The Best E-SIM Providers for Travel

Planning an international trip usually means dealing with expensive roaming charges from your home carrier. You can easily stop paying those fees by switching to a travel eSIM. These digital SIM cards let you download a local data plan in minutes. Here is how the top providers compare.

Why You Should Switch to a Travel eSIM

Using your standard cell phone plan abroad is incredibly expensive. Major US carriers offer international roaming passes, but the daily costs add up fast. AT&T charges $12 per day for their International Day Pass. Verizon charges $10 per day for TravelPass. Over a two-week vacation, you are looking at $140 to $168 just to check Google Maps and send messages.

Digital SIM cards cost a fraction of that amount. Instead of paying daily fees to your home carrier, you buy a prepaid data package from an independent provider. You download this package directly to your phone using a QR code or an app. The setup is instant. Best of all, you can usually buy 10GB of high-speed data for under $25 total.

Top eSIM Providers Compared

The market for travel data has exploded in recent years. While many companies offer similar services, a few stand out for their pricing, network reliability, and customer support.

Airalo: Best Overall for Flexible Data Plans

Airalo is the most popular provider on the market right now. They offer data plans for over 200 individual countries, plus regional and global packages.

  • Pricing Examples: If you are visiting Japan, the Airalo “Moshi Moshi” plan gives you 10GB of data for $18, valid for 30 days. For European trips, the “Eurolink” plan provides 10GB across 39 countries for $37.
  • The Pros: The Airalo app is incredibly easy to use. They also run a loyalty program called Airmoney that gives you 5% cash back on every purchase to use toward future trips.
  • The Cons: Airalo does not offer unlimited data plans. If you run out of your data allowance, you must buy a top-up package.

Holafly: Best for Unlimited Data

If you stream video, upload heavy files to social media, or use maps constantly, Holafly is the top choice. They specialize in unlimited data plans for over 160 destinations.

  • Pricing Examples: A 10-day unlimited data plan for the United Kingdom or Italy costs $34. A 15-day unlimited plan costs $47.
  • The Pros: You never have to worry about running out of data. The peace of mind is worth the slightly higher price point.
  • The Cons: Hotspot tethering is strictly limited. You cannot share your unlimited data with your laptop or your travel partner. Holafly usually caps hotspot usage at 500MB per day.

Nomad: Best for High-Speed Reliability

Nomad partners directly with major local networks like Truphone to ensure you get 5G and 4G LTE speeds rather than slower 3G connections.

  • Pricing Examples: You can buy a 20GB data plan for the United States for $26. Their 10GB Asia-Pacific regional plan covers 21 countries for $24.
  • The Pros: Nomad has a very clean app interface. They send highly accurate SMS text alerts when you reach 80% of your data limit.
  • The Cons: Their global plans are broken into specific multi-country tiers which can be confusing to navigate compared to simple regional plans.

Saily: Best Newcomer for Simplicity

Created by Nord Security (the company behind the popular NordVPN software), Saily launched in early 2024. They built their service around user privacy and strict simplicity.

  • Pricing Examples: A 5GB plan in France costs $15.99. A 3GB plan for Thailand is $8.99.
  • The Pros: Saily requires only one single eSIM installation. With other companies, you often have to install a new digital profile for every new country. With Saily, you install the profile once and just buy new country plans inside the app.
  • The Cons: Because they are a newer service, they have fewer local network partnerships than Airalo.

Regional vs. Local vs. Global Plans

When shopping for an eSIM, you will see three main categories of coverage.

Local plans cover exactly one country. These are always the cheapest option. If your entire vacation is in Spain, buy a local Spain plan.

Regional plans cover a specific continent or geographic area. These are perfect for backpackers or cruise passengers visiting multiple ports. You do not have to buy a new data package every time you cross a border.

Global plans cover well over 100 countries worldwide. These are expensive and typically only make sense for business travelers or airline crew members flying to different continents every week. The Airalo Discover Global plan, for example, costs $89 for 20GB and lasts for a full year.

How to Check if Your Phone is Compatible

Not all smartphones support digital SIM technology. Your device needs a specific internal chip.

Apple users will find eSIM support on the iPhone XS, iPhone XR, iPhone 11, and all newer models. If you have a US version of the iPhone 14 or iPhone 15, your phone does not even have a physical SIM tray.

Samsung users need a Galaxy S20, S21, S22, S23, or S24 series device. Most Google Pixel phones from the Pixel 3 onward are also compatible.

There is one critical rule you must follow: your phone must be carrier-unlocked. If you bought your phone on a payment installment plan from T-Mobile, AT&T, or Verizon, the device might be electronically locked to their network. You need to call your provider and ask them to unlock the device before your trip.

Step-by-Step Guide to Preventing Fees

Buying the data plan is only half the battle. You must set up your phone correctly to avoid accidental charges from your home carrier.

  1. Buy before you fly: Purchase your data plan while you are still at home on a strong Wi-Fi connection.
  2. Label your lines: In your phone settings, label your home number as “Primary” and your new travel plan as “Travel.”
  3. Turn off Data Roaming: Go into the settings for your Primary line and turn off Data Roaming.
  4. Set the default data line: Change your default cellular data line to the new Travel eSIM.
  5. Turn off auto-switching: On Apple devices, make sure “Allow Cellular Data Switching” is toggled off. This stops your phone from sneaking back onto your expensive home network if the travel connection gets temporarily weak.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I keep my normal phone number active?

Yes. You can keep your primary physical SIM card active for phone calls and text messages while assigning all cellular internet traffic to your new travel plan. Just check with your home carrier about their pay-per-use rates for receiving SMS texts abroad.

Can I use WhatsApp with an eSIM?

Absolutely. WhatsApp is tied to your primary phone number, not your active data connection. When you open WhatsApp abroad, it will work exactly as it does at home.

Do travel eSIMs come with local phone numbers?

Most travel plans are data-only. They do not include a phone number for traditional calls or SMS texts. If you need to make voice calls, you should use data-based apps like FaceTime, WhatsApp, Skype, or Messenger. A few select providers like Holafly do include European phone numbers with their regional plans, but this is an exception rather than the rule.