Zenmate Review – Is it the best VPN in 2023?

Zenmate Review

This post will provide you with a comprehensive Zenmate Review. We will cover all the pertinent information you need to know regarding Zenmate’s software and services.

Zenmate shares the same parent company as Cyberghost, which is one of our most recommended VPN services. The differences reside in the price, the number of available servers, and the software.

They offer ultra-low prices if you are willing to buy at least three years at a time. Unfortunately, if you just want to buy a month, it is still quite expensive at $10 a month.

One strategy is to test 2 or 3 promising VPNs that offer a 30 or 45-day money-back guarantee. Use that to test the speeds from the servers you are most likely to use and take advantage of the money-back guarantee on the ones that didn’t work out.

You do need to be careful with that though because some companies have fine print that says they will only refund if you have used less than x number of gigs or connected fewer than x number of times.

Pricing

Zenmate currently has 3 plans available: 1 Month, 1 Year, and 3 years.

Naturally, the monthly subscription is higher because they are more likely to promote their lengthier commitment plan to their customers.

Their monthly subscription costs $10.99 per month, while their annual subscription costs $4.49 per month. You can also go farther by committing to a lengthier plan for 3 years for only $1.51.

Their triennial plan is actually marketed as their greatest value because it comes with 3 months free when you subscribe to it. However, since 3 years is a fairly lengthy commitment, joining a super long plan would obviously require you to think very carefully.

You shouldn’t worry, though, as they provide a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee with each of their subscription options.

Zenmate Free Trial

Zenmate, as previously stated, offers its customers a 7-day free trial as well as a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Speed Test

I’ll now share with you the results of our speed test for each VPN protocol:

IKEv2 – Los Angeles, CA

OpenVPN (UDP) – Los Angeles, CA

OpenVPN (TCP) – Los Angeles, CA

Privacy /Anonymity

Zero Log Policy

ZenMate adheres to a strict “zero logs” policy and states that they never retain any user data. All of your online actions will be completely anonymous once you begin using their VPN service on your device, preventing anyone from tracking your online activity or personal information.

Mask Your IP Address

Connecting to one of their VPN servers will instantly replace your real IP address with one of their servers. Therefore, you can be confident that your IP address will be masked when using Zenmate’s service.

Security

Zenmate’s VPN service implements the following security encryption and protocols:

AES 256 Encryption

Zenmate uses the best military-grade encryption available today which is the AES-256 encryption. If you are very familiar with VPNs, this may not come as a surprise to you, but it is one of the most crucial privacy safeguards in a VPN service. This is because it gives your data uncrackable encryption, making sure that no data or traffic on your device can be intercepted.

iKEv2

IKEv2 is a fast VPN protocol that offers a strong, steady VPN connection even while changing networks. Additionally, it has a seamless auto-connect feature that enables users to change networks without losing security or connectivity. It is also one of the most secure VPN protocols since it employs a variety of cutting-edge encryption methods to give its users the highest level of security.

L2TP/IPsec

L2TP is a P2P Protocol extension that ISPs utilize to enable VPNs. However, it does not provide strong encryption on its own, which is why it is frequently used with another protocol known as IPSec. IPSec, on the other hand, provides end-to-end security by encrypting and authenticating IP packets in a given communication. As a result, all traffic passing through your IP address becomes anonymous.

OpenVPN

OpenVPN is an open-source connection protocol that is used to create a secure tunnel between two points or sites in a network. This means that any information or data traffic transmitted through the tunnel will be protected and confidential.

Does It Work Well With Popular Streaming Apps?

Kodi

As long as you’re using Kodi on an OS application that Zenmate supports, such as your PC or mobile phone, then it is expected to function well.

Netflix

Zenmate works well for Netflix in the US or the UK. They also have a nice browser extension that automatically connects you to the right country and server you want when navigating to popular sites which require a particular GeoIP.

Hulu

Hulu is another popular streaming service that works nicely with Zenmate. By using one of Zenmate’s VPN servers, you won’t have any trouble getting around Hulu’s restrictions, even if you’re not in the US.

Jurisdiction

Zenmate is based in Berlin in Germany, which, unfortunately, falls under the 14 eyes alliance. In other words, it is under the combined efforts of these 14 countries to exchange sensitive data about their residents as necessary.

GeoIP Unblocking

Zenmate did a good job getting over GeoIP bans, especially for BBC IPlayer, Netflix, Hulu, and other services, which is challenging for many other providers. They are the only company we have seen that has made a public commitment to restoring any service which has blocked their VPN. They likely do this by retiring the IP ranges that have been blocked and adding new ones to the mix. This is a challenging and costly cat and mouse game.

Servers

Zenmate VPN has 4,700+ VPN servers across 81 countries. It is essentially on par with other premium VPN services that are more well-known than Zenmate.

Zenmate Apps

At the time of our Zenmate review, they have mobile phone and desktop applications as well as extensions that work across all operating systems and browsers. This includes Zenmate apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

Furthermore, their applications are relatively basic but they get the job done.

Kill Switch

The kill switch feature of Zenmate ensures that you are always safe and anonymous online. This is due to the fact that in the event of a sudden VPN disruption, it will automatically disconnect you from the internet. In this manner, you can be sure that a VPN will always be in use to backup all the websites you visit and the data you transmit over your device. Certainly, it functions as a safety net for unforeseen VPN drops.

Split Tunneling

Split tunneling is already a feature of Zenmate, but it is only accessible through its browser extensions.

DNS Leak Protection

Zenmate offers DNS Leak Protection so you may stream and browse without worrying about data or IP address leakage.

Zenmate Torrent Policy

Zenmate doesn’t specifically mention torrenting anywhere. We’ve seen this from a few VPN companies that are based in the 14 eyes as they have to adhere to country laws that ban torrenting. However, since the service does allow unlimited bandwidth and downloads, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Tor Compatibility

Zenmate supports Tor Browser and has included it in their list of the best private browsers. They do advise utilizing Zenmate in addition to the Tor Browser so you can be sure that your browsing is protected.

SOCKS5 Proxy

Instead of using a proxy extension, ZenMate VPN encourages its users to use its free web browser extension. Because it offers a higher level of anonymity and security than most proxy services, they believe that it is the wiser and safer option. This offers lightning-fast streaming speeds, a no-logs policy, military-grade encryption, and other advantages.

Customer Support

Considering their size and their name, we would expect at least some live chat support from Zendesk. However, you can only submit a ticket or choose from what is a pretty basic support center compared to many other big providers.

Final Thoughts on the Zenmate Review

Zenmate can be a worthwhile option to take into account, but I wouldn’t claim it is the best. If they have the right mix of servers for your needs, we can definitely see why you would go with them and save some serious money in the long run. The other nice feature is that the price isn’t introductory. The ultra-low rate continues to renew at the price indefinitely. In a world of paying a low price today because we are going to get you on the renewal, this is a major plus.

If you need more servers or a more interactive client, you should definitely check out their sister company, Cyberghost. The per month price isn’t that much more if you are willing to buy 3 years at a time, and the money-back guarantee, client, server options, and privacy policy are all better.