“Virtual Private Network” (VPN) services have gained significant popularity since many Internet users look for privacy and security while browsing the Internet. Frequent incidents of cyber-attacks and data breaches contribute to this increased focus on privacy and security. HideMy.name is one such VPN provider, and it’s owned by Belize-based InCloak Network Ltd.
What do top VPN providers promise? Well, they claim to offer privacy and security while browsing the Internet. Some of them claim to unblock geo-restricted streaming services like Netflix. Many VPN providers state that they allow P2P/torrenting, moreover, some VPNs claim to bypass Internet censorship. The reality often varies though!
HideMy.name is operating for the last 11 years. It claims to offer privacy, security, and access to P2P/torrenting, moreover, it claims to unblock restricted websites. How does it fare against its claims? Does it work for you and should you buy it? We have answered these questions in this review to help you with decision-making. Read on.
Pricing
We now review the pricing plans of HideMy.name.
HideMy.name offers 6 pricing plans, which vary by their billing frequencies and associated discounts. These plans are as follows:
• Monthly: This plan costs $8 per month.
• 6-months: You pay $24 once in 6 months, which works out to $4 per month.
• Yearly: HideMy.name bills you once a year, and you pay $36. Your monthly average cost is $3.
• 2-years: You pay $60 every 2 years, which means that your monthly average cost is $2.50.
• 3-years: This plan from HideMy.name costs you $86 every 3 years, therefore, your monthly average cost is $2.39.
• 5-years: This plan offers the best discount since you pay $120 once every 5 years. Your monthly average cost works out to $2.
All the plans include all features of HideMy.name, and the longer-duration plans offer significant discounts. We find that HideMy.name has priced its offerings very competitively.
Free Trial
HideMy.name offers a free trial for 1 day. While you can use all its features and services, there’s one limitation with this free trial offer. You can’t access the high-speed servers of HideMy.name via this free trial.
Payment Methods
HideMy.name provides that since it accepts popular cards like Visa and MasterCard. You can also pay for its products and services using PayPal, WebMoney, UnionPay, Sofort, and bank wires. HideMy.name accepts payment by Bitcoin.
Payment Security
During our review of its website and payment processes, we found that HideMy.name secures your payment transactions and personal information.
Features
Support for secure protocols: HideMy.name supports OpenVPN, L2TP, and PPTP. For Mac and iOS, it also supports IKEv2. You can choose the protocol you want to use in its custom app, and we recommend that you use OpenVPN. It’s the most secure VPN protocol with no known vulnerabilities. You can also use IKEv2 or L2TP, however, we don’t recommend PPTP since it has vulnerabilities. We are happy to see HideMy.name supporting secure VPN protocols.
Up to 5 simultaneous connections: HideMy.name allows up to 5 simultaneous connections, which is at par with most VPNs in the market.
Bypassing Internet censorship: HideMy.name offers a feature called “Chameleon”. Countries like China regularly blocks VPNs, however, “Chameleon” bypasses such restrictions. This feature also adds another layer of encryption to the entire connection process.
Preventing IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks: HideMy.name masks your real IP address, therefore, it prevents IP leaks. We noticed that HideMy.name uses Google DNS servers and Cloudflare, however, we think that VPN providers should have their own DNS servers. During our interaction with the customer support team of HideMy.name, we asked how they prevent WebRTC leaks. From the reply, our understanding is that HideMy.name doesn’t offer any specific solution to guard against WebRTC leaks. We would like HideMy.name to use its own DNS servers and proactively protect WebRTC leaks since most market-leading VPN providers do that.
“Kill Switch”: HideMy.name provides a “kill switch”, which blocks the Internet connection if your VPN connection drops unexpectedly. Note that it’s not active by default. You need to activate it using the settings options in the HideMy.name custom app, however, that’s easy to do. We believe that a VPN should offer a “kill switch”, and we are happy to see that HideMy.name does that.
Unblocking geo-restricted streaming services: Are you looking for a VPN to access Netflix or similar streaming services like Hulu, BBC iPlayer, etc.? HideMy.name doesn’t explicitly state on its website that it unblocks Netflix. It does state that it unblocks Hulu, and BBC iPlayer, moreover, it claims to unblock ivi.ru, a Russian streaming service. We found that HideMy.name can’t unblock these services. If you prioritize access to geo-restricted streaming services, then you should look for a market-leading VPN that unblocks them consistently.
Allowing P2P/torrenting: Many Internet users buy a VPN since they want to access P2P/torrenting services. Are you one of them? You will be happy with HideMy.name then since it allows P2P/torrenting. Note that this VPN blocks torrenting in countries where it’s illegal, however, most Internet users shouldn’t have a problem with that.
We find that HideMy.name is competitive as far as the features they offer. We would like the company to offer “Perfect Forward Secrecy” (PFS), which changes the encryption keys regularly. This adds to your security since cyber-attackers can’t cause much damage even if they get hold of your encryption key once. Leading VPN providers offer this feature.
Server Locations
VPN providers that have a sufficient number of servers in all key geographies can provide great speed, so you would ideally want that kind of a VPN.
HideMy.name fares well here. At the time of this review, the company has 112 servers across 77 cities in 43 countries. It covers all key regions like North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America. While it has fewer servers compared to some of the top VPN providers, the numbers are respectable! As a result, HideMy.name offers good speed.
Asia: HideMy.name has servers in South Korea, India, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, and Israel.
Europe: HideMy.name has a presence in the UK, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Lithuania, Hungary, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Poland, Italy, Germany, Estonia, Norway, Latvia, Moldova, and Belgium.
North America: This provider has its server infrastructure in the USA and Canada.
Oceania: HideMy.name has servers in Australia.
Africa: HideMy.name is present in Egypt.
Latin America: In Latin America, HideMy.name has its presence in Chile
At the time of this review, HideMy.name states on its website that the company is working on establishing servers in Brazil and Ireland. This provider states it’s steadily increasing the number of servers. Using its website, users can request the company to establish servers in a place of their choice.
Privacy
Privacy is probably the main reason why you are shopping around for a VPN. Let’s see how HideMy.name fares on this count.
This VPN has implemented a “no logs” policy, and it states that clearly on its “Privacy Policy” page. HideMy.name makes it clear that it doesn’t monitor or record the Internet browsing behavior of its users. The company further goes on to state that its technical backend is such that it can’t possibly log your browsing behavior.
HideMy.name generates usernames randomly and assigns non-public IP addresses to its users. Users can maintain anonymity, and their Internet browsing activities aren’t connected to their real IP address.
HideMy.name maintains a non-persistent log of connection data with the randomly-generated username for troubleshooting purposes. The company clears out this log every few hours. It tracks the volume of Internet traffic generated by its users for accounting purpose, however, this is aggregate data. This poses no privacy concerns to its users.
When you buy HideMy.name, the company collects only your email address. It encrypts this information. HideMy.name doesn’t collect any other personal information like name or address during this process. It generates a digital code for you to connect to its servers.
HideMy.name collects anonymized network diagnostics and crash reports with the consent of its users. The company can’t tie this information to your Internet browsing activities.
When Internet users visit its website, HideMy.name collects website usage data. This includes the IP address of the visitor, which pages they visit, etc. This is completely different from the browsing activities of its users via its VPN, therefore, users have no cause for worry.
HideMy.name clearly states that it doesn’t sell or share the personal information of its users. After discontinuing its services, users can ask HideMy.name to delete their information. The company clarifies that it processes the personal information of its users in accordance with the applicable laws.
Since HideMy.name doesn’t log your Internet browsing activities, it can’t hand over any such log to any government authorities. The jurisdiction of this company is Belize, which isn’t one the “14 Eyes” countries that conduct mass surveillance. Therefore, HideMy.name isn’t subject to any data retention laws. Belize is a privacy-friendly jurisdiction.
We were happy with the “no logs” policy of HideMy.name. If privacy is your key reason to buy a VPN, then HideMy.name is an excellent choice.
Encryption
Great VPNs use robust encryption for this, and we are happy to see that HideMy.name uses strong encryption.
HideMy.name uses AES-256-CBC encryption with RSA 2048-bit keys. This is military-grade encryption, and we are happy to see this.
Interface and Ease of Use
Let’s evaluate HideMy.name against this criterion now.
As soon as you visit its website, you will notice how easily you can navigate it. You can easily find all key menu options like “Prices”, “Download”, “Support”, etc. The website prominently displays the “Try it for free” and “Buy” buttons. You can easily find the “Live chat” option.
