HMA VPN Review 2020

HMA VPN (formerly known as HideMyAss!) is a fairly old VPN service provider that’s been around for quite some time now. In fact, it’s been around long enough for it to even change its name. Even if it’s now called HMA, this still refers to the original name – aka HideMyAss!.

If you are wondering what’s with the witty name, it’s simple: It refers to hiding your traces and uses a donkey (ass), called “Jack” (get it? Jack-Ass?) as their logo, so they don’t accidentally offend anyone while at it. Jack might also be a reference to the founder of the company. Anyway, simple and effective!

Anyway, we won’t let the fact that we’re fans of their name choice affect our decisions along the way. We’re still giving it the same treatment, under the light bulb, details about their company, taking a really close look at their policies, testing their service against any slip-ups, you know, the works.

Yeah, we get it, even this intro can seem a bit too long a read but trust us, we’re doing our best to keep it short and at the same time include everything that needs to be mentioned in our reviews.

As a matter of fact, we’ve already thought of you and how you’d like a “this VPN is good/bad for you approach” and included a table of contents in the following section, just so you can skip right to the conclusion if nothing else even remotely piques your interest.

• How did the project come to life
• The evolution of HideMyAss!
• How they became a real company
• Forwarding connection data to the FBI
• They knew about it all along
• Session logging practice
• Some other HMA VPN checkpoints
• 5, 9, 14 Eyes Alliance
• Complicated Terms of Service
• Privacy Policy rundown
• Registering for an account
• Making use of the dashboard
• Confusing download section
• Downloading the app for real
• Checking for malware
• Installing it on your computer
• Running HMA! Pro VPN on your PC
• First impressions
• Using the app – how does it feel like
• Getting down with the settings
• Configuring advanced settings
• HMA VPN’s servers and locations
• Setting our testing tools
• Security results incoming
• How fast can they go?
• Services it can unlock
• Torrenting and TOR
• Split-tunneling capabilities
• Can you play games with HMA VPN running in the background?
• Using HMA VPN in China
• Customer support experience
• Trial and money-back
• HMA VPN price plans
• HMA VPN business solutions
• Conclusion

How did the project come to life

According to their website, the project began in 2005, in Norfolk, England, when Jack Cator (16 years old then) decided to build a proxy website in order to bypass the firewalls at his school. While doing so, he discovered that numerous users are looking for this type of service and that’s how HideMyAss! came to life.

According to the founder, the first HideMyAss! product was created in a few hours by using a free open-source code that he implemented within a plain, simplistic website design, gave it a catchy, unconventional name and submitted it to Digg (the Reddit equivalent of 2005).

The evolution of HideMyAss!

As stated above, the first service was actually a free website. How did this work? Well, the users accessed the website, then typed a URL in a designated field and the website they were trying to access was delivered to them within the HideMyAss! one.

After promoting its newly-developed service for a while and building a steady user database, Cator started to include ads, in order to generate some sort of profit from his work. Without taking any venture capital funding, HideMyAss! was generating roughly around $1000-$2000 per month while the founder pursued a degree in computer science.

In 2009, Cator decided to focus on HideMyAss! more and, as a result, he dropped out of college and added a paid VPN service as part of his project.

How they became a real company

In the beginning, there was only Jack Cator. However, in the early stages of HideMyAss!, freelancers were hired to help with further development and running the project at optimal parameters.

In 2012, one of the freelancers he hired to work for HMA decided to set up a competing business and Jack Cator responded by hiring the contractors as full-time employees and establishing physical offices in London.

Forwarding connection data to the FBI

In 2012, the UK government have sent a court order to HideMyAss! in which they demanded that the company provides them with information about Cody Andrew Kretsinger, who reportedly made use of the HideMyAss! services to hack Sony as a member of the LulzSec hacking group.

HideMyAss! claimed that using their services to perform illegal activities is a violation of the company’s “Terms of Use” and, as a result, provided the authorities with the information they’ve requested.

They knew about it all along

According to the article linked above and an article on their blog, HideMyAss! confirmed that they knew about the hacker’s operation that targeted Sony for some time, but no action was taken until the court order came into play.

