A VPN is an excellent tool for securing your information and protecting your privacy online, but most people worry about whether it's going to slow down their internet connection to the point that it's unusable.
That's not a worry with HideIPVPN, which is one of the fastest VPNs in my testing.
It has a small server selection, though, as well as unusual pricing and fewer licenses per subscription than the average.
It's a fast VPN service, but the best VPNs offer more than just speed.
What Is a VPN?
When a VPN is active, it creates an encrypted tunnel between your computer and a server operated by the VPN.
If you're using the public Wi-Fi network at, say, a coffee shop, you can log into your email or even your bank's website without worrying about someone (or some three-letter agency) eavesdropping or intercepting your data.
Not only is your Web traffic protected with a VPN, but it can also obscure your IP address, making it much more difficult for advertising trackers to get a fix on your location and identity.
It also prevents your ISP from keeping tabs on your activities, and potentially selling anonymized information about your online behavior.
HideIPVPN's Pricing and Features
The pricing structure of HideIPVPN is annoyingly opaque.
It appears to be similar to that of competitors, offering the same slate of features at subscriptions of different lengths.
The longer the subscription, the bigger the savings.
A subscription costs $6.99 per month, $17.99 per quarter, or $59.88 per year.
When you're taken to the actual order screen, you'll see that a promotional discount has been applied.
Weirdly, you can opt not to accept the discount, although why you would do so eludes me.
Without the discounts, the pricing turns into $9.99 per month, $22.99 per quarter, and $69.99 per year.
With or without the discounts, HideIPVPN has competitive pricing.
That said, I'd like HideIPVPN to make its pricing clearer so customers know exactly how much the service will cost, and that it's clear how long that pricing will remain the same.
As I write this, the price of a top-rated VPN is around $10.80 per month.
HideIPVPN is well below that, whatever its pricing turns out to be, although it would be nice to know with certainty how much it actually costs.
NordVPN ($89 for Two-Year Plan With Bonus Gift at NordVPN) meanwhile, cruises above it all at $11.95 per month.
Money doesn't need to be an obstacle when it comes to using a VPN.
TunnelBear VPN and AnchorFree Hotspot Shield both offer free editions that restrict data usage on a monthly and daily cycle, respectively.
ProtonVPN ($6.63 Per Month for Two Year Plan at ProtonVPN) offers even more flexible pricing, but limits some of its features and servers depending on which subscription you purchase.
Despite this, ProtonVPN's free subscription places no limit on the amount of data you may use, making it easily the best option for free users.
HideIPVPN doesn't have a free subscription, but you can demo the product for 24 hours without providing payment or even an email address.
You can purchase a subscription from HideIPVPN using major credit and debit cards, PayPal, or a variety of online payment options.
The company also accepts anonymous payments in BitCoin, via Bit-pay.
TorGuard VPN offers other anonymous options by accepting numerous prepaid gift cards from the likes of Starbucks and Subway.
Each subscription includes allows up to three simultaneous connections per account.
That means you can have any three devices connected to HideIPVPN a the same time.
Five is the industry standard, although NordVPN provides six, CyberGhost gives seven, and IPVanish VPN hands out an even more generous 10.
Windscribe VPN and Avira Phantom VPN, it should be noted, have no restrictions on the number of devices you use with their services.
If you want to extend VPN protection to every device on your network, HideIPVPN offers instructions on how to configure your router to use its service.
That's handy, although a few VPN providers go further, offering preconfigured routers for sale.
Some companies let you purchase additional simultaneous connections, but not HideIPVPN.
I particularly like how TorGuard VPN handles these upgrades, with a simple slider letting you select how many simultaneous connections you need.
Other services, such as NordVPN, provide static IP addresses for sale, should you require one.
HideIPVPN also does not provide this as an option.
VPN Protocols
There's a number of ways to create a VPN connection, and I prefer the OpenVPN protocol.
This is an open-source protocol, meaning its code is freely available and has been inspected by anyone with the interest to do so.
