Meet the Lean, Mean VPN Team That Proves Size Isn’t Everything — Even for Streaming

TL; DR: Do you travel a lot? Have a favorite British TV show that you can’t watch in the States? Don’t like the idea of Big Brother breathing down your neck? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then you should check out ZoogVPN. ZoogVPN is a virtual private network provider that prioritizes security, privacy, and an uncensored internet experience. We talked with Yaroslav Savenkov, CEO, about how the small but mighty ZoogVPN team aims to make waves in the competitive VPN market.

Last year, I was lucky enough to visit Canada in the heart of winter. I know: It sounds like a bad joke. But I’m a native New Englander who has finally come to appreciate the snow, with its iciness and all.

It was freezing cold in Montreal, and while I thrive best roasting in the sun like a tomato, I had so much fun. I hung out with locals at a karaoke bar, tried authentic poutine, and navigated the slick city streets like a native.

It was a great trip. You know what wasn’t, though? After a full 12-hour day of exploring the city, I returned to my Airbnb, ready to unwind with a hot shower, glass of rosé, and my favorite TV show…only to find that “The Office” isn’t streamable in the Great White North.

Full. Stop.

Frantically, trying to have the epitome of a relaxing night while on vacation, I began researching VPNs. Virtual private networks, or VPNs, are online services that create protected connections between devices and the internet. The encryption allows users to bypass geo-restrictions for streaming services like Netflix.

So, when I came across ZoogVPN, I was already intrigued. Not only have I had good experiences with VPNs before (see: above story), but I’m also a sucker for services that make consumer lives easier.

We talked with ZoogVPN’s CEO, Yaroslav Savenkov, a few years ago, but I think the point he made then still stands true today: “Our mission was to break down internet barriers and censorship, providing complete internet freedom and privacy for everyone.”

VPNs can be used for a variety of things, not just for streaming TV shows that aren’t available in your country yet. At its core, ZoogVPN’s philosophy centers around two main issues: combating internet censorship and protecting personal information and activity.

I may be dangerously close to stepping on my soapbox here, but like books, the internet should be an open forum that’s accessible to everyone. Take Dr. Seuss’s “The Lorax” as an example. Did you know it’s banned in several states because it has a negative portrayal of the logging industry?

ZoogVPN is one of the many global service providers that want to make sure the internet doesn’t follow the same fate.

Founded in 2013, ZoogVPN is a Greece-based provider that has expanded quite a bit over the years. Today, it has more than 1,000 IPs (internet protocols) across 100-plus locations that are home to dedicated, bare metal, gaming- and streaming-optimized servers.

If you don’t speak tech, more IPs is better. It means you can avoid crowded servers by choosing another server near your desired content. For example, if you’re in Canada but want to watch something on U.S. Netflix, just connect to an American server.

Streaming is just one aspect of ZoogVPN. Here’s everything it can do for you:

• Access any website: Some countries have stricter internet laws than others, but ZoogVPN lets you access any website regardless of the country’s internet censorship laws. For example, China has banned all Western-based social media sites, such as Facebook and Instagram.
• Stream any content: With servers in the U.S., U.K., Spain, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, and Australia, you can watch your favorite shows and new movies on any streaming service, even if it’s not available in your country yet. Best of all? Get up to 10 devices on one subscription.
• Browse anonymously: If you don’t like the idea of Big Brother watching you, you’ve probably tried Private Mode on your browser or encrypted search engines like DuckDuckGo. An easier solution is ZoogVPN, which encrypts your data and location so nobody but you knows what’s going on.
• Never worry about buffering: Network throttling is the bane of my existence. It occurs when too much traffic is going through a single network (like when you’re watching Netflix, and it starts buffering). Say goodbye to that because ZoogVPN manages your network traffic to avoid slow loading times from throttling.

When we last spoke with ZoogVPN, it was still growing its network. Since then, its server network has expanded five times and is complete with a new load balancer.

Think of it as a traffic cop at a crowded event that makes sure no single entry lane gets too congested. This means better network reliability, so you won’t have to worry about buffering, lagging, or freezing while streaming or gaming.

