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ZenMate VPN Review

Our rating
Security Read more toggle icon
65%
Features Read more toggle icon
65%
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ZenMate VPN isn't as well known as other VPN providers, but it has many great features. Firstly, it has a good-sized server network of 2500+ VPN servers and has VPN server locations in over 78 countries. ZenMate makes use of physical and virtual servers to provide users online freedom in many countries.

One of the best things about ZenMate is that each subscription plan allows you to use the VPN on an unlimited number of devices. ZenMate has dedicated apps for all of the most popular operating systems and even offers free browser extensions.

While ZenMate makes use of advanced encryption and uses the ultra-secure OpenVPN protocol, its no-logs policy is a little confusing. While we believe the provider doesn't store user data, we'd like to see it change the privacy policy to make this clear to users.

With three subscription plans, free browser extensions, a 7-day free trial, and a 30-day money-back guarantee, you have many choices when it comes to how you want to use the VPN service.

    Pros

  • pro icon Large server network
  • pro icon Free VPN browser extensions
  • pro icon 7 day free trial

    Cons

  • con icon Kill switch issues
  • con icon No audit of privacy policy
  • con icon Based in 14 Eyes country
Price Starting At: 1.64 $ / monthly 53.88 $ / annually
For New Users: 7 days free trial + 30-day money-back guarantee
Number of servers: 2500+
General information
Max Speed: 650 Mbps
Type of IP offered: Dynamic
Simultaneous connections / Users: Unlimited
Number of Netflix Libraries: 2
Information sharing: 14 Eyes Member
OS support: Android, Android TV, Apple TV, ChromeOS, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows
Router support: DD-WRT
VPN Promotion: Get VPN from ZenMate VPN for 1.64$ per month
Capabilities
Unlimited Bandwidthcross iconKill Switchcross iconSplit Tunnelingcross iconZero Data Loggingcross iconFree Version / Trialcross iconMobile Appcross iconBrowser Extentioncross iconNetflix Approvedcross iconFirestick Compatiblecross icon
Payment options
  • American Express
  • Mastercard
  • Mastercard Debit
  • Paypal
  • Visa
  • Visa Debit
  • Visa Electron
Geolocations available
  • Albania
  • Algeria
  • Andorra
  • Argentina
  • Armenia
  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Bahamas
  • Bangladesh
  • Belgium
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Brazil
  • Bulgaria
  • Canada
  • China
  • Cyprus
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • Egypt
  • Estonia
  • Finland
  • France
  • Georgia
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Greenland
  • Hong Kong
  • Hungary
  • India
  • Iran
  • Ireland
  • Isle of Man
  • Israel
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Kazakhstan
  • Latvia
  • Liechtenstein
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Macau
  • Malta
  • Mexico
  • Moldova
  • Monaco
  • Mongolia
  • Montenegro
  • Morocco
  • Netherlands
  • Nigeria
  • Norway
  • Panama
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Qatar
  • Romania
  • Russia
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Serbia
  • Singapore
  • Slovakia
  • South Africa
  • South Korea
  • Spain
  • Sri Lanka
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Taiwan
  • Thailand
  • Turkey
  • Ukraine
  • United Arab Emirates
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • Venezuela
  • Vietnam

ZenMate VPN Security

65%

The best VPN providers use industry-standard encryption, and ZenMate VPN is no different. The VPN uses AES-256 military-grade encryption on its apps to ensure that users get a super-secure VPN connection. Whether you're at home, in the office, or using a public wifi network, the military-grade encryption will hide your browsing activity from any curious third parties, including your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or hackers.

It's worth mentioning that only the ZenMate VPN apps enjoy AES-256 military-grade encryption. On the browser extensions, users get AES-128 encryption. However, this is still excellent and makes your connection virtually impenetrable.

When it comes to VPN protocols, ZenMate VPN supports OpenVPN, IKEv2, and L2TP/IPSec. It's disappointing not to see WireGuard offered alongside these protocols, as we feel that this is the best VPN protocol for an extra secure connection.

In terms of offering security features, ZenMate offers a few, including its automatic internet kill switch. The kill switch is automatically enabled upon download, which we personally feel is a great thing; it ensures that you never surf the web unprotected, potentially revealing your browsing data and real IP address to third parties.

However, there is an issue with ZenMate's kill switch. When the kill switch kicks in, cutting off your internet connection, no dialog box appears. It would be great if ZenMate included an alert to let users know the VPN connection was temporarily down.

ZenMate VPN is fully DNS leakproof, which is excellent as it helps to hide your IP address and ensure it isn't leaked. It's well-known that ZenMate has free browser extensions, and unlike some other famous VPN browser proxies, ZenMate extends most of its security features to each browser extension.

In terms of user privacy, ZenMate's no-logs policy raises a few red flags. While the provider asserts that it doesn't store customer data, the privacy policy is confusing. Even though it is 4000 words long, we didn't get a clear answer as to whether ZenMate logs data or not.

For example, when ZenMate talks about fraud detection, it states that it stores information such as IP addresses in an anonymized format. Likewise, ZenMate stores transaction information, which can include items purchased. However, in the same breath, the provider claims that none of this information is linked to the server network activity.

Confused? We were too. After trawling through the ZenMate VPN website's support pages, we found something that indicated ZenMate does not store logs; and it has to do with German law. The provider claims it doesn't watch your activity online nor log it, and while we are inclined to believe this statement, we would like to see some proof. More VPN providers have independent audits carried out these days, so it would be great to see ZenMate follow suit.

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ZenMate VPN Features

65%

While security and privacy are decent with ZenMate, the provider lacks many extra features. There is no split tunneling available on its desktop and mobile apps, and no features such as multi-hop connections.

With that being said, ZenMate does have a few desirable features. Firstly, it supports P2P networking on most of its servers. You can connect to an optimized torrenting server since they are listed in the VPN's app. Since ZenMate can hide your IP address and encrypt your data, you'll be protected when torrenting in many different areas.

Not only does ZenMate VPN support torrenting, but the VPN works well if you want to unblock streaming content. ZenMate has specialized streaming servers, which, like its torrenting servers, are listed in the app. We tested ZenMate on several streaming services and found that it unblocks Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video effectively.

Since ZenMate offers unlimited bandwidth, you don't have any limits on your online activity, and we experienced good connection speeds. This ensures that users will have fast torrenting and buffer-free streaming.

Although there are no dedicated VPN apps for Smart TVs, you can configure the VPN to your router and access more streaming content than ever before on your TV. With that said, it would be great to see an App that works with Apple TV or Android TV available soon, since many providers have started to offer this.

ZenMate is great in general for accessing censored content online. It can unblock websites in many different countries thanks to its VPN server locations. However, it is worth mentioning that ZenMate is not great for use in a restricted location like China. Unlike other providers such as NordVPN, ZenMate has pulled its services from these regions.

When you use a VPN, features like simultaneous connections are important. One of ZenMate's most appealing features is that it can be used simultaneously on an unlimited number of devices. Only a select few VPN providers offer this to users, and we think it's excellent. This means that you can protect every single device you own without having to configure the VPN to your router.

While there is no split tunneling available on the ZenMate apps, if you use a browser extension, then you can enjoy a Whitelist feature. This feature allows you to decide which websites you want to bypass the VPN tunnel and go through your regular network. The Whitelist is a great feature, as it can speed up your connection and decrease page load times. We'd like to see it rolled out as a full split tunneling feature on the desktop and mobile app.

Server switching is easy with ZenMate. While it doesn't seem like an important aspect of a VPN, it is. You don't need to disconnect from the server you're currently connected to before connecting to a new one, like with some other VPN providers. Using ZenMate, all you need to do is tap the new server, and voila! You're connected.

Finally, if you're looking for a business VPN and a personal VPN, then ZenMate helps to kill two birds with one stone. The business VPN is surprisingly impressive, giving customers a dedicated account manager to help solve any issues. You also get a dashboard for easy management of the VPN and the controls and permissions that come with it.

