Hiddify App: A Sing-box Front End That Reads Everyone Else's Subscription Links

The gap Hiddify fills: one client, many panel formats

Proxy panels emit subscription links in whatever format their authors preferred. A user with links from three providers can end up juggling three clients, or converting configs by hand. Hiddify's stated purpose is to remove that step. The README describes it as a multi-platform proxy client based on the Sing-box universal proxy tool-chain, and lists the configuration formats it accepts: Sing-box, V2ray, Clash and Clash Meta. It also claims compatibility with all proxy management panels. That claim is broad and unverified in the repository, but the format list is the concrete part, and it is the reason the project exists. The audience is people who already have a subscription link and want a single application across desktop and mobile rather than a different tool per operating system. The README adds that configurations are tuned for Iran, China and Russia, which tells you the maintainers treat network conditions in those countries as a first-class case rather than an afterthought.

Sing-box underneath, a Flutter shell on top

The primary language of the repository is Dart, and the README credits Sing-box as the underlying tool-chain. That combination implies a Flutter interface driving a Sing-box core, with the Dart layer handling profile import, subscription refresh and the node list, and the core handling the actual proxying. The README names these features: automatic node selection, a TUN mode, remote profiles, and a display of profile information including remaining days and traffic usage. Delay-based node selection is the one mechanism described in any detail. The client measures latency and picks a node from the result, rather than leaving selection to the user or to the order of entries in the subscription. Traffic and expiry display implies the client parses the metadata that panels attach to subscription responses, which is the same parsing path that handles the four config formats.

Installing it on each of the five platforms

The README provides direct download links rather than a build guide. On Android the release assets are Hiddify-Android-universal.apk, Hiddify-Android-arm64.apk, Hiddify-Android-arm7.apk and Hiddify-Android-x86_64.apk. On Windows there are three artefacts: Hiddify-Windows-Setup-x64.Msix, Hiddify-Windows-Setup-x64.exe and Hiddify-Windows-Portable-x64.zip. On macOS the options are a DMG, a PKG and the App Store listing. Linux is served by Hiddify-Linux-x64-AppImage.AppImage, Hiddify-Debian-x64.deb and Hiddify-rpm-x64.rpm. iOS uses an IPA, and the README also points to the App Store and Google Play listings. The download URLs follow the pattern https://github.com/hiddify/hiddify-app/releases/latest/download/<asset-name>, so the universal Android build is at Hiddify-Android-universal.apk under that path. Note the inconsistency: the macOS DMG and PKG download links in the README point at the hiddify-next repository rather than hiddify-app. That is worth knowing before you script a download.

The licence is unresolved in the repository metadata

The repository metadata reports the licence as NOASSERTION, which means the automated detector could not classify it, and the repository has a LICENSE.md file. For a client that handles your traffic, that matters more than it would for a formatting library. Redistribution terms, the right to bundle the Sing-box core, and the obligations attached to the App Store and Microsoft Store builds all depend on the licence terms. This is not a reason to avoid the project, but it is a reason to read the LICENSE file in the repository and the licence of the bundled core before you ship anything built on it. Nothing here is legal advice; the metadata field gives no usable answer.

Where the documentation stops and the guesswork starts

The README is a landing page. It lists features with emoji bullets, links to builds, and links to translations in Farsi, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese. The most recent releases are v5.3.0 on 2026-10-31 and v5.4.0 on 2026-11-01, alongside a release named draft. The last push date is October 2026, so the project is active, but activity is not the same as documentation. If you are evaluating Hiddify for an organisation rather than personal use, the lack of an architecture description in the README is the practical blocker, not the feature list.

What it is not: a router firmware or a self-hosted panel

Hiddify sits at the client end. It consumes subscription links and config files. It does not generate them, and it does not run on a router. If your requirement is to route an entire home network through one tunnel, a client application on each device is the wrong shape, and you want something that runs on the gateway instead. The README mentions compatibility with all proxy management panels, which is a statement about the client's ability to read their output, not about Hiddify providing one. The same distinction applies to the protocol list. Vless, Vmess, Reality, TUIC, Hysteria, Wireguard and SSH are supported in the sense that the client can dial them, and that support comes from the Sing-box core rather than from code written for this project. If your interest is in the protocols themselves, the upstream core is the thing to read. Hiddify's contribution is the cross-platform interface, the import path and the node selection on top.

Maintenance cost and what to verify before you commit

Running Hiddify yourself costs nothing beyond keeping the client updated, since the README states it is ad-free and open source. The cost sits in the dependency chain. The client tracks Sing-box, and when the core changes, the client has to follow. On managed devices, the Windows MSIX and the App Store builds add their own update paths, so you may end up with two update mechanisms to reason about. Before adopting, check four things in the repository rather than the README: the LICENSE file, the build instructions if any exist outside the README, the release notes for v5.3.0 and v5.4.0 to see what changed in the latest releases, and whether the download links for your platform resolve to hiddify-app or the older hiddify-next name. Those four checks take minutes and answer questions the README leaves open.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt Hiddify if you already hold subscription links or config files from a proxy management panel and want one client on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS and Linux that reads all of them, with delay-based node selection and automatic subscription refresh. Do not adopt it if you need documented internals, a build guide or an audit trail, because the README is a landing page rather than technical documentation. Before installing, verify the licence terms and the provenance of the release artefact for your platform, since the repository metadata reports the licence as NOASSERTION.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. hiddify/hiddify-app on GitHub
2. Issues
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases