodily get entry to it.

On top of this, HMA’s VPN kill transfer does not paint on macOS. We suggested this large to HMA in December 2019, however, it still hasn’t been fixed it.

HMA leaked our authentic IP deal with at the modern release of macOS
HMA leaked our true IP deal through its damaged kill activate macOS.

strolling HMA on macOS Ventura, our authentic location inside the united kingdom leaked when our VPN connection failed. This passed off no matter if being connected to a Mexican VPN server with the VPN kill switch enabled.

Moreover, the HideMyAss iOS app no longer has a VPN kill switch in any respect.

both the iOS and Mac apps use the IKEv2/IPsec protocol. IPSec is an older VPN protocol, commonly much less at ease and extra susceptible to vulnerabilities than OpenVPN, and patched
HideMyAss does not paint in China. You won’t be able to get the right of entry to popular apps and websites like Google, Instagram, and WhatsApp from beyond the Great Firewall. at the least HMA VPN labored in other heavily censored areas, together with the UAE, Turkey, and Russia.

Ranked #14 out of fifty-six VPNs for Bypassing Internet Censorship

We take a look at HideMyAss each week the usage of a faraway connection into Shanghai. unluckily, the VPN has never worked. In truth, we’ve always been blocked from even signing in.

The best VPNs for China use obfuscation generation, which lets them bypass China’s VPN ban. unluckily, HMA doesn’t own any obfuscation gear.

notwithstanding these boundaries, we discovered that HideMyAss works in nations with much less strict VPN regulations. In recent tests, HMA labored within the UAE, Russia and Turkey.

There are principal variations between the HMA apps on extraordinary structures, although, so we have reviewed everyone inside the section underneath.

if you want a brief photo of the differences between HideMyAss customers on one-of-a-kind systems, just see the table below:

Platform Protocol cut up Tunneling Kill switch App-specific Kill transfer IP Shuffle

HMA’s app on home windows is complete of functions, easy to use, and is very properly designed.

The home windows app advantages from a range of protection settings. We especially just like the app-precise and system-huge kill switch, and IP Shuffle, which rotates your IP at ordinary time durations.

The home windows customer completely uses OpenVPN (UDP and TCP alternatives), which excellent balances velocity and protection. We advise sticking with TCP; UDP is normally quicker, but is slightly less comfortable.

WireGuard, our second favored protocol, is not to be had on any Hidemyass Checker app, though.

HMA’s home windows app is intuitive and makes it clear to view the HideMyAss’ 190 server places. VPN servers are split up into categories, with precise servers for torrenting and streaming in reality categorised.

fairly, break-up tunneling isn’t available on the windows customer – it’s most effective available on the Android app.

 

HMA’s macOS app is one of the first-class-designed, simplest-to-use VPN apps we’ve tested on our check Macbooks and iMacs.

The macOS application was additionally extraordinarily strong in our testing and worked constantly without crashing.

but, the Mac app is worse than the windows client in the following areas Hidemyass Checker

we’re specifically disappointed with the lack of kill transfer and OpenVPN protocol guide. IKEv2 is older and much less comfy than OpenVPN.

 

at the same time as maintaining the friendly design, Hidemyass Checker app for iPhone and iPad is the least purposeful of all its VPN apps — presenting almost no configurability and options.

In fact, ‘connection rules’ is the best putting and is limited to simple toggles relating to cellular facts and trusted WiFi networks.

The HideMyAss iOS app has the following foremost barriers:

As you may see underneath, the lack of kill Hidemyass CheckeriOS ended in our actual IP deal with leaking on our check iPhone, due to the HMA VPN connection losing.

 

We’re also disenchanted IKEv2 is the best available VPN protocol. IKEV2 is much less comfy and old compared to OpenVPN, which stays our favourite.

but, in case you’re a VPN amateur or you just want VPN to Hidemyass CheckerUS Netflix, the HideMyAss iOS app is right sufficient. for extra settings and protection, there are better iPhone VPNs to choose from.

 

HideMyAss’ mobile Android app is an awful lot better than its iOS counterpart. The app offers a ways more superior features and Hidemyass Checker.

HMA’s Android app includes the below settings:

these are tremendous superior VPN features, and we’re pleased IP Shuffle placing made its manner to the Android app.

also, the VPN cut up tunneling characteristic is best available on Android. This putting lets apps at your choice use your trendy net connection, as opposed to the encrypted VPN tunnel.

Streaming tool assist
HideMyAss has poor support for streaming devices. It’s most effective well suited with the subsequent:

Disappointingly, HideMyAss doesn’t have a native utility for fireplace tv devices. there is no Android .apk report, either, so you can’t aspect-load it onto your Firestick.

moreover, HMA doesn’t provide a clever DNS device, so the handiest manner to use the VPN for your Apple television or games console is to put in the VPN on your own home router.

VPN router setup isn’t always as convenient as a fully-fledged native app and requires some technical experience to install.

in case you don’t need to address the problem, FlashRouters does provide routers pre-mounted with HMA VPN. This is a superb yet expensive option.

at the least, HMA does have an app for Android television. while weHidemyass Checker tested it, we streamed US Netflix and BBC iPlayer directly on our tv display.

 

The Android tv app runs on all Android-powered smart TVs and streaming gadgets. you could also use the VPN on a Chromecast with a Google tv device.

The Android television app includes beneficial settings inclusive of cut-up tunneling, a VPN kill switch, and a Refresh IP.

HMA VPN’s net extensions always unblock US Netflix, have unlimited bandwidth, and are completely free.

 

The browser extension is limited to the simplest five VPN server locations, though, with simply the following locations protected:

considering the browser extension is loose, we’re now not overly worried about the limited server region desire. in spite of everything, the international locations to be had are all popular places.

Be conscious that the HMA VPN browser extensions are net proxies, now not VPNs.

while you operate the HMA web proxy, you most effectively geo-spoof your place. net proxies don’t encrypt your web traffic and consequently don’t hide your browser activity.

the alternative hassle with HideMyAss’ net proxy is that it logs too many statistics Hidemyass Checker.

We don’t like this distinctly intrusive statistics series from HMA. We strongly advocate only using HMA’s VPN extensions to unblock geo-constrained streaming websites Hidemyass Checker.