I'm happy to see that HideIPVPN supports OpenVPN—as well as the excellent IKEv2 VPN protocol—on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows.
The inclusion of iOS on this list is notable, since Apple requires developers to jump through more hoops when they include OpenVPN.
HideIPVPN also supports L2TP/IPSec, PPTP, and SSTP on Windows.
Its macOS app also supports L2TP/IPSec and PPTP, as does its iOS app.
These are older, and in some cases less secure protocols, and you shouldn't use them if you can avoid it.
They're handy if you're using a lot of legacy equipment, since these are commonly supported.
HideIPVPN also supports SoftEther on Windows—which is a bit unusual, but interesting for a certain kind of network geek.
There's been a lot of buzz around WireGuard, an emerging VPN technology that promises to be faster, simpler, and more secure than current options.
It's also still being developed, and not really ready for widespread deployment.
Servers and Server Locations
In theory, the more servers a VPN company provides, the better the service you'll experience, because you're more likely to have a server near you that isn't stuffed full of other subscribers.
It's probably a more complicated story than that, but I err on the side of more being better.
HideIPVPN, unfortunately, offers only 29 servers, a far cry from ProtonVPN's 347 servers, a farther cry from the 3,000-plus servers available from CyberGhost, ExpressVPN, TorGuard, and Private Internet Access ($69.95 for Two-Year Plan + Two-Months Free at Private Internet Access) , and a distant wail from the 5,200-odd servers from NordVPN.
Also important is the geographic distribution of those servers.
More server locations means you're more likely to find one nearby, wherever you go.
It also gives you more options for location spoofing.
HideIPVPN comes up short here, as well, offering only 11 countries.
This leaves Africa, Central and South America, India, and most of Asia high and dry.
NordVPN, by contrast, offers servers in 62 countries.
For its part, ExpressVPN boasts an impressive 94 countries in its roster.
I'd like to see HideIPVPN greatly expand its available server locations in the future.
Some readers have expressed concern over VPNs using virtual servers.
These are software defined servers, meaning that a single physical server can host several virtual ones.
These virtual servers can also be configured to appear in a country other than where their hosts are located.
The concern is that it's harder to tell where your traffic is actually going.
I don't see virtual servers as necessarily bad.
A VPN company can, for instance, use a virtual server in a country with robust privacy laws and make it appear that it is in a more dangerous location, in order to service that region while protecting the server.
I like to see VPN companies being clear about which servers are virtual, and where they are truly located.
HideIPVPN says that 90 percent of its servers are physical hardware.
But I was unable to determine if its virtual servers are where they appear to be.
They certainly aren't clearly marked.
I'd like to see HideIPVPN be more transparent about this.
Your Privacy With HideIPVPN
A big reason I use a VPN is to protect my personal information and online activities from being harvested and monetized by my ISP.
But a crooked VPN company could just as easily gather my information as an ISP could.
That's why I read through each company's privacy policy and have them answer specific questions about what the company does to protect customer privacy.
HideIPVPN has a short but very readable privacy policy.
It assures customers that their information will never be sold or shared with third parties.
A company representative assured me that HideIPVPN only makes money from VPN subscription sales.
Weirdly, the Privacy Policy says very little about actually using the VPN.
For that, I had to look at the Terms of Service.
This document is slightly longer, but includes assurances that the company does not gather personal information or data about customers' online activities while the VPN is active.
That's what I want to hear.
HideIPVPN operates under Servermanagement LLC and is within US legal jurisdiction.
Other VPN companies, such as NordVPN, are quick to point out that because they are based outside the US, they are not required to respond to US subpoenas or court orders.
Still, the company representative I spoke with assured me that when HideIPVPN responds to requests for information, it has nothing to share with authorities.
HideIPVPN currently does not engage in third party audits or evaluations, which are starting to become a trend among VPN providers.
An audit provides outside verification of the VPN company's standards and practices.
While the scope of audits varies wildly, I'm grateful to see more efforts to hold companies accountable.
