We’ve paid full price for five of the big travel eSIMs and used them on real trips: Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad and aloSIM. Those trips have run from East Africa to the Caribbean to mainland Europe and the US, and our full Airalo review has been live for over a year now. I still keep Airalo running as my everyday data eSIM on a dual-SIM phone in the States, with my normal SIM handling calls and texts.
The short version surprises people, so I’ll give it to you first. After all that use, the thing I’d most want you to know is that travel eSIMs are far more alike than the companies selling them want you to believe. The marketing implies there’s one obvious winner. In practice they’re close to interchangeable for most trips, and the differences that actually matter come down to three things: the price for the data you’ll really use, the support when something goes wrong, and whether a provider even sells a package for where you’re going.
So if you just want the answer: for most trips, get Airalo. It has the widest cheap coverage, it’s the one we’ve leaned on the longest, and it works in most of the world without drama. Choose Holafly instead if you want simple day-by-day unlimited data and won’t be tethering much. Choose Saily if the built-in security extras appeal to you. Everything after this is the detail behind those picks, including the trips where an eSIM is the wrong call and you’re better off with roaming or a local SIM.
Table of Contents:
Travel eSIMs Compared at a Glance
Here’s how the five we’ve paid for and used stack up. This first table is the shape of each one; just below it I’ve added real example prices for the US and Europe, with the date I checked them, since the figures move and the point is how they compare rather than any single number. Check the live plan for your destination before you buy.
| Provider | Coverage | How it’s priced | Unlimited data? | Hotspot / tethering | Support & extras | Our one-line take |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airalo | 200+ countries and regions; local, regional and global plans | Per-GB data packages, usually the cheapest way in | Yes, now across most destinations (daily fair-use cap) | Yes | 24/7 chat; the largest, longest-running marketplace | The safe default for most trips |
| Holafly | 110+ countries | Day-based unlimited plans; pricier per day | Yes, this is its whole pitch (with a fair-use catch, below) | Allowed, but capped per destination on standard plans | 24/7 chat | Simplest day-by-day unlimited; skip it if you need to tether |
| Saily | 200+ destinations | Per-GB data plans | On select destinations | Yes | Built-in ad, tracker and web protection from Nord Security | Choose it if the bundled security layer matters |
| Nomad | 200+ destinations; regional and global | Per-GB plus top-ups, validity windows up to 365 days | On select destinations | Yes | App-based; flexible top-ups | Good for long, multi-country trips and topping up as you go |
| aloSIM | 200+ destinations | Per-GB data packages | On select destinations | Yes | Optional US/Canada calling-and-texting number through its sister app, Hushed | Fine on price and coverage; the calling number is a paid add-on, not a freebie |
United States, 30-day plans (US dollars, checked May 2026):
| Data | Airalo | Saily | Nomad | aloSIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5GB | $12.60 | $13.99 | $13.00 | $14.00 |
| 10GB | $20.70 | $22.99 | $19.00 | $23.00 |
Europe regional plan (dozens of countries), 30-day (US dollars, checked May 2026):
| Data | Airalo | Saily | Nomad | aloSIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5GB | $19.50 | $19.49 | $17.00 | $19.50 |
| 10GB | $31.00 | $35.99 | $22.00 | $36.00 |
Look at who wins and you’ll see the point. In the US, Airalo is cheapest at 5GB and Nomad at 10GB; in Europe, Nomad is cheapest at both, and at 5GB three of the four sit within a cent of each other. The cheapest eSIM really comes down to where you’re going and how much data you buy, which is exactly why I won’t crown one. (Holafly is off these grids on purpose, because it sells unlimited day passes rather than per-GB plans: reckon on roughly $27 a week or $75 a month, much the same wherever you travel.)
As for how much to buy, I get through a month on a 5GB plan without thinking about it, covering maps, social media and a fair bit of research, because I keep streaming and big video uploads to Wi-Fi. Stream video on the move, tether a laptop or upload a lot from the road, and you’ll want 10GB or more, or one of those unlimited passes. Two last things: these are regional Europe plans, so if your whole trip is in one country a single-country plan is usually cheaper again; and prices drift, which is why I date these figures and re-check them, so treat them as the shape of the market rather than a live quote.
If you read nothing else, read that the prices and “unlimited” labels are the parts most likely to mislead you. I’ll come back to both.
Are Travel eSIMs Worth It? (And When They’re Not)
For most international trips, yes, and the maths is simple. A travel eSIM installs onto a phone you already own, costs a few pounds for a useful chunk of data, and gets you online the moment you land without hunting for a SIM kiosk or paying your home network’s roaming rates. You keep your normal number active for calls and texts, and you add a second data line for the trip. We’ve used them everywhere from a safari lodge’s car park in Uganda to a ferry queue in Italy, and the convenience is real.
The reason I won’t tell you to always buy one is that there are trips where an eSIM is the wrong tool, and nobody selling them will say so.
If your phone is carrier-locked, an eSIM from anyone other than your own network simply won’t activate. That’s the single most common reason people end up frustrated, and I cover how to check below. If your home plan still covers roaming where you’re heading, an eSIM might save you nothing, so check rather than assume. The ground has shifted, though: since Brexit, most UK networks have quietly brought EU roaming charges back, so the “it’s all included” era many of us remember is largely over. I get into the roaming maths, for both UK and US travellers, further down. And if you need to make a lot of real phone calls rather than use data, most travel eSIMs are data-only, so a local physical SIM with a real phone number can still be the better buy.
There’s also the refund problem. If you buy a plan, find your phone won’t take it, and ask for your money back, you’re often arguing with a chat agent over an activation you technically started. Buy from a provider with clear, responsive support, and check compatibility before you pay, not after.
How We Use These, and Why “We Paid” Matters
Every eSIM in this guide we bought ourselves, at full price, on trips we were taking anyway. None of this is a press loan or a sponsored test where a provider hands you a free plan and hopes for a kind write-up. That matters because a free plan you’ll never top up tells you nothing about the part that actually bites: what happens when your data runs low in a country where you can’t easily get back online to buy more.
Our use is weighted towards Airalo, which I’ve run as a daily data eSIM in the US and across multiple trips elsewhere, which is why we have a separate, much deeper Airalo review. The other four we’ve used on specific trips to see whether any of them gave a reason to switch. Spoiler, and it’s the heart of this guide: none of them did, and that’s the useful finding, not a cop-out.
Why Most Travel eSIMs Are More Alike Than the Marketing Admits
Walk through the marketing for any of these and you’ll come away thinking you’re choosing between wildly different products. You’re mostly not. Under the branding, most travel eSIM companies are reselling capacity on the same underlying mobile networks in any given country. When you buy a France plan from three different providers, there’s a fair chance all three are routing you onto Orange or SFR. The app is different, the price is a bit different, the support is different. The signal coming out of your phone usually isn’t.
That’s why, after years of this, I keep coming back to the same three questions instead of a brand.
The first is the price for the data you’ll really use, and I mean your trip, not the headline number. A per-GB provider is cheaper if you’re a light user checking maps and messages, while a day-based unlimited provider wins if you stream and hotspot heavily. Work out roughly how much data you burn at home in a week, then buy for that.
The second is support, because the day an install fails or a plan won’t connect is the day you find out what you paid for. The bigger, longer-established providers tend to answer faster and at any hour, which is worth a small premium when you’re standing in an airport with no signal.
The third is whether a provider even sells a package for where you’re going. This used to be the big differentiator. When I first started using eSIMs, coverage gaps were common, especially in East Africa, and the provider with a Uganda or Rwanda plan won by default. That’s largely closed now, but it still catches people out for smaller countries and some regional bundles, so always confirm your exact destination is covered, on the plan type you want, before you assume any provider has it.
Get those three right and the brand barely matters. Get them wrong and the best-reviewed eSIM in the world is still the wrong one for your trip.
The Five We Use, Provider by Provider
Here’s where each of the five earns or loses its place, based on using them rather than reading the spec sheets.
Airalo
Airalo is our default, and it’s the one I’d put in most people’s hands without much hesitation. It bills itself as the first and largest travel eSIM store, founded in 2019, with packages across 200+ countries and regions. The “largest” and “first” lines are its own claims rather than an audited ranking, but the practical upshot holds up: when I need a plan somewhere obscure, Airalo almost always has one, and at an entry price as low as anyone else’s here.
The reason I started with Airalo years ago was coverage. It had plans for the East African countries I was visiting when the others didn’t, and it was cost-effective on top of that. Since then I’ve tried the alternatives looking for a reason to move, and I haven’t found one. It isn’t flashy. It just works in more places than anything else here, for a price that’s right there with the cheapest. You also get a 24/7 chat line, which I’ve used and which answered.
It even covers the case I used to send people elsewhere for. Airalo now sells unlimited packages across most of its destinations too, with the same daily fair-use cap the others use, so a heavy-data trip no longer means leaving it. For most trips, where you want a sensible chunk of data at the lowest price, it’s still the pick. You can browse Airalo plans here, and our full Airalo review goes much deeper if it’s the one you’re leaning towards.
Holafly
Holafly built its name on unlimited data. It’s no longer the only one selling it, now that Airalo and others offer unlimited too, so the real reason to pick Holafly is the day-based model itself: you buy by the day and never have to think about gigabytes. For heavy users who stream, use maps and video-call all day, a flat daily rate can work out simpler than rationing a per-GB plan.
Two things keep me from making it the default, and both come from reading Holafly’s own pages rather than the cheerleading reviews. First, “unlimited” comes with a fair-use speed reduction that varies by destination. Holafly is upfront that some local operators slow your speed after a daily high-speed threshold, then reset it the next day. There’s no single published figure, because it’s set per country, so be wary of any review quoting you an exact “X GB then throttled” number for Holafly as a whole. They’re guessing.
Second, and this is the one that catches people: tethering. Holafly’s unlimited plans market “unlimited data sharing,” but on the standard destination plans, hotspot use is actually capped, often around 500 MB to 1 GB a day depending on the country. That’s a real gap between the marketing and the spec, and if your plan is to share your unlimited data with a laptop or a travel companion all day, you’ll hit the wall. Holafly does sell separate Connect and monthly global plans that do include unlimited sharing, so the fix exists, but it isn’t the standard destination eSIM most people buy. Pick Holafly for unlimited data on your own phone, not as a hotspot for the family. Holafly plans are here.
Saily
Saily is the newcomer with a useful angle: it’s owned by Nord Security, the company behind NordVPN, and every plan bundles in web protection, ad and tracker blocking, and a virtual-location feature. If you’re the kind of traveller who already cares about connecting safely on hotel and airport Wi-Fi, getting some of that baked into your data plan is a sensible bit of overlap.
The thing to be clear-eyed about is that the standard Saily plans are not a full VPN. The security tools are a lighter layer than running NordVPN itself, and full VPN access only comes with the premium Saily Ultra tier. So buy it for the convenience of the bundled protection, not in the belief you’re getting NordVPN for the price of an eSIM. On data, coverage and price it sits in the same ballpark as the rest. Saily plans are here, and if security on the road is a priority for you, it’s worth reading our guides on travel VPNs and keeping your data safe while travelling alongside it.
Nomad
Nomad is the one I’d point a long, multi-country traveller at. It runs regional and global plans across 200+ destinations, and its strength is flexibility: top-ups and add-ons that suit a trip where you’re crossing borders and don’t want to buy a fresh plan in every country.
One detail worth getting right, because it’s widely misreported: Nomad plans are not “never expires.” They carry validity windows, with fixed-data plans running anywhere from about a week up to a 365-day validity on the longer global tiers. That’s a generous window, and add-ons can activate when a plan runs out, but if you specifically want a buy-once-use-whenever model with no expiry at all, that isn’t quite what Nomad is. For a long trip where you’ll use the data inside the window anyway, the flexibility is the real draw. Nomad plans are here.
aloSIM
I haven’t leaned on aloSIM as heavily as the others, and on the core job, data in 200+ destinations at competitive per-GB prices, it’s a perfectly capable option that does nothing wrong. It sits comfortably alongside Airalo and Saily on price and coverage.
Its talked-about feature is a US or Canada phone number, and it’s an easy one to misread. aloSIM doesn’t bundle a number into your data eSIM. What it offers is a calling-and-texting number through its sister app, Hushed, which is a VoIP number that works over data or Wi-Fi, with a choice of US and Canada area codes. It’s presented as a free trial that then becomes a paid subscription unless you cancel, so treat it as a paid add-on you might want, not a free US number that comes with your plan. If a usable US calling number really matters to your trip, it’s a neat bit of integration. If you just need data, aloSIM is a solid, unremarkable choice, and that’s meant as a compliment. aloSIM plans are here.
Which eSIM for Which Trip
The point of using all five is to be able to make the call the marketing won’t. So here’s who I’d point at what.
The light tourist (maps, messaging, the odd photo upload). Airalo. Buy the smallest sensible per-GB plan, pay the least, move on. Most people reading this are this person.
The heavy user who streams and video-calls. Start by asking whether you really need unlimited, because a big per-GB plan often covers it for less. On the larger bundles Nomad tends to be the cheapest of the lot, as the tables above show, and any large per-GB plan still costs well under Holafly‘s unlimited for the same trip. So go per-GB unless you stream all day, can’t predict your usage, or want the comfort of never watching the meter, in which case Holafly’s day-based unlimited is the one. Either way, use it on your own phone rather than tethering it out.
The family or group who’ll share one connection. Don’t lean on a phone hotspot for this. The tethering caps on “unlimited” plans will bite, and battery drain on the host phone is miserable. Look at a dedicated mobile hotspot or a travel router instead, and run an eSIM in that.
The long, multi-country trip. Nomad, for the regional and global plans and the flexible top-ups, so you’re not buying a new plan at every border.
The security-conscious traveller. Saily, for the bundled protection, paired with a separate travel VPN if you want full coverage.
The UK traveller weighing it against roaming. Check your plan first, but don’t lean on the old “EU roaming is included” assumption. Since Brexit, most UK networks have reintroduced EU roaming charges, usually a couple of pounds a day, with O2 the main holdout that still bundles it in. So even a short EU trip increasingly costs less on an eSIM, and for anything beyond Europe it almost always does. Airalo is the default.
The US traveller weighing it against roaming. It cuts the other way depending on your carrier. T-Mobile and Google Fi include international data (T-Mobile slows to a crawl on cheaper plans, Google Fi runs at full speed), so for a short trip you may already be covered. Verizon and AT&T mostly charge around ten dollars a day unless you’re on a top unlimited tier, and at that rate an eSIM like Airalo pays for itself within a couple of days.
Worth a Look, Though We Haven’t Used Them
To be straight with you, we’ve used the five above and not these, so treat this as a map of the rest of the market rather than a verdict. They come up often enough that leaving them out would be a gap.
Roamless runs a single global eSIM profile with an actual pay-as-you-go model: top up a balance and get charged per GB across 200+ countries, with no fixed expiry on the credit. If the “buy once, use whenever” idea is what you were hoping Nomad was, Roamless is the closer fit on paper.
Ubigi is an operator-grade provider (backed by Transatel) with local, regional and global plans across around 200 destinations and 5G in a growing list of locations. It’s long-established and a reasonable name to cross-check.
Jetpac, based in Singapore, sells multi-network data plans across 200+ destinations and adds in-app voice-call packs, with airport-lounge access on delayed flights as its quirk.
Yesim markets flexible recharge plans with extra features like a built-in VPN and hotspot, aimed at frequent travellers and digital nomads.
The coverage numbers here are each provider’s own claims, fine for a name-check but worth confirming for your destination if one of them tempts you.
How eSIMs Work, and Whether Your Phone Is Compatible
An eSIM is a SIM built into your phone that you activate with software instead of a plastic card. You buy a plan online, the provider sends you a QR code or activates it inside their app, and a few minutes later you have a second mobile data line running alongside your normal SIM. There’s nothing to post and nothing to swap.
Two practical points save most of the headaches. Install it while you still have Wi-Fi, ideally before you fly or at the airport, because activating usually needs an internet connection and the whole thing takes about twenty minutes the first time. And once you land, you’ll need to turn on data roaming for the travel eSIM line in your settings. That sounds counterintuitive when you’re trying to avoid roaming charges, but the eSIM is technically a foreign line and won’t pull data without it. You’re not enabling your home network’s roaming, just letting the eSIM do its job.
Compatibility is where people get burned, so check before you buy. As a rule, eSIM support arrived with the iPhone XR and XS in 2018 and every iPhone since, the Google Pixel 3 and newer, and the Samsung Galaxy S20 and newer. The catch, and it’s a big one for US readers, is that “Galaxy S20 and newer” is not universally true. The US models of the Galaxy S20, S21 and Note 20 Ultra do not support eSIM at all, and various other regional variants are excluded too. iPhones sold in mainland China, and most Hong Kong models, also lack eSIM. So don’t trust the general rule, check your exact model.
Your phone also has to be unlocked. A carrier-locked handset will only accept eSIMs from its own network, which defeats the point. If you’re not certain about your model, the Kimovil device checker lets you look up eSIM support and frequency bands for a specific phone before you spend anything.
An eSIM Is One Layer of Getting Online Abroad
The mistake the rest of the internet makes is treating a travel eSIM as the whole answer to staying connected. It’s one layer, and the others are worth knowing.
Most travel eSIMs are data-only, with no normal voice number, which is fine more often than you’d think. Outside the US especially, we find WhatsApp is close to universal, and having it installed to message accommodation hosts, tour operators and drivers over data covers most of what you’d otherwise need a phone number for. If you do need to ring a landline or a number that isn’t on WhatsApp, a VoIP app over your eSIM data handles it, which is the same idea as aloSIM’s Hushed number.
For travelling as a family or a group, sharing one phone’s hotspot all day is a poor plan once you factor in tethering caps and battery, so a dedicated pocket hotspot with its own eSIM or SIM is usually the better setup. And whatever you connect with, a travel VPN is worth running on public Wi-Fi for security. We pull all of this together in our wider guide to getting online when you travel, which is the place to start when you’re sorting out the whole connectivity picture, eSIM and all.
Travel eSIM FAQ
Are travel eSIMs worth it?
For most international trips, yes. They’re cheaper than your home network’s roaming, install on a phone you already own, and get you online the minute you land.
The exceptions are worth knowing: if your phone is carrier-locked, if you’re taking one short EU trip on a UK plan that already includes EU roaming, or if you need to make a lot of real phone calls rather than use data, an eSIM may save you nothing or be the wrong tool.
Is my phone compatible with an eSIM?
Most phones from 2018 onwards support eSIM: the iPhone XR/XS and newer, the Google Pixel 3 and newer, and the Samsung Galaxy S20 and newer.
There’s an important exception. US models of the Galaxy S20, S21 and Note 20 Ultra do not support eSIM, and some other regional variants are excluded. Your phone also needs to be unlocked. Check your exact model with a tool like the Kimovil device checker before you buy.
How long does it take to set up a travel eSIM?
About twenty minutes the first time, including buying the plan and installing it. Do it while you have Wi-Fi, ideally before you fly, since activation usually needs an internet connection.
Do I need to turn on data roaming for an eSIM?
Yes, for the eSIM line specifically. The travel eSIM is technically a foreign line, so it won’t pull data unless roaming is enabled for it in your settings.
This doesn’t switch on your home network’s expensive roaming. It only lets the eSIM connect to the local network it’s meant to use.
Can I use one eSIM in multiple countries?
Yes, if you buy a regional or global plan rather than a single-country one. Providers like Nomad and Airalo sell regional bundles (Europe, Asia and so on) and global plans that cover many countries on one eSIM, which suits multi-country trips.
Will a travel eSIM work on a carrier-locked phone?
No. A carrier-locked phone only accepts eSIMs from its own network, so a third-party travel eSIM won’t activate. You’ll need to unlock the phone first, which your home carrier can usually do.
Can I use a hotspot or tether with a travel eSIM?
Usually yes, but check the limits. Most travel eSIMs allow tethering, but the caps vary, and “unlimited” plans are the ones to watch.
Holafly’s standard destination plans, for example, allow hotspot use but cap it per destination, often around 500 MB to 1 GB a day, despite the unlimited-data marketing. If you plan to share your connection heavily, a dedicated mobile hotspot is a better bet than tethering a phone.
Can I make phone calls with a travel eSIM?
Most travel eSIMs are data-only, so you can’t make normal cellular calls on them. You can still call over data using WhatsApp, FaceTime or a VoIP app, which covers most needs while travelling.
If you specifically need a callable number, aloSIM offers one through its sister app Hushed, or you can keep your home SIM active for calls alongside the data eSIM.
Can I keep my normal phone number while using a travel eSIM?
Yes. That’s the main advantage of an eSIM over swapping in a physical local SIM. Your normal SIM stays in the phone for calls and texts, and the eSIM runs as a second line for data. On a dual-SIM phone you choose which line handles what.
What happens when my data runs out, and can I top up without Wi-Fi?
You top up in the provider’s app or website. The catch is that you usually need a connection to do it, which is awkward if you’ve just run dry.
The simple fix is to buy a little more than you think you’ll need, or to keep a small balance on a second provider. Some plans also let you set up auto-top-ups before you travel.
Can I get a refund if an eSIM doesn’t work?
Sometimes, but it’s the weakest part of the experience. Once you’ve started activating a plan, refunds can be hard to argue for, even if the problem is that your phone isn’t compatible.
The best protection is to check compatibility before you buy and to choose a provider with responsive support. The bigger, established providers tend to be easier to deal with when something goes wrong.
Which travel eSIM is cheapest?
For per-GB data plans, Airalo is about as cheap as any of the major providers and covers the widest range of destinations, which is a big part of why it’s our default. But Airalo, Saily, Nomad and aloSIM all price closely, and the cheapest one shifts with your destination and how much data you buy, so the real saving comes from checking the specific plan for your trip rather than trusting the brand.
Which travel eSIM has the best coverage?
Airalo and Nomad both cover 200+ destinations and are strong all-rounders. Coverage gaps that used to exist for places like East Africa have largely closed, but for smaller countries or specific regional bundles, always confirm your exact destination is covered before buying.
Do travel eSIMs offer unlimited data, and is Holafly really unlimited?
More and more do now, including Airalo, with Holafly the best known for the day-based version. The data itself is unlimited, but with two catches worth knowing.
There’s a fair-use speed reduction that varies by destination after a daily high-speed threshold, and on standard destination plans, tethering is capped even though the marketing says unlimited sharing. For unlimited data on your own phone it delivers; for unlimited tethering, read the plan details carefully.
Which eSIM is best for the USA, Europe or a specific region?
For most regions, Airalo is the reliable default thanks to its coverage and pricing. For a multi-country regional trip, Nomad’s regional plans are worth comparing.
The straight answer is that for a single destination, the differences are small, so pick on price for the data you’ll use and confirm the provider has a plan for that exact country.
Can I install a travel eSIM before I travel?
Yes, and you should. Install it on Wi-Fi before you fly so it’s ready to go when you land. Most plans only start counting your validity period from first use or activation in the destination, not from purchase, but check the specific plan’s terms.
Do travel eSIMs expire?
Most do. Plans carry a validity window, often from a few days up to 365 days on the longer global tiers, and unused data is lost once it lapses. If you want a true no-expiry, pay-as-you-go model, Roamless is built around that, where most of the mainstream providers are not.
Further Reading
If you’re sorting out how you’ll stay connected on a trip, these go deeper on the pieces around the eSIM:
- Our full Airalo review, if Airalo is the one you’re leaning towards.
- How to get online when travelling, the wider guide to every option, eSIM included.
- The best mobile hotspots, for families and groups sharing one connection.
- Travel VPNs and keeping your data safe on the road, for connecting securely.
- Over on our sister site, the best travel routers, if you’d rather run your data through a dedicated device.
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