There were some leaked IRC chat logs, where the participants discussed the VPN services they used to cover their tracks. HMA! claims that they didn’t take action since there was no evidence of wrongdoing at the moment and also no way of identifying the accounts that have been used to commit those reported acts.

After they’ve received the court order (which is the equivalent of a subpoena in the US), they provided the authorities with the info they needed, stating that they don’t condone illegal activities while using their services.

Session logging practice

After deciding to aid the authorities, HMA claimed that they don’t support illegal activities and similar services that refuse to cooperate with law enforcement agencies are “more likely to have their entire VPN network monitored and tapped by law enforcement, thus affecting all legitimate customers.”

More so, they admit being carrying out session logging, which is used to record the time a user connects to and disconnects from their service, as well as the IP addresses of the servers the user connects to, but claim that the actual content of the web traffic is not recorded.

Some other HMA VPN checkpoints

In 2013, they’ve introduced software to help users anonymize the traffic from their mobile devices and in 2014 they launched the HideMyPhone! service, which enabled users to make their calls appear to be coming from a different location (spoofing), but this service doesn’t seem to be available any longer.

By 2014, they had ten million users and 215,000 paying subscribers of their VPN service and made £11 million in revenue in that same year. By 2015, they became one of the largest VPN providers and in May 2015 they were acquired for $40 million by AVG Technologies.

They became part of Avast in 2016 after Avast purchased AVG Technologies. Jack Cator is still the HMA!’s chief executive.

2017 was the year that an HMA vulnerability was discovered. This enabled hackers with physical access to a laptop (Mac) to obtain elevated privileges (root) on the said device.

In 2019, several VPN providers, HideMyAss! included, received a directive from Russian authorities to join a state IT system that holds a collection of websites that are banned. In the event that they comply, HMA users could no longer access websites that were blocked or be able to use Telegram (which has also been banned) through their VPN. Should they refuse to comply, Roskomnadzor may restrict access to the VPN service.

5, 9, 14 Eyes Alliance

Usually, this section is somewhat designated for VPN providers who claim to never share your data with intelligence agencies, the Government, law enforcement agencies, and so on. However, it’s been made clear that HMA VPN won’t hesitate to provide authorities with your personal data, if these institutions demand them to by slipping them a court order or subpoena or some other similar official document.

The 5, 9, 14 Eyes Alliance is actually an agreement between multiple countries that, in case the need arises, lets them cooperate by sharing mass surveillance data. The initial agreement (BRUSA, later changed name to UKUSA) was signed in 1943, and it was between the UK (Britain-United) and USA, but as time passed by, more countries joined the initial agreement and turned it into an alliance of the sorts.

In regards to HMA VPN, things are a bit murky. While the original company is based in the UK, which is part of the 5, 9, and 14 Eyes Alliance, they are now a subsidiary of Avast Software, which is based in the Czech Republic, a country that is not a 14 Eyes Alliance member.

However, given the fact that the service still operates from its original headquarters in the UK, we can conclude that the service is still under the 5, 9, and 14 Eyes Alliance jurisdiction, so watch out.

Complicated Terms of Service

We don’t know exactly how it was before, but as of this moment, the Terms of Service (End User License Agreement) HideMyAss! features on their website and during the installation of HMA VPN refers to multiple/all the products under the Avast umbrella (e.g. their antivirus solutions, CCleaner, HideMyAss! VPN).

There are a few mentions about HideMyAss! VPN in particular, but the rest of the terms of service document is exactly how you’d expect it to be from a power-player like HideMyAss!. It’s not exactly user-friendly, kinda difficult to follow and includes generic stuff like “you shall not use it without a license” or “you’re not allowed to use it to create a competing product” and the such.

You might need to check on the Terms of Service document every once in a while for changes. At the top of the document, you can find the version of the document and the date it was last modified. It’s your responsibility to check for changes and understand that if you keep using their services after such a modification, it’s the equivalent of you accepting the new, modified agreement.

