Based in the Dominican Republic, ZenVPN is considered to be one of the most cost-efficient, and reliable VPN service providers in the market today. In this review, we will dissect every element and feature of ZenVPN based on testing their free trial service.
Pricing
ZenVPN promotes itself as one of the cheapest VPN providers in the market, we can argue with this statement. The company offers 2 subscription plans, Standard and Unlimited plans.
The Standard package offers its subscribers 5GB of data per day. Users have the options to pay on weekly basis at $2.95 per week, on monthly basis at $5.95 per month or they can sign up for an annual subscription which costs $49.95 per year.
The Unlimited package, on the other hand, offers its subscribers unlimited bandwidth. The weekly subscription costs $5.95 per week, the monthly subscription costs $9.95 per month and the annual subscription costs $95.50 per year.
Payment Methods
One of the good things about ZenVPN is that it accepts both regular credit cards and anonymous payment methods, such as: Maestro, Paypal, Bitcoin, Mastercard, Visa and American Express. It is highly recommended to use anonymous payment methods, like: Bitcoin for better security and anonymity on the internet.
Free Trial & Refund Policy
ZenVPN offers a free VPN service with unlimited/unthrottled speed same as that offered to paid subscribers, limited bandwidth to 250MB per day, no traffic logs and strong encryption protocols. The idea behind their free VPN is to provide users with an honest trial of the service and help them to test the service in full potential before deciding on make a purchase.
As for the company’s return policy, users can get 100% 30-day money-back guarantee as promoted on their website:
“All plans come with 30 days of 100% money-back guarantee. If something isn’t working for you, just let us know and we’ll refund your order no questions asked.”
Privacy Policy
No traffic logs are kept at ZenVPN. This means that all of your browsing activities are completely encrypted and not monitored. On the other hand, the company keeps some information for maintenance purposes. This information includes: registered e-mail address, original IP address, and bandwidth as well as billing details. Further, the company states on its privacy policy section that they would only share a user’s stored information to government agencies if they are provided with legal documents to obtain such information.
“We will disclose the information we have on record (as outlined above) to legal authorities if we are under a legal obligation to do so such as in case of a court order or valid subpoena. We do not share any of the information we collect with any third parties for any purpose other than outlined in this document.”
ZenVPN Features
In this section, we will explore the different features and overall performance offered by Zenvpn, including: encryption levels, number of servers, compatibility with other platforms and operating systems as well as customer support. Scroll down for more details.
Server Network
ZenVPN is noted for its expansive VPN server network. Servers are strategically spread across a total of 34 important locations, including: US, Netherlands, UK, India, Russia, Spain, Australia, Japan, Hong King, Italy, Singapore, Germany, Switzerland, Romania, Turkey, Ireland, Canada, Indonesia, France, South Korea, Russia, Chile, France, Norway, Denmark, and so many more.
This kind of well-dispersed server network is essential for any VPN service to provide its users with more than one option to bypass geo-restrictions and access any blocked web content, such as: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, etc. Moreover, ZenVPN users can enjoy unlimited switching between servers as well as unlimited VPN connection speed.
Encryption
ZenVPN relies on strong encryption algorithms to support several tunneling protocol, such as: OpenVPN, PPTP, IPsec as well as OpenSSL protocols. We highly suggest using OpenVPN because it is an open source client that is considered to be the strongest to this date. Moreover, OpenVPN has the ability to pass through stubborn firewalls, such as those in China, Russia and Iran. In addition, OpenVPN can overcome DPI investigations without being detected. PPTP, on the other hand, is considered weak and is practically no longer recommended. Compared to PPTP, OpenSSL is much preferred as it is also an open source and more secure than PPTP.
Platform Compatibility
Cross-platform is supported by ZenVPN which means that the VPN software clients are compatible with all major platforms and operating systems, such as: Mac OS X, Android, iOS and Windows. It is not clear whether Linux is supported by ZenVPN or not.
Customer Support
Live chat is not supported, but users can communicate with the ZenVPN team via e-mail tickets. There is a poor Help Centre on the website which contains necessary setup guides. We strongly suggest improving the customer support section as it is one of the most essential tools for any successful business.
Conclusion
ZenVPN is one of the fastest VPN services we have come across. The company offers simple VPN solutions for users looking for a basic VPN that provides strong encryption and access to blocked web content. ZenVPN can get the job done. However, we would not recommend it to advanced VPN users since it lacks a lot of advanced security features, such as: DNS leak protections, kill switch, ad/malware blocker, IPv6 protection, etc. Accordingly, we can argue that this VPN is rather expensive for what it offers.
