HideMyAss is one of the biggest names on the market due to the great quality service they provide as well as the amount of free services that they provide. Unfortunately they are based in the UK and have had large issues with privacy in the past so if you’re looking for ultimate privacy we recommend looking at our logless or torrent list.
Pricing & Plans
Like most VPN providers Hide My Ass has three different packages (1, 6 and 12 months) which all offer the same service but increasing price discounts. Though historically one of the more expensive providers from our full list , prices have been reduced significantly for their 2015 summer sale which lasts until 31 August. A one year subscription now costs only $4.99 per month, and even the regular pay-monthly plan is down to $9.99. If you plan on using it in the long term though then we definitely recommend the 12 month package and if you change your mind there is always the 30 day money back guarantee available for all plans.
Features
The company provides 860 servers with 310 locations across 190 countries – providing a possible 117,020 IP addresses – and this number is constantly growing. They also offer the three most common protocols: LLTP, L2TP and OpenVPN and easily allows you to change between them (depending on device).
They have software available for all major operating system and because they allow 2 simultaneous connections, something that’s not very common, you do not have to worry about which of your devices you wish to use at a given time.
On top of this they provide a vast range of free services through their website, which we will talk about later on in the post.
Security & Privacy
From a technical viewpoint it is great service supporting all major protocols: OpenVPN, L2TP and PTPP, using 256-bit encryption except for the latter which uses 128-bit. Their free services also show how big their dedication to internet security and anonymity is.
Their only let down is that due to being based in the UK they do keep partial logs and as seen by their 2011 LulzSec fiasco they will hand them to the authorities if requested. While this is understandable due to the power that the US government and Sony pose (and there have been no other known cases) we think most people will be fine with it but as mentioned in the summary above if you’re looking for absolute privacy take a look at one of our other lists.
The website
If you can look past their donkey logo gimmick they definitely have an easy to use and see through site where you can see all the features and services they provide as well as blogs, posts and reviews relating to their services.
Support
The company has a very friendly support team that is available during most of the week (though not 24/7) and can answer any questions you may have – they even maintain their gimmicks. Due to their popularity they also have a well maintained support and community website which means that setting up or using any of their services is flawless.
HMA_Support
Signing up is a simple process requiring only an email address and payment. Once you have signed up they will provide you with links to download the software for your chosen device.
The Windows VPN client
Downloading and installing the client is straight forward and can be done in the matter of minutes. The software will open up its ‘Dashboard’ which will get you started with the basics (server & protocol selection) and also display its status in your task bar. From the left menu you have a number of choices which we describe below.
HMA_Client
Country Selection: Select where you wish to be ‘based’. This can be done either through a list selection or through a visual map.
HMA_Map
IP Address Settings: Here you can check your IP, set it to change systematically or even log your IP history.
Secure IP Bind: Select programs which you only wish to run while connected through VPN and terminates them for you otherwise (e.g. Torrents)
Speed Guide: Performs a check to determine which server would provide you with the best speed from the ones you have selected
Proxy Settings: Set any HTTP/SOCKS proxy you wish to use.
Billing & Packages: Pretty self-explanatory we think.
The only let down with the client is that though OpenVPN and PPTP come built in you have to download another piece of software in order to use L2TP.
Performance (Speed, DNS and IP Test)
We checked the performance of the system over a number of days in order to evaluate the stability and performance. Overall we received slightly disappointing but stable results. We carried out IP and DNS leak checks and both all gave the company a clean bill of health.

HMA Pro VPN Cracked 2016