• It goes without saying that the agreement is a legally binding contract and using the HideMyAss! VPN services counts as your acceptance of and agreement with every single condition;
• If you don’t agree with any or all of the terms, you are advised to stop using the service immediately, as well as delete or destroy all copies of the service in your possession;
• You receive a non-exclusive license to use the service, but that doesn’t give you any right over HideMyAss! VPN other than using its services for your personal, non-commercial purposes, unless you have been authorized to do so;
• You are allowed to make one backup copy of the HideMyAss! VPN software;
• You are not allowed to resell or distribute the HideMyAss! VPN service;
• HideMyAss! may deploy upgrades or updates to the service at any time and without your prior consent or permission, and you may not be able to use the services until said modifications are applied;
• You must understand that HideMyAss! VPN and its documentation are the intellectual property of the company;
• You’re not allowed to use license codes, authorization codes and the such for more than the number of devices specified or disclose these codes to any party other than the company or its designated representatives;
• You are not allowed to reverse engineer, disassemble, decompile, reconstruct, translate, or create derivative work of HideMyAss! VPN;
• You are not allowed to use HideMyAss! VPN to create a product or service that competes with HideMyAss! VPN;
• You are not allowed to use HideMyAss! VPN to distribute or receive content that infringes any kind of intellectual property, contains unlawful or harmful material, harms or attempts to harm others, has the potential to incite to unlawful or harmful behavior, impersonates any other person or entity, assists fraud, deception or theft, and/or damages property;
• You are not allowed to use the HideMyAss! VPN service to engage in any activity that might be related to hacking;
• You are not allowed to engage into any form of unwanted communication, including but not limited to spamming, pyramid schemes, chain letters and the such;
• HideMyAss! will not be held liable for any loss or damage that may arise as a direct or indirect consequence of using the service;
• HideMyAss! VPN allows you to create up to 5 simultaneous connections on the same account;
• If you attempt to create more connections, your account might be suspended or terminated;
• You can increase the number of authorized connections if you contact the Sales department of HideMyAss!;
• HideMyAss! VPN can impose or update their territorial restrictions from time to time, due to various countries that prohibit or restrict the usage of VPNs;

Well, as long as you don’t try anything shady or sketchy, you should be fine. Keep in mind that HMA VPN has pledged to help the authorities identify you if they ever catch you breaking the law while connected to their services.

Privacy Policy rundown

As opposed to the previous document we’ve analyzed (the Terms of Service one), the Privacy Policy does make some special references to their VPN service (although it isn’t the only type of service presented in this document), so we’re only going to discuss these details in this section.

Right from the top of the document, you’re informed that HideMyAss! VPN allows you to be anonymous and secure on the Internet if you use their VPN service, but (their words, not mine), that doesn’t mean that you’re totally anonymous to them (HideMyAss!).

They even have a short version of the privacy policy that could help you understand their logging policy by reading just a couple of rows.

When it comes to the operation of our VPN service, we do not collect or store your IP address, your DNS requests, your application or online services use, or the websites you visit.

Data HideMyAss! collects for account creation and management:

The data above is stored for as long as you use the HideMyAss! VPN service.

Data HideMyAss! collects from VPN servers:

The data described above will be stored for 30 days, after which it will be deleted.

Service data collected from VPN clients

This data is deleted on a 2-year basis.

Data that HideMyAss! doesn’t collect from their VPN service

We do not collect, store or log any of the following data:
Any complete originating IP address that could identify you.
Any DNS queries while connected. We rely on our own secure DNS servers, so your queries are also protected from exposure to 3rd parties.
Any activity logs: the applications you use, the services you use, the websites you connect to — basically anything you do online.

Registering for an account

Creating a HMA VPN account is really no big deal, but for the sake of keeping you on the right track and prevent you from wandering aimlessly on the website, we’re going to guide your steps for doing this in a timely manner. That being said, follow these steps:

1. Head to HMA VPN;
2. Click the “Get it now” button;
3. Choose one of the available subscription plans (Save 67% on HMA VPN now!);
4. Select your favorite payment method;
5. Type your payment details in the corresponding fields;
6. Complete the payment;

And you’re done! You’re now the owner of a HMA VPN account and you’ve also purchased a subscription that you can use as you see fit. Well, until it expires, that is.

