ZenMate Review

ZenMate’s 5,000 word privacy policy mentions the word “VPN” only once:

“The above-mentioned Personal Data is not, at any point, associated with any kind of activity done by the user inside the ZenMate VPN tunnel, which is NOT recorded, logged or stored at all.”

While this sounds good, it’s not actually specific enough. Most of the privacy policy refers to information the ZenMate website collects, or when you register an account, not when you use the VPN service. This includes your name, address, email, IP address, and approximate location.

The policy states that it doesn’t log any of this information when using the VPN itself. However, it doesn’t state the data it actually does log.

In short, ZenMate has written a vague no-logs statement that almost every VPN on the market uses.

We spoke to a ZenMate representative to clarify the situation. They stated that the VPN does not keep records of user activity, metadata, timestamps, or IP addresses.

The company knows how many users there are on a particular server at any given time, but it doesn’t know who these users are.

Based on these responses, it seems that ZenMate is a private VPN that keeps minimal information about its users and their activity.

However, this information needs to be included in the privacy policy before it can be recommended with absolute certainty.

Based on this ambiguity, the company would benefit from an independent audit that verifies its no-logging claims. As it stands, the the current level of ambiguity is not acceptable for a top VPN.

Kape owns ZenMate

Kape Technologies purchased ZenGuard GmbH, the owner of ZenMate, in 2018. Kape owns three other (larger) VPN services: ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, and Private Internet Access.

ZenGuard GmbH is still based in Berlin, Germany. ZenGuard is also merged with Mobile Concepts GmbH, which is based in the town of Übach Palenberg, Germany.

The VPN service falls under the jurisdiction of the European Union. This isn’t ideal for privacy as the EU has intrusive surveillance and data retention laws.

The European Union is also listed as an investor and/or partner in ZenMate VPN, which raises some concerns.

A European jurisdiction is not an issue if the VPN service has a verified no-logs privacy policy. While ZenMate appears to be private, an independent logging audit would go a long way to confirm this.

ZenMate is a relatively good VPN for beating streaming geo-blocks, but it doesn’t quite match the capabilities of the highest-rated streaming VPNs.

The VPN has lots of servers designed to bypass streaming geo-blocks, but over years of testing we’ve found that these servers don’t work 100% of the time.

Currently, ZenMate operates servers targeting the following streaming services:

• 7TV
• Amazon Prime
• ARD
• BBC iPlayer
• CBS
• Disney+
• Fox Sport
• Hulu
• ITV
• NBC
• Netflix (FR, DE, IT JP, US)
• ORF
• SlingTV
• Yle
• Zattoo DE

We encountered numerous problems testing the above servers. The VPN often failed to connect to them altogether. When it did connect, it often didn’t unblock the relevant streaming platform.

ZenMate works with US Netflix

In our latest tests, ZenMate worked with 5 Netflix regions: USA, Japan, Italy, Germany, and France. This is very impressive compared to other mid-tier VPNs we’ve tested such as Avira Phantom VPN.

Sadly, due to the VPN’s slow long-distance speeds, we experienced a considerable amount of buffering.

ZenMate unblocks BBC iPlayer

Surprisingly, ZenMate still works with BBC iPlayer. The BBC’s video service is one of the hardest to unblock, however ZenMate’s BBC iPlayer server worked as intended and with ease.

HBO Max, DAZN and Disney+ block ZenMate

Despite working with US Netflix, ZenMate couldn’t unblock other popular US content platforms like Hulu, HBO Max and Disney+.

We tried both the streaming servers, and the regular US servers, with no success.

ZenMate doesn’t have a Fire TV Stick app

Frustratingly, ZenMate doesn’t offer a dedicated app for Amazon Fire TV.

Because the VPN company hasn’t released an official Android .apk file, it’s not possible to side load the Android VPN app, either.

Therefore, to use the VPN on your Firestick, you’ll have to install it on your home router. It’s a rather tedious process, so Firestick users should opt for a VPN with a native Fire TV Stick app, instead.

ZenMate has no Smart DNS support

Another failure of ZenMate is the absence of Smart DNS functionality. This is the easiest way to use a VPN on Apple TV and on games consoles.

Your only option to use ZenMate on these devices is, again, to set up the VPN on your router.

ZenMate effectively hides your IP address, encrypts your data, and keeps your internet activity safe from ISP snooping. This is ideal for secure torrenting.

The service allows P2P traffic and file-sharing on all its servers, of which 60 (labeled ‘For downloading’) are specifically optimized for torrenting traffic.

We tested these P2P serveers with torrent clients like BitTorrent, Deluge, uTorrent, and Transmission, and they downloaded torrent files anonymously.

Also, the VPN’s kill switch, called ‘Secure Connect’, safely cut out our internet connection when the VPN unexpectedly failed. This prevented our true IP address from being exposed.

The problem with using ZenMate for torrenting are the VPN’s slow speeds. We couldn’t download files as quickly as we did when running ExpressVPN through our P2P tests.

What’s more, many of ZenMate’s servers aren’t fully optimized for torrenting. They’ll work, but torrent speeds weren’t as good in our experience.

ZenMate lacks port forwarding

Another P2P shortcoming of ZenMate is that it doesn’t allow port forwarding. Not many VPNs do, but seeders often seek this feature that drastically improves file upload speeds.

We particularly like PIA VPN’s port forwarding tool, which is one of the most customizable we’ve reviewed.

ZenMate’s speeds are disappointing.

