The Edinburgh side hit the woodwork twice but failed to break through and now face an uphill battle to reach the group stage of the UEFA Cup.
At least they preserved their unbeaten record in Europe that stretches back 31 years and at times, especially in the first half, that looked under serious threat.
Hibs found it difficult against a well-organised Ukrainian side that looked slick going forward.
Skipper Guillaume Beuzelin dragged a shot just wide in the early stages but it was Dnipro who forced the first save when Zbigniew Malkowski had to tip a header from striker Sergey Kornilenko over his crossbar.
It was a warning of what Dnipro were capable of and Kornilenko had another opportunity midway through the first half after being sent clear by Denys Andriyenko, but Malkowski pulled off a brilliant one-handed save.
Four minutes from the break, it took a goalline clearance form David Murphy to keep out a back-post header from Olexandr Grytsay from a Dmytro Semochko corner.
But it was Hibs who came closest to breaking the deadlock a minute later. Scott Brown managed to wriggle clear of Bohdan Shershun at the edge of the area and his right-foot shot came back off the post with Artem Kusliy beaten.
Hibs started the second half positively and Garry O'Connor looped a header past the post from a Steven Whittaker cross.
Substitute Ivan Sproule posed Dnipro fresh problems when he came on and he had Hibs' first shot on target after 66 minutes, but it was blocked by Kusliy.
The Northern Irishman was extremely unfortunate seven minutes later when he fashioned himself an opening but cracked his right-foot shot off the inside of the post.