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Both of these give away ten gigabytes a month. That is where the similarity ends.
In April 2025 a Windscribe co-founder faced criminal charges in a Greek court. Someone had allegedly used a company server in a cybercrime, with Interpol taking part. The case collapsed because the company held no user data to provide.
Nobody has ever tested ZoogVPN. It has also never published an audit, and its support describes one as planned.
The Short Answer
Windscribe on almost every measure here. Unlimited devices even on the free tier, its own DNS resolver, an audit of the live server stack, and a dismissed prosecution behind the no-logs claim.
ZoogVPN for one reason only. Greece sits outside the intelligence-sharing arrangements, while Windscribe operates from Canada inside Five Eyes.
⚠️ And that reason is weaker than it sounds. The Greek case shows what matters more than a registration — whether anything exists to hand over when asked.
What Happened in the Greek Court
Someone allegedly used a Windscribe server in a cybercrime. Rather than pursuing the company, prosecutors charged a co-founder personally.
Interpol took part, and the case collapsed. Windscribe states the dismissal followed from having zero user data to provide, so nothing connected the server address to a person.
⚠️ That is stronger evidence than any scheduled audit. An audit asks whether records could exist. A prosecution asks what happened, and the answer here ended the case.
It also goes further than a subpoena. Companies elsewhere in our table received demands and produced nothing. Here a named individual faced charges — and real-world tests are what our privacy ranking weighs highest.
The Audit Positions
Packetlabs examined Windscribe’s production server infrastructure in June 2024. Twenty repositories, roughly eighty thousand lines of code, with external and internal testing. It found no intentional subversions of the no-logs policy.
Leviathan Security examined the apps separately, desktop in 2021 and mobile in 2022. Cure53 reviewed an earlier pre-production version of the same infrastructure.
⚠️ Only the Packetlabs work counts in our audit table. Application reviews and pre-production assessments are useful, and they are not no-logs audits. We apply that distinction across every provider we count.
ZoogVPN has none of these. Support told one reviewer an audit was underway, then could not name the firm. It told another the audit was planned, once a partner turns up.
The Free Tiers, Behind the Same Number
Ten gigabytes a month at both. Windscribe asks for a confirmed email address first, and two gigabytes come without one.
Then they diverge sharply. Windscribe allows unlimited devices on the free plan and full 256-bit encryption. ZoogVPN allows one device and, by one published account, 128-bit encryption instead.
Windscribe also includes its ad and tracker blocker free, filtering at the DNS level, and gives around ten server locations against ZoogVPN’s three.
⚠️ Paying subscribers fund both free tiers rather than the free users themselves, which is the model that makes a free VPN honest — and the reason so few qualify.
Where ZoogVPN Has a Case
The jurisdiction. Greece sits outside the Five, Nine and Fourteen Eyes arrangements. Canada is a founding Five Eyes member.
⚠️ But one published account places ZoogVPN’s operation in Ukraine, with headquarters and most staff there. So the favourable registration and the actual work may sit in different countries — a pattern our ownership map records elsewhere too.
And Windscribe answers the jurisdiction point with behaviour. Prosecutors charged its founder abroad, the absence of data ended the case, and that demonstrates something a favourable registration cannot.
ZoogVPN’s paid plan is also cheap, at around $2.49 a month on a two-year term with three months added. Windscribe’s Build a Plan starts near $3.
Where Both Fall Short
The refund windows are short at both. ZoogVPN gives seven days. Accounts of Windscribe’s differ — some say three days, one says seven with the window voided once you pass ten gigabytes.
⚠️ We are giving both figures rather than choosing. Either way both fall far short of the thirty-day norm — and a refund is a separate request from cancelling.
So the free tier is the real trial at both providers. Ten gigabytes is enough to test speed, apps and streaming before paying anything.
And neither leads on speed. One account records Windscribe’s long-distance results collapsing, and reviewers call ZoogVPN’s inconsistent — though published speed figures rarely agree.
How We Research
The Greek court case, the Packetlabs scope and the Leviathan app audits come from Windscribe’s own published pages, which we cite in our review of that provider. An independent analysis of those audits supplied the distinction between an infrastructure assessment and a no-logs attestation, and we apply the stricter reading in our audit count. The ZoogVPN audit answers come from vpnMentor and Wizcase, which received different ones, and the Ukrainian headquarters from DianaVPN. Free tier limits come from published reviews of both providers. Two accounts give Windscribe’s refund window differently, and we cite both. One source listing a different auditor for Windscribe also misnamed auditors for two other providers, so we excluded it. We do not run our own tests. Our method lives on the About Us page.
Windscribe vs ZoogVPN FAQ
Windscribe’s, comfortably. Both give ten gigabytes a month, but Windscribe allows unlimited devices on the free plan, uses 256-bit encryption, includes an ad blocker and offers around ten locations. ZoogVPN allows one device, three locations, and by one account 128-bit encryption.
Yes. In April 2025 a co-founder faced criminal charges in a Greek court after a company server was allegedly used in a cybercrime, with Interpol involved. Windscribe states the case was dismissed because it had no user data to provide.
No published report exists. One reviewer was told an audit was underway but support could not name the firm conducting it. Another was told one was planned once a trusted partner is found.
On paper yes, since Greece sits outside the intelligence-sharing arrangements and Canada is a founding Five Eyes member. However one account places ZoogVPN’s actual operation in Ukraine, and Windscribe has demonstrated in court that it holds nothing to surrender.
ZoogVPN gives seven days. Accounts give Windscribe’s as three days, or as seven days voided once you use ten gigabytes. Both are far shorter than the thirty-day minimum common elsewhere, so treat the free tier as the trial.
The Verdict
The same ten gigabytes buys two different things. Unlimited devices, an ad blocker, its own resolver and 256-bit encryption at one. One device and a weaker cipher at the other.
And one of them has faced the test that counts. A criminal prosecution ended because nothing existed to produce. No audit reaches that standard.
ZoogVPN’s single argument is its registration. Greece is genuinely outside the alliances — and a registration in one country with an operation reportedly in another is a thinner claim than a case that collapsed for lack of data.