ZenMate VPN Review (May 2017)

ZenMate is a VPN service provider that is located in Germany. It started off a basic VPN extension for Chrome browser, but it has grown exponentially to provide robust and ultra-fast VPN services for personal and corporate use. In this review, we will explore the ZenMate realm based on using their premium VPN service.

Pricing

ZenMate VPN offers a premium plan that can be subscribed to monthly, semi-annually or annually. The premium plan gives its subscribers full access to all VPN services and features offered by ZenMate.

*Monthly plan at $8.99 per month.

*Semi-annual plan (6 months) at $7.49 per month.

*Annual plan (12 months) at $4.99 per month.

Payment Methods

Both regular and anonymous payments are accepted at ZenMate. All major credit cards and online payments, such as: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, etc. are permitted. In addition, anonymous payments such as: Bitcoin are encouraged for more security and anonymity.

Free Trial and Refunds

ZenMate offers a free version for mobiles and browsers only. In addition, the free VPN comes with some restrictions. For example, free users get access to choose between 4 server locations only: US, Germany, Romania and Hong Kong. However, there are no restrictions to bandwidth which is a pretty good thing for media streaming fans.

On the other hand, ZenMate offers free access to their premium accounts for 1 month if users share the VPN on Twitter. We tried it and we were given full access to their premium VPN service on our desktop for 1 month. It is a very clever way to market a product and make everyone happy. So, tweet away my friends.

As for their refund policy, ZenMate gives a 14-day money-back guarantee should any of its new subscribers is not satisfied with the service.

Privacy Policy

We were not impressed with the overall structure of the privacy policy as we have found it vague and rather perplexing. In addition, it contains very little information that would be of any interest to VPN users. Important details such as logging policy is not clearly highlighted. You need to thoroughly go through each and every bit of the privacy policy to extract the information you need. Therefore, to make it simple for everyone, ZenMate partially keeps logs for an unidentified short period of time and complies with the German Federal Data Protection Act. It is stated on the website, “we generally do NOT observe to which web service you gain access with ZenMate”, which indicates that at some point monitoring your activities online is a possible, especially if they are legally requested to do so. It is also stated that:

“We do not store information regarding the location you selected for the encryption of your IP address when you chose the server location for the use of ZenMate, because data minimization is the intent and purpose of ZenMate. Therefore, your IP address is processed only temporarily and only for transmission to the Targeted Website without being stored permanently in the logfiles of the server selected by you.”

On the other hand, we found that on their F.A.Q section, it mentioned that they do not store logs which conflicts with what is written in the privacy policy section, here is what they say:

“we do not store or log your personal data which can be used to identify you or what you’re doing online. Unlike other VPN providers, we can’t! Strict German privacy laws regulate our company’s use of your information.”

To sum it up, we find their privacy policy more suitable for corporate lawyers than regular internet users.

ZenMate Client

We subscribed to ZenMate to be able to download their software for Windows 7 and took it for a spin to test the overall performance of the VPN service. Singing up was pretty easy like almost all VPN service providers. We were only asked to provide a valid e-mail address and a password. Then, we received a verification e-mail to activate our account and get ready to install the software. The installation process was equally easy and speedy. We must say that we loved the software interface, it is extremely sleek, easy on the eyes and user-friendly. The client is very simple. After selecting the desired server, you can connect to the VPN with just one click.

ZenMate VPN Features

In this section, we will discuss the features provided by ZenMate, including: security levels, encryption protocols, servers, bandwidth, compatibility with other platforms, etc. Scroll down for more details.

Security

ZenMate provides a solid level of security as it relies on AES 128-bit encryption combined with TLS 1.2 (RFC 5245) protocol together with SHA 256 that is used for authentication processes as well as PFS to ensure that the VPN is almost immune to any cyber attacks. We have also tested ZenMate for DNS and IP leaks and we were happy with the results as we did not find any leaks whatsoever.

Servers & Bandwidth

ZenMate VPN has servers located in more than 30 major countries so that users have more than one option to change their IP addresses to bypass any web restrictions. Countries covered include: Germany, Romania, France, USA, Hong Kong, Australia, Belgium, Austria, Finland, Italy, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and many more.

As for bandwidth, all premium plans come with unlimited bandwidth without any throttling whatsoever. In this way, ZenMate users will be able to enjoy unrestricted access to all kinds of web activities, such as: media streaming, online gaming, etc.

Compatibility

ZenMate is compatible with several platforms, such as: Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android. It also provides VPN extensions for browsers, like: Chrome, Opera and Firefox.

Other Features & Add-Ons

ZenMate is packed to the grills with several interesting VPN add-ons, such as:

1- Eversecure: a kill switch built into the VPN client.

2- Smart Locations:  allows users to choose the best server for every website (e.g: UK server to access BBC iPlayer or US server to unblock Netflix).

3- Malware blocker.

4- Multi-login: ZenMate can be connected to up to 5 devices at the same time.

Customer Support

ZenMate falls out a little when it comes to customer support. The only way to reach the support team is vis e-mail tickets. We sent an e-mail and we received a reply from a “bot” called “Rosa” who was unable to answer our questions. In addition, despite having a thorough knowledgebase section, navigating the website to fish out the information you need is not very easy.

Conclusion

We were generally happy with ZenMate VPN in terms of performance, speed, reliability, features. However, we are not happy with their privacy policy and lack of support was a very big disappointment.