HMA VPN Reviews 2024 - Why 8.2 Stars?

Being on the market for more than 15 years, the UK-based HMA has established an excellent name for itself (literally). But, is HMA really worth a shot when there are so many other high quality VPNs out there?

To find out, I performed extensive tests on its speeds, security, unblocking abilities, and more. I also explored its no-logs policy and money-back guarantee to see how trustworthy it is.

Overall, it’s a decent VPN. While it has many strengths, there are several areas where it underperformed. In many ways, these tests seriously surprised me.

Try HMA Today

Streaming — Doesn’t Unblock Many Streaming Platforms

HMA couldn’t unblock all the platforms I tested. When it could, I still had to wait for buffering to stop and my streaming quality to improve.

The VPN offers 6 optimized server locations for streaming. There are 4 in the US, 1 in the UK (Donkey Town, yes that is a real place in the UK), and 1 in Germany (Frankfurt). These servers are designed to bypass streaming site VPN blocks effectively.

Theoretically, these servers are a great feature. They mean you don’t have to test heaps of servers to find one that works with your favorite streaming platform. However, I wasn’t impressed with their performance because it could only unblock 3 top streaming platforms. 

HMA’s streaming servers have their own tab menu in the Windows app

Unblocked: Netflix, ESPN, and YouTube

HMA unblocked Netflix, ESPN, and YouTube — but not all popular streaming platforms.

The first streaming platform I tested was Netflix. I easily unblocked it with HMA’s optimized New York, Miami, and Liberty Island streaming servers and watched an episode of Atypical. I had to wait around 10-15 seconds for the video to load and it was a little blurry at first, but the quality got better after a short time. These servers are far away from my location, so I expected longer loading times.

I also tested Netflix on the Frankfurt and Donkey Town server and was able to access the German and the UK library in a matter of seconds. Overall, HMA did a great job unblocking different Netflix libraries.

HMA unblocked Netflix with 3 different servers optimized for streaming

The next platform that I unblocked with HMA was ESPN+. I tried it on the same US servers I tested Netflix on and got almost identical results — slow loading times and lower quality the first couple of seconds. I watched a couple of Formula 1-related videos without any lag.

I could easily unblock ESPN with HMA and watch F1 content

The last streaming platform I managed to access with HMA was YouTube. I tested it with several servers and they all worked.

The loading times were a bit slow on the servers that were far away from my real location. However, the picture quality was great and I was satisfied with the results.

HMA unblocked YouTube on all of the servers I tested

Try HMA Today

Blocked By: Hulu, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, HBO Max, ITV, Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video

Sadly, every other streaming site blocked HMA.

HBO Max immediately recognized that I was using a VPN, so I got the error message just by accessing the homepage.

The streaming site knew I wasn’t in the US

Next, I tested ITV Hub. Unlike HBO Max, I could log into my account. However, I couldn’t watch any videos. Right after I selected my show of choice, a notification popped up telling me that the video wasn’t available.

Peacock was next on my list. I managed to access the platform and log into my account. However, when I tried to play a video it detected the VPN instantly. So I couldn’t stream anything on Peacock either.

The streaming service knew I was using a VPN

Amazon Prime Video also detected that I was using a VPN even though I successfully logged into my account. After selecting a title, a message appeared asking me to disable my VPN to watch their content.

HMA isn’t powerful enough to get around APV’s VPN detection

I had a login error every time I tried to sign into my Hulu and Disney+ accounts with HMA, even though the password and email were correct. So, I contacted HMA’s support team to ask if there’s any way to unblock these platforms.

They told me to make sure that the VPN is properly connected to my device by checking on their website’s “What is my IP address?” page. The IP checker showed that the VPN was successfuly masking my real IP address.

However, Hulu and Disney+ still didn’t work — even after following the HMA rep’s advice. I managed to log into my Hulu account but I couldn’t watch anything because it also detected that I was using a VPN and an error message popped up.

An error message appeared on Hulu with HMA’s Liberty Island server

I had a very similar login problem with Disney+ too. I couldn’t even get to the login page; I just got a black screen with nothing on it. The couple of times when the login page actually loaded and I could insert my credentials, I got a login error.

BBC iPlayer didn’t work either, although HMA’s IP checking tool showed my IP was in the UK. First, I tried HMA’s UK streaming-optimized server (Donkey Town). iPlayer worked for about 5 minutes, letting me watch the show I selected. Then, the video stopped and I had to reload the page. When it reloaded, I got iPlayer’s warning message letting me know that the platform only works in the UK.

I also tested a few regular VPN servers in the UK, but the results were the same.