TunnelBear ($120 for Three-Year Plan at TunnelBear) , for example, has committed to undergoing annual audits, and has publicly released the information over two consecutive years.
NordVPN recently commissioned its own audit of its no-log policy.
Additionally, HideIPVPN has not participated in the Center for Democracy and Technology's VPN questionnaire.
Much of the information requested by the CDT is the same that I asked for, and relayed here.
ExpressVPN, IVPN, Mullvad, TunnelBear, and VyprVPN have responded.
In general, I didn't find anything surprising or worrying in HideIPVPN's policies.
That said, I believe the company could do a better job relaying this information to customers.
I'd also like to see the company issue transparency reports relaying the amount of information requested by law enforcement each year, and undergo independent audits in the future.
Hands-On With HideIPVPN
I had no trouble downloading and installing the HideIPVPN Windows client on my Lenovo ThinkPad T460s laptop running Windows 10.
While you can configure your computer to connect without using the client, I always recommend using the software provided by the VPN company.
It's much easier to use and gives you access to features that wouldn't otherwise be available.
The HideIPVPN app is tall and slender, looking quite a bit like a mobile app translated to PC.
In fact, looking at the HideIPVPN Android app, I'd say that's exactly what it is.
I'm all for apps having a consistent look and feel across different platforms, but I think HideIPVPN goes a bit too far, since the Windows app feels out of place and a bit clunky.
It is, thankfully, very easy to use.
A large connect button gets you online without any hassle.
The option to browse for a different server location is clearly marked and within easy reach.
From the location list, you can choose either a country or a specific server location within that country.
You can also order the list by speed, which is handy.
I prefer apps that provide a little more information about specific servers, such as what kind of load a server is currently experiencing.
The company does allow P2P and BitTorrent on its servers, but only the servers in Germany, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
If you plan on doing a lot of that thing, consider marking these as favorites to keep them close at hand in the app.
The HideIPVPN app is a bit sparse, but does have one trick up its sleeve with App Killer.
This automatically closes the applications you specify, should the VPN connection be disrupted.
That way, you can be assured that no information will accidentally travel in the clear.
Many other VPNs offer this feature, usually calling it a Kill Switch.
One concern with VPNs is ensuring that information about your ISP or DNS requests isn't leaked.
I test this using the aptly named DNS Leak Test tool.
I found that while my ISP information was obscured, the DNS results were troubling.
Without a VPN, I see five to six Verizon DNS servers listed, and usually only one DNS server when a VPN is running.
In the case of HideIPVPN, I saw five to six Google DNS servers in the US and Belgium.
I've reached out to HideIPVPN to clarify if this is expected behavior.
HideIPVPN and Netflix
VPNs are an important security tool, but some companies would prefer you didn't use them.
Sometimes this is because of a genuine need to try and verify your location for security purposes—such as your bank making sure you are who you say you are.
Other times, it's to enforce company policies.
In the case of Netflix, the latter is true.
Netflix distribution deals are specific to different regions, meaning that what is licensed in the UK isn't necessarily the same as what's available in the US.
When you use a VPN, you can sidestep those restrictions, and Netflix isn't a fan.
I had no trouble accessing Netflix via a US-based VPN server with HideIPVPN when I last checked.
Given the cat-and-mouse relationship between Netflix and VPN companies, however, you may have different results.
Beyond VPN
In order to stand out from the ever-increasing horde of competitors, VPN providers sometimes include additional tools that go beyond VPN protection.
NordVPN, for example, lets you connect to the Tor anonymization network via its servers.
TorGuard offers ad-blocking and malware blocking DNS that uses blacklists to keep annoying advertisements and dangerous URLs out of your path.
CyberGhost offers static, dedicated IP addresses for people that want to have a particular outward-facing IP address.
There are many other features from different companies, but HideIPVPN isn't one of them.
The company offers a VPN service, with associated features, and that's all.
Speed and Performance
No matter which VPN service you use, your Internet performance will take a hit.
There's no way around it.
To measure what kind of impact each service has, we perform a series of tests using Ookla's Speedtest.net, which is...