Does Hide.me Have a Free VPN? (Free Servers)


Hide.me are a well established, Malaysian based VPN service that have been around since 2012, but do they offer a free version of their service? If they do have a free version, what servers are offered, and are there any limitations on their use?

Hide.me have a free plan which offers 5 server locations in 4 countries (USA, Canada, Germany, Netherlands). You can download and use it providing only an email address, and their zero logs policy also applies to their free version.

As far as a free VPN goes, this is quite a generous offering, with a good selection of free servers and a healthy monthly data cap. There are other free VPN’s which offer unlimited data use however, so it may not always be the best option. We’ll make some comparison with other good free VPN options.

However, let’s first look at Hide.me’s free VPN service in more detail – looking the server locations as well as the pro’s and cons in more detail.

Where Are Hide.me Free Servers Located?

Here are the locations of the free Hide.me VPN servers:

  • USA East (New York)
  • USA West (California)
  • Canada
  • Germany
  • Netherlands

The Premium version of their service offers a choice of 65 server locations in 46 countries worldwide. See here for our guide on Hide.me’ full server list on paid plans.

Benefits Of Hide.me Free VPN

Here are the key benefits of Hide.me:

  • Totally free to sign up, with only an email required and no other personal details
  • Generous 10 GB monthly data allowance on the free version (see below)
  • Strict zero logs policy, including on the free version. No user data collected or stored, and no ads or trackers either.
  • Fast servers even on the free version. No speed throttling.
  • P2P supported on all 5 free server locations.
  • Paid version also offers competitive plans.

Click here to get started with Hide.me, and select their Free plan.

Are Hide.me Free VPN Servers Unlimited?

One crucial thing that free VPN users need to know is whether it has unlimited use of it’s free servers. There’s usually some kind of trade off with free VPN’s in terms of features, so here is a bottom line answer as regards Hide.me’s free version:

Hide.me’s free VPN servers are are limited to 10 GB per month usage, which equates to around 300 MB per day over a month. If you exceed this data limit, you will not be disconnected, but instead re-connected to a random free VPN server.

Therefore Hide.me free is NOT unlimited, which puts it at a disadvantage compared to some other free VPN’s (see comparison section further below).

However, 10 GB/month is still a very generous data allowance, and could actually easily cover the monthly internet needs of some users who perhaps don’t stream so much.

Here’s what you could reasonably do on Hide.me Free plan:

  • For just basic browsing and logging into your emails once or twice daily, plus some social media, it could literally be fine for an entire month. I think you could stay within a 300 MB/day allowance quite easily.
  • If you’re also watching YouTube, then it does use a lot more data, but you’ve still got some room with a 10 GB monthly allowance. For example, you could watch one or two 10 minute YouTube videos daily, plus basic browsing, and you’d probably still stay within your limit over a month.
  • If you want to watch more or longer YouTube videos, or some other streaming, especially in HD, then you will struggle to stay within the allowance. Consider ProtonVPN or another unlimited option listed below, or go for a Premium VPN with unlimited use instead.

To provide more clarity on data use, here are some approximate figures for what different kinds of activity tend to use:

  • Basic browsing – Doesn’t use much – 10-20 MB per hour.
  • Social media – Uses a bit more – 100-150 MB per hour.
  • Multiplayer Online gaming – 50-60 MB per hour.
  • YouTube Video (10 minutes):
      • 480p – 80 MB
      • 720p (HD) – 250 MB
  • YouTube video (1 hour)
      • 480p – 500-700 MB
      • 720p (HD) – 1.5-2 GB
      • You can change YouTube video quality using the settings cog in the bottom right of videos.
  • Netflix movie
      • SD – 700 MB per hour.
      • HD – 3 GB per hour
      • Ultra HD – 7 GB per hour
      • See here for source plus how to change Netflix data usage settings.

For clarity, a GB is around 1000 MB, so 10 GB is around 10,000 MB.

Do Hide.me Free Servers Support Streaming?

In general, Hide.me’s free VPN servers do not support the accessing of geo-restricted streaming services. You must use their Premium servers on their paid plans to unlock streaming platforms.

This is generally the case with all free VPN servers – they almost always will NOT allow you to access streaming sites like Netflix. You need the more advanced and better obfuscated servers that come with paid plans to do this.

Very occasionally, and with some persistence and trying different IP’s, you might get a free VPN server to access a specific streaming service in a specific country, but this is very rare. As a general rule, free VPN’s don’t work for streaming sites.

Hide.me Free Version vs Other Free VPN’s

Hide.me’s free VPN offering of 5 locations and 10 GB a month data is certainly very generous, but it’s probably not quite the best free VPN service out there.

There are other free VPNs that offer a similar number of servers, but unlimited data. Let’s list some of these other free options, and see how they stack up against Hide.me and each other.

Free VPN Comparison (links are partner links)

ProviderFree Server LocationsData LimitMore Info
ProtonVPN3 (USA, Amsterdam, Japan)UnlimitedSee here
AtlasVPN3 (USA East, USA West, Amsterdam)5 GB/monthSee here
TurboVPN4 (USA, Germany, Singapore, India).UnlimitedSee here
ZoogVPN5 (USA, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore)10 GB/monthSee here
Hide.me5 (Netherlands, USA*2, Germany, Canada)10 GB/monthSee here
PrivadoVPN10 (USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina)10 GB/monthSee here
Windscribe10 (USA, UK, Canada, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Romania, Denmark).10 GB/monthVisit site
Tunnelbear49500 MB/monthVisit site

 

As you can see, there are three free VPN options that offer unlimited data – ProtonVPN, AtlasVPN and TurboVPN – which make them more attractive options to Hide.me in terms of data use.

However, Hide.me specifically offer servers in Germany and Canada, which some other free VPNs don’t, so it depends on what country IP address you are looking to get from a free VPN.

Also, for pure server choice, Tunnelbear is way ahead, with 49 countries offered, but their data cap of 500 MB/month is very restrictive, and makes it good only for very basic browsing and transactions. So it depends what you’re looking for from a free VPN, but Hide.me’s free offering can be useful for certain people depending on your needs.

How Much Do Hide.me Paid Plans Cost?

If you want to use more countries/servers, or get faster speeds, or access streaming services like Netflix, you’ll need a paid plan. Hide.me Premium offers 65 locations in 49 countries – a much better choice.

Hide.me’s paid plan prices are reasonable within the VPN market. They’re mid tier – there are cheaper VPNs, but more expensive ones as well.

Here are their current pricing tiers for different length plans:

  • 1 Year – $4.99/month – $59.95 billed every 12 months
  • 2 years – $2.59/month – $69.95 billed every 24 months, plus 3 months often added (excellent value pro-rata)
  • 1 Month – $7.95 billed every month.

At current prices, the 2 year deal is only very slightly more expensive that 1 year, so is the best value offer overall.

Click here to check current Hide.me plans and pricing. Flash deals and offers are very common in the VPN market, so you may find a better price than the one listed.

Oliver

Online gamer and general home networking enthusiast. I like to create articles to help people solve common home networking problems.

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