ZenMate is being tested: tried a free VPN service from Germany

Up to 30 states of the server

VPN provider ZenMate has invested heavily in server infrastructure. Is this enough to be on the podium in our VPN comparison? test.

table of Contents

1. VPN from Germany: Curse and Blessing
   

2. The practical application of ZenMate: our experience in VPN services
   

   1. Use ZenMate with streaming services
      

   2. ZenMate bypasses local interference
      

3. ZenMate speed test
   

4. ZenMate fees: price, subscription and payment method
   

5. Is there a free version of ZenMate?
   

6. Supported countries and agreements
   

7. in conclusion
   

ZenMate now maintains more than 3,700 servers in 74 countries around the world. This should set the AES encrypted VPN connection to 256 bits with the highest upload and download speed. Like VPN providers, the largest user market is in non-free countries where the Internet is censored, but German companies are also clearly applicable, especially for German users.

VPN from Germany: Curse and Blessing

In fact, a VPN company based in Germany also offers advantages for German customers: Thanks to strict data protection laws and a clear rule of law, you as a customer can be confident that ZenMate will process your usage and payment data with confidence. In this case, it should be actively mentioned that ZenMate is extremely transparent in terms of company structure and responsible employees. Therefore, the provider has performed well among some competitors and competes with VPNs from Switzerland, the United States and Canada that we have tested. By the way, the company has become part of Cyberpeg operator Kape.

This may sound paradoxical, but since the headquarters of ZenMate is located in 14 countries, the headquarters of the German company is also at a disadvantage. For many VPN users, this is one of the reasons for choosing VPN services from Panama or other foreign countries.

The practical application of ZenMate: our experience in VPN services

ZenMate is functional and visually attractive on various platforms: VPN connections can also be quickly established through the quick access bar under Windows and macOS, and you can easily browse the server list.

However, we missed the possibility of being able to locate a single ZenMate server: except for the United States (which has a separation between east and west coasts), it is only available at the country / region level. There is also a lack of the possibility that the software will automatically establish the fastest off-road server available when establishing a connection. After all, in addition to the company ’s own applications, server configuration can always be done manually-therefore, criticism of the overall impression of a thin and graphically convincing software is acceptable.

Use ZenMate with streaming services

ZenMate ’s main advertising promise is to avoid the possibility of country / regional barriers when using streaming services, and even provides specially selected servers for this purpose. In the test, we checked various situations in Germany and studied whether the VPN service ZenMate enabled video streaming. In fact, it works perfectly with many services like CBS, YouTube and Netflix.

You must know that the major stream providers are based on duplicate IP addresses to achieve geographic blocking. If requests from IP addresses keep accumulating, the request will be blocked. If, like ZenMate, VPN users did not manually select a server, they would not be able to avoid the potential IP address duplication problem alone by selecting an infrequently used server. Using the pre-selected servers in the ZenMate menu, it can be assumed that the provider frequently checks these servers.

ZenMate bypasses local interference

ZenMate has hundreds of servers in Germany alone. Unfortunately, these cannot be selected manually. Otherwise, a failure in the "redirect" area through another server may occur. If you find a fault in the online service, you can use ZenMate to try to solve the problem areas abroad.

ZenMate: App for Windows, iOS, Android and Co.

For Windows, macOS, Android and iOS, ZenMate has software applications that can be used to access the company's VPN server. ZenMate also provides applications for Rasperry, Fire TV, Smart TV and even Linux. With the support of the OpenVPN protocol, ZenMate has also opened the door for other applications. All applications also provide a German user interface. The language can be changed in the settings.

ZenMate speed test

Even in the last test, the VPN service completely convinced us of the speed of uploading and downloading-which is still true today. The average download speed of the service is 50 megabits per second (Mbit / s), and the average upload speed is 39 Mbit / s, which is one of the fastest VPN offers on our rankings, and the corresponding value should be fair to any The use of types. But of course, you must remember that the speed of the VPN connection always depends on your home or mobile Internet connection.

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ZenMate fees: price, subscription and payment method

For the premium version, ZenMate will pay 10.99 euros per month, a slight increase from the previous year. Anyone who signs an annual contract (as of April 2020) can get 6 months of service for free, with a final payment of 2.22 euros per month. The 6-month package that is not recommended is only 7.62 Euros cheaper than the 18-month package, so it cannot provide a good price / performance ratio. We believe that only the 18-month package is the real choice. Considering good server performance, about 40 Euros is reasonable.

ZenMate allows you to choose between PayPal and credit card when making a payment. You can then use your payment method through PayPal. It is processed by the German service agency cleverbridge, which is a well-known company in the software field. By the way, this makes the service cheaper for corporate customers, because the price shown is the total price, so the net cost for 18 months is only 33.58 euros, or 1.87 euros per month.

Is there a free version of ZenMate?

ZenMate provides a very streamlined free version. Browser plugin-read it correctly, this is not a complete application-works with Chrome, Opera and Firefox. You can access four servers in Germany, Hong Kong, the United States and Romania. Upload and download speeds are also severely restricted. Users who choose to subscribe can request a 30-day money back guarantee. In addition, there is always a 7-day free trial period.

So far, we have explained in detail why we usually recommend the test period instead of using a free VPN service. For each user, privacy should be worth several euros per month.

Supported countries and agreements

As mentioned above, ZenMate is frantically expanding its server farm. The company currently maintains nearly 3,800 servers in more than 74 countries. Compared with other VPN providers, this is a top product. All servers support the protocols iKEv2, L2TP / IPsec and OpenVPN. Usually supports P2P and torrent activity in all locations. ZenMate does not have any special solutions, such as the "onion on VPN" provided by NordVPN. Here, you can find a list of all currently active servers and their locations: