In this HideMyAss VPN review, we’ll discuss what is HideMyAss and how it can protect your online activity. HideMyAss VPN is a virtual private network that allows you to anonymously edit your IP address and surf the web. The HideMy-ass servers are local worldwide to ensure you have access to content from any location on earth.
The company was founded back in 2005 with one goal: To help people stay safe online by providing them with a way of hiding their identity from those who may want to hurt them or steal sensitive information like credit card numbers, passwords, etc. The headquarter is in London, but they offer coverage for more than 190 countries worldwide!
HMA is the best VPN for your privacy. They are continually updating their methods and improving how they protect you from prying eyes, including those of law enforcement agencies who might be trying to track where you’ve been online or log into what websites you use.
HMA has consistently had a great customer experience because it’s always making changes that improve security, like adjusting some settings on its app so high-risk users can’t get through without being required to provide more information first, which helps keep private info safe while still letting everyday internet functions work just fine!
It has a high upfront price and does without many tools, many cheaper ones made up of adversaries.
What Is HMA?
When you trigger a VPN, an encrypted passage is a creat to secure your data as it travels from your computer system to a server regulated by the VPN.
HMA is a great VPN for people who want to protect their privacy and stay secure online. HMA has taken steps to improve its customers’ protection methods, like adding features that make it difficult for someone to hack into your account or steal information from you on the Internet. One example is an anti-keylogger feature that ensures important passwords are not stored in cleartext.
From there, your data is sent to the open Internet. That prevents someone roaming your regional network from keeping an eye on or obstructing your task. For example, a VPN makes it harder to keep track of your homework online by hiding your actual IP address. In addition, it prevents your Internet Service Provider (ISP) from collecting information about your online work so that they can offer anonymized customer data to the highest possible buyer.
While a VPN is an effective tool for improving your privacy, it doesn’t protect against all diseases. Therefore, I strongly recommend that individuals initiate two-factor verification wherever they are readily available, use a password supervisor, and install antivirus software on their computer systems.
HideMyAss VPN Pricing and Plan
If you want to try using HideMyAss VPN before you get it, you can get started with the seven-day trial. This free trial requires you to create an account and submit your credit card information.
After your test, expect to be billed. However, if you want an excellent VPN, you have absolutely nothing in your handbag. You can continuously try a free VPN. Most of these services limit your service unless you pay anyway.
TunnelBear, for example, limits its free customers to a specific assignment of data. On the other hand, ProtonVPN’s open plan doesn’t put any data restrictions on customers and makes it as convenient as the most effective I’ve reviewed.
HideMyAss offers a monthly subscription alternative, but not in Australia, the UK, or the US.
In these areas, pricing starts at $59.88 per year. That’s significantly less than the typical annual price of $72.72 I’ve found across the industry. That said, it’s way more significant than the regular $10.18 monthly subscription price that I use to contrast VPNs with. HMA also offers three-year preparation for $143.64.
Why do I value monthly subscriptions? It is partly a result of their universality. Just in terms of each VPN offers one, and I like apple-to-apple contrasts. It’s also because I advise against starting with a permanent subscription.
There is no chance of understanding how you will undoubtedly benefit from a VPN until you try. An annual plan can save you money, but not when it’s a loser, and you need to find a brand new product.
Many VPNs have been available well listed below the industry standards for monthly and yearly prices.
Editors’ Choice Champions Mullvad VPN and TunnelBear have given you back a simple amount of EUR 5 ($5.65 at the time of this writing) and $9.99 per month. Both Mullvad and TunnelBear are $60 per year, and Kaspersky Secure Connection is $29.99 per year.
To get an HMA subscription, you can use credit cards or PayPal. These are practical options. You cannot use cryptocurrencies as Bitcoin is approved by multiple VPN services (private internet access, no VPN, and others). Mullvad approves money sent to headquarters, and Tor Guard allows you to use prepaid gift cards from various other companies to purchase subscriptions.
Most VPN services offer at least five licenses with no limitation, and HMA does the same. That’s great. However, some companies have started to get far better results. For example, an essential part of the services allows more than five tools to use the service simultaneously, while one couple has even wholly removed the limitation.
Avira Phantom VPN, Encrypt me VPN, Ghostery Midnight, IPVanish VPN, Surfshark VPN, and Windscribe VPN area without restriction for different tools. (Note that IPVanishand Encrypt comes from j2 Global, the parent and father business of PCMags author Ziff Davis.)
