Head to head
The gap
The security score is not a total of good things. It starts at 100 and eight channels each take a share of what is left, so one channel can settle a record on its own. Both records are drawn here on the same scale — the model’s own cap of 0.9 — rather than on a scale fitted to this pair, which would make every comparison look equally dramatic.
Line by line
Every field the contract publishes about a provider, in the contract’s own groups, including the rows where the two agree — a table that printed only differences would invent a disagreement, and one that printed only the interesting rows would be us choosing what is interesting. Open a group to read its rows; each one says how many it holds and how many of them the two records answer differently.
A green cell means the methodology itself prices that value below the other one, not that we prefer it. Rows the model does not price carry no mark at all: price is never marked, because nothing in the model says cheaper is safer, and neither is coverage, platform count or devices. Where a value was never established the cell says so instead of showing a zero.
What actually happened
Other pairs
Pairs within the top ten get a page — 80 comparisons in all. Records below that are not paired here: a comparison earns a page where the choice between the two is a real one, and that choice is made near the top of the register.
Security
Usability
Rank 5 of 68 in the register
Malaysia · Commercial VPN
Exits in 57 countries
Security
Usability
Rank 3 of 68 in the register
Gibraltar · Commercial VPN
Exits in 41 countries
No demand on the public record
No demand on the public record
Notes
On the record as a whole.
Pricing has no plain 12-month tier; the closest analogue to an annual plan is a 13-month term (12 months plus 1 bonus month) billed 54.99 USD, recorded in U04b with this note per the schema's first-term rule. A 26-month term (24+2 bonus months) also exists at 69.99 USD but is not the annual plan the field asks for. C05_payment_anonymous also lists Visa/Mastercard/Amex/PayPal on the same page; only the Coinpayments crypto option is anonymous-adjacent.
C07b_site_trackers is a self-hosted/proxied Plausible-style analytics script served from hide.me's own domain (data-api https://hide.me/api/event) rather than a third-party domain; coded as analytics since it is still a distinct analytics product, not a first-party log.
U07_protocols refresh (2026-09-14) found SoftEther added to the protocol list alongside WireGuard, IKEv2, SSTP and OpenVPN; SoftEther is third-party open-source software (not hide.me's own protocol) with a published, reviewable implementation, so it is coded vendor_open rather than proprietary.
On the record as a whole.
First fill 2026-08-26. Sourced entirely from ivpn.net's own pages, the Cure53 audit PDFs and IVPN's blog — no affiliate or review-aggregator site cited.
hide.me and IVPN were assessed by the HushFleet team: hide.me scores 28/100 for security, in the Insufficient band, and IVPN 38/100, in the Weak band. They share an independent audit and independent ownership. The 10-point gap opens widest on Jurisdiction — “Can someone compel what exists, without the provider getting a say?” — taking 13% from hide.me and 3% from IVPN.
| ChannelPressure taken from what was left | hide.meDominant channel: Retention0 to 0.9, longer is worse | IVPNDominant channel: Retention0 to 0.9, longer is worse |
|---|---|---|
| RetentionDoes a record exist that links traffic to a person, and who checked? | 0.518 | 0.526 |
| IgnoranceHow much of this did nobody establish? | 0.149 | 0.061 |
| HygieneWhat identifying material is collected in passing, and can the client be checked at all? | 0.146 | 0.063 |
| JurisdictionCan someone compel what exists, without the provider getting a say? | 0.125 | 0.030 |
| ArchitectureWho operates the exit, and what does it do to the traffic? | 0.050 | 0.050 |
| IntegrityHas it been caught saying one thing and doing another? | 0.040 | 0.000 |
| DisclosureHas it already handed something over? | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| SilenceTen years, millions of users and nothing on record? | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| What is left of 100The channels multiply: each one takes a share of what the one before it left standing | 28 | 38 |
By circumstance
| hide.me | IVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Torrenting | — not established | Allowed on some servers partial |
| Streaming | — not established | Some services reachable partial |
| Devices at once | 10 | 5 |
| Under censorship | — not established | Claimed to work claimed |
| Exits in mandate countries | 3 United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Vietnam | None |
| Hosting in those countries | — not established | — the question does not arise |
| Company under a mandate | No such mandate no | No such mandate no |
| Secret orders | — not established | No secret-order regime on record none_known |
Recent changes
1 change logged, on 14 Sep 2026
