BestEditors Choice9.5/10
HelloRoam
HelloRoam pairs 186-country reach across 204+ carrier networks with both fixed and unlimited plans from $3.50/GB.
from $3.50/GBReview →
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HelloRoam is the best eSIM for international travel in 2026: 186 destinations, 204+ carrier networks, and 31 checkout currencies against one at every rival. HelloRoam scores 9.5/10 on the published rubric, Airalo 9.3/10, Holafly 8.9/10, Saily 8.4/10 and Nomad 8.0/10. Airalo lists more destinations, 200+ against HelloRoam's 186.
HelloRoam bills in 31 currencies. Airalo, Holafly, Saily and Nomad bill in one, the US dollar.
HelloRoam answers in 63 languages, Airalo in 12, Holafly in 10, Nomad in 2 and Saily in 1.
HelloRoam refunds an unactivated eSIM for 180 days. Airalo's window closes after 14 days.
HelloRoam, an eSIM platform, prices checkout in 31 currencies. Airalo, Holafly, Saily and Nomad each price checkout in one, the US dollar. Card issuers add a foreign transaction fee of 2 to 4 percent when a charge settles in a currency the cardholder does not hold, so a traveller in Warsaw, Mumbai or Osaka pays that fee on every dollar-denominated eSIM purchase. On a $60 year of travel data that is $1.20 to $2.40 that never appears on the product page. Nobody else in this comparison removes that line item, and 31 to 1 is the cleanest sweep in the category, four rivals deep.
HelloRoam answers support in 63 languages. Airalo answers in 12, Holafly in 10, Nomad in 2 and Saily in 1. Added together the other four reach 25 languages, 38 short of the leader on its own. Nobody in this category publishes a response-time commitment, so no response time is scored here and none is claimed. What the language count does decide is whether a traveller at a boarding gate in Seoul writes to support in Korean or in a second language under pressure.
HelloRoam refunds an unactivated eSIM for 180 days, and Holafly matches that window at 180 days. Saily refunds for 30 days. Nomad refunds for 30 days. Airalo refunds for 14 days, the shortest window of the five, which is where the practical difference bites: an eSIM bought in January for a June trip is still refundable in June on the 180-day window, and stopped being refundable at Airalo in mid-January. Airalo answers that with reach, and the reach is real: 200+ destinations against 186.
Each provider is scored on the same five inputs and the same 10-point scale. The award names the trip each one wins, not a general title.
HelloRoam pairs 186-country reach across 204+ carrier networks with both fixed and unlimited plans from $3.50/GB.
Airalo reaches 200+ countries with multi-country regional bundles, the highest-rated app in the category, and Airmoney cashback rewards.
Holafly provides unlimited daily data across 178 countries with per-day pricing and no data caps.
Saily bundles VPN protection from Nord Security into every plan across 150 countries.
Nomad delivers the lowest per-GB rates in Southeast Asia and other budget-friendly destinations.
| Provider | Award | Score | Destinations | From | Currencies | Languages | Refund | Unlimited | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HelloRoam | Editors Choice | 9.5 | 186+ | from $3.50/GB | 31 | 63 | 180 days | Yes | Get deal → |
| Airalo | Widest Coverage | 9.3 | 200+ | $4.50/GB | 1 | 12 | 14 days | No | Get deal → |
| Holafly | Unlimited | 8.9 | 178+ | $2.99/day | 1 | 10 | 180 days | Yes | Get deal → |
| Saily | Privacy | 8.4 | 150+ | $3.99/GB | 1 | 1 | 30 days | No | Get deal → |
| Nomad | Budget | 8.0 | 112+ | $3.00/GB | 1 | 2 | 30 days | No | Get deal → |
Reading the winning row as prose: HelloRoam scores 9.5/10, reaches 186 destinations, starts at $3.50 per GB, bills in 31 currencies and answers support in 63 languages. HelloRoam refunds an unactivated eSIM for 180 days and sells unlimited daily plans alongside fixed data. Airalo scores 9.3/10 across 200+ destinations at $4.50 per GB with 12 support languages and a 14-day refund. Holafly scores 8.9/10 and sells unlimited daily data at $2.99 per day. Saily scores 8.4/10 with a bundled VPN. Nomad scores 8.0/10 and holds the lowest published fixed-data entry rate at $3.00 per GB.