Overview of HideMyAss VPN Features
A fee higher than the standard for a VPN isn’t a significant infraction, provided the company can validate the cost. However, HMA does not consist of several additional privacy-protection tools. Instead, it consists of a split tunneling feature that allows you to assign which applications or sites send their data using the VPN. That is excellent. The company does not provide access to the Tor anonymization network. However, it also doesn’t offer multihop links directing your traffic to 2 VPN web servers for added privacy. ProtonVPN is the only service I have rated that provides all 3.
HideMyAss VPN Review: Protocols
There are several ways to create a VPN connection. My chosen technique uses the OpenVPN method. The Windows and Android applications use OpenVPN, which is very lovely. The iPhone and macOS applications use IKEv2, which is a more modern and secure method.
The apparent successor to OpenVPN is WireGuard, another open-source VPN method. What makes it attractive is the newer security technology that has improved it and the excellent prices. We haven’t evaluated WireGuard in depth. However, the initial results have been pleasing.
HMA does not currently support WireGuard. However, this is not yet a problem. Other VPNs like Mullvad and No rdVPN have introduced this brand new modern technology.
Servers and Server Locations
Ideally, a VPN company will undoubtedly offer a server that is close to your location. The concept was continuous: the closer the server, the better the efficiency. If you have multiple server locations, you also have plenty of options for spoofing your locations.
At first glance, HMA is the winner in terms of geographic diversity. The company notes that it has web servers in 290 locations in 190 countries. That beats the next highest challenger, Express VPN, which has web servers in 94 countries and is met by CyberGhost with web servers in 90 countries.
The list of readily available server spaces provided by HMA is significant as it covers areas that various other VPN companies often overlook. There are, for example, countless server places across the entire African continent. Some VPNs may offer some server space in Africa, while many completely neglect the continent. HMA also has extensive coverage of South America and often ignored areas and is one of the few companies that have Iran as their server location. It also deals with server seats that are in position with repressive internet plans like Vietnam and Russia.
There’s a considerable caution to this insurance coverage: Most of it is not what it seems.
HideMyAss makes extensive use of digital web servers. These are software-specific web servers that indicate that a person’s device server can host multiple digital hosts. In addition, web servers can appear in a different location besides reallocating their device hosts.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with digital web servers per se. Many VPN companies use them to manage abrupt requests on their networks. Some intelligently ve used intelligent digital web servers to access dangerous areas by keeping the host device in a safer location as customers know where their data is. So I have few problems with digital web servers.
It has web servers in 66 real locations in 36 countries, each serving 130 different other countries. No other VPN services I’ve reviewed have lots of digital server seats. HMA also doesn’t do an excellent job interacting with the several digital stalls or where they are. The company must make these methods clear to customers both in the application and on the company’s website.
A HideMyAss agent explained that the company does not have all of the server frameworks.
However, it has taken steps to protect its web servers. These consist of complete disk security to prevent data center staff from accessing information, maintain the CA’s exclusive secrets for the different frameworks, and so on.
These are practical preventive measures. Other companies are opting for all of their device types, and some, like ExpressVPN, have moved to RAM-only web servers that will disconnect as soon as possible to avoid interference.
Your Privacy With HMA
When I review VPNs, I review the company’s privacy policy and consult the staff to understand better how your data is used and stored. In the case of HMA, the company should complement its transparent privacy policy. The company has also made massive adjustments to its methods as it collects much, much fewer data than the last time I reviewed it.
The policy states and business representatives ensure that HideMyAss does not collect or log any customer IP addresses, DNS requests, or browsing data. That is excellent, and many more companies should make every effort to collect as little information as possible.
The company continues to log the day of the link (but not the moment) and a “rounded” amount of moved data for 35 days. While the company states that someone couldn’t attach any of this information to an individual, it should make every effort to collect much less information or keep it much shorter.
These renovations should treat with caution.
The company says its free proxy web browser plugin continues to log IP addresses, website domains, and timestamps. The company’s privacy policy states that this information is deleted every thirty days and is necessary to avoid misuse of a free service. However, that is an awkward amount of directly recognizable information. HMA should either rethink its proxy plugin or stop using a lot of customer data.
The business verified to me that it just generates income with the sale of HideMyAss VPN subscriptions.
That is wonderful because a company you rely on for your privacy shouldn’t be making money by offering your data.
HMA got the popularity of Avast Anti-Virus from Privax, later held by Avast Group. Note that Avast SecureLine VPN, AVG Secure VPN, and HMA! VPNs are all run by the same company. While HMA VPN operates its framework, Avast and AVG-branded VPNs have the identical downside. Earlier this year, an investigation found that Avast was currently monetizing its customers’ data collected using an internet browser plugin linked to the Avast antivirus product. It does not show that it contains VPN data.
