CyberGhost VPN vs HMA VPN 2024

James Everard

Senior Writer

CyberGhost and HMA (previously HideMyAss!) are both quirky VPNs that promise to keep your online activities completely private. They both have playful branding, with a friendly ghost and a funky donkey. But the similarities end there, and the truth is, they couldn’t be more different.

We undertook rigorous tests and conducted in-depth research across a broad range of criteria to separate these VPNs. We analyzed each service for popular online activities like streaming, torrenting, gaming, and plenty more besides. The results were conclusive, to say the least.

CyberGhost came out on top in virtually every metric. It’s faster, more reliable, and more secure, offering a ton of features for a pretty low price. We found that HMA only offered the bare minimum, despite costing almost twice as much at renewal. So, I recommend CyberGhost without hesitation. You can even try it for free with its generous 45-day money-back guarantee.

Short on Time? Here Are My Key Findings

If you still haven’t found the right VPN for you, I recommend ExpressVPN. It’s the fastest VPN we’ve tested and excels in practically every use case.

Streaming — CyberGhost Wins By Some Distance

There’s no contest here. CyberGhost is considerably better than HMA when it comes to streaming. In fact, we were surprised that HMA even worked with Netflix since it works with none of the other streaming giants we tested.

CyberGhost boasts 100+ specialty streaming servers that allow secure and lag-free access to popular platforms from anywhere. Its engineers continuously update these to ensure they work with their respective platforms and to improve performance.

You can "favorite" a streaming server by clicking on the star icon

HMA has just 6 streaming servers; 4 for the US and 1 each for the UK and Germany. We couldn’t even get the UK one to connect, and customer service didn’t respond to our inquiries. We could only get the US and German servers working with Netflix. The regular UK servers did work with the platform eventually, but I found this really frustrating.

HMA's regular UK servers worked with Netflix

CyberGhost also offers a better smart DNS user experience. It’s compatible with a range of devices, including gaming consoles and smart TVs, and integrates more seamlessly with platform interfaces. HMA offers a competent Smart DNS, too, but you might notice occasional challenges with certain device setups.

Winner

CyberGhost emerges as the better choice for streaming due to its robust server performance, extensive compatibility with both major and niche platforms, and superior Smart DNS technology.

Server Network — CyberGhost Boasts a Vastly Superior Fleet

CyberGhost operates a larger network than HMA, with nearly 10 times as many servers, while HMA caters to a higher number of countries. This means CyberGhost offers more reliability, with more servers in popular regions. In contrast, HMA's wide country count can be a plus, particularly if you’re in a country rarely served by VPNs. They are, however, mostly virtually located, so there’s no guarantee that a server that appears local will provide good speeds.

CyberGhost clearly labels its physical and virtual servers for clarity, allowing you to make informed decisions based on your performance needs. Both CyberGhost and HMA utilize a mix of server types, but this clear labeling by CyberGhost aids in setting expectations about connection stability and speed.

Winner

CyberGhost stands out with its larger and more diverse server network. Unlike with HMA, it’s easy to see which servers are virtual, allowing you to easily find the best connection.

Speed — CyberGhost Has Supernatural Speeds

Our UK-based speed tester had starting speeds in the region of 230 Mbps. They used WireGuard for CyberGhost, and OpenVPN for HMA, which is automatically selected when you use the regular servers.

CyberGhost has terrific speeds, especially over short to middle distances. Paris returned just a 3% loss (213.39 Mbps), the UK 7% (203.86 Mbps), and all European and US locations had under a 20% loss. The biggest drop was 57% (94.77 Mbps) from Mumbai, India — but that’s over 4,500 miles away.

A 20% drop over this distance is tiny compared to other VPNs

By contrast, HMA could stand for Hide My AssTonishingly Bad Speed Results! The UK loss was 55% (105.86 Mbps), which is comparable to CyberGhost’s worst result. Meanwhile, we got a 96% loss (8.26 Mbps) from Singapore. Sure, this is a long way away from the UK, but still — HMA’s are among the poorest speed results I’ve seen from a premium VPN.

In fairness, HMA's upload speeds were up there with CyberGhost

Here’s a brief summary of our speed tests:

Winner

CyberGhost’s incredible speeds make HMA look like a wonky donkey. It was also much more steady and stable, whereas HMA’s speeds were inconsistent at best.