Making use of the dashboard

After creating your account, you’ll be logged in automatically and redirected to your account page, which is often called the “dashboard.” HMA VPN doesn’t provide you with an extensive dashboard, but they do a pretty good job of covering the essential stuff for your account. The main page of your dashboard holds your personal details (username, email, and password) and your licenses (if you have any). You can also purchase a new subscription plan (a license) for the VPN and redeem an activation code from the same page.

If you’re looking for more features, in the top-right corner of your screen you can see your username available as a clickable menu. Go ahead and click it. The newly-opened menu lets you navigate between your account’s homepage, the settings sections of your account, the download category, the support section and a log out button you can use to sign out of your account. The only settings you can change for your account are the email and your password.

Confusing download section

Right after landing on their homepage, you can notice a “Download” button in the top toolbar. Clicking it will redirect you to a page where you can purchase a subscription plan or start a free VPN trial.

Scrolling further down on the page will apparently let you download the app for several platforms, which include Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and Linux. However, clicking any of the devices will show you the same dialog as above, prompting you to either buy a license or start a free trial, instead of letting you download the app as you should.

See why we always insist on guiding you through the whole process? Websites like HMA are only made to confuse you and always send you back to purchasing a license. We’re already logged into our paid accounts and we can still see subscription purchase dialogs instead of download links.

Downloading the app for real

Alright, now let’s find out how to download HMA VPN for the real this time. Follow these steps and you should have the installer on your device in no time:

1. Head to HMA VPN;
2. Click the “My Account” button at the top-right of the screen;
3. Click the button that shows your account name in the top-right corner of the screen;
4. Select the “Download” option from this menu;
5. Click the “Download” button in the center of the screen;
6. (Optional) Scroll down to see other devices and download HMA VPN for the device of your choice;

It wasn’t so hard, now was it? However, it was unnecessary, they could’ve just included an intuitive download section, at least for paying customers who are logged into their accounts and have purchased a paid subscription already.

Checking for malware

Of course, after downloading anything on your computer, your first priority should be not installing it head-first like your life depends on how fast you perform the setup, but checking it for malware, so as to avoid a potential crisis.

Furthermore, we advise you to use VirusTotal for this operation, since it packs a lot of antivirus engines that can run all at once, attempting to find anything wrong with your file. This, in our opinion, beats scanning your files with any single antivirus solution.

HMA VPN came out clean, as you can see in our screenshot below. If you don’t believe us, take a look at our results page here.

Installing it on your computer

We’re only going to get into details on how you can deploy the Windows application on your computer since we believe that Windows computers are the most commonly-owned hardware in a household.

More so, setting up an app on Windows can sometimes present some particularities than doing it on other devices. Besides, how hard can it be to install an Android app or an iOS one from the stores’ pages? You just click install and it’s done in a matter of seconds.

The steps for installing it on your Windows PC are as follows:

• Double-click the installer;
• Grant the app permissions to make changes to your device by clicking “Yes” in the User Account Control dialog (UAC);
• Select the language you want to be used during the setup and click “OK”;
• Accept the End User License Agreement (EULA) and click “Next”;
• Configure the destination path for HMA! Pro VPN and click the “Install” button when prompted;
• After the setup is completed, choose whether you want to launch HMA! Pro VPN or not and hit the “Finish” button;

Running HMA VPN on your PC

After you launch the application, you’ll notice that you’re required to either log into your account or enter a license key directly from the app. If you have an account, go ahead and provide the application with the credentials.

After doing so, you’ll be greeted by a welcome message and, after dismissing it, you’ll reach the application’s main screen, where you can start putting its features to good use.

First impressions

At first glance, we feel that HMA VPN is a simplistic, yet effective app (design-wise). No flashy animations or over-encumbered menus, just the essential parts, neatly organized in the main window.