The reallocation of a VPN business likewise matters.
It can provide clarification about what countermeasures apply to customers. HideMyAss is headquartered in London and located in the legal territory of the United Kingdom. In particular, the UK has the necessary data retention laws.
That is not suitable. Many different VPN services operate in countries without the necessary data retention laws or in countries with good privacy policies for customers. For example, the company tells me that most of its frame is in the Czech Republic, the home of Avast’s home offices.
The owner of HMA, Avast, publishes a transparency report that includes information about HMA. This document lists the number of police information claims the company has received and the company’s response. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to find (I had to ask my PR contact) and not update due to 2018. The record does not paint a complimentary picture of HMA during that time, showing that it responded to 43 percent of claims in 2017.
It consists of a notice stating that the company also had “root IP addresses” as part of the markets. HMA recently did its job; It is unlikely that this type of information will start again. However, it isn’t easy to make claims without an up-to-date record.
Many VPN firms have begun releasing third-party audit outcomes to develop their privacy authentically.
These audits are not always helpful. However, a comprehensive audit is an excellent way for a company to hold itself accountable to customers. TunnelBear is committed to conducting annual public audits and has kept this promise.
In August, HideMyAss announced that VerSprite had completed a review of its no-logs policy. Unfortunately, the entire record has not yet been published openly; However, in one image, it was discussed that VerSprite explores both the applications and backend of HideMyAss and HideMyAss provides a “low risk user privacy impact assessment.” The audit appears detailed, and I would like to see HMA introduce even more information in the future and expand the scope of its audits beyond the company’s no-logs policy.
Avast, the business of mum and dad from HideMyAss, also publishes a canary with a warrant. That allows the company to discreetly connect when legal requirements have been, preventing the industry from discovering those requirements. The Canarian document states that the company did not create back doors to access customer content, which is lovely. More companies should incorporate this language and comparably upgrade their warrant canaries.
Security is all you can count on. So unless you feel like you can rely on a company for any factor, you should choose the company you are comfortable with. Fortunately, there are excellent choices, especially when it comes to VPNs.
Hands-On With HideMyAss
I had no trouble installing the Windows variant on an Intel NUC Kit NUC8i7BEH (Bean Canyon) desktop computer running the latest version of Windows 10. Interestingly, you have the alternative of logging in with a username and password or with an activation code. Mullvad and ExpressVPN have entirely removed the signups and instead are using codes to trigger the customer software.
The latest variant from the HideMyAss customer carefully balances out user-friendliness without sacrificing some valuable tools. The application builds around the single blue window with Jack, HMA’s donkey previously of the same name, in the facility. The lively interface and animation mascot have a lot to do with TunnelBear, although I believe TunnelBear has the side of friendliness and ease of use.
Still, HideMyAss isn’t atrial A tutorial will certainly stroll you with your very first session.
Even neglecting this, the big toggle button that triggers the VPN is hard to miss. By default, the application will undoubtedly connect you to the fastest VPN server. However, you can still run a rate test to verify your selection. That is a remarkably effective little tool that creates neighboring web servers, runs checks on every one of them, and then selects a champion.
Once you understand the area you want to find, you can click the switch at the bottom of the primary ad, and it will bring up a list of web servers. You can search the list or have it corrupted by area. I like map user interfaces because maps make it easy to choose the ideal alternative below when the application doesn’t have the location I want to find. NordVPN, TunnelBear, and ProtonVPN are just a few elements that rely heavily on a card interface.
Unfortunately, the application does not allow you to select detailed web servers. The most acceptable level of granularity readily available is a city. I’ve also seen P2P and streaming web servers matter. However, it is still unclear which web servers are digital and which are not. Inside the application, you will find a kill button that will close the Internet to gain access if your VPN is disconnected.
You can choose to have HMA only allow Internet access through detailed applications.
While HideMyAss doesn’t have the inexpensive privacy protection tools that the VPN industry offers (or possibly all of the standard devices), it does have a few different features that come in quite handy. For example, you can click a switch next to your IP address to switch to a brand new IP address on the primary page.
The application states that doing so may clog websites that deny access to VPN customers. However, I like the privacy implications when I can convert my IP address so conveniently. You can also set up the application to play your IP address instantly at set times, which is fantastic.
Having a VPN that doesn’t change your discoverable IP address or lose your DNS information isn’t very useful. During my screening, I checked that HideMyAss changed my public IP address and obfuscated my ISP. Using the DNS leak test tool, I confirmed that the service is not dripping my information. Note that I only evaluated one server. I may have set other web servers incorrectly.