HMA didn’t unblock BBC iPlayer with any of the UK servers I tested

Overall, I can’t recommend HMA for its streaming capabilities. It could only unblock 3 platforms and I had no access to HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+, and more. However, it is a good option if you only want to watch different Netflix libraries. Otherwise, you can check out these VPNs that unblock hundreds of streaming platforms.

Speeds — Slow on Most Servers

I experienced dramatic speed drops on most of HMA’s servers.

Before I started testing, I measured my base speed in Bucharest, Romania. I had a download speed of 422.72 Mbps, upload of 361.45 Mbps, and ping of 3 ms.

I then ran my speed tests, taking into onsideration:

• Download speed – measures (in Mbps) the amount of data you can receive from the internet in a determined amount of time.
• Upload speed – also measured in Mbps, determines the amount of data you can send from your computer in a specific time period.
• Ping – measures the time it takes for your information to reach the server and return a signal. This is important in gaming, as higher ping usually translates into lag.

Local speeds

I started by testing servers closer to my actual location (in my case, European locations). I was disappointed to see that my speed dropped by 77% on the fastest server I tested.

While I could still stream in HD on most servers, it was only because I had a fast connection to begin with

On the UK and Serbian servers my speed dropped to 31.67 Mbps and 33.68 Mbps, which is a 92% decrease from my base speed. When I tested the servers in Germany, I had slightly better results — I got 46.17 Mbps, which is a 89% drop.

The best performing locations were in Croatia and France, where I only had a 78% decrease.

Long Distance Speeds

HMA’s long-distance servers gave me similar results.

I started by testing several locations in the US, including some of its streaming-optimized servers. The Miami one performed best, giving me a download speed of 81.12 Mbps (an 80% decrease), while my upload speed stood at 166.83 Mbps (53% drop). Locations in New York and Atlanta gave me download speeds of 22.25 Mbps and 26.48 Mbps (93% and 94% decreases).

The US servers were quite slow too

I also tested HMA’s locations in Canada, Singapore, and Japan. Canada gave me a 26.68 Mbps download speed, which is a 93% decrease from my base speed. Ping got to 127 ms, which is acceptable considering that Canada is 7,800 km away from me.

In Japan and Singapore my download speed decreased by 89% and 85% (down to 43.21 and 60.80 Mbps). The ping stood at 272 ms on the Japan server and 279 ms on its Singapore one. While these numbers are way too high for gaming, it’s pretty similar to long-distance speeds on other VPNs I’ve tested.

While the speeds weren’t terrible, the ping skyrocketed on some servers

Here’s a rundown of all my speed tests on HMA’s long-distance servers:

Overall, HMA’s speeds were disappointing — especially as it claims to be super-fast. I got nowhere near the 20 Gbps promised. Here are some of the fastest VPNs to pick from instead.

Are HMA’s Speeds Fast Enough for Gaming? Only on Local Servers

HMA’s speeds are fast enough for gaming on local servers. I connected to the Zagreb, Croatia server and played Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Steam without any lag. The ping was decent at 65 ms, and I could hear my teammates on TeamSpeak very clearly without any cuts.

However, the distant servers gave me ping that was way too high for gaming. If you’re a professional gamer and want reliable speeds and ping, I suggest you take a look at these VPNs for gaming.

However, the ping on long-distance servers was too high

Try HMA Today

Server Network — Optimized for Streaming and P2P Transfers

HMA offers 1,080 servers in 210 countries. It has 189 optimized servers for streaming in 6 different locations, including 4 in the US, 1 in the UK, and 1 in Germany. It also has servers specialized for P2P in 8 locations — 3 in the US, 1 in the UK, and 4 in Europe.

I really like how neatly the servers are organized in tab menus on the left side of the app’s interface. You can choose from your favorite servers, the most recent ones you’ve connected to, or the ones optimized for streaming and torrenting without having to scroll through the whole list to find them. Additionally, the optimized servers are marked with icons, which is really helpful when you actually want to search through the whole list.

HMA’s server locations are organized in tab menus according to their region and purpose

HMA offers great server coverage across the world, including lots of countries in the Middle East and Africa that VPNs usually neglect.

HMA lets you save your favorite server locations in a separate ‘Favorites’ tab menu

HMA also has virtual servers. Virtual servers give you an IP address of the country you choose — but they're actually based in another country. For example, the virtual server can give you a Russian Ip address though the physical server is located in the UK. This gives you 2 advantages. You can safely access content from Russia without your info passing through a Russian server. And, if the UK is closer to your real location than Russia, your speeds will be much faster. However, if the physical server is much farther from your real location, your speeds may be slower.

Unfortunately, these servers aren’t marked with an icon in the list; the icon only appears when you connect to them. When you use a virtual server, you may not know where it is really located.

HMA manages both its physical and virtual servers. Therefore, it still has full control over its servers even if it rents them from a third party. So, there’s no risk to the privacy and security of your data. On the website, it is also briefly explained why HMA uses virtual servers.

HMA uses virtual servers to improve reliability

The VPN also offers a large number of city-level servers in different countries. For example, in the US, there are servers in more than 50 cities. I like this because when a VPN location is only specified by country, it’s hard to know how close it is. There are 3 city-level servers in Canada, Australia, and the UK, and 2 in France, Germany, Russia, Spain, and Ukraine.

Try HMA Today

Security — Military-Grade Encryption and Advanced Features

HMA offers multiple security features. Besides the military-grade encryption, it also has reliable kill-switches, split tunneling, IP Shuffle, and an ad-blocker in its Chrome extensions. Moreover, it didn’t leak my personal information to the websites I was using.

Encryption & Protocols

HMA uses military-grade AES 256-GCM encryption and Perfect Forward Secrecy, which means your data is as safe as it gets. It can get a little technical, but all you really need to know is these features make your connection virtually impossible to hack. If someone were to try, it would take them a few hundred years to get the encryption key.

It also offers 2 secure protocols — OpenVPN (TCP/UDP) and IKEv2/IPSec. The OpenVPN protocol is available for Windows and Android, whereas the IKEv2 is available for macOS and iOS. The speeds are faster with IKEv2, but OpenVPN is more secure.

There are guides on HMA’s Knowledge Base page on how to install OpenVPN on macOS if you don’t want to use the IKEv2 protocol. There’s even an option where you can view your OpenVPN connection logs which is helpful if you ever run into some problems with the VPN. Unfortunately, HMA doesn’t support WireGuard — the newest super-fast protocol on the market.

Kill Switch

There are 2 kill switches, which is unique for a VPN. One is a system-wide kill switch, and the other is an app kill switch.

The regular system-wide kill switch cuts your internet connection if the VPN unexpectedly disconnects so that your IP doesn’t get exposed. The app kill switch secures the apps of your choice by blocking internet access to them if the VPN connection drops. The two kill switches are available for Windows and Android, but not for iOS. The system-wide kill switch is also available for macOS.

Keep in mind that none of the kill switches are active by default. This means that, unless you activate them from the Privacy tab, you won’t be fully protected.

IP, DNS, and WebRTC Leaks

HMA manages its own DNS servers and has built-in protection against IPv4, IPv6, and DNS leaks. DNS leaks happen when your DNS requests are accidentally routed through your ISP instead of the VPN. This way, your data will become visible and your ISP will see and log your internet activity. Since HMA has total control over its DNS servers, no third party can see your information.

IP leaks are similar, but it’s your IP address that gets leaked — meaning that the websites you access will be able to see you and your location when you access them. I ran tests on US, UK, and Tokyo servers and was pleased to find no WebRTC, DNS, or IP leaks.

HMA didn’t leak my IP, DNS, or WebRTC information

Try HMA Today

Split Tunneling

HMA offers split tunneling in its Android app. This is a clever feature that allows you to choose which apps you want to secure with HMA. This way, you can route traffic on certain apps through the VPN and leave other apps’ traffic unencrypted, so that they pass through your normal ISP network.

For example, I like to run my browser app through the VPN to unblock geo-restricted content. Meanwhile, I make sure my banking app routes through my ISP so that I don’t trigger any alerts on my account.

IP Shuffle

The IP Shuffle makes it harder for anyone to track your location because you can randomly change your IP address at a time interval of your choice. Though it’s worth noting that this feature is available for Windows, Android, and macOS but not for iOS.

There’s also an IP Refresh if you would like to manually and quickly change your IP. This feature is useful if you want to be completely protected. Since your IP address can change every 10 minutes, no one will be able to backtrace the connection to you.

Auto-Connect

The auto-connect feature lets you configure when the VPN connects automatically. This is very useful because you can set it to automatically connect and keep you safe when you’re on public WiFi, in case you forget to turn on the VPN yourself. It is available for Windows, Android, macOS, and iOS.

Ad Blocker

HMA’s Chrome extension offers a built-in ad-blocker. This is an awesome addition, especially for all of you that are tired of constantly dealing with unwanted ads like I am.

