Hide My IP Review 2025: Is Legit & Safe?

Hide My IP is a VPN service that is owned and operated by My Privacy Tools, Inc., and has been in operation since 2006. Hide My IP is not the regular VPN (Virtual Private Network); rather it is a DNS Proxy solution, which works similar to other types of proxy methods, by simply masking your IP address.

There are marked difference between a VPN an a SmartDNS. A SmartDNS reroute some specific information about your internet signal, but a VPN reroutes all your internet data.

One advantage of a DNS Proxy is that no extra software (such as a VPN client or other applications) is needed to configure the proxy. However, the main advantages would be that the proxy is compatible with more devices than a regular VPN, and much faster.

That a SmartDNS gives significantly faster speed than a regular VPN tells you that something has to give. Speed and encryption levels are inversely proportional, such that excellent speed is a sign of little or no encryption. As such SmartDNS proxies are able to give excellent speed because they do not offer encryption. No encryption translate to no security.

Hide My IP as a DNS proxy is giving off encryption to offer speedy connection; and it reroutes some of your internet information to give you access to geo blocked channels.

Hide My IP advertises as a service that will help you “surf anonymously and protect your identity“. The amount of surveillance in the Internet is at an alarming high rate; insidious hackers are watching to steal your personal data, your ISP and government are watching so as to control what you can and cannot do over the internet, and more. Anyone who cares about browsing the Internet surveillance-free will want a service that allows him/ her surf anonymously.

Is Hide My IP safe? Does Hide My IP live up to its catchy slogan in being the ideal service for surfing anonymously and protecting your identity while online? This Hide My IP review will provide the information that will help you answer that question. And also let you know if Hide My IP is legit or a scam VPNservice.

Hide My IP at a glance

• A SmartDNS proxy
• Launched in 2006 by My Privacy Tools, Inc.
• Provides a robust server network vomiting of over a thousand IPs in 114 locations in 65 countries worldwide
• Does IP masking but no encryption
• Offers some virtual IPs that support SSL connections
• Has a kill switch and prevent security leaks
• Support a wide range of devices, and support five simultaneous connections
• Offers excellent speed
• Customer support through live chat, telephone, email and online ticket

Server Network

You should want a service that has a robust network consisting of numerous server locations in different countries around the world. Numerous server locations is good for location spoofing; and a network covering different countries is good for unblocking purposes as well as for performance.

In this regard, Hide My IP has 114 servers in 65 countries around the world. The server count is itself small compared to the thousands operated by some of the industry top players; but the number of countries covered is one of the highest in the industry. It is impressive that Hide My IP is able to spread their relatively small 114 servers to cover a whooping 65 countries around the world.

The server network covers every region of the world. South America is represented by Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama. North America is represented by the US, Canada and Mexico. Europe is represented by 33 countries that includes the popular choices such as UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands; as well as less popular choices such as Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Moldova.

Asia is represented by Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam. Oceania is represented by  Georgia and Australia. Africa is represented by Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and South Africa.

Looking at the server network, you’ll find that the network covers many of the regions neglected by other VPN and SmartDNS services, these regions include Africa and the Middle East.

The wide spread coverage of the server network mean that Hide My IP is an excellent service for unblocking purposes; as you’ll find a server in (or close) to a particular region that you’ll want to access. The spread of the network also means that Hide My IP will perform better than most VPN and SmartDNS services. This is because anywhere in the world you may be, you’ll find a close Hide My IP server nearby that you can connect to, and connections over short distances gives better performance than distant connections.

Service Plans and Pricing

Hide My IP has a standard plan which cost $29.95 billed annually. This plan allows only one device per license key. To get multiple devices and a more flexible billing periods, you’ll have to go for he premium plan. For some reasons, the premium plan is not accessible from their main page.

The main difference between the premium plan and the standard plan is that the premium plan  gives you five connections, and has three billing options – monthly, quarterly, and annually.

The premium monthly package costs $2.95 per month; the premium quarterly package cost $8.79, which breaks down $2.93 per month; and the premium yearly package costs $34.95, which breaks down to $2.91 per month.

The standard VPN pricing model is to discount their long term subscriptions so that you’ll fare better by going for the long term subscriptions. With Hide My IP, it’s the same; that is if you think that 0.67% and 1.36% discount on $2.95 is worth anything.

Granted, the very pocket friendly $2.95 month by month subscription of Hide My IP is one of the cheapest you’ll find in the industry; but the very low discount they offer on the quarterly and annual deals means the cost of these long terms deals are not significantly different from the monthly deal. For example, subscribing to the one year deal will only save you $0.48 as against rolling over the monthly deal for 12 months.

