Based in Germany, and started in 2013, ZenMate is a VPN with both an app and a browser extension on offer. Their service is part of the larger ZenGuard security suite, giving people the chance to use ZenMate for a number of important security needs. ZenGuard is in turn owned by Kape Technologies, who also own Cyberghost.
With both a paid and free VPN service, ZenMate has become quite popular, claiming to have over 45 million users on their website. How many of those are paying users? This isn’t stated. Regardless, that is an impressive number of users, and it certainly qualifies them as a VPN worth reviewing. After testing them, we can say that they are an above-average VPN that is recommended.
Click the image of their logo below to go to their website now!
Finding out what features ZenMate VPN actually has can be difficult. Their website is more focused on marketing and flashy graphics than informing people about their features, which is usually a bad sign. Upon further research we found that they do indeed have decent features, but they are on the simpler end of things compared to others:
They also have relatively standard ad and malware blocking features. None of these features are particularly unique, and can be found on nearly any VPN you purchase.
They have a solid core of features, but don’t stand out in any particular way. This can be a big positive for new VPN users who want things kept simple, or for users who are really only using it casually.
Zenmate has servers in a respectable 30 countries, and have over 2200 servers in total. This puts them in the upper-tier of the VPN industry, and it would be good to see them expand into more countries in order to really move up our rankings. They cover the busiest countries:
They even have a VPN server in South Africa and Latvia!
This is a good showing of countries with servers, and a well above-average number of total servers.
As is the case with all VPN or proxy solutions, there is some slight speed delay. We found them to be about average with only a 5 – 10% drop in speed. The connection was also as stable as expected, with no drops experienced during testing. We will update this section more as we continue to test them out.
Zenmate off exceptional value with their longest-term plan, making them cheaper per month than at least 95% of quality VPNs available. Their short-term plan, however, is pricier:
The price per month difference between one month and one year is one of the steepest we’ve seen. We recommend the one year plan as too much can happen in two years.
Their payment options are a little low, and include:
We’d like to see the addition of at least one cryptocurrency to this list to truly put them in the upper-tier of VPN providers when it comes to both cost and payment options.
When we first went on the ZenMate website, we thought we were going to get a live chat agent, but the scrolling Help button at the bottom of the website turned out to be a pop up contact form.
This was disappointing as live support would have really helped them establish their quality. Support options include:
Overall, we were disappointed by the customer support performance. Responses to email can take hours, their live chat is non-existent, and their social media presence is spotty at best. It’s good enough, but we really thought they’d step up their customer support with the huge number of servers they have.
The first note to make here is that ZenMate has a dedicated page for vulnerability reporting. This is for independent penetration testers to see how secure ZenMate is, and then be able to report any issues securely.
This is very unique, and we find it encouraging as every VPN should be tested thoroughly by the good guys, or the bad guys will find the weakness and exploit them. Mind you, the ‘bad guys’ in this case can include hackers, the government, and even your own ISP.
ZenMate has to have one of the longest privacy policies we’ve read. Seriously, it’s nearly a novella in length. Not only is it long, but it’s also a translation of the original German version, leading to it being a bit rough to read in English. This should be fixed with a native English-speaking editor. Here’s what we learned:
This may all seem bad, but it’s actually refreshing to see a company take things so seriously and be so thorough. Their terms of service page is also quite long, but also quite standard.
At the end of all this legal-speak, what you need to be aware of is that they are a no-logging VPN. They can’t see anything you transmit of their service, and therefore they can’t record anything you’re doing online.
Zenmate is a great provider whose biggest flaw is, perhaps, the un-pausable video which plays on their website. All kidding aside, they do have a great VPN with unique and useful features like Smart Location, as well as a price that many will find affordable.
We were also impressed by their customer support, and their server count. They have servers in countries you will immediately think of for geo-blocking, as well as those that can be quite useful for large expat communities (such as South Africa). Their privacy policy is long, but at the end of it they are a no-log provider.
Zenmate is a high-quality provider, and we recommend you click the image below to visit them!
Our ratings for zenmate review are based on our professional experience and extensive tests with VPN providers between April 2014 – July 2014, taking into account user feedback and reviews we receive. As a friendly disclosure, some VPN providers do compensate us for customers we refer them, but this in no way effects their ranking on our website, nor our reviews.
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