| hide.me | IVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Security | 28 insufficient · rank 5 of 68 | 38 weak · rank 3 of 68 |
| Usability | 81 out of 100 | 66 out of 100 |
| Record completeness | 77% usability 75% | 89% usability 100% |
| hide.me | IVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Who operates the exit | Run by the provider itself provider_operated | Run by the provider itself provider_operated |
| Retention as declared | Session metadata session_metadataBhide.me · | Nothing that links traffic to a person none_linkableBivpn.net · |
| RAM-only diskless servers | Yes, checked by someone independent yes_verifiedAhide.me · | Part of the fleet partialBivpn.net · |
| IP allocation model | Dedicated address offered as an option dedicated_optionBhide.me · | Exit address shared between users sharedBivpn.net · |
| Signup without email | No, an email address is required noBhide.me · | Yes, on the provider's word yes_declaredBivpn.net · 2 sources · |
| Anonymous payment options | Cryptocurrency through a processorBhide.me · | Cash · Cryptocurrency paid directlyBivpn.net · 2 sources · |
| Own DNS inside the tunnel | Yes, checked by someone independent yes_verifiedAhide.me · | Yes, on the provider's word yes_declaredBivpn.net · |
| Worst third-party SDK category in the app | No third-party SDK none | No third-party SDK none |
| Worst third-party tracker category on the site | Analytics analytics | Analytics analytics |
| Who owns the hardware | Owned by the provider ownedBhide.me · | — not establishedno source published |
| Offered countries that sit under a logging mandate | 3 United Arab Emirates, Turkey, VietnamBhide.me · | NoneBivpn.net · |
| Hosting in the mandate countries it offers | — not establishedno source published | — the question does not ariseno source published |
| Incorporation country mandates retention | No such mandate no | No such mandate no |
| Beneficial owner sits under a retention regime | — not established | — not established |
| Persistent device identifier | None held noneBplay.google.com · 2 sources · | An identifier scoped to the app app_scoped_idBivpn.net · |
| Weakest protocol still offered | SSTP sstpBhide.me · | — the question does not ariseBivpn.net · 2 sources · |
| What the exit does to passing traffic | — not established | — not established |
| hide.me | IVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| At least one independent audit | Yes, and the report was read yes_verified | Yes, and the report was read yes_verified |
| How the report is published | The full report is published full_pdf | The full report is published full_pdf |
| Subject of the audit | The no-logs claim itselfAhide.me · | — not establishedAcure53.de · |
| Server fleet coverage | A sample of servers sampleAhide.me · | — the question does not ariseno source published |
| Auditor name | Securitum (Pawel Rozanski, Maciej Szymczak) |
| hide.me | IVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Server seizure by law enforcement | — not establishedno source published | No seizure on record none_knownBivpn.net · |
| Actual disclosure history | No disclosure on record none_known | No disclosure on record none_known |
| Court record of compelled production | — not establishedno source published | Told a court it had nothing to produce unable_to_produceBivpn.net · 2 sources · |
| Response to a national logging mandate | Pulled its servers out rather than comply withdrew_physicalBhide.me · | Was never present in that country no_presence |
| hide.me | IVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Documented gap between claim and behaviour | — not establishedno source published | No documented lie noneCcure53.de · 3 sources · |
| Marketing against audit findings | No gap on record none | No gap on record none |
| Ownership structure transparency | Ownership is stated and checkable clear | Ownership is stated and checkable clear |
| Adverse events on the owner group record | — not establishedno source published | Nothing adverse on record cleanCivpn.net · |
| How the service is paid for | A free tier funded by the paid one freemium_fundedBhide.me · |
| hide.me | IVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | eVenture Ltd. (eVenture Limited), registered in Malaysia under registration number LL09685Bhide.me · | IVPN Limited, 5 Secretary's lane, GX11 1AA, GibraltarBivpn.net · |
| Where the company sits | Malaysia MYBhide.me · | Gibraltar GIBivpn.net · 2 sources · |
| Year the service launched | 2012Bhide.me · | 2009Bivpn.net |
| hide.me | IVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms with a client | 10 Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Apple TV, Android TV, Fire TV, Browser extension, RoutersBhide.me · | 6 Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, RoutersBivpn.net · |
| Countries with an exit | 57 countriesBhide.me · | 41 countriesBivpn.net · |
| Paying monthly | $11.99 per monthBhide.me · | $6.00 per monthBivpn.net · |
Open questions
Still open on this record.
