hide.me vs Windscribe

Comparing: two VPNs
Decided by: Independent no-logs audits
Last reviewed: 2026-08-26

hide.meTakes bitcoin

One of the first VPNs ever audited, re-audited a decade later, with a free tier that does not cap your data at all.

Seized twice and prosecuted once, with nothing to hand over each time; no email needed to sign up, and it takes bitcoin over Lightning.

Verdict: Windscribe

Windscribe carries more independent audits of its no-logs claim: 3 against 2 for hide.me. We publish no rating for VPNs, so the audit count is the one criterion that decides.

Criterion: Independent no-logs audits
hide.me: 2
Windscribe: 3

hide.me and Windscribe, fact by fact

Every row is from the two reviews as of their review dates, with sources on each. A check marks the side a decidable criterion favours; rows without one are information, not a score.

hide.me and Windscribe compared fact by fact from their reviews; a check marks the side a decidable criterion favours.
Fact	hide.me	Windscribe
Independent audits	2, latest 2024	3, latest 2024 (favoured on this row)
Real-world tests	0	3
Incidents on record	0	1
Market exits	0	0
Owner	eVenture Limited	Windscribe Limited
Jurisdiction	Malaysia	Canada
Eyes alliance	Outside	Five Eyes
Price	Free tier, or from $2.59/mo	$69/yr Pro, or from $3/mo
Money-back	30 days	7 days
Crypto accepted	bitcoin, monero, ethereum, litecoin, dogecoin, solana	bitcoin, bitcoin lightning
Anonymous signup	No	Yes
Free tier	No data cap, 8 locations, one device, reduced speeds, no card needed	10 GB a month with a confirmed email, 2 GB without, across 11 countries
Servers	Vendor states roughly 2,600 servers across 92 locations, with free users limited to eight of them	Vendor states servers in more than 69 countries on paid plans, all running from RAM after the FreshScribe rebuild
Last reviewed	2026-08-26	2026-08-26

No-logs evidence, side by side

Dated audits and real-world tests from each review. An empty column is a finding: the claim has not been independently checked.

hide.me

2024Audit by Securitum: no-logs policy and the RAM-only server infrastructure, with a published summary report
2015Audit by DefenseCode: one of the first independent examinations of a VPN provider's logging claims

Windscribe

2026Dutch authorities physically seized a Windscribe server from a data centre rack: The company reports they found a stock install running entirely in RAM, with no drives, logs or user data on it
2025Greek prosecutors, with INTERPOL involvement, charged co-founder Yegor Sak personally over activity traced to a Windscribe server: The case was dismissed on 11 April 2025 after a two-year fight, because Windscribe held no user data to produce
2024Audit by PacketLabs: the full FreshScribe server infrastructure, 20 repositories and roughly 80,000 lines of code, with external and internal penetration testing
2022Audit by Leviathan Security Group: security audit of the mobile applications
2021Audit by Leviathan Security Group: security audit of the desktop applications
2021Ukrainian authorities seized two Windscribe servers: No user activity logs were found, but the unencrypted disks exposed an OpenVPN certificate authority key; Windscribe disclosed this publicly and rebuilt its network to run only in RAM

Frequently asked questions

Is hide.me or Windscribe better for privacy?

Windscribe carries more independent audits of its no-logs claim: 3 against 2 for hide.me. We publish no rating for VPNs, so the audit count is the one criterion that decides. Audits, court and seizure records and incidents are dated on each review with their sources.

Can I pay hide.me or Windscribe with bitcoin?

hide.me takes bitcoin, monero, ethereum, litecoin, dogecoin and solana (processor: In-house). Windscribe takes bitcoin and bitcoin lightning (processor: In-house). Each review quotes the vendor's own refund sentence for crypto purchases verbatim.

Which is cheaper, hide.me or Windscribe?

hide.me: Free tier, or from $2.59/mo. Windscribe: $69/yr Pro, or from $3/mo. Money-back: hide.me 30 days, Windscribe 7 days. Prices are from each vendor's own page as of the review date.

Where are hide.me and Windscribe based?

hide.me: Malaysia (outside the five, nine and fourteen eyes alliances). Windscribe: Canada (five eyes member). A jurisdiction matters less than a court record showing what the provider could hand over; the reviews carry those where they exist.

The full reviews: hide.me and Windscribe, each with its sources, and every VPN we review.

More comparisons

Every other head-to-head hide.me or Windscribe appears in.