Does paying for Zygor Guides help you level faster? Let’s find it out!
This article is not sponsored by Zygor but does contain affiliate links. Signing up for Zygor with my affiliate link provides support to this blog at no extra cost to you and enables me to make more of this content.
If you are like me, you’ve probably wondered if paid leveling addons like Zygor are really worth it. Could a guide be so good that it justifies spending $9.99 a month? To find out, I signed up for a Zygor subscription and put it to the test.
For my main testing, I decided to level two characters from level 10 to 60 (in retail) — one with Azeroth Auto Pilot (AAP), which is free, and the other with Zygor.
Since many players use these types of addons for leveling, I decided to focus most of my testing on Zygor’s leveling guides. However, Zygor includes thousands of other guides and extra features that I’ll discuss after the leveling results.
If you are more of a visual person, you can also check out the video I made for this article here:
How Is Zygor allowed to charge for their addon?
You might wonder how Zygor gets away with charging when paid addons violate terms of service.
Well, technically, the addon is free; what they charge for is the guide that goes into the addon.
It is like buying one of the old BradyGames strategy guides and then loading it into an addon that makes it easier to follow in-game. In other words, Zygor does not technically violate ToS because they are charging for the guide, not the addon.
Setting the ground rules for leveling
To ensure things were fair in testing, I leveled both characters using the same race, class, and spec. I ended up using two Zandalari Troll balance druids.
For another ground rule, I committed to not logging out in rest areas so that the rested experience wouldn’t sway the results. Since I have a full-time job and family, my playtime is often sporadic, and I didn’t want inconsistent log-in times to impact the results.
The last main guideline I set was to follow the directions of the addon explicitly, except for when to train new riding skills, including flying.
Getting started with Azeroth Auto Pilot and Zygor
After booting up Azeroth Auto Pilot, I selected the “Speed Run” option, which defaults to leveling through Warlords of Draenor (WoD) content. There are a few other leveling guide options, but the bread and butter of AAP is the speed run option.
Zygor, on the other hand, has a ton of options that allow you to choose which expansion you want to level in. There are dozens of options for leveling guides in Zygor.
To keep things comparable to AAP, I chose the Warlords of Draenor leveling guide in Zygor.
For transparency’s sake, I want to point out that I did this leveling test while the Winds of Wisdom 50% experience boost was active. I also ran the tests before the release of the Dragonflight pre-patch and revamped talents.
Okay, let’s jump into the test results!
Results: Level 10 – 20
The first ten levels of testing were pretty similar between the two guides. Since both were walking me through the Warlords intro questline, which is linear, there wasn’t much chance for one to pull far ahead of the other.
I hit level 20 at 1 hour and 33 minutes using Azeroth Auto Pilot. However, there were 8 minutes when my router restarted and disconnected me. Luckily I was recording the whole thing with OBS. I was pretty surprised to learn that some disconnect time is included in your time played.
After adjusting for disconnect time, the results at level 20 looked like this:
- Level 20 with AAP – 1 hr 25 mins
- Level 20 with Zygor – 1 hr 22 mins
The 3-minute advantage for Zygor can be attributed to a bug that I ran into while using AAP. I ended up getting locked out of a cave during the Draenor intro and had to repeat the “kill 100 fighters in the arena” twice…
Results: Level 20 – 30
In the next ten levels, the differences between the two addons emerged. Azeroth Auto Pilot had directions to pick up experience rewarding Draenor treasures and skipped several questlines.
Zygor, on the other hand, ignored the treasures and went for more of a quest-completionist approach. This focus on quests was a little frustrating in a few cases where it wanted me to do some scenario quests that took longer to complete.
As a result, AAP erased its small deficit and pulled ahead by 17 minutes by level 30! Here are the split times:
- Level 30 with AAP – 3 hr 26 mins
- Level 30 with Zygor – 3 hr 43 mins
Results: Level 30 – 40
Things started to get interesting after I unlocked flying at level 30.
Given Zygor’s quest-focused approach, and my ability to complete quests faster with flying, Zygor reclaimed a slight lead over AAP at level 40.
Split times:
- Level 40 with AAP – 6 hrs
- Level 40 with Zygor – 6 hr 2 mins
Results: Level 40 – 50
Zygor continued to build its lead on my way to level 50.
By the time I reached level 50 on both characters, Zygor had claimed a 22-minute lead over the free alternative.
- Level 50 with AAP – 9 hr 26 mins
- Level 50 with Zygor – 9 hr 4 mins
While things are looking pretty good for Zygor at this point, it is still too early to call it. Since this testing happened before the pre-patch and Dragonflight release, I leveled from 50 to 60 in the Shadowlands campaign.
Results: Level 50 – 60
That’s right… I subjected myself to two more playthroughs of the Maw intro. Uggh! Hopefully, this guide is helpful, and it was worth it.
While both AAP and Zygor guided me through the Shadowlands campaign, Zygor included many more side quests while leveling to 60. This meant I got a few more achievements along the way, but the leveling time slowed considerably.
By the time I reached level 60, the 22-minute lead Zygor had brought into the Shadowlands had been erased.
In the end, Azeroth Auto Pilot got me from level 10 to 60 in a total of 16 hr and 2 mins. Zygor brought me over the level 60 finish line at the 16 hr and 23 min mark.
In other words, the AAP ended up being 21 minutes faster!
Level 60 Split times:
- Level 60 with AAP – 16 hr 2 mins
- Level 60 with Zygor – 16 hr 23 mins
Without the large quest experience boosts from Winds of Wisdom, I would expect Azeroth Auto Pilot to take an even bigger lead. So, AAP should be your pick if you are looking for an addon to lead you to the max level the fastest.
If you are leveling and want to complete quest achievements while doing it, Zygor might be more your speed.
Here is the complete set of splits for comparison (in hh: mm format):
| Level | AAP | Zygor |
|---|---|---|
| 10 – 20 | 1:25 | 1:22 |
| 10 – 30 | 3:26 | 3:43 |
| 10 – 40 | 6:00 | 6:02 |
| 10 – 50 | 9:26 | 9:04 |
| 10 – 60 | 16:02 | 16:23 |
Other Zygor Features
While leveling guides are one part of Zygor, they are only a tiny fraction of what the addon offers. Let’s look at a couple of other major features in the addon to help you decide if Zygor is worth it.
Major Feature #1: Massive library of guides
One part I liked about Zygor was that it works in retail and WotLK Classic. In other words, the $9.99 monthly price gives you access to guides for both games.
Beyond leveling guides, Zygor comes with a massive pool of guides for various activities in both games. More specifically, you can find guides for
- Leveling & Questing (including Loremaster)
- Dungeons & Raids
- Dailies
- World Events
- Reputations
- Gold
- Professions
- Pets & Mounts
- Titles
- Achievements
While you can find these types of guides free online, Zygor makes it much more convenient by having them all in-game.
Major Feature #2: Quality-of-life gameplay improvements
Guides are the main focus of Zygor, but there are other quality-of-life improvements bundled into the addon. Many of these improvements are available through other addons, but it is nice that Zygor pulls them all into one place.
Here are a few of the extras you get with Zygor:
- Automatic selling of gray items
- Auto quest accept and turn-in
- Cutscene skips (optional)
- A Gear Advisor tool that suggests when you have an upgrade to equip
- Gold guide – walks you through how to farm raw gold, gather, craft, or play the AH
Verdict: Is Zygor Worth it?
With the leveling test and Zygor features in mind, it is time to answer the question: Is Zygor worth it?
Unfortunately, the answer is… it depends.
If you are looking for an addon to help you level quickly, Zygor will be faster than leveling without a guide, but it isn’t any faster than free alternatives. For leveling, I recommend using free addons like Azeroth Auto Pilot in retail or Guidelime (+Guidelime TUGs) for WotLK Classic. In other words, Zygor is not worth it if you just use it for leveling.
If you want to try Azeroth Auto Pilot, feel free to check out my AAP guide.
On the other hand, based on my testing, I believe that Zygor may be worth it if you focus on collection/completion or if you are a new player. Having all the guides and features in one spot saves time toggling your world map, watching YouTube guides, and looking for walkthroughs on the internet.
If you want to try out Zygor for yourself, a free trial is available. It will give you starter zone leveling guides and walkthroughs for select dungeons, mounts, pets, and more.
Ultimately, I hope this article has helped you decide whether you want to give Zygor a shot. Thanks for reading, and best of luck on your adventures!
Frequently Asked Questions
Great question! Zygor has not sponsored this article, but I am participating in the Zygor affiliate program.
Simply put, if you decide to try Zygor and click a link in this article, part of your payment will come back to support this blog and future addon reviews like this! If you decide not to get Zygor, there is no pressure!
Zygor costs $9.99 for a month-to-month, cancel-anytime subscription. If you are a power user, you can buy an upfront annual subscription for $99.99 instead (~$8.33 per month).
You can open a guide by clicking the three lines in the top left side of the Zygor window and then select “Guide Menu.” If you don’t have an active guide, you can also select the “Click here” option in the main window to open the guide menu. After that, all you need to do is double-click the guide you want.
The installation process for Zygor is different than other addons. After signing up for the free trial or Elite subscription, you can download the Zygor desktop client. Once you launch the client, you just need to click “Install,” and you are good to go.
The quality of Zygors guide has significantly declined. In the past, their guides were detailed and showed effort, but this expansion took them over a month to copy and paste information from professions.com. It’s clear that the guide has gone downhill with each expansion, and this one is only about 25% of what it used to be. They seem to be smug and arrogant about it, or they’ve lost interest in the game themselves. There isn’t much competition when it comes to achievements, pets, and other little things besides leveling, which they used to have a lot more of. Some of their guides are nonsensical, with steps as simple as “get object” followed by a congratulatory achievement. There are dozens of these guides, leaving readers feeling insulted and unimpressed.
Hey, I really like your comparisons and think they doesn’t get the attention they deserved!
Please go on with your work.
I‘d love to see a comparison about party unitframes for healing dungeons and raids like Vuhdo, Grid2, SUF, Aptechka and so on.
Thanks for the support! I’m planning on making more, life is just crazy with family/full-time job, but I love doing the comparisons!
Thanks for the suggestions, I main a healer so I love the idea of testing out various unitframes!