If you want to access additional features, locate the hamburger button (the one that looks like three horizontal lines one on top of the other) and give it a good click. You can access the “Preferences” window, the “Account” section, the help center, the “About” section, and service diagnostics, but also lets you submit a support request and quit the app altogether.

Using the app – how does it feel like

First thing’s first, choose the usage mode you like, select a location if you chose the “Location Mode” and hit the “Connect” button. The app will display a loading screen for a few moments and display a notification when the connection has been established.

The loading time wasn’t too long and the good part is that it doesn’t vary depending on the server of your choice (or if it does, it’s not exactly noticeable). The “Location Mode” lets you sort the servers depending on how you plan on using them. Therefore, you can restrict the list to display only “Streaming” servers, “P2P” ones, all of them, quick access ones or a list of your favorite entries.

Getting down with the settings

If you like having full control over your connection, it’s possible to alter various options in order to achieve the configuration that suits you best. After clicking the hamburger button in the top-left corner of the window, select the “Preferences” option from the menu.

You’ll notice that the “Preferences” window has its contents organized in three different sections: “General,” “Network security” and “Kill Switch.”

The “General” section lets you adapt the behavior of the app to your liking by setting it to launch whenever your computer starts, automatically hide the app after starting it, show a diagnostics window when the app starts and display your recent connections in the “Locations -> Quick Access” section or clear this history altogether.

Configuring advanced settings

The “Network Security” category lets you turn on the VPN automatically when you’re connected to the Internet or set the app to ask you if you want to turn it on instead of doing it automatically, but also exclude trusted networks (skips connecting to a VPN when a trusted network is detected), randomize your IP address every once in a while (“IP Shuffle”) and use the OpenVPN TCP protocol only (recommended only if UDP is blocked or throttled on your network).

Last, but not least, the “Kill Switch” section lets you use the kill switch feature of the app, which prevents privacy leaks by blocking apps from accessing the Internet at any time the VPN is disconnected. However, this kill switch is an app-based one, which means you’ll have to configure the apps to cut the Internet access from manually, as opposed to having a global kill switch that cuts the Internet access from your entire system whenever the VPN connection is severed.

It is worth mentioning that you can configure IP Shuffle to renew your IP address every 30 minutes, hourly, every 6 or 12 hours, daily, or at a custom interval that you get to define. Note that this feature should be used in conjunction with the kill switch, since renewing your IP interrupts your connection to the VPN server temporarily, which is more than enough time for leaks to occur.

HMA VPN’s servers and locations

The great thing about HMA VPN is the fact that it provides you with a plethora of server locations in a variety of countries, even if the total number of servers is not as big as in other services. As such, even if you “only” get 1000+ servers, they are spread in over 290 locations and 190 countries, which is very impressive.

The coverage extends across all continents, including North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. In addition, there are also special servers for both P2P and streaming, the latter of which are designed to easily unblock access to geo-restricted content on platforms like Netflix and Hulu.

Setting our testing tools

As you probably know by now, we’re going to perform a bunch of tests to determine whether HMA VPN can keep your connection secure and private as they claim or do they leak out of their every metaphorical pore. After seeing just exactly how secure their service is, we can get to test to see how fast their servers go.

We believe security is of the utmost importance when it comes to VPN services, so it’s natural that we place the leak tests in front of the speed tests. We’re going to use security and speed testing tools as we’ve described in this comprehensive article.

Security results incoming

Well, the security test results are back and, without further ado, we’ll include them in the following section:

Bottom line, there was no security leak detected on our side, so good job, HMA VPN!

How fast can they go?

Now that we got the security tests out of the way, we can focus on the speed tests. In order for the results to be as fair and accurate as possible, we’re not going to pick the most convenient server to us and run a single test.

Instead, we’re going to choose multiple servers, from several countries, run the speed test on each of them and post the results here. We’re aiming for a widespread, so we’re trying to pick one server from each continent.

As you can see, the speed values are pretty good, especially for locations that are not usually that fast. Furthermore, the pings are also great, which is good news if you want to keep the VPN running in the background while gaming or doing something that requires a low latency.