Virus Test

HMA’s apps are completely safe and malware-free. Before I downloaded the Windows app, I used the VirusTotal website to check that the installer is clean. I didn’t expect any issues, but I wanted to check just to make sure. Fortunately, the results met my expectations, and there weren’t any viruses or other types of malware in the file.

I tested HMA’s Windows app installer for viruses on VirusTotal

One thing that HMA is missing is multi-hop. This feature further strengthens your online security and privacy by routing your traffic through 2 or more servers, which makes your data practically untraceable.

Try HMA Today

Privacy — Audited No-Logs Policy

HMA is one of the rare VPNs that has a no-logs policy audited by an independent cybersecurity company. It’s been checked by VerSprite, and they rated it as having a “low-risk user privacy impact.” The company also pointed out areas where the VPN could be improved, which shows that it’s dedicated to providing top-notch security.

On top of that, HMA’s parent company — Avast — publishes a warrant canary 4 times a year. This means you can easily check and see all the requests Avast receives to disclose the VPN’s user data to government agencies. The company is taking transparent steps to distance itself from past instances of data sharing.

Aside from the basic personal information that most VPNs collect to create your accounts (such as your email address, username, activation code, and subscription renewal date), HMA also records the date of connection and a rounded amount of data transferred.

Additionally, in the Privacy Policy, there’s information on what data is kept on its VPN clients and for what purpose. This includes data about your connection events, i.e., attempts of connection and disconnection, or events when an error occurred during the process. This data is not linked to specific users. You’re reminded to update your apps to the latest versions to avoid potential privacy risks.

HMA keeps the service data from the VPN for 2 years

There’s an option on the Android app to turn off analytics data sharing with third parties. You can find this option in the Settings menu under the Personal Privacy tab. It is turned on by default, but if you don’t want it, you can turn it off anytime.

It’s good to have the option to disable analytics sharing

Note that HMA’s web proxy extensions are a separate service to the VPN and the audit doesn’t cover them. This means that these extensions keep logs and data such as your IP address, domain names of the websites you visit, and timestamps of requests.

I don’t recommend using the web proxy extensions if you want complete online privacy

The VPN is based in the UK, which is a member of the 5 Eyes Alliance (a group of countries that collects and shares citizen’s online data). This means that if the government requested your data, HMA would be obligated to hand it over. However, considering that the service has a proven no-logs policy, there’s not going to be any valuable data that can be traced back to you.

Try HMA Today

Torrenting — Offers P2P-Optimized Server Locations

Torrenting is allowed with HMA. However, note that torrenting copyrighted material is against the DMCA. Torrenting is also completely banned in some countries, so you should check the laws and regulations of your country before deciding to do so. My team and I don’t condone illegal torrenting.

There are 8 server locations optimized for P2P traffic. P2P-optimized servers give you better connection speeds while protecting your privacy at the same time.

HMA’s P2P-optimized server locations have their own tab menu in the Windows app

For these reasons, I can recommend HMA for torrenting activities.

Try HMA Today

Does HMA Work in China? Not Reliably

HMA doesn’t consistently work in China. It offers specialized registration URLs in an effort to bypass the Great Firewall, since China blocks the VPN’s main page.

However, even with those, there’s no guarantee HMA will always work in China. In doesn’t offer any obfuscated servers (which mask VPN traffic as regular traffic). So there’s always a chance it will get detected and blocked.

If you would like a VPN that you can reliably use in China, I suggest you opt for an alternative choice.

Simultaneous Device Connections — 10 to 10 Depending on the Subscription Plan

With HMA, you can secure 10 to 10 devices at once, or even more if you choose to install it on a router. The basic plans allow you to connect up to 10 devices, or you can select a Family Plan if you want to connect up to 10 devices at once. There are also Business plans that let you connect up to 30 devices at the same time. Just be aware that each plan that offers additional connections is more expensive than the last.

I tested HMA on all my devices simultaneously and found it performed just as well with multiple connections.

Device Compatibility — Native Apps for Most Platforms

HMA is compatible with all major devices and operating systems, including:

• Windows: 7,8, and 10;
• Android: Lollipop, Marshmallow, Nougat, Oreo, and Pie;
• macOS: 10.5 and up (Yosemite, El Capitan, High Sierra, Catalina, and others);
• iOS: 9, 10, 11, and 12.

Furthermore, you can configure HMA on Linux (Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, and more), Apple TVs, Fire TV Stick, and Chromecast.

If you install the VPN on a router (or buy a FlashRouter with HMA pre-installed) you can also connect gaming consoles such as PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

The VPN offers web proxy extensions for Chrome and Firefox too.

I can recommend HMA for its compatibility thanks to its wide range of device options.

Try HMA Today