Gaming — CyberGhost Is Quickest off the Mark

Our speed tester also tested the latency of both VPNs, starting with a base ping of 25 ms.

We found that CyberGhost frequently outpaced HMA on nearby servers, providing quicker load times and smoother gameplay. This difference becomes even more apparent on distant servers.

During testing, I tried both VPNs with some simple online games, using Quick Connect to set me up on the best available server. With CyberGhost, I noticed no difference than if I was playing with my base connection. Every action I took registered straight away. However, with HMA, there was a tiny delay. Granted, this lag wasn’t significant, but it quickly became frustrating.

I recommend WireGuard protocol for the smoothest gaming experience

Both VPNs are compatible with popular gaming routers, but CyberGhost offers a slightly smoother setup process with more straightforward instructions. After installation, it also maintains a more consistent performance, ensuring that your extended gaming sessions are uninterrupted.

For cloud gaming platforms, which demand both high speeds and low latency, CyberGhost optimizes gaming traffic more effectively than HMA. It enhances your overall gaming experience on platforms like GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming by prioritizing game data and reducing latency.

Winner

CyberGhost is the better choice for gaming due to its low ping and consistent performance across various platforms and network types.

Torrenting — CyberGhost is Twice as Fast

Given everything we’ve found so far during our testing, it’s no surprise that CyberGhost is considerably faster for file sharing. Not only does it use the faster WireGuard protocol (HMA only offers OpenVPN), but it also offers 100+ P2P servers vs. HMA’s 8. So, you’ve got a perfect storm of a slow protocol and congested servers clogging up your P2P transfers with HMA.

To test this out, I downloaded the same 1.74 GB public-domain file with both VPNs. With CyberGhost, my download took a little over a minute. With HMA, it took over 3 minutes due to its inconsistent speeds. Admittedly, this isn’t a huge difference, but bear in mind that I have a pretty good base connection — if your speeds are lower, HMA’s inflated download time will quickly become frustrating.

Winner

With over 10 times as many P2P servers and more consistent download speeds, it’s another round to CyberGhost.

Security — CyberGhost Goes the Extra Mile

Neither VPN has a proprietary protocol, but at least CyberGhost uses the open-source industry-standard protocol for speed, WireGuard. By only offering OpenVPN, HMA is in danger of being left behind. It also doesn’t offer RAM-only servers that automatically wipe user data on reboot, which CyberGhost does. I find this slightly concerning, particularly given its past of sharing data.

You can activate Block content with one click under Privacy settings

Meanwhile, CyberGhost offers an impressive ad, malware, and tracker blocker that stopped 90% of online annoyances in our tests. HMA offers no such feature, but its encryption and IP masking alone blocked just 21%. That’s better than nothing, but again, it’s a long way short of CyberGhost.

You can block 21% of ads and trackers just by hitting HMA's connect button

To its credit though, HMA has an IP Shuffle feature that can switch your IP address at intervals of your choosing while maintaining your location. But for extra reassurance, I recommend CyberGhost’s NoSpy servers. They’re housed in its highly secure base in Romania, free from any threat of third-party interference.

Winner

With RAM-only servers, NoSpy connections, and malicious content blocking, it’s another easy win for CyberGhost.

Privacy — CyberGhost Has Better Credentials

CyberGhost maintains a strict no-logs approach, ensuring that it doesn’t record your browsing activities, IP addresses, or server usage. In contrast, HMA has a no-logs policy, but it collects data on connection times and bandwidth usage. It states that everything is anonymized, though, and it’s only stored for 35 days before it’s permanently deleted.

Both providers have undergone privacy audits, but CyberGhost’s transparency report, detailing data requests from authorities, provides clearer insights.

Regarding jurisdiction, CyberGhost is based in Romania, where privacy laws are robust, and it isn’t part of major surveillance networks. HMA, however, resides in the UK, a founding member of the 5 Eyes alliance, potentially exposing your data to government snooping. For payment anonymity, both VPNs accept cryptocurrencies.

I do have to bring up the donkey in the room, though. HMA has a history of logging and sharing data with government agencies. It introduced its no-logs policy in 2020, so it’s considerably safer to use than in previous years. However, I have to question why it took them so long to commit to not storing identifying user data.