That said, Hide My IP is one of the cheapest private VPN and SmartDNS there is in the market; and if you are on a budget, you should take a look at the service.

Payment Methods

You want a service that supports a wide range of payment methods so that you can easily make payments no matter where you may be resident.

Hide My IP supports the regular banking options which is PayPal and the popular credit/ debit cards (visa card, master card, and American Express). Other methods you may use include Paymentwall, Payza and Alipay.

As you would know, these methods entail the submission of a lot of personal data (such as credit information), and many privacy-conscious users would be hesitant to use them.

As a result, it is pleasing to find that Hide My IP also support Bitcoin and some other crypto currencies. Bitcoin and Co allow users to make payments anonymously; which means that the billing process cannot compromise your privacy.

Refund Policy

Many VPN services have a refund policy where they undertake to refund the payment of any user who is not satisfied with their service; and Hide My IP is no exception.

The refund policy of Hide My IP is powered by a 30 days money back guarantee. The 30 days window means that all refund requests must be made within 30 days of purchase of the service. This is one of the longest refund windows in the industry, as it means you can still get back your money after using the service for a full month.

Also, it is not uncommon to find that long refund windows have attached conditions that makes it impossible to use the service for the allowed long period and still be eligible for a refund. Interestingly, the long refund window of Hide My IP has no such limiting conditions. It is a true “no questions asked” refund policy that only requires you to submit your request within the allowed 30 days window.

You should also note that all refunds are made using the same payment method that was used on the original order. This mean that getting back your money will be impossible if you use any of the anonymous payment methods.

Free Trial

You can also use the Hide My IP service free of charge for up to seven days because they offer a 7 days free trial. This will allow you to fully test and experience the service before you make the decision to commit to a paid subscription.

Also, the free trial is not limited in anyway; what you get in the free trial account is the same level of service available to a holder of a paid account. This ensures that you test the full limits of the service.

Features

Device Compatibility

You should want a VPN service that supports a wide range of device so that you can be protected with the service no matter the device you use.

In this regard, Hide My IP works with virtually every device. This is because as a SmartDNS, Hide My IP does not use additional settings. Thus, you can he the service on all the popular operating systems – Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, and Linux.

The service can also be configured on routers; and this makes it possible to increase the number of device connections as well as to support more devices such as gaming consoles an Smart TVs. All you need do is get the service on the router, and connect the device to the router.

Also, Hide My IP can be used to protect all your favourite web browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari, Netscape, Avant Browser, Lolifox, MyIE, and Maxthon.

Simultaneous Connections

You should want a service that supports multiple connections, especially if you have multiple devices that may be in use at the same time.

Where you have to buy separate VPN or SmartDNS accounts for your different devices, your VPN (or SmartDNS) expenditure can easily sky rocket.

In this regard, a subscription to Hide My IP premium plan allows up to 5 devices simultaneously per license key. This makes the service ideal if you have a small family, and you want to protect the associated multiple devices of the group without having to pay for another account.

Usability of the service

Getting started with Hide My IP is very easy. Downloading and installing the required app is literally under a minute and without any hassles. Upon logging in, the app that greets you does not have the “look and feel” of modern glossy apps, but does the job. Functionality over form is the keyword.

Selecting a server location, and connecting to the service to hide your location will not be a problem. You can also set how often you want the app to automatically change your virtual IP. This can be set for one minute, and your IP address will change every minute. You’ll also see the option to launch the app at stat up. The advance settings tab can take you to go enable kill switch, leaks protection etc.

One design problem with the app is that there are too many settings tab on the main window. The quick settings options especially can be taken to the background to prevent the main window from being cluttered. That said, the app is easy to set up, and also easy to use.

Torrenting

Torrenting is one of the fastest ways of downloading files over the Internet. It involves connecting to different peers to pick up large files in bits.

While fast and effective, it can easily be dangerous as the peers connected to can use the file sharing activity to attack your device and steal sensitive information. As a result people seek VPN services to enable them download torrents safely and anonymously.

However, not may services support torrenting activities. This is because users may download torrents that are protected by copyrights, and this could pitch the service providers in battles with copyright trolls. Thus, any service that still supports torrenting is highly regarded.

Thankfully, Hide My IP support torrenting and P2P activity. It’s impressive that torrenting is not limited to few servers. It is not uncommon to find that services that support torrenting limit the activity to few servers; but Hide My IP allows full torrenting on all servers.