Services it can unlock

You know how various VPN service providers brag about their “largest networks,” “fastest servers” and that they can “unlock everything on the Internet” for you. And you probably know how Netflix, although available in more than just one country, has a restricted library for non-US customers.

As mentioned before, HMA VPN offers special streaming servers that are designed for high bandwidth, while also unblocking platforms like Netflix. According to our tests, HMA VPN successfully unblocks Netflix, which is great news for movie fans everywhere. The service is also capable of unblocking other websites, including Spotify, Amazon Prime, and Facebook.

Torrenting and TOR

In terms of torrenting, HMA VPN offers special P2P servers to help you get the best speeds and avoid being tracked by your ISP. Naturally, the speeds are impacted by the rerouting, so you won’t be getting your usual speeds, but they are certainly better than using regular VPN servers, or at least just as good.

Using the TOR service and browser does also work while connected to HMA VPN, but you need to take into consideration the following things: while adding an extra layer of security might make you feel more secure, your speed will be drastically reduced to almost nothing and you should also understand that TOR exit nodes generally allow unencrypted traffic to go through them, which might enable whoever’s monitoring that node to identify you. Using a VPN in conjunction with TOR adds a permanent exit node or entry point (depending on the order you use them, you-> VPN -> TOR or you -> TOR -> VPN), which can jeopardize the whole anonymity gig that TOR is establishing.

However, keep in mind that despite the fact that torrenting and TOR work, they’re not exactly encouraged if you have some shady purpose in mind, especially knowing that in case the need arises (cops come looking for you), they’ll provide them with the required data. We don’t condone illegal activities, but if that’s the reason why you need a VPN, you should probably reconsider.

Split-tunneling capabilities

Unfortunately, HMA VPN does not feature split-tunneling, which is a bit of a bummer. This means that you cannot white-list apps and allow them to bypass the VPN, which could result in unwanted high-pings in various apps. While the pings are pretty good most of the time according to our speed tests, it would still be nice to have the option to allow certain programs to bypass the rerouting.

On the other hand, there is a special kill switch option that works on a per-app basis. This allows HMA VPN to automatically block certain apps from accessing the Internet in case the VPN server you are connected to goes down or experiences issues. This feature can also be set up to automatically connect to a server whenever you open specific apps, which is definitely nice to have.

Can you play games with HMA VPN running in the background?

Given the fact that low pings matter a lot in online gaming, it’s no surprise that many gamers want to know whether having a VPN running in the background is going to have a negative impact on their experience. In the case of HMA VPN however, our tests show that the latency is not affected too much, even if your download speeds are somewhat reduced while the connection is active.

Thus, you can definitely leave the app running in the background while gaming, since performances won’t drop too much. Not only that, but you can also use HMA VPN for location spoofing, just in case you want to play on different servers that are not available in your region for whatever reasons.

Using HMA VPN in China

When it comes to using HMA VPN in China, that is unfortunately not something you will be able to do. Besides the fact that the native apps probably won’t work, it’s also unlikely that you will manage to get a stable connection. The team is telling users that they are working on fixing the situation, but until then, you are better off choosing another provider. If you want help with that, you can check out our article about the best VPNs for China.

Customer support experience

If you encounter any difficulty along the way, it’s nice to know there’s someone out there who’s got your back no matter what. So that’s what we were looking for in HideMyAss!, their customer support crew.

If you’re inclined to traditional ways of dealing with issues, you’ll be glad to know that they have a ticket submission system, where you need to type your email address (so they can get back at you, obviously), a subject and the description of your issue. They also provide you with a “mood” combo menu where you’re encouraged to tell them how you feel by selecting it from a list, another dropdown menu for choosing a category where your issue would fit best and an attachment section where you can add screenshots, logs, and other relevant files.

However, they also provide you with a live chat option, where you can start asking questions and an agent will get back to you as soon as possible (we got a reply in a few minutes, pretty impressive actually), a knowledge base if you prefer handling business on your own, and a community section where you can ask a question and other members of the community will try to help you.

Trial and money-back

If you want to take their VPN service for a test drive before committing to purchasing a subscription plan, you can do so, since they offer a 7-day trial for you. There’s a catch, though. You have to provide them with full payment details, since if you don’t cancel your subscription, you’ll start being charged for the annual plan, so you’ll have to be careful if you just want to check it out with no strings attached.

More so, if you do purchase a subscription plan, you benefit from a 30-day money-back guarantee. There’s a catch here too. You can’t ask for a refund if you purchased the service more than 30 days ago, exceed a 10 GB data threshold (download and upload combined), connect to their VPN service for more than 100 times or violated the EULA while using it.

HMA VPN price plans

Now it’s time to talk about money. Currently, HideMyAss! offers these subscription plans:

If you happen to live in Europe and you select Europe as your location, then the prices change, and a monthly tier is also available for European users. As such, you can get one month for €10.99, one year for €5.99/month and a total of €71.88, or three years for €2.99/month and a total of  €107.64. There is also no free 7-day trial option on the subscription page, although you can still get it by using the “Download” button at the top of the page.

HMA VPN business solutions

If you own a company and you want to purchase a business solution from HMA, the company enables you to extend your subscription to cover as many simultaneous connections as you want. In addition, you can opt for a monthly or a yearly subscription, the latter of which offers a nice discount.

As such, the most basic yearly subscription gets you 10 simultaneous connections for $13.99/month and a total of $156.00/year. If you want 30 simultaneous connections, you need to pay $39.08/month and a total of $469.00/year.

Lastly, if you want more than 30 connections, you can also get in touch with the sales team and get a quote for the desired number of connections.

Conclusion

Alright, so we know that HMA VPN is a project that started low as a couch project 14 years ago, and it grew to become one of the most popular VPN services worldwide. The company is located in the UK, which is a member of the 14 Eyes Alliance.

They’ve been involved in some online outrages for sharing the data of one of their users after receiving a court order. Apparently, the said user was the culprit in a 2011 cybernetic attack against Sony, and HMA didn’t hesitate to cooperate with the authorities, claiming that their service isn’t supposed to be a tool in performing illegal acts.

Their Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and Data Logging Policy documents clearly state that they run some logging services and that they only collect those pieces of information for improving their services and troubleshooting them if the need arises.

Downloading and installing the application on the devices of your choice can be accomplished without too much effort. The interface of the app is simplistic, yet stylish. It’s also possible to perform a bunch of configurations if you’re the tinkerer type, but nothing too fancy.

Their server network provides you with access to a wide selection of countries, but the server count isn’t exactly tremendous (compared to other providers), as opposed to how they advertise it on their website.

Extensive customer support is available for you, ranging from the standard ticket submission system to a live chat, knowledge base and community page where you can have other users help you with your service-related issues.

HMA VPN offers a leak-free connection with decently fast servers. You can download a 7-day trial to test-drive their services and benefit from a 30-day money-back guarantee but beware of the implications. Not that there’s anything shady, just that you have to meet some requirements in order to be eligible for a refund.

They offer airtight security and good server speed, and the app can also unlock Netflix, as well as a few other popular streaming services.

Their subscription plans are not exactly the cheapest (if you take the monthly plan’s price), but at least they give generous discounts for the larger ones.

Bottom line, if you’re not bothered about the fact that HMA VPN collects a lot of data from you while using their VPN service and, should the need arise, will share it with the authorities, then you can use it. We get the fact that they help to fight against criminals, but truth be told, privacy is what you’re paying for and you should have it. In the end, would we recommend HMA VPN? No, we would not.

PROs:
+ Good speeds; (4)
+ Leak-free connection; (5)
+ A lot of countries covered by their VPN server network; (4)
+ Unblocks Netflix (5)

CONs:
– Collects a lot of data, keeps logs and will share your data with authorities if the need arises; (0)
– 14 Eyes Alliance; (1)
– Not the cheapest monthly subscription; (2)
– Doesn’t work in China (2)

We grant HMA VPN a 2.87/5 rating.