Winner

CyberGhost benefits from a stricter privacy policy and operates under more favorable privacy laws in Romania. These features, combined with its detailed transparency reports, make it a more reliable choice for protecting your online activities.

Works in China — Neither Works Consistently

The Great Firewall (GFW) is always being updated, which means it takes a lot of time and resources for VPNs to keep up with the changes. This means that even the best VPNs struggle to work consistently in China.

Unfortunately, neither CyberGhost nor HMA work in China as of the time of writing. If that’s a dealbreaker for you, take a look at our top-rated VPNs for China.

Winner - draw

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Neither VPN claims to offer a reliable service in China.

Installation & Ease of Use — Both Are Simple and Fun to Use

CyberGhost and HMA are both easy to use and ideal for beginners. Both apps have 2 main app views that are easy to access and navigate, with simple on/off connectivity. And with simple side menus on the expanded views, they look and feel similar.

If you're having connectivity issues, you can run the troubleshooting app under Help & support

In both cases, a lack of in-depth features may be a turn-off for techies. But they both have more than enough for the casual and intermediate user or anyone who just wants a functional VPN that doesn’t require much optimization.

You'll find more technical settings under the Smart rules tab

Winner - draw

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Both VPNs can be installed in minutes across a broad range of OSs and devices. And, with 2 main app views and intuitively grouped servers, it’s an even fight here.

Reliability & Support — CyberGhost’s Easiest Win Yet

CyberGhost has a reliable 24/7 live chat feature. Its knowledgeable and friendly agents always responded within a minute and answered my questions thoroughly. It also offers detailed setup guides with YouTube video tutorials, which I think is fantastic for VPN beginners.

HMA doesn’t have live chat, which is disappointing for a premium VPN. Plus, it doesn’t even have an FAQ section. Instead, you’ll see a handful of FAQs

Worse still, it didn’t respond to my contact form inquiries when I asked for help getting some servers to connect, and so this issue remained unresolved. Also concerning is that the latest news update on its website is from January 2021. The whole service feels a bit stuck in the past.

Winner

This is another area where CyberGhost is miles ahead. With live chat, comprehensive setup guides, and regular news updates, it leaves HMA lagging far behind.

Pricing

	CyberGhost	HMA
Starting Price	$2.19/month	$2.99/month
Price (On Renewal)	$56.97 per year (subject to change)	$431.64 per 3 years (subject to change)
Money-Back Guarantee (Days)	45 days	30 days
Number of devices per license	7	10
Router Setup (for Unlimited Devices)	Manual setup	Manual setup

Not only is CyberGhost by far the better VPN, it’s also the cheaper option. And if HMA’s lowest deal looks reasonable, look at the horrendous price on renewal!

HMA doesn’t even offer a one-month plan, so you can’t try it without making a big commitment. True, it has a 7-day free trial, but I don’t think that’s long enough to get a proper feel for the service. The only thing you have available is its 30-day money-back guarantee and, honestly, given that I never got an answer back from customer support, I personally wouldn’t trust it.

CyberGhost offers a generous 45-day money-back guarantee on its longer plans, longer than the industry-standard 30 days. We’ve tested this ourselves, and we had our money back in our account in only a few days. Plus, I like the flexibility of its 6-month plan, which not every VPN offers. Be aware that the one-month contract only comes with a 14-day guarantee.

Winner

CyberGhost isn’t just better, it’s also far more affordable, even on renewal. It offers more flexibility in its plans, too.

Our Methodology for Testing CyberGhost vs HMA

First, we tested each VPN for popular use cases such as streaming, torrenting, and gaming. Next, we evaluated the services' apps and server networks and conducted extensive speed tests. Then, we evaluated security and privacy credentials and examined pricing.

For a more in-depth look at our processes, visit our methodology page. It features a detailed breakdown of the methods employed by our international team of cybersecurity experts. Feel free to use it as a template to carry out your own tests.

CyberGhost vs. HMA — Reddit Opinions

CyberGhost gets praise for its fast speeds, streaming capabilities, and HQ in Romania, outside the 5 Eyes Alliance. However, many posters have experienced the same issue we had with HMA in terms of not getting responses to messages. As such, many users report problems in claiming the money-back guarantee.

I think it’s also worth noting that while CyberGhost has its own subreddit for sharing updates with the community, HMA doesn’t.

Reddit is full of horror stories about HMA