HideMyAss and Netflix
If you live this far in the 21st century, you most likely stream video clips and songs every day. But, unfortunately, several streaming companies, especially Netflix, are blocking VPN customers.
I had no trouble streaming Netflix while connected to a US HMA server. That’s wonderful. Be aware, however, that VPN blocking is a small video game for cats and computer mice. So the service that allows Netflix to be viewed today with a VPN can be blocked tomorrow.
Beyond VPN
Like Private Internet Access and CyberGhost, other services consist of ad and tracker blocking; However, HideMyAss does not offer this capacity. TunnelBear offers a free stand-alone Internet browser tracker blocker as well as the subscription-based RememBear password supervisor.
TunnelBear isn’t the only company expanding its item profile. NordVPN, together with the No rdLocker system for encrypted documents, also offers a password monitoring product. In addition, ProtonVPN and Tor Guard both provide secure email services. Unfortunately, HideMyAss has no equivalent sugar or offshoot.
Although the same company has it with Avast and AVG antivirus programs, HideMyAss doesn’t include any of these articles. Hotspot Shield contains a significant amount of a Pango account that qualifies you for various other data protection services.
Speed and Performance
Using a VPN, your web traffic will dip with even more tires than usual or optimal. As a result, you will most likely see a decrease in rate and an increase in latency. To get this influence, I contrast the typical consequence of Ookla’s speed test tool to determine the percentage change with the VPN on and off. For more information about our screening and its limitations, see Testing VPNs.
HideMyAss has done incredibly well on rate checks. The download rate test results only reduce by 42.2 percent, and the upload rate test results reduce by 58.9 percent. A simple 35.4 percent increased the latency. These ratings were enough to rank it third among all the VPNs I rated.
You can see how HMA stands out from the most effective competitors among the practically 40 VPN items I have reviewed.
Overall, Hotspot Shield VPN holds the fastest VPN title. However, it is a close competition. Surfshark is ideally behind and has an excellent upload rating. Even so, I strongly recommend choosing a VPN based on the rate. There is no guarantee that you will get comparable results. In reality, I’m sure you won’t. Instead, consider the privacy protections and the overall value of the product.
HideMyAss on Other Platforms
HideMyAss offers applications for Android, iPhone, macOS, and Windows. The company also provides guidelines for setting up Linux computer systems to use the service. This way, each tool can be set up by hand. However, it is far better to use a first-party application. These are easier to use and provide access to various features on which hat you are currently spendmoono on.
HideMyAss also has proxy extensions for the Chrome and Firefox Internet browsers. That allows you to spoof the location of your web browser traffic. However, different systems serve to secure your traffic than is the case in the VPN application.
Like, you can set up a router to use HideMyAss, which will extend VPN protection for every tool on your network. Alternatively, you can purchase a pre-configured router that works with HideMyAss. I have not rated this setup. It does seem a bit of a chore, however.
HideMyAss VPN Customer Support
While we mourn the resignation of the bold “HideMyAss” brand, HMA continues the most effective of this fabled brand. The vibrant design is straightforward and friendly to amateurs. In addition, the company uses robust modern VPN technology, has a remarkable range of web servers and server seats, and some of the most effective rate test reviews we’ve seen to date.
HMA is the go-to company for home security. Just as they do in your own house, we take great care of our customers with a personalized service that helps you feel safe and secure 24/7.
HMA’s customer support team will answer any question or concern about anything related to securing yourself online – from firewall protection to anti-malware software installation assistance – all so you can surf worry-free!
HideMyAss Money-Back Guarantee
HideMyAss is always striving to provide the best customer service possible. They offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on subscriptions with Avast, AVG, CCleaner (including Defraggler and Speccy), and HMA solutions that end-users purchase directly from them through their online retail stores or Google Play.
HideMyAss VPN Alternatives
Virtual Private Network (VPN) software may be a widely used technology. Many people are looking for fast, top-notch software solutions with multiple devices, multiple simultaneous connections, and protocol options.
Another essential factor to consider when looking for alternatives to HideMyAss is security. We have compiled an inventory of solutions that rate by the reviewers as the best overall options and competitors of HideMyAss, including NordVPN, OpenVPN, VyprVPN, and ProtonVPN.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the HideMyAss has many features that make it a great choice for an employer. For example, coupled with its affordable price and easy budgeting process, this plan leaves employees feeling in control of their own health care.
The expense is easily manageable by any company’s budget, which means they can offer better benefits to attract top talent and provide peace of mind at such a low cost!
I am Sajal. A Freelancer, a blogger, a Freelance Content Writer, and a geek when it comes to anything related to online marketing. Stay connected to me. Leave a comment if you like my articles.
