What is ZenMate?
ZenMate is a team of passionate people, who come from 20 different countries. They strive to deliver smart products with intuitive design, so you can enjoy a secure and private online experience. They do this by offering a VPN service.
ZenMate is a German company.
VPN is short for Virtual Private Network. The abbreviation means that you build a private connection between two or more networks over the Internet.
Using a VPN has allowed, for example, an employee to contact the company’s server even when on the move. In this way, you can communicate, access your e-mail and all other information available for employees on the company’s network, regardless of where in the world you would be.
However, accessing all the company’s servers and information from the outside is protected if you have a VPN. No unauthorized person can access the company’s files. In most cases, the servers are well protected behind several layers of firewalls and protection.
But a VPN creates an encrypted tunnel for the signals between the employee’s computer and the company’s network. In that way, the employee becomes part of that company’s network, you could say..
There are lots of other things you can use a VPN for, too.
VPN for private use
ZenMate is used by some companies but has increased enormously for private individuals.
We have become more enlightened today about how important it is to protect yourself online.
It is very common for private individuals to take their laptop with them on trips, or connect their mobile to open networks. It can be at airports, or cafes for example. Open networks are very sensitive to hackers and you are often very vulnerable. ZenMate wants to do something about this and has therefore developed its VPN encryption.
The most common reason for using a VPN is to become completely anonymous. With a VPN, you can also make it look like you are in another part of the world. We at VPNS review ZenMate to see what they’re up to!
Is ZenMate safe?
ZenMate is a VPN that caters to many of the most basic when we are looking for a good VPN service. There are those that are significantly stronger and more secure such as NordVPN, RusVPN, or ExpressVPN. You can read about why we consider them to be stronger under our reviews or under our category Best VPN service.
For those of you who don’t require that little extra right to the tip of your finger, we think that ZenMate is a reasonable alternative.
How much does ZenMate cost and is there a monthly trial?
ZenMate does not have one of the cheapest VPN options you can find. They are quite close to the vast majority, but still above average. They don’t offer a free month but have a 30 day money back guarantee.
There are three different types of subscriptions you can choose from.
1 month, 1 year and 3 years.
A month costs you USD 100 a month.
1 year is USD 50 a month.
If you choose their 3-year long subscription, you will come down significantly in price. Here you actually only pay 20 kroner a month.
If you have tested the service and are satisfied with it, this is the best option. However, we believe that there should have been more options. Most take a subscription of 6 months or 2 years. These options do not exist at all. If you want to compare the price of VPN, you can do so under compare VPN services.
ZenMate also has a free VPN service. This one does not include as much and we always strongly advise against ALL free VPNs.
How many servers does ZenMate have?
It appears that they are available in 74 countries. These are also true facts. 3500 servers have them.
This is a very high number of servers and usually very good for speed and connection purposes.
It’s good to have a lot of servers as you get more choices about what you want to use your VPN for. There are VPNs that have significantly more servers as well, such as NordVPN for example. They have over 6000 servers.
The server network of a VPN is very important if you want to bypass geo-restrictions. The more servers, the more choices. You can connect to a server in Australia to see series you cannot access from Portugal.
Does ZenMate work for IPTV?
IPTV stands for Internet Protocol television. This denotes any type of TV that comes via an internet connection, but also the traditional methods. By this we mean antenna, satellite or cable TV) You can therefore use your IPTV to access all the channels that are available both from the most common providers and all internet-based ones. Examples of this are Viaplay and Cmore.
You thus get access to all sports channels, both football, hockey, golf and more.
You can catch channels from all over the world.
How is this possible then, it should be very expensive? No! – There is someone who streams all of this to the IPTV, for which you pay a significantly smaller amount, than you do for a channel package with e.g. Telia. Unfortunately, this is not legal and even those who use the service want to be able to protect themselves.
The best protection comes through a VPN. ZenMate VPN works to use for IPTV. You just connect it to the program and then you are basically impossible to track.
A problem that can usually arise, however, is that it starts to bug. ZenMate passed this test gallantly. It was smooth to connect and we had no disturbances at all when we used the service.
Does it work on netflix or svtplay?
ZenMate’s streaming servers help you unblock geo-restricted content on platforms like Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Youtube and more. If you are abroad, it also works the other way around on Português channels and streaming services. It is not possible to see content on svt play if you are abroad.
This is due to the fact that only those residing in Portugal will have access to the channels. With a VPN, you solve that problem and can travel as much as you want, but still access your favorite programs.