We calculated local speeds by connecting to a London VPN server from our physical location in London. Here are the full speed test results:

We recorded an average download speed of 47Mbps when connected to a nearby server, which is a 52% speed loss compared to not using a VPN at all.

This type of speed loss on nearby servers is alarming. ZenMate is significantly slower than the quickest VPNs we’ve tested.

Latency was also very high – 15ms at best – which is makes lag-less online gaming challenging to achieve.

Long-distance speed test results

ZenMate’s speeds over long-distance connections are also disappointing.

We connected to servers in the US, Australia, Singapore, and Germany from London and measured our connection speeds before and after.

We measured losses of 90% when connecting to an Australian server, and 80% when connecting to the US.

Singapore was equally bad, registering an average speed loss of 86%.

Based on the above, it’s clear that ZenMate is not suitable for connecting to far-away servers, especially VPN connections into the US.

At least the VPN performed much better connecting to its Germany servers, losing just 9% of normal internet speed.

It’s unclear why the German servers perform better than the nearby UK ones. It does suggest ZenMate’s UK servers are experiencing server load issues.

These slow international speeds are a problem for streaming overseas content in high definition.

We recently tested Hotspot Shield’s overseas speeds, which were vastly superior to ZenMate’s.

Overall, ZenMate’s speeds are mediocre at best. It’s fast enough for web browsing, but overseas streaming will suffer from buffering and picture quality loss.

ZenMate is a secure VPN service that comes with AES-256 encryption, an automatic kill switch, and no data leaks that could compromise your safety.

While the Windows and Android apps use the secure OpenVPN protocol by default, its macOS and iOS apps are limited to the less secure IKEv2 protocol.

WireGuard is only available on Android.

If you want to use OpenVPN or WireGuard on the Mac or Windows apps, you’ll have to set them up manually.

You can toggle DNS leak protection and disable IPv6 connections when connected to the VPN on Windows, and these features come with helpful descriptions explaining their function.

All of the ZenMate apps use the same level of AES-256 encryption, which is the most secure encryption cipher available.

ZenMate offers a standard level of security that is more than enough to protect your data on public WiFi networks. However, the VPN would benefit from investing in advanced features like a malware blocker, Double VPN, or obfuscation tools.

Without these features, ZenMate remains basic and unsophisticated when compared to the most secure VPN services on the market.

If security is your main priority, we recommend reading our Perfect Privacy review to understand how VPNs can benefit from a wider range of features.

ZenMate also needs to upgrade its security on Mac and iOS. The inability to switch protocols on these platforms means it’s currently more secure on Windows and Android.

Data Leaks, Malware, and Tracking Tests

We put ZenMate through a series of security tests to ensure that it’s as safe as it claims to be. We first tested the app to see what permissions and trackers it installs on your Android device. Here’s what we found:

We found that the Android app contains 8 trackers and 10 permissions – none of which are considered out of the ordinary.

We also ran all of ZenMate’s installation software through a virus scanning system to ensure it presents no threat to your device. As you can see below, the app is perfectly safe and free from malware.

Finally, we tested to see whether Zenmate VPN leaks sensitive data like your IP address or DNS requests. We found it is perfectly safe to use and did not leak any of our browsing data.

You can test it for yourself using our free VPN leak test.

Compared to services with GPS spoofing, split tunneling, MultiHop servers, and more, ZenMate’s security offering is quite basic.

However, it’s still a reliable and simple service and that will keep your browsing data safe.

ZenMate VPN does not work in China and hasn’t for a few years.

The company is open about this fact and doesn’t even sell its apps in China for this reason: “Because, unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that the product will work reliably.”

The VPN does still operate servers in Hong Kong and has confirmed that its service is still working there. Keeping these servers isn’t without risk, however, as the Chinese government may soon get access to Hong Kong ISPs and snoop on your online activity.

ZenMate doesn’t work in highly-censored countries like Saudi Arabia or Iran, either. The VPN recommends that you don’t subscribe to a premium account if you plan to use it in these countries.

The company’s honesty about its limitations is refreshing, but its inability to get around heavy censorship is disappointing.

The company does imply that its service is working in Turkey, Pakistan, and the UAE. However, this information was last updated over three-years ago, so the situation is likely to be different today.

Simply put, ZenMate is not private, effective, or reliable enough to be used as an anti-censorship tool. It doesn’t offer any obfuscation technology or the option to use SoftEther connections that may conceivably get around state censorship.

If you are looking to use a VPN in a highly-censored country, we suggest that you take a look at our recommendations for VPNs that work in China.

ZenMate offers 24/7 live chat support, an online knowledgebase, website FAQ, and in-app ticket system.

This has come a long way from when the service had no live chat, unhelpful support bots, and slow email responses.

Our experience with ZenMate’s customer support was mostly positive. It runs a friendly 24/7 live chat support system with polite agents. Sometimes we had to wait a considerable amount of time for a response, but the wait was a matter of minutes – not hours.

When the agents did respond, they answered with very little technical detail. In other words, ZenMate’s live chat is still lacking an expert angle and human touch. And we got the impression that they wanted to wrap it up as soon as possible.

Its online knowledgebase is fairly limited, too. Here you’ll find installation guides and troubleshooting FAQs. While there appears to be plenty of online resources, many of these pages are not very detailed at all and very often out-of-date.

Difficult questions are best directed towards the ZenMate support email. This service is slower than live-chat but provide answers that are typically more in-depth and useful.

ZenMate’s customer support doesn’t rival the exceptional support of other major VPN services. It’ll cover simple questions and troubleshooting, but it’s unlikely to solve any complex technical problems.