Hysteria review: score, privacy and prices

1.92

out of 10not in the main ranking (too little published data)
Other (usenet, hosting, tunnels) median 2.5

  • Other (usenet, hosting, tunnels)
  • Jurisdiction:not stated, alliance not disclosed
  • Owner:apernet (GitHub org)
  • Data completeness40%
  • Checked2026-10-15
  • No email to sign up
  • Free plan
  • Open-source apps

In 10 seconds

Strongest against its segment

  • Censorship bypass3.8 vs 0.5
  • Platforms and support4.3 vs 3.9
  • Security and protocols2.1 vs 1.8

Weakest against its segment

  • Network and streaming0.0 vs 2.8
  • Price and fair terms1.2 vs 3.4
  • Privacy and jurisdiction1.0 vs 2.3

Compare Hysteria side by side with other VPNs

How the score adds up

Six sub-scores, each against the median of Other (usenet, hosting, tunnels) services in the main ranking (None services). Open a line to see which published facts earned points and which were missing or not disclosed.

Hysteriasegment median

  • Privacy and jurisdiction30% of the score · segment median 2.31.0
    What earned points
    • No-logs policy +2
    • Independent no-logs audit +3
    • No-logs confirmed in court +1
    • Warrant canary +1
    • Transparency report +1
    • Sign-up without email +1.5
    • Account number sign-up +0.5
    • Stores connection IP (penalty) −3
    • Public incident (penalty) −2
  • Security and protocols20% of the score · segment median 1.82.1
    What earned points
    • Kill switch +2
    • DNS leak protection +1.5
    • RAM-only servers +1
    • Post-quantum encryption +1
    • Perfect forward secrecy +0.5
    • Security audit +2
    • Open-source clients +1.5
    • 2FA +1
    • Multi-hop +1
    • Bug bounty +1
    • Only PPTP / L2TP (penalty) −2
  • Price and fair terms15% of the score · segment median 3.41.2
    What earned points
    • Free plan +1.5
    • Free trial +1
    • Trial without a card +1
    • Crypto payments +1
    • Cash payments +0.5
  • Censorship bypass15% of the score · segment median 0.53.8
    What earned points
    • Stealth / obfuscation +2
    • VLESS / Reality +1.5
    • Trojan +1
    • Hysteria2 +1
    • Shadowsocks +1
    • AmneziaWG +1
    • obfs4 +0.5
    • TUIC +0.5
    • NaiveProxy +0.5
    • Mirrors or Telegram channel +0.5
    • VoIP in the UAE (claimed) +0.5
    • Manual configs +0.5
  • Network and streaming10% of the score · segment median 2.80.0
    What earned points
    • 10 Gbps servers +1
    • Dedicated IP +0.5
    • Port forwarding +0.5
    • MENA locations +0.5
    • Torrenting allowed +1
  • Platforms and support10% of the score · segment median 3.94.3
    What earned points
    • Routers +1
    • Browser extensions +0.5
    • Split tunneling +1
    • Ad / tracker blocker +1
    • 24/7 live chat +2
    • live chat +0.5
    • Support on Telegram +0.5
    • Status page +0.5

Hysteria pricing

Hysteria does not publish a paid price we could read. Free plan: Yes fully free, self-hosted. Market median across the main ranking: €3.13 a month.

All plans as published

PlanTerm
Hysteria (open source, MIT)Lifetime

Refunds, trial and payment

Refund window
Not stated
Free trial
Not stated
Auto-renewal
Not stated
Payment methods
Not stated

Everything Hysteria publishes

Every fact we collected about Hysteria, as the provider and reviewers state it. Empty fields are left out; key fields we could not find say “Not stated”. “Partial”: only on some platforms, servers or plans.

Company
Legal entity
Not stated
Registered in
Not stated
Parent company
apernet (GitHub org)
Related brands
Hysteria 1 (legacy, v1.hysteria.network); TCP Brutal
Surveillance alliance (5/9/14 Eyes)
Not stated
Website languages
  • EN
  • ZH
  • RU
  • FA (docs)
Right-to-left languages
Yes Persian docs
Currencies on the site
none

Plans, prices and add-ons
Cheapest price a month
Not stated
Monthly plan
0
Lifetime plan
Not stated
Family plan
Not stated

Discounts and programmes
Student discount
Not stated

Limits and restrictions
Devices at once
Not stated

Free plan
Free plan
Yes fully free, self-hosted
Free data
Not stated
Ads in the free plan
No
Other free plan terms
open source MIT

Payment and subscription
PayPal
Not stated
Cryptocurrency
Not stated
Cash
Not stated
Gift cards
Not stated
Auto-renewal by default
Not stated
Email needed to sign up
No
Account-number login
Not stated
Money-back guarantee, days
Not stated

Free trial terms
Trial length
Not stated
Card needed for the trial
Not stated

Server locations
Countries
Not stated
Servers
Not stated
Server countries
Not stated
Middle East and North Africa
Not stated
Virtual locations
Not stated
P2P servers
Not stated
Obfuscated servers
Not stated

Network features
RAM-only servers
Not stated
IPv6
Not stated
Dedicated IP
Not stated
Static IP
Not stated
Residential IP
Not stated
Double VPN / multi-hop
Not stated
Tor over VPN
Not stated
SOCKS5 proxy
Yes client mode
Smart DNS
Not stated