HideMy.name offers an easy process to buy its product. You choose the pricing plan and buy it in a few intuitive steps. This VPN doesn’t require a registration process, therefore, you can save time.
After you pay, you get an access code to connect to HideMy.name. The HideMy.name website prominently displays the options to download its custom apps for different platforms. It also displays the certificate from VirusTotal, which shows that its apps have no virus.
The HideMy.name custom apps are highly configurable. You can choose the protocol you want, your encryption level, etc., moreover, you can activate the “kill switch”. These custom apps are easy to use. If you want to manually set up HideMy.name, then you can use its detailed guides.
We believe that the Interface and ease-of-use are important criteria, and we found that HideMy.name scores very well here. Its ease-of-use is comparable to market-leading VPNs.
Customer Support
When it comes to Customer Support, let us check if HideMy.Name does well in this aspect.
HideMy.name has useful setup guides, detailed FAQs, and a competent customer support team. You can contact the support team via live chat, moreover, you can use the contact form on its “Support” page. We are very satisfied with the customer support capabilities of HideMy.name, and we describe it below.
Setup Guides
You can install HideMy.name custom apps easily and use them, moreover, the company offers detailed guides. If you want to set up HideMy.name manually, you can access its guides. HideMy.name provides detailed guides for all platforms like Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. It offers detailed guides for routers too.
Contact Support
We contacted the customer support team of HideMy.name via live chat, and we received answers immediately. The support team is very responsive.
Troubleshooting
HideMy.name has a very knowledgable customer support team. The customer support representative we contacted via live chat answered all our questions satisfactorily.
FAQ
HideMy.name offers a very informative and comprehensive FAQ page on its website. It contains answers to technical questions, moreover, it covers all common questions about billing, payment, etc.
Money-Back Guarantee
HideMy.name has a refund policy, which states that you need to request for a refund within 30 days of your purchase. Note that you need to provide specific reasons for your refund request. You also need to show that you had contacted its customer support team for a solution to your problem.
The customer support team of HideMy.name could recommend solutions. You will need to show that you have used the solutions they recommend, however, you didn’t get the desired results. HideMy.name will issue a refund after this.
What if you request for a refund without showing objective reasons? HideMy.name answers this question on its “Moneyback Guarantee” page. It states that you will get a refund only if the total Internet traffic during the subscription period doesn’t exceed 5 GB.
HideMy.name states that some payment processing companies charge commissions. It clarifies that in some cases, the company will need to deduct the commission amount from the refund amount. If you pay using cryptocurrencies, then the company will use the market rate at the time of refund.
Speed and Performance
HideMy.name offers good speed. Its VPN service is stable, and we didn’t notice any challenges regarding these aspects. If speed and performance are important criteria for you, then HideMy.name is certainly a good choice!
Compatibility
It supports all key platforms like Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. We especially liked the fact that HideMy.name has custom apps for all of these platforms. Many VPN users aren’t tech-savvy, and a custom app helps them.
Advanced users might want to manually set up their VPN connection, and HideMy.name allows that too. It offers useful guides for secure protocols like OpenVPN.
HideMy.name supports DD-WRT router. It allows 3 configurations for routers, namely, OpenVPN, OpenWRT, and PPTP. You can use its guides to set up your router to work with HideMy.name.
We are very satisfied to see that HideMy.name supports such a wide range of platforms. Its compatibility places it in a very competitive position when you compare it with leading VPN providers.
Conclusion
While many VPN providers make impressive claims about their products and services, the reality often varies. HideMy.name claims to offer privacy, security, ease-of-use, compatibility, and great customer support. It also claims to unblock geo-restricted streaming services.
In our review, we found that HideMy.name has a very strong privacy focus. You can use it with all kinds of devices, and the company offers 5 simultaneous connections. HideMy.name offers easy-to-use custom apps for all the platforms it supports, and that’s an advantage.
While its security solutions are good, it doesn’t have its own DNS servers. We would like it to use its own DNS servers, moreover, it should implement advanced security features like “Perfect Forward Secrecy” (PFS). HideMy.name offers good speed and it allows P2P/torrenting where it’s legal. It can’t unblock geo-restricted streaming services although it claims to do so.
HideMy.name offers excellent guides and customer support. Its pricing plans are very competitive, and the company offers steep discounts on its longer-duration plans. We find that HideMy.name is a good buy, and you can certainly use its free trial to explore it.