Hard trance is a subgenre of trance music that originated in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands in the early 1990s as the Breakbeat hardcore production community began to diversify into new and different styles of electronic music, all influenced by hard house, new beat, happy hardcore and jungle music. The popularity of hard trance peaked during the late 1990s and has since faded in favor of newer forms of trance.

Hard trance is often characterized by strong, hard (or even downpitch) kicks, fully resonant basses and an increased amount of reverberation applied to the main beat. Melodies vary from 140 to 180 BPM and it can feature plain instrumental sound in early compositions, with the latter ones tending to implement side-chaining techniques from progressive trance on digital synthesizers.

Hard trance was the final form of progressive trance to hit the mainstream. It eventually morphed into hardstyle, jumpstyle and gabber. Its mainstream popularity decreased in the mid-2000s.