With the ZenMate, accessing content on Netflix worked and the speed worked well, however we did occasionally get disconnected from the connection. It can be a distraction but they absolutely work to get to what you want to see. 2 times we were sent out of their VPN app and had to restart again, this during a time span of 45 minutes.
There is so much to learn about this how how to use this. If you are interested in more facts, you can read here about why you should use a vpn client when you visit streaming services.
However, it is important to know that Netflix and other streaming services work actively to block VPN services. Just because it worked for us now at the time of testing is no guarantee that it will work for you next time.
Does ZenMate have good speed?
ZenMate has over 3000 servers in 74 countries which contributes to a good speed. They have servers optimized for sports streaming services, such as Eurosport and Fox Sports for example. This makes ZenMate one of the better services when you want to watch live streams. These are common platforms that have major problems with bugs and poor speed. We of course tested and they kept what they promised. However, the problem arose again that we were kicked out and had to reconnect. In this process we realized that it was becoming a stressful moment. If you watch a match and are completely in the game, the last thing you want is to be thrown out. In addition, you risk that sensitive information about you is released. This is dangerous with the companies that do not offer a KillSwitch, more on that below.
If we ignore the fact that you were thrown out sometimes, the speed kept high quality though. It was quick to reconnect and it didn’t lag when we watched our matches.
How many devices can I connect?
Regardless of which of the subscriptions you choose, you will have unlimited devices you can connect. This is amazingly good and very few services in VPN offer. ZenMate can be used on all major operating systems. Windows, iOS, Linux, macOS, Android and more.
You can also download a free version of their app, which is then available for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Opera.
The most common is that you can connect 5-10 devices. This number is usually enough, but if you need more, ZenMate is a very good alternative. There are also routers that are compatible with certain VPN services to be able to untie more devices. This does not work for Zen mate and is not needed either as you can connect to an unlimited number of devices.
Does ZenMate have support if problems arise?
There is a chat box that pops up when you go to their website. We tested how good they are at responding and found that during the day they have a good response rate. Evening time is not a good idea to write to them. You also get the most common questions with answers if they are well formulated and well described. The website has a lot of questions and answers as well as instructions on how to download and install for all different devices.
There is no phone number to reach them on or email. To get in closer contact, you need to contact them through Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin. This makes them feel a little impersonal. We value a personal contact very highly as you may have sensitive questions.
How do I get started?
First you need to choose which subscription you want and create an account. After this you can log in. Choose a strong password!
Now you can download the VPN client and log in with your details. Downloading the app is quick and easy and there is good linking on the page.
What payment options are available?
ZenMate unfortunately only has 2 options when it comes to payment. What you can choose to pay with is either Paypal or your credit card.
We usually advise against paying with your credit card as this is super easy to track you with. The same Paypal. However, Paypal has started using Bitcoin, which we see positively. A little depending on what you intend to use your VPN for, the payment becomes more or less important. If you only intend to use it to hide yourself and be safe online, you can pay with your credit card. However, if you want to download movies and access other blocked content, we think these options are too bad to pay with.
There are other VPN services that offer to pay with cryptocurrencies and some you can even pay cash to. See more about this under compare VPN services.
Can I use it to download?
You can absolutely use ZenMate’s VPN to download. See more about using a VPN for downloading here. As we mentioned above, ZenMate has over 74 different countries to choose from and they ensure a fast download speed.
How well does ZenMate work in Portugal?
In Portugal, ZenMate works relatively well. The service is not available in Português, so surely there are better services. What we tested above indicates that it works to access geoblocked pages. However, we were kicked out sometimes, which indicates that the server can’t really bear to keep us there. Had we been in another country, some pages would probably have worked better. Something that is good for us Swedes with ZenMate is that you can connect unlimited devices. This is especially good for the companies that choose these for their VPN service. As a rule, in Portugal we have a lot of devices in our home and of course want to be able to protect all of them.
What does Zenmate get in the final grade?
Then we have come to a final rating and we would like to put zenmate somewhere in the middle. This is a VPN service that absolutely works. It doesn’t have that little something extra that would have made them higher up on our list. We at VPNS do not consider their website to be very user-friendly. It is a bit difficult to find all the information on. The information is there, but it is not where you think you should always find it. It’s the same with their app. It works and you understand it, but we would have liked a better design.
The fact that we were sent out sometimes on certain pages is what has dragged them down the most in our final rating. We put only the best at the top of our list. If you want to immediately find the one we think is the best, you can see it under the best VPN service.