Protocols and encryption
  • WireGuard✕ No
  • OpenVPN✕ No
  • IKEv2✕ No
  • L2TP/IPsecNo
  • SSTPNo
  • SoftEther✕ No
  • Own protocolHysteria 2 (QUIC-based)✓ Yes
  • VLESS / Reality✕ No
  • VMess✕ No
  • Trojan✕ No
  • Shadowsocks✕ No
  • Hysteria2✓ Yes
  • TUIC✕ No
  • NaiveProxy✕ No
  • obfs4✕ No
  • AmneziaWG✕ No
  • PPTP✓ No
Other protocols
client modes: SOCKS5, HTTP proxy, TCP/UDP forwarding, Linux TProxy, TUN
Encryption
QUIC/TLS
Perfect forward secrecy
Not stated
Post-quantum encryption
Not stated
Manual configuration files
Yes YAML server/client config
Open-source apps
Yes https://github.com/apernet/hysteria (MIT)

Censorship and blocking
Obfuscation (stealth mode)
Yes HTTP/3 masquerade, obfuscation
Countries it claims to work in
censorship-resistant (HTTP/3 masquerade); docs in ZH/RU/FA
Mirror sites or Telegram channel
Yes Telegram channel + group (t.me/hysteria_github)
Calls in the UAE
Not stated

Security
Kill switch
Not stated
DNS leak protection
Not stated
Split tunnelling
Yes client TUN mode route/ipv4Exclude/ipv6Exclude; server ACL routing
Ad and malware blocker
Not stated
Two-factor sign-in
Not stated
Security audits
Not stated
Bug bounty
Not stated

Privacy
No-logs policy
Not stated
Independent no-logs audit
Not stated
Transparency report
Not stated
Warrant canary
Not stated
Anonymous sign-up
Not stated

What the privacy policy says is collected

Yes: collected. No: not collected. Partial: kept briefly or only in part. Not stated: the policy does not say.

  • Connection IPNot stated
  • Session timesNot stated

Apps and devices
  • Windowsbuilds✓ Yes
  • macOSbuilds✓ Yes
  • Linux✓ Yes
  • iOSthird-party apps✓ Yes
  • Androidthird-party apps✓ Yes
  • Android TVNot stated
  • Fire TVNot stated
  • Apple TVNot stated
  • ChromebookNot stated
  • Smart TVNot stated
  • RoutersNot stated
  • NASNot stated
  • Raspberry PiNot stated
  • Game consolesNot stated
Browser extensions
Not stated

Speed, streaming and gaming
Claimed speed
lightning fast on lossy networks (Brutal CC)
10 Gbps servers
Not stated
Fastest protocol (claimed)
Hysteria 2
Netflix
Not stated
BBC iPlayer
Not stated
Disney+
Not stated
Prime Video
Not stated
Gaming features
Not stated
Torrenting
Not stated

Support
Live chat
No
Live chat 24/7
No
Phone
Not stated
Telegram
Yes
WhatsApp
Not stated
Discord or forum
GitHub Discussions
Support languages
EN; ZH
Help articles
Yes docs
Server status page
Not stated

For teams and business
SSO / SAML
Not stated
Admin panel
Not stated
API
Yes traffic stats API (claimed)
Zero-trust access (ZTNA)
Not stated
Identity providers
custom authentication

What users say

Reviews never change our score. Ratings are smoothed: a source’s average across all VPNs counts as 50 extra reviews, so a few five-star reviews cannot outrank thousands.

  • Trustpilot

    4.59 of 5, smoothed

    From 200 collected reviews (raw average 4.83; all VPNs 3.66). Last 90 days: 4.83 from 200.

    The company replied to 4 of 6 negative reviews (1–2 stars).

  • Google Play

    4.21 of 5, smoothed

    From 217 collected reviews (raw average 4.28; all VPNs 3.90). Last 90 days: 5.00 from 1.

    The company replied to 0 of 23 negative reviews (1–2 stars).

Ratings shown on the platforms themselves: Trustpilot TrustScore 4.8 (9277 reviews); Google Play 4.1 (8.12K ratings).

Reviews per month, last 12 months

  1. Mar ’261 reviews, average 3.0
  2. Aug ’2624 reviews, average 5.0
  3. Sep ’26121 reviews, average 4.86
  4. Oct ’2656 reviews, average 4.68
Bar height: number of reviews collected that month. Full-colour bars: months with an average of 4 stars or more; pale bars: below 4.

38 Reddit and forum threads mention Hysteria (titles and search snippets only).

Latest reviews and related rankings

Latest reviews

Short excerpts with a link to the original. We do not reproduce reviews in full.

  • Google Play · 5★ · 18 Sep 2026

    please make Hockey Hysteria 2

  • Google Play · 3★ · 18 Mar 2026

    not much to do

  • Google Play · 3★ · 22 Dec 2022

    A solid game overall, but the gameplay is very weird when compared to all the other games you've created. Neat idea overall, but I feel it needs to have a…

  • Trustpilot · 5★ · 16 Oct 2026 · IE

    Great service great quality

    Original review

  • Trustpilot · 5★ · 16 Oct 2026 · GB

    Very good quality product

    Original review

  • Trustpilot · 1★ · 15 Oct 2026 · GB

    Customer service is terrible and they…

    Original review

Rankings by user reviews

Reviews of similar VPNs

Show all 14

In our rankings

Hysteria appears on 1 topic pages. Its place on each:

Similar VPNs

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Tools for Hysteria

Sources and changes

Collected 2026-10-15. No changes recorded since the first import.

Website
https://github.com/apernet/hysteria
Pages checked
https://github.com/apernet/hysteria; https://v2.hysteria.network
Other sources used
split_tunneling/other_protocols: https://v2.hysteria.network/docs/advanced/Full-Client-Config/

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