A solid, privacy-conscious VPN with a genuinely useful free plan and a unique Stealth protocol for bypassing censorship. Not the fastest or the best for streaming, but honest credentials and competitive pricing make it a practical choice.
| PureVPN | PIA | Surfshark | CyberGhost | IPVanish | NordVPN | Proton VPN | hide.me |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £1.33/mo | £1.49/mo | £1.69/mo | £1.99/mo | £2.49/mo | £2.99/mo | £3.19/mo | from £4.49/mo |
hide.me starts from £4.49/mo on the annual Plus plan. A free plan (10 GB/month, 1 device) is available with no credit card required. NordVPN and Proton VPN offer comparable or better performance for less on long-term plans.
hide.me occupies a distinctive position in the VPN market: a privacy-focused service with a genuine free plan, a proprietary Stealth protocol designed to bypass censorship, and a clean track record backed by an independent audit. It does not compete with NordVPN on speed or CyberGhost on streaming breadth, but for users who want a trustworthy, honest service at a fair price — or who want to try a free tier before committing — it is a sound and under-rated choice.
The service has been running since 2012, incorporated in Malaysia, and has not been involved in any credible data disclosure incident. The Stealth protocol is its most distinctive technical feature, making it one of the few VPNs that functions reliably in heavily censored networks.
"hide.me's free plan is genuinely usable — 10 GB a month is enough for everyday privacy on public Wi-Fi, and you do not need a credit card to sign up. That alone makes it worth considering as a starting point." TopVPNTested
hide.me is incorporated in Malaysia, a jurisdiction outside the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and Fourteen Eyes surveillance alliances. There are no mandatory data retention laws that compel a VPN provider operating in Malaysia to store connection logs. The no-logs policy was independently audited by Cure53, a highly respected German cybersecurity firm that has also audited Mullvad and ProtonVPN. The audit confirmed that no connection timestamps, IP addresses, browsing activity, or DNS queries are recorded.
Malaysia is not a perfect jurisdiction — it is not Switzerland or Panama — but it is meaningfully better than a US or UK base for privacy purposes. The combination of a third-party audit and a clean historical record gives us reasonable confidence in the no-logs claim. All connections use AES-256 encryption with perfect forward secrecy.
On UK servers using WireGuard, hide.me retained around 88% of our 75 Mbps test connection — adequate for streaming, browsing, and downloading, but below the top performers. NordVPN with NordLynx kept nearly 99% of the same connection. On long-distance connections to US and Asian servers the gap widens further, with speed retention dropping to around 75-80%. For most everyday use cases the speeds are fine. For 4K gaming or very high-bandwidth use, a faster VPN would be a better fit.
hide.me supports WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, and its own Stealth protocol. WireGuard is the fastest and the right default for most users. Stealth adds some overhead due to traffic obfuscation, so expect slightly lower speeds when using it — the trade-off is necessary to bypass deep packet inspection in restricted networks.
Streaming is not hide.me's strongest suit. In our testing it reliably unblocked Netflix UK, Netflix US, BBC iPlayer, and Amazon Prime Video. Disney+ was inconsistent — it worked in some sessions and failed in others. ITVX and Channel 4 connected without issues. Platforms beyond these mainstream services were not reliably unblocked. It does not maintain the broad regional Netflix coverage of NordVPN or the dedicated streaming server infrastructure of CyberGhost.
For users who mainly want to watch UK content abroad, access US Netflix occasionally, or use BBC iPlayer while travelling, hide.me is adequate. If streaming across many regional platforms is your primary reason for getting a VPN, NordVPN or CyberGhost are stronger choices.
The hide.me app is clean and functional. The main screen shows your connection status, a prominent connect button, and a server location selector. Switching between protocols requires navigating into settings, which is slightly less frictionless than the best apps in the market. On first launch, the app walks you through setup clearly. The free plan requires account creation before use, which adds a small step compared to anonymous services, but the process is quick.
The app is available on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and routers. All platform apps are consistent in design. Customer support is available via live chat on paid plans and by email on the free tier. Response times in our testing were reasonable — typically under a few hours for email queries.
hide.me's most distinctive feature is the Stealth protocol, which obfuscates VPN traffic to look like standard HTTPS. This is genuinely useful in countries with active VPN blocking — China, UAE, Russia, Iran — where standard WireGuard or OpenVPN connections are routinely detected and cut. Most VPNs in our review set do not offer equivalent obfuscation built into their own protocol. The Network Lock kill switch cuts your internet connection immediately if the VPN drops, preventing accidental IP exposure. Split tunnelling lets you choose which apps route through the VPN. DNS leak protection is enabled by default, and the app includes automatic Wi-Fi protection that activates the VPN whenever you join an unfamiliar network.
The free plan is one of the most practical introductory tiers in the VPN market — 10 GB is enough for daily privacy on public Wi-Fi and occasional use. The annual Plus plan is competitive, though NordVPN, Surfshark, and PIA all deliver better performance for less on their long-term plans. All paid plans include a 30 day money back guarantee.
hide.me earns its place through honest credentials rather than marketing. The free plan is genuinely usable, the Stealth protocol solves a real problem for users in censored networks, and the Cure53 audit gives confidence in the no-logs claim. Where it falls short — streaming breadth and peak speeds — are the areas that most commonly decide between VPNs. If those matter most, NordVPN or CyberGhost are stronger picks. If you want a trustworthy service with a genuine free tier, or need a VPN that works where others are blocked, hide.me is a sound and honest choice.
Get hide.me →hide.me is ideal for users who want to try a VPN on a free plan before paying anything, travellers in countries where standard VPN protocols are blocked (China, UAE, Russia), and privacy-conscious users who want audited no-logs credentials without overpaying.
Consider alternatives if streaming breadth matters. NordVPN at £2.99/month delivers faster speeds and broader platform unblocking. For the strongest privacy credentials, Proton VPN in Switzerland with open-source apps is the benchmark — and also offers a better free plan with unlimited data.
Answers to the questions people ask most about hide.me VPN.
Yes — hide.me offers a genuinely usable free plan with 10 GB of data per month, access to 5 server locations, and support for 1 device. No credit card is required to sign up. It is one of the most practical free VPN tiers available, though Proton VPN's free plan offers unlimited data if that matters more.
Stealth is hide.me's proprietary VPN protocol designed to disguise VPN traffic as regular HTTPS web traffic. This makes it difficult for deep packet inspection systems to detect and block the VPN connection — particularly useful in countries like China, UAE, Russia, and Iran where standard VPN protocols are actively blocked.
Yes. hide.me's no-logs policy has been independently audited by Cure53, a respected cybersecurity firm. The service is incorporated in Malaysia, which is outside the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and Fourteen Eyes surveillance alliances and has no mandatory data retention laws that apply to VPN providers. We found no credible record of any data disclosure incident.
Partially. In our testing, hide.me reliably unblocked Netflix UK and Netflix US, BBC iPlayer, and Amazon Prime Video. Disney+ was inconsistent across sessions. It does not match the streaming breadth of NordVPN or CyberGhost. For users who primarily need the major UK and US platforms it is adequate — for broader regional access, look elsewhere.
The free plan supports 1 simultaneous device. Paid Plus and Premium plans support up to 10 simultaneous device connections. hide.me is available on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and routers.
Moderately. On UK servers using WireGuard, hide.me retained around 88% of our tested connection speed — adequate for streaming and browsing but noticeably below the top performers. On long-distance servers the drop is more pronounced. If peak speed is a priority, NordVPN's NordLynx protocol performs significantly better.