Summary

3
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Table of content

Is ZenMate VPN Free?

ZenMate VPN isn’t technically a free VPN, but there is a 7-day free trial. However, if you really don’t want to pay for the VPN service, you can use the ZenMate free VPN browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

While this is marketed as a free VPN, it is a VPN browser extension, so it only protects the browser activity. The free VPN browser extension offers the same security and privacy protection as the regular VPN. It uses advanced encryption, will hide your IP address, and operates a no-logs policy. However, it lacks some other more important features.

Firstly, the browser extension VPN is limited to just 4 server locations (Germany, Romania, Singapore, and the USA), while paid VPN customers can use all VPN servers. If you want a VPN for downloads, servers that are optimized for torrenting won’t be available. There are also slower connection speeds since the browser extension has a maximum speed of 2 MB/s.

Despite some of its shortcomings, the free VPN extensions are better than other free VPN proxies since it helps hide your IP address and doesn’t log your activity. One drawback is that the browser extensions are full of ads for the ZenMate premium service. At least the free VPN isn’t full of ads for anything else like Hotspot Shield’s free VPN service.

How Much is ZenMate?

If you want to enjoy access to all of ZenMate’s servers, have many server location options, and the ability to unblock websites like Netflix, then you need to buy one of the provider’s paid plans. Each plan comes with a 30 days money-back guarantee.

Assuming you sign up for a longer length of time, you definitely get great value for money. However, we recommend signing up for short term plans at first. Although 36 months for just $59.04 sounds incredible, you might find that you don’t like the VPN at all and want to purchase one through another company. With that being said, ZenMate’s monthly plan is definitely at the pricier end of monthly VPNs but is not extortionate.

There is good news if you are a student. Students can get a whopping 82% off their subscription while still enjoying the 30 days money-back guarantee.

What Devices Can I Use ZenMate on?

Since users get unlimited simultaneous connections, it’s important to know that you can protect all of your devices with military-grade encryption. ZenMate VPN has an app for all of the most popular operating systems, including:

The VPN can also be used on Smart TVs, and of course, customers can take advantage of the Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browser extensions. You can even configure the VPN to your router if it has DD-WRT firmware.

Is ZenMate Easy to Use?

ZenMate’s VPN apps are based on CyberGhost‘s design and are relatively user friendly, and provide easy navigation. Downloading and installing the VPN is easy, and once you’ve opened up the app, you’ll be met by a big connect button that allows you to start a VPN connection easily.

In terms of connecting to servers, users can sort the servers by distance or user load. They can navigate through the location options to choose the server that best fits them. There is also the option to select servers based on whether they are optimized for torrenting or streaming.

If you find a server that you like or offers excellent download speeds, you can save it to a favorites list. In the settings area, users can activate security features, although configuration options are limited.

Overall, ZenMate is an easy-to-use VPN, great for novices. The Chrome browser extension VPN is also simple to use and makes for a pleasant VPN experience.

Is ZenMate VPN Fast?

If you sign up for the paid ZenMate VPN plan, then you can expect decent speeds. While using the VPN and connecting to server locations across the world, we were averaging around 28Mbps (our speed without a VPN was 31Mbps).

Using the browser extensions, we definitely noticed that the speed was slightly slower, and pages took longer to load. However, ZenMate makes it clear to users that speeds are slower in the browser extensions. We also accessed a few streaming sites on the browser extensions, including YouTube, and noticed a bit of buffering, which isn’t ideal.

If you want breakneck speeds, it might be best to look for a provider like ExpressVPN. However, ZenMate performed well and definitely exceeded our expectations.

Does ZenMate Unblock Netflix?

Let’s face it; we are all using streaming services to stream more content than ever before. One of VPNs’ major selling points is that they provide access to foreign streaming content since they offer many IP options that allow you to change your virtual location. We put ZenMate VPN to the test with a few streaming sites, including Netflix.