While ZoogVPN expanded its services and solutions, its team remains small. Growing from about 10 to 20 employees, Yaroslav said he prefers it this way, citing the CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, as inspiration. Despite Telegram’s massive user base (900 million monthly users!), Pavel prides himself on Telegram’s small yet dedicated team.

“Growing twice might not sound like much, but in terms of efficiency and the knowledge we’ve gained, it’s quite good,” Yaroslav said. “In this competitive niche, it’s hard to make giant leaps; it’s always step by step, customer by customer.”

While many VPNs focus on flashy marketing or incremental upgrades, it appears that ZoogVPN prioritizes security and user experience above all else.

Yaroslav said this comes from the growing trend among VPNs to place a greater focus on encryption and security over market-based features that many competitors use to “add small improvements here and there.”

With a focus on streaming and privacy, ZoogVPN is designed to be powerful even in countries with the toughest censorship.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the tech that makes that possible.

OpenVPN Protocol

A protocol is a set of rules, and ZoogVPN uses the OpenVPN protocol. OpenVPN essentially acts as a secret tunnel for your internet connection so only you and the server know the tunnel exists.

And, for added security, OpenVPN also scrambles (encrypts) your data information so that it’s virtually unrecognizable by outsiders, including internet service providers looking to boot people off their VPNs or cyberattackers who intercept networks to gather and sell personal data.

ZoogShadowing

A fun name indeed — and one that serves a very important purpose.

When you use a regular VPN, your internet service provider (ISP) can recognize that. VPNs aren’t illegal by any means, but if an ISP in a heavily censored country recognizes outside traffic, even via a VPN, it can block you anyway.

ZoogVPN’s solution, ZoogShadowing, is to make all VPN traffic look like regular, local HTTPS traffic to bypass those annoying blocks. ZoogShadowing is based on the Shadowsocks protocol, which is designed to help bypass even the most stubborn ISPs.

Automatic Servers

When you download a VPN, you have the option to choose which server you want to connect to (which has its own data center ID).

But instead of manually selecting your server, ZoogVPN’s system will automatically find the best way to connect. There’s no need to understand technical details. Just enter the website, and the system does the rest.

Yaroslav believes these solution-driven services are what sets ZoogVPN apart from other VPN competitors.

“When big names like NordVPN or ExpressVPN don’t offer a particular service, we want to be the first to implement it,” he said. “Seeing our competitors catch up after we unblock something gives us motivation. Our small team can just act faster.”

ZoogVPN is already ahead of the game with features that even the big players don’t offer yet, but Yaroslav says there’s more on the way. Much of this innovation, he explains, comes from listening closely to customer feedback.

“It’s a challenging question whether to follow all customer requests, and theory suggests that you should filter out the useful ones from the rest,” he said. “But if you want to be a more human-centered company, you sometimes have to invest time and money to meet these requests. Otherwise, you risk becoming like those companies that don’t really care about the everyday person.”

With that said, there’s one big feature coming to ZoogVPN soon.

“We’re enhancing every feature and connection within our apps,” said Yaroslav, “but we’re also developing an in-house solution to provide features that all our customers need better.”

Yes, yet another helpful feature from ZoogVPN — and this time, it’s for ad-blocking and split tunneling. I know I’m not the only one who hates those 90-second ads in the middle of a binge-watch, so this will definitely be a game changer.

Split tunneling, on the other hand, is a bit out of most of our wheelhouses. Split tunneling lets you choose which apps or websites you want to connect the VPN with. ZoogVPN currently supports split tunneling for iOS and iPhone (with certain limitations), and are in the process of developing more desktop solutions for this as well.

I know what you’re thinking: Why would I manually choose which apps access my VPN when I can just have it across my entire device?

It’s simple. Think about the last time you logged into your mobile banking app. I don’t know about you, but almost every time I do, it doesn’t recognize my device (despite it being the same one I’ve used for years).

If my phone had a VPN activated across the board, accessing my bank account would be nearly impossible because the server would flag me coming from an unfamiliar location.

With split tunneling, I can log into the banking app from my local area but then use the VPN for my streaming apps.

“We’re building it from scratch, which takes more time, but we believe the result will be worth it,” said Yaroslav.

If you’re tired of ISPs holding you down, download ZoogVPN 100% free today. It’s compatible with just about every platform, and you get up to 10 devices in your subscription plan.