The logo for this VPN service is a shady-looking donkey in a trenchcoat and trilby – get it? And indeed, the developers themselves seem slightly embarrassed by the name of the software: it installs and runs under the name “HMA Pro”.
Once installed, the client hangs about in your system tray until you need it. Click the icon and the dashboard pops up instantly. The current version 3 client, released just a few months ago, is quite attractively designed in tasteful blue, with nice retro graphics to illustrate its three operating modes.
The first of these is Instant Mode, which automatically connects you to the fastest available server. In practice, this will probably mean a proxy based in the UK, which might not seem very anonymous – but it’s good enough to prevent your ISP from monitoring what you’re doing.
The second option is Location Mode: this is where you can choose which country you want to virtually visit, so you can watch HBO in the US, browse Australian YouTube or what have you. It’s no surprise that US and Candian Netflix services don’t work, but otherwise you’re not short of options: the company boasts of having servers in 190 different countries. We very much doubt there are many people who need to connect specifically from Angola or Kyrgyzstan, but if you do then HMA Pro has got you covered.
Finally, there’s Freedom Mode, which routes your connection via the nearest “free-speech” country. This may be most useful for those living in the Far East, who can’t access sites such as Google and Facebook, but it also allows us Brits to access blocked BitTorrent sites such as The Pirate Bay.
While HMA! Pro is easy to use, we do have some reservations. £48 per year is a pretty standard price, but you can only use two devices simultaneously, rather than the five most other VPNs allow. That seems a bit mean – although if your router’s compatible you can set it up to send everything over the VPN automatically.
Performance wasn’t particularly impressive either: routing our traffic via New York dropped our download speeds to 57% of the rate we get direct from our ISP. One nice touch, however, is an extension for Chrome that lets you open specific pages through a VPN. That means you can browse the regular web at full bandwidth, and use a slower private connection only for those sites that need it.
Verdict
An important final point is that HMA Pro is based in the UK, which means it’s subject to “Five Eyes” surveillance and international data sharing. If you just want to access overseas streaming services, that’s probably nothing to worry about: the company doesn’t log the data you transfer or the sites you connect to, and will only reveal your identity if compelled to do so by a court order. But if you’re a whistleblower whose liberty depends on staying a step ahead of the authorities, it might be a good idea to look elsewhere.