When connected to a server location in the US, we unblocked Netflix with no issues at all. Speed was good, and we enjoyed HD video quality. Similarly, when we connected to a London location, we could bypass Netflix’s VPN firewall. In the same location, we also were able to watch BBC iPlayer. BBC iPlayer is notoriously well-known for its strong VPN block, so we were impressed that ZenMate could get past it.

We had mixed results with Amazon Prime Video. While ZenMate VPN claims on its website that it can bypass Prime’s VPN firewall, we were unable to do so in any location outside of the US.

Since ZenMate VPN has a large selection of servers and IP addresses, we unblocked other types of content such as news websites and social media in other parts of the world. We believe that ZenMate is a great VPN for people who have restricted work or school networks and want to bypass restrictions imposed there.

Is ZenMate Based in the United Kingdom?

No, the company is not based in the United Kingdom. ZenMate VPN has its headquarters in Germany. Germany is actually a member of the 5/9/14 Eyes alliance. This means that Germany shares its citizen’s digital data with other members of the alliance to protect international security.

Germany’s data retention laws have changed in recent years. Although the government has policies in place to protect individuals’ privacy and freedom, it is still a good idea to use a VPN in this country.

Fortunately, since ZenMate VPN has a strict no-logs policy, any data it is forced to hand over to the German government won’t link activity to individual users.

Is There Customer Support with ZenMate VPN?

The best VPN providers offer their users excellent customer support. ZenMate VPN isn’t the best VPN, in our opinion, when it comes to customer service since it only offers a few options.

There is no live chat on the website, which is disappointing. The only way to get in touch with the customer service team is via email. While there is a knowledge base full of articles on VPN features, information, Chrome extension guides, articles on app installation, and responses to frequently asked questions, it would be great to see the company add a live chat to its website.

Which is the Best Free VPN for Chrome?

While researching ZenMate VPN, we found that the company really does offer the best VPN for Chrome. Not only is its Chrome extension free, but it has extra features that ensure users get more freedom and safety online.

On the Chrome extension, not only can you unblock restricted content, but you can block malicious sites and enable protection from WebRTC leaks. The browsers also contain a feature called Stealth Connection, which automatically removes cookies, browsing history, and cache when you disconnect from the VPN.

Other features available on the ZenMate Chrome extension include Smart Location, which changes your location depending on what site you’re using. This feature isn’t available on the app, and neither is the Whitelist feature. The Whitelist feature lets you customize the VPN and decide which web traffic goes through the VPN connection and which websites you visit are tunneled through your regular internet network.

Other VPN providers offer browser extensions, and many of these are good, notably ExpressVPN and NordVPN. But the fact that ZenMate users can enjoy a fantastic browser VPN for free makes it one of the best.

How Do I Enable ZenMate in Chrome?

While ZenMate offers three browser extensions, one of the most popular options is the Chrome extension. If you want to use the Chrome browser extension, then it’s easy to set it up. You can add the Chrome extension either by going to the Chrome store or the ZenMate VPN website and adding it to your browser.

Once you have the browser extension installed in Chrome, you need to open the extension and connect to the VPN. You can choose your location in the browser extension, ensuring that you have an IP address in the country of your choice out of the available option.

Once the Chrome VPN is enabled, it will work silently in the background as you browse the web. You can switch servers at any time to change your IP and bypass geo-restrictions. While users have more features in the app, we are impressed at the options available in the Chrome extension.

Is ZenMate a Good VPN?

So, is ZenMate VPN a good VPN? We think so. Firstly, ZenMate offers three fantastic free VPN browser extensions. Secondly, users on the paid plan can enjoy a dedicated VPN app on an unlimited number of devices. You can employ the VPN for torrenting, streaming, or simply unblocking content in other parts of the world.

While ZenMate’s no-logs policy is a little bit confusing, it suggests that the provider doesn’t store user details, and we are confident that this is the case. A transparency report or independent audit would reassure customers, but we don’t think that the absence of one should put off users too much.

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Author Madeleine Hodson

I’m Madeleine, and I'm a writer that specializes in cybersecurity, tech products, and all things related to the internet. I have a keen interest in VPNs and believe that everyone deserves internet freedom and security. I wr...
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