Streaming

Content accessibility is one of the main reasons for using a VPN or SmartDNS. This is because many streaming services use geo location to restrict their media contents – some content are restricted in some areas and made available for viewing in others. If a particular content is restricted in your area, the only way to stream and view it is to use a VPN or SmartDNS service to place you virtually in the location where the content is available for viewing. That way, VPN and SmartDNS unblock restricted contents for users.

Hide My IP unblocks a host of channels for your streaming pleasure. This is made possible as it is a SmartDNS that is primarily for unblocking geo restricted websites/ channels.

Hide My IP unblocks some of the best streaming sites such as BBC iPlayer, HBO GO, Hulu etc. It used to work with Netflix, but it would appear that Netflix has finally caught up with the service with its ferocious VPN/ SmartDNS blocking.

That said if you want a service for unblocking a host of sites/ channels for your viewing pleasure, Hide My IP may be ideal, as the proxy service is primarily for that – masking your IP to give you access to geo restricted contents. However, if you’re a Netflix addict, you might have to look beyond Hide My IP.

Security and Privacy Features

VPN Protocol and Encryption

The first thing I look out for when examining the security and privacy features of any VPN service is VPN protocols and encryption. The use of secure protocols (like the OpenVPN) and unhackable encryption algorithm (like the AES standard), will reveal a service that offers top notch security.

However, being a DNS proxy, Hide My IP does not offer secure VPN protocols and encryption standards. On the plus side, they do offer virtual IPs that works with SSL (Secure Socket Layer) connections, which provides a layer of protection. However, there are only few SSL friendly virtual IPs compared to the non-SSL IP addresses; and you’ll have to keep pressing “Change IP” until you are able to get a an IP that gives you a website in SSL.

Kill Switch

The kill switch has often been described as the VPN side kick for good reason. True, a typical VPN gives online protection by encrypting data and masking location; but it can only do this when it is live and running. In those VPN downtimes (when it suddenly loses connection), a user’s real IP can be suddenly exposed. A kill switch prevents this by cutting off internet connection when the VPN disconnect. Therefore, any service serious about giving users optimal privacy should feature the kill switch.

Thankfully, Hide My IP comes with a Kill Switch. With this, you can proceed to torrent and engage in any activity online knowing that even when the service abruptly loses connection, your location will not be exposed.

Security Leaks Protection

Security leaks take different forms; it could be DNS leaks, IPv6 leak or WebRTC leaks. However, no matter its form, there’s one outcome – privacy is compromised.

For example, a DNS leak will cause DNS request to leak out of the secure tunnel to the DNS servers of the default ISP; the result is that your browsing history as well as real IP is exposed to the ISP as well as any watching eyes. WebRTC which functions to enable real time communication with your device has some vulnerabilities that will cause your real IP to be exposed.

It’s therefore important that any service serious about giving users optimal privacy should plug security leaks. Thankfully, Hide My IP does not leak IP and DNS (at least, it didn’t in our tests).

Logging

VPN users should not want services that keep logs because user logs can turn around to compromise users’ privacy. To the question whether Hide My IP keep logs, an FAQ article answers: “We do not keep content logs of your web browsing activity or traffic“.

In the least, this means that information such as the websites you visit, the files you download or upload, the mails you send or receive and any other such activity is not monitored or stored.

However, the privacy policy of Hide My IP hold some statements that are very concerning. About the storage of personal data, the fine prints reveals that some of the data collected and to red include: your name, address, e-mail address, IP address, and other information required to validate your identity.

That’s too much personal information if you ask me. I’ve never been a fan of any service that collects IP address. Granted all VPN and SmartDNS services can see your originating IP address when you connect to any of their servers, but the storage of this detail is another matter. Many of the privacy-focused services do not store this IP in any of their servers; and the reason is not far fetched – it can be used to trace you to your very door. As Hide My IP confirms, this information and the others collected is required to validate your identity. The whole point of using a VPN is to stay hidden.

The personal information collected also include any communication with the service through any of the support channels, as well as payment information when you make payment.

Another thing that would concern any user is that even when you terminate your account with the service, they’ll still retain your data. This is in sharp contrast to a lot of privacy focused services that will delete all your data on their systems when you opt out.

Hide My IP pledge never to sell, trade, give, transfer, or disclose personally identifiable information to third parties for unrelated marketing purposes. However, they’ll readily share your data with law enforcement, regulatory, or other public authorities if required to do so by law.

Disclosing users’ data when required by law is fairly standard practice in the security business; but it’s concerning in this case because Hide My IP keeps logs that can effectively be used to identify their users. The next section will examine whether it is likely that the government would come for users’ data.

Jurisdiction

Hide My IP is owned and operated by My Privacy Tools, Inc., a company based in San Diego, United States. On the one hand this means that Hide My IP is a 100% legal and legit service.

However, the US is one of those over reaching jurisdictions where you don’t want your VPN or SmartDNS service based. This is because there are data retention laws in the US that mandates services to keep user data. US intelligence agencies (such as the FBI and the NSA) are not shy when it comes to banging doors to demand users’ data; neither do they worry about invading people’s privacy when it comes to collecting “intelligence”.

Also, the US is a founding member of the dreaded Five Eyes intelligence alliance that has now expanded to include 9 more countries. In this alliance, member countries work together in the collecting and sharing intelligence. This means that any user data collected in the US will be shared with the intelligence agencies of all 14 member countries.

When subscribing to a VPN service, the idea of preserving your privacy that the service will sell to you does not include having your data shared to half the developed world; but that possibility is very likely when your service provider is located in a territory that (i) has an over reaching governments and (ii) within an intelligence sharing network.

Speed

Speed should be a concern when deciding on a VPN service because the operation of a VPN service has a reducing effect on network speed. The encryption of data packets and rerouting them through longer distances causes a drop in performance.

However, while slow VPN services will almost ground network speed, the very fast ones will have very little, almost indecipherable, knock off on speed.

The speed was speed was determined by averaging speed results from a number of server locations when Hide My IP is connected, and comparing the averaged result with speed when Hide My IP is disconnected. On the average, the service dropped download speed and upload speed by by 11% and 32% respectively. This easily makes Hide My IP one of the fastest services in the market.

To put this in perspective, you’ll be hard pressed to find any service that drops download speed by a single figure. Also, many services drop speed by up to 50% but are still considered fast. That will mean that Hide My IP is super fast.

Customer Support

In your use of a VPN or SmartDNS service, you’ll have need to contact the customer support. When the time comes and you do reach out to them, I’ll bet that you wouldn’t want to be neglected. Therefore, its important to consider the channels that a VPN service provides for contacting them, as well as the effectiveness of the channels.

In this regard, Hide My IP provides the usual self help channels and direct contact channels. For self help, there is an FAQ section and a knowledge base. The FAQ hold answers to some of the general questions that users will have about the Hide My IP service; while the knowledge base treats more technical issues.

If you’ll want to directly contact a support agent, Hide My IP provides an online ticket service, an email service, telephone support and a live chat. When you use either of the online ticket and email service, you’ll get a response via email. Response timeliness is another thing, as it can take up to 48 hours for responses to come through. This can be a deal breaker to many users who would want timely response.

Alternatively, you can make use of the live chat or telephone service. These channels offer instant feedback. The only draw back is that the support service is not available 24/ 7. It is only active from Monday to Friday between 9 am and 4 pm PST. While no help during non-working hours can be forgivable, I think it is unacceptable/ unforgivable that there is no assistance available over the weekend.

Also, the Hide My IP service has a strong social media presence, with active Facebook and Twitter accounts. These channels can be used to reach the service. They also run a blog that provides pertinent information on security matters.

I liked

• A robust server network
• Compatible with a wide array of devices, and support for five simultaneous connections
• Virtual IPs that support SSL connection for some security
• Has a kill switch and prevents security leaks (DNS leaks, IPv6 leaks, and WebRTC leaks)
• Excellent for unblocking geo restricted contents
• Full support for torrenting
• Lightning fast speed

I didn’t like

• Keeps certain logs including IP address
• Support not available every day, and not 24/ 7 when available
• US jurisdiction
• No Netflix

Summary

Hide My IP is legitimate VPN service that host servers in 114 locations is 65 countries. They check the box on the connectivity front: there’s over a thousand IP addresses for making you anonymous online, the service works with any device you can think of, and you can connect multiple devices (up to five) simultaneously. On the service level: there’s full torrenting, there are tons of geo restricted websites that can be unblocked, there’s fast speed for an exciting browsing experience; and all this is without breaking your wallet.

On the security front, the service score are excellently. Though there’s a kill switch and all leaks are plugged, using Smart DNS proxy means there’s no encryption; and therefore reduced or non existent security. To make matters worse, Hide My IP keep a logs that can effectively identify users.

Do you have an experience with Hide My IP? Good or bad, kindly use the review section below to give us your brief Hide My IP review.