ZenMate

ZenMate it is one of the newcomers, a newer provider than some others that have been in the business longer. But it has come to stay and with force. Some of its characteristics have nothing to envy to the most veterans, it even surpasses them in some cases.

Therefore, if you are evaluating the most suitable VPN service for you, you should include ZenMate among the candidates, since It will surprise you, Although not the best...

What you need to know about ZenMate VPN

To decide if ZenMate is the service you need or not, you have to analyze each of the following points to know all strengths and weaknesses of this service...

Security

ZenMate gives you peace of mind, with strong encryption using algorithm AES-256, being its military grade security. In addition, it also supports secure protocols for the generated tunnels, such as IPSec/IKEv2, and L2TP/IPSec, although the premium service is also compatible with OpenVPN.

Usually your clients use by default protocols IPSec and IKEv2 for Mac users, while for Windows users it would be the same, also adding the option of L2TP/IPSec. Furthermore, ZenMate's protocols can be used in both AES-128 and AES-256, although the latter is the most effective. Despite that, from ZenMate they advise using the 128-bit one, I suppose that for speed reasons...

If you care about your data, you should know that ZenMate also has Kill Switch to disconnect the network in case the VPN stops working, preventing you from leaving some data exposed if you have not noticed the inconvenience.

Finally, ZenMate has some extra features for security, having a scanner of malware capable of detecting up to 66 different types of malicious code to block them and prevent infections.

As a point against it is that it has been detected leak your IP in some cases. It doesn't usually fail, but it could have some problems with DNS servers/WebRTC API where the VPN tunnel is ignored...

Speed

The speed of ZenMate it's quite acceptable, being among the fastest average. However, it may be slower than other services. In addition, for those who live in Europe, its speed is good and stable, achieving ping times even dozens of times higher than those of the United States, for example. So there are big differences. The same for download and upload speeds, although in this case, the differences between Europe and the US are not as great as for ping.

The reason for these differences is that ZenMate has a large number of server farms located mainly in the European continent, with some 298 servers in some 31 different countries. Of all of them, only 3 would be in American territory and the same number distributed throughout Africa, Oceania and Asia.

Privacy

The truth is that ZenMate not the best in this way. It is true that they do not have records or keep information of the activity you give to the VPN and other personal data, but they do keep some information about your IP, web browser information and version of the operating system, etc.

In addition, the company is located in Germany, so you will have to comply with the laws of the country to share data if other governments request it. That is, it would be in the so-called 14 Eyes jurisdictional territory.

Extras and functions

If you are looking for ZenMate as a VPN service for downloads or to access streaming content, I can already tell you that you should think better about other services of the competition, since it does not work well in those cases.

For example, although it can unblock Netflix content for the US just fine, as well as work on other providers of these services, does not support torrenting or P2P, so it can weigh down a bit the applications of use…

Compatibility

With the addition of OpenVPN, ZenMate has gained in compatibility. Turns out a VPN option quite versatile with client apps and extensions for many systems. For example, it can work on desktops, mobile devices, smart TVs, and also in major web browsers.

You'll find client apps for Windows, macOS, as well as for mobile phones with iOS, Android, and also with extensions for Opera, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. However, you could manually make it functional on other systems using OpenVPN, such as the case of linux.

As for the the interface of ZenMate, you will be able to verify that it is very clear and easy to use, being able to start the VPN in an extremely simple way.

Customer service

ZenMate user support is ticket based, something that users who want immediacy through telephone services or live chats do not like. Of course, you can make your queries 24/7, and wait for them to answer you. They are generally not as slow to respond as some other services, and usually give you an answer in less than 24 hours.

In addition, some client users They have complained that the answers are not very clear in some cases, so they are not very helpful… However, the service should not fail and you probably do not need the support.

Price

One of the benefits of ZenMate is that has a free plan, totally free, but that is quite limited as expected. For example, you will only be able to access 4 server locations compared to more than 74 in the Ultimate premium subscription. These servers will be hosted in Germany, Hong Kong, the United States and Romania.

La speed it will also be limited to 2 MB/s, while in Ultimate you have no speed or traffic limits. And the clients in Free you will only have them as extensions for the three main browsers, while in Ultimate you have them for more operating systems. In other words, in Free you can only protect browser traffic and not the entire system.

Free also lacks support for torrent and P2P, personal support, intelligent server allocation for better performance, does not support OpenVPN either, it cannot be used with Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services, it lacks optimizations, nor Kill switch, or identity protection...

To get all that, you have to pay their ultimate subscription which costs $11,99/month, which places it among the most expensive. It also has a full 1-year plan, being able to save up to 67% with $3.99/month, or 2 years for $2.05/month. Therefore, it is worth purchasing the services in the long term.

Of course, they have a free trial plan of 7 days, and the possibility of requesting that you Give back the money if before 30 days of trial you have not been convinced by the service.

If you worry the payment method, you have to know that they accept credit cards MasterCard, VISA, American Express, PayPal, and also other additional payment methods.

How to use ZenMate VPN

Finally, if you have decided to use ZenMate VPN, you have to know the generic steps to be able to start to enjoy your service:

1. Go to the download area of ZenMate on its official website.
2. Click on the icon of the operating system or web browser in which you want to install the VPN.
3. Now it directs you to a website with the button to download the appropriate software for the chosen platform. Download and install.
4. Run the software and follow its wizard from which you can create an account if you didn't already have one created from the ZenMate website itself.
5. After entering your account data, the main menu of the app will be displayed where you can activate the VPN with a simple button, choose the country from which you want to obtain the IP, and other settings.