Ultimate beneficial owner. eVenture Ltd. is named and registered (Malaysia, LL09685) with a street address, but no individual owner or parent structure is disclosed anywhere in the provider's own documents; M09, M11 and the owner-jurisdiction channel stay unknown.
Seizure and court-record history. The transparency report states law-enforcement requests received nothing to hand over every year since 2013, which supports P02_disclosure_history, but no single dated seizure or court order is documented with its own record, so P01_seizure_event and P03_court_record stay unknown rather than the favourable none_known/unable_to_produce a P12 event would earn.
Mandate-country hosting. hide.me offers exit locations in three countries this catalogue's mandate table flags (AE, TR, VN); none of the three country pages state whether the hardware there is physical or virtual, so C09b_mandate_hosting is unknown.
Circumvention and streaming claims. The pricing page advertises undifferentiated "Streaming Support" and the site offers no measured circumvention evidence, so U06_censorship_circumvention, U12a_p2p_allowed and U12b_streaming_works stay unknown rather than resting on marketing copy.
Audit history before 2024. The provider's own pages assert an audit "back in 2015" and describe audits as routine, but only the 2024 Securitum PDF could be located and opened; V09_audit_regularity and V10_audit_count are scored on the one document actually read, not the claimed series.
Still open on this record.
One no-logs audit, in 2019. IVPN is unusually explicit about what it does not do: its own post states that its last and only no-logs audit was Cure53 in March 2019, and that it has deliberately not repeated the format because such a stamp describes one day and not the days after it.
What the claim rests on now. Every audit since targets apps and services, so the no-logs claim on the infrastructure rests on the March 2019 engagement and on the February 2023 gateway review, not on anything recent.
The audit not yet published. The eighth annual Cure53 audit was scheduled for July 2026 and no report for 2025 or 2026 is published yet, which is why the latest report date is the April 2024 one.
| Cure53Acure53.de · 3 sources · |
| Auditor category | A security specialist security_specialist | A security specialist security_specialist |
|---|
| Assurance standard | Another standard other | Another standard other |
|---|
| Date of latest report | 2024-06-07Ahide.me · | 2024-04-08Acure53.de · |
|---|
| Audit cadence | One-off one_offAhide.me · 2 sources · | An annual series annual_seriesBivpn.net · 4 sources · |
|---|
| Total published audits | 1Ahide.me · 2 sources · | 7Bivpn.net · |
|---|
| Retention as the report states it | Nothing that links traffic to a person none_linkableAhide.me · | The report does not address retention not_statedBivpn.net · |
|---|
| Client source code published | Some clients partialBgithub.com · | Every client allBivpn.net · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Reproducible builds | — not established | — not established |
|---|
| Separate pentest | — not establishedno source published | Yes, and the report was read yes_verifiedAcure53.de · 3 sources · |
|---|
| Strength of the assurance opinion | — the question does not arise | — the question does not arise |
|---|
| Transparency report | Current, with request numbers fresh_with_numbers | Current, with request numbers fresh_with_numbers |
|---|
| Reported numbers plausible for this scale | — not establishedno source published | The numbers are plausible at this scale plausibleno source published · |
|---|
| Warrant canary discipline | — not establishedno source published | Kept current maintainedBivpn.net · |
|---|
| Requests received | 9Ahide.me · | 34Bivpn.net · |
|---|
| Requests that produced data | 0 | 0 |
|---|
| Secret-order regime | — not establishedno source published | No secret-order regime on record none_knownBivpn.net · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Chronology of documented enforcement events | 0 No demand on the public record | 0 No demand on the public record |
|---|
Paid subscriptions only paid_onlyBivpn.net · |
| Claims of 100% anonymity or military-grade crypto | Claims total anonymity or military-grade encryption yesBhide.me · | Makes no such claim noBivpn.net · |
|---|
| Aggressive lifetime subscriptions | Does not no | Does not no |
|---|
| Coverage exists only on affiliate sites | — not establishedno source published | Covered outside affiliate sites too noCivpn.net · |
|---|
| Security incident and how it was disclosed | No incident on record none_knownBhide.me · | Disclosed by the provider, promptly self_disclosed_promptBivpn.net · |
|---|
| Affiliate programme and payout tier | A high payout high_payoutBhide.me · | No affiliate programme noneBivpn.net · |
|---|
| Owner-run review media discloses the tie | — not establishedno source published | — the question does not ariseno source published |
|---|
| App store declaration | The store form matches the published policy matches_policy | The store form matches the published policy matches_policy |
|---|
| User base scale (mass >=10M, mid >=1M, niche <1M) | Mass: 10 million users or more massBhide.me · | — not establishedno source published |
|---|
| Ultimate beneficial owner as written | — not establishedno source published | Nicholas Pestell, founder and CEO, 100% owner of IVPN LimitedBivpn.net · |
|---|
| Other businesses of the owner group | None disclosed | None disclosed |
|---|
| Country of the ultimate beneficial owner | — not established | — not established |
|---|
| Owner group | independent | independent |
|---|
| Date the current owner took control | 2012Bhide.me · 2 sources · | — the question does not ariseno source published |
|---|
| Role of this brand inside the group | The group's principal brand principal | The group's principal brand principal |
|---|
| Infrastructure shared with cluster siblings | Separate infrastructure separate | Separate infrastructure separate |
|---|
| Paying yearly | $54.99 a year at renewal, billed onceBhide.me · | $60.00 a year at renewal, billed onceBivpn.net · |
|---|
| Usable free tier | A free tier with limits limited_freeBhide.me · | No free tier noneBivpn.net · |
|---|
| Works under active censorship | — not establishedno source published | Claimed to work claimedBivpn.net · |
|---|
| Protocols offered | 5 WireGuard, IKEv2, SSTP, OpenVPN, A vendor protocol with published sourceBhide.me · | 4 WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, An obfuscated protocolBivpn.net · 2 sources · |
|---|
| Kill switch coverage | On every platform all_platforms | On every platform all_platforms |
|---|
| Split tunneling available | Available yes | Available yes |
|---|
| Simultaneous connections | 10Bhide.me · | 5Bivpn.net · |
|---|
| Friction to start using it | An email address only email_onlyBhide.me · | No account needed no_accountBivpn.net · 2 sources · |
|---|
| P2P allowed | — not establishedno source published | Allowed on some servers partialBivpn.net · |
|---|
| Major streaming services reachable | — not establishedno source published | Some services reachable partialBivpn.net · |
|---|
The August 2026 incident. In August 2026 an attacker exploited a vulnerability in the self-hosted BTCPay Server, before it was public, and took IVPN's own Lightning operating funds. IVPN published the account four days later, unprompted, and scoped it to that machine: the VPN gateways were not involved, no customer records were reached, no customer money was lost.
Why it costs nothing. The model charges nothing for this, which is the point — an operator that says so promptly is behaving the way the field is meant to reward, and the entry is here so a reader knows it happened rather than to move a number.
What the engagements covered. The app pentest (iOS, Android, Electron, the daemon) is from March 2022 and the gateway/server-OS review from February 2023; neither tested the no-logs claim itself, the 2023 report says so explicitly, so retention rests on the privacy policy declaration alone.
The latest report is not the relevant one. April 2024's engagement, Cure53's sixth with IVPN, tested the customer account website, API and hosting; its own scope page names client apps and VPN servers out of scope, so it extends neither the app nor the gateway evidence, and V03_audit_subject reads unknown for it rather than carrying that credit forward. The seventh engagement, on the new email and DNS services, was only announced for May 2025; no report for it is published.
What the primary site never establishes. RAM-only is recorded as partial because IVPN describes it as a transition with test deployments under way, and has not announced its completion. Server hardware ownership (leased vs owned), traffic modification at the exit, and the beneficial owner's personal jurisdiction are unestablished: no primary IVPN page states any of the three, nor does user-base scale.
Three fields the knowledgebase answers, not the pages read at first fill. IP allocation is shared by design — "crowding" pools users on one address to blunt attribution. P2P is allowed everywhere, but IVPN asks customers to avoid US exits, citing upstream DMCA pressure. Streaming carries no guarantee, though the company says many customers do reach it.
14 Sep 20261 changes
Protocols offeredU07_protocols
wireguard, ikev2, sstp, openvpn changed to wireguard, ikev2, sstp, openvpn, vendor_open
12 Sep 20265 changes
Security scoresecurity.score
42 changed to 40
IP allocation modelC03_ip_sharing
not on the record changed to shared
P2P allowedU12a_p2p_allowed
not on the record changed to partial
Major streaming services reachableU12b_streaming_works
not on the record changed to partial
Subject of the latest auditV03_audit_subject
app_security, infrastructure changed to not on the record
