HMA VPN review: An easy-to-use VPN with servers in every corner of the world

HMA VPN — aka Hide My Ass! — has seemingly been around forever. Founded in 2005, by a high-school tech wiz who just wanted to game at school, it has since grown into a successful premium VPN service.

HMA now offers a sprawling network of over 1,100 servers across 297 country locations. That’s a far cry from the single URL-based VPN it used to be. But can this old ass learn new tricks? I pin the tail on this VPN to see if it really does live up to its humorous name.

HMA VPN in brief:

• P2P allowed: Yes
• Simultaneous device connections: 5
• Business location: London, United Kingdom
• Number of servers: 1,100+
• Number of country locations: 297
• Cost: $11.99 per month or $59.88 for one year

Further reading: See our roundup of the best VPN services to learn about competing products.

What are HMA VPN’s features and services?

When you first open up HMA VPN you notice right off the bat how simple it all looks. That’s simple in a good way, I mean. There is a large on/off switch in the middle with another large button to choose your location. There is also an animated hipster-looking donkey at the top — it’s an ass for “Hide My Ass!”, get it? Clever. Anyways, that’s basically it. The whole app is extremely easy to use and straightforward. It’s a refreshing change of pace from the overly complicated interfaces of other VPNs that seem to want to bombard you with as much data as possible.

There is a More button that brings up a side menu with, as you guessed it, more info about your connection. This includes up and down data traffic and connection preferences for kill switches and the auto-connect feature.

Click on the gear icon at the top left of the home screen and it brings up the settings menu. Here is where simplicity turns into inadequacy. There aren’t many features to speak of, especially for a premium VPN that charges what HMA does.

You do get comprehensive kill switch functionality. There is both an overall kill switch to restrict all traffic to your device should your VPN connection cut-out, as well as an app kill switch to choose only specific apps to restrict after an unexpected disconnection.

Other advanced features are available on different OS platforms, as well. For example, Android users will have access to a split tunneling feature, which is unavailable for PC users. Split tunneling is a useful feature that allows you to designate which apps will use the VPN connection and which will stay separate. I’m surprised and a little frustrated that HMA only supports the feature for Android users, as most premium VPNs nowadays offer it for multiple platforms.

One unique feature that HMA does include is an IP shuffler. This periodically randomizes and changes your IP address so that it’s harder for anyone to track your location. I actually really like the idea of this extra security measure and used it without issue during my entire testing process. You can customize the randomization time periods from daily all the way down to 1 minute.

Despite these nifty extras, it does feel as if HMA VPN is lacking some key VPN features. The absence of multi-hop, ad- and tracker-blocking, and split tunneling for all platforms is a letdown. Also, power users will be disappointed that there aren’t more tweakable configuration options or things such as Smart DNS and dedicated IP.

In regards to servers, HMA VPN comes with a decent, if unexceptional 1,100 plus total servers. What’s quite nice, however, is the server country spread. It provides a mixture of physical and virtual servers across 297 country locations, spanning most of the world. So even if you’re a Gibraltarian wanting to connect to your home country, there’s a server for you. And if you happen to be the Pope, there’s a Vatican server for you, as well.

One unique feature that HMA includes is an IP shuffler that periodically randomizes and changes your IP address so that it’s harder for anyone to track your location

How much does HMA VPN cost?

HMA offers its VPN subscription in monthly, one-year, and three-year plans. The monthly plan starts at $11.99 per month, which is admittedly expensive for what you’re getting. Similarly priced top VPNs such as NordVPN ($12.99 per month) and ExpressVPN ($12.95 per month) give you much more in regards to extra features and OS availability.

However, switch to the annual plan for $59.88 per year, or $4.99 per month, and things become a lot more affordable — roughly in line with most other premium VPN services. If you decide to opt for the three-year plan it gets even cheaper at $107.64, or $2.99 per month. Three years is a long commitment though, especially in the fast-moving VPN market. If you just want to get your toes wet to see how you like HMA VPN, it does offer a 7-day free trial, as well.

It’s worth noting that all of these subscription prices come with five simultaneous device connections. If you wish for more, every subscription tier also offers the option for 10 connections for a little bit less than double the price.

Payments can be made with a credit card and PayPal.

How is HMA VPN’s performance?

When testing a VPN’s speeds I measure connection speeds across its servers in six different countries around the world and then compare them to my baseline internet speed.

HMA VPN’s speeds were passable. During the tests, HMA VPN was able to maintain 55 percent of the base download speed and 54 percent of the base upload speed. That puts it right in the middle of the pack, but well shy of the fastest VPNs.

I noticed that HMA’s speeds were markedly better for servers located physically closer to me than those further away. That may seem like an obvious outcome, but the differences were quite drastic. Servers in my same country maintained speeds well in excess of 80 percent of my base speeds while far-away servers in countries such as South Africa and Australia were dramatically slower — both countries’ servers clocked in below 20 percent of the base.

Of course, physical distance is just one of many factors that can lead to different speed outcomes. Others include: time of day, server load, server architecture, fluctuations in your own home connection, etc. It’s best to take not just these results, but all VPN speed results with a grain of salt. I simply include them here to help give some guideposts as to what you might expect. Overall, I believe that HMA’s speeds are just fine for most users.

When it comes to streaming, I can’t recommend HMA VPN as a good way to unblock geo-restricted content. I couldn’t get U.S. Netflix to work no matter how many different U.S. servers I tried. I was able to very occasionally access Disney Plus and Amazon Prime, but I had to dig around to find a server that worked. Other streaming services such as Hulu and HBO Max were all unsuccessful as well.

How is HMA VPN’s security and privacy?

HMA VPN uses industry-standard AES-256 encryption and the Windows app has access to the WireGuard, OpenVPN, and its own proprietary Mimic protocols. The Android app only comes with OpenVPN.

HMA’s Mimic protocol was developed by parent company Avast RSO (makers of the Avast antivirus software) as a way to bypass VPN restrictions. As the software is closed-source and I am not currently located in a country that has restricted internet usage, I couldn’t truly put it to the test. However, I always recommend WireGuard as my go-to protocol due to its open-source nature and excellent mix of speed and security.

When it comes to user privacy, HMA VPN has made huge strides in recent years. Prior to major updates to its privacy practices in 2019, HMA was criticized for dubiously storing user data such as IP address, connection timestamps, and some online activity. After the changes, the company switched to a no-logs policy, which it then backed up with an independent audit conducted by VerSprite a year later. 

That audit confirmed that HMA does not collect any data logs on users. According to the new privacy policy, it only keeps data regarding account information for billing and customer service purposes, approximate individual bandwidth usage to assist with network capacity improvements, and anonymous error reports.

While the switch over to a no-logs policy was a necessity, the independent audit was a welcomed addition. However, it has now been four years since that audit took place and I’d like to see the service undergo more regular audits in the future. Similarly, I’d like to see HMA VPN make the switch to RAM-only diskless servers, which are much safer and quickly becoming an industry standard among top VPNs.

HMA is owned by parent company Avast Group, and is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The country unfortunately has mandatory data retention laws and is a member nation of multiple signals intelligence sharing agreements such as Five, Nine, and 14 Eyes alliances. Thankfully, the company’s no-logs policy mitigates the chance for user data to be collected by these governments.

Is HMA VPN worth it?

The rebranding to a more corporate sounding name doesn’t take away from the charm of the HMA VPN service. It has a well thought-out and friendly interface, making it quick and easy to get connected. There are also plenty of country locations to choose from and the speeds across most servers is above average.

The bones for a great VPN are here, but without meatier features such as split tunneling and multi-hop across all apps, it simply can’t compete against the best services such as ExpressVPN and NordVPN. Hopefully parent company Avast continues to improve upon this time-honored VPN service in the future.

Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article.

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