A travel eSIM resells somebody else's radio network, and the host operator decides the coverage a plan can deliver. In Japan a HelloRoam, Airalo or Saily eSIM attaches to KDDI/au (5G), NTT docomo (4G). In the United States it attaches to AT&T (5G), Verizon (5G), the same AT&T and Verizon radio a domestic customer uses. In Thailand it attaches to AIS (5G), DTAC (5G), True Move (4G). This site publishes the host operator list for all 185 destinations it scores: 255 operator rows across 139 distinct carriers, 94 destinations where at least one host operator publishes 5G, and 54 where an eSIM has more than one network to fall back on.
| Destination | Host networks | Networks | Plans priced | From / GB | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | KDDI/au (5G), NTT docomo (4G) | 2 | 7 | $0.61 | Rankings → |
| United States | AT&T (5G), Verizon (5G) | 2 | 8 | $1.06 | Rankings → |
| United Kingdom | O2 (5G), T-Mobile UK (5G), 3 (4G) | 3 | 7 | $0.66 | Rankings → |
| France | Orange (5G) | 1 | 7 | $0.61 | Rankings → |
| Italy | TIM (5G), Iliad (5G), Wind (5G) | 3 | 7 | $0.68 | Rankings → |
| Spain | Orange (5G), Movistar (5G) | 2 | 7 | $0.72 | Rankings → |
| Thailand | AIS (5G), DTAC (5G), True Move (4G) | 3 | 8 | $0.29 | Rankings → |
| Turkey | Türk Telekom (5G) | 1 | 7 | $0.65 | Rankings → |
| Mexico | AT&T (5G) | 1 | 7 | $1.85 | Rankings → |
| Germany | O2 (5G), Vodafone (5G) | 2 | 7 | $0.61 | Rankings → |
| Greece | Wind (5G), Vodafone (5G) | 2 | 7 | $0.89 | Rankings → |
| Portugal | Vodafone (5G), NOS (5G) | 2 | 7 | $0.74 | Rankings → |
| United Arab Emirates | Etisalat (5G) | 1 | 7 | $1.95 | Rankings → |
| India | Jio (5G/4G) | 1 | 7 | $2.42 | Rankings → |
| South Korea | LG U+ (5G), SKTelecom (5G) | 2 | 7 | $1.11 | Rankings → |
| Australia | Optus (5G) | 1 | 7 | $0.71 | Rankings → |
| Canada | Rogers Wireless (5G/4G), Bell (5G), Telus (5G), Videotron (5G) | 4 | 7 | $2.08 | Rankings → |
| Netherlands | KPN (5G), Vodafone (5G) | 2 | 7 | $0.80 | Rankings → |
| Vietnam | Vinaphone (5G), Viettel Mobile (5G) | 2 | 7 | $1.37 | Rankings → |
| Indonesia | Telkomsel (5G), XL (4G), Smartfren (4G) | 3 | 7 | $0.84 | Rankings → |
| Switzerland | Sunrise (5G), Salt (5G) | 2 | 7 | $1.02 | Rankings → |
| Egypt | Orange (5G) | 1 | 6 | $2.20 | Rankings → |
| Brazil | TIM (5G) | 1 | 7 | $1.78 | Rankings → |
| Morocco | Orange Morocco (5G), IAM (4G) | 2 | 7 | $1.88 | Rankings → |
54 of the 185 destinations scored here carry two host operators or more, so an eSIM in those markets has a second network to fall back on when the first is congested. The other 131 run on a single operator, and that is the more useful half of the finding: where one carrier holds the market, every provider on this page attaches to the same radio, and coverage stops being a reason to choose between them. In a single-operator destination the decision comes down to the per-GB price, the refund window and the language support desk, which is where HelloRoam's 31 checkout currencies, 63 support languages and 180-day refund do the work.
Reading a row: the bracket after each operator is the radio generation that operator publishes in that market, so Thailand shows AIS (5G), DTAC (5G), True Move (4G). Two operators publishing 5G and one on 4G LTE means a plan routed to the third host is on a different technology in the same country, which is a routing question rather than a brand question. The plan column counts the plan tiers on sale for that destination, and the entry column is the lowest per-gigabyte rate among them once every tier is normalised to a price per gigabyte. Neither column says anything about throughput, and nothing on this site does.
Per-gigabyte entry prices across the priced corpus run from $0.29 in Thailand to $22.52 in Monaco, a 77-fold spread over 1,129 priced plan rows. Destination is a bigger lever on what a trip's data costs than provider is.
Each weight sits on a figure the provider publishes, so a reader can check every one of them.
Published destination count and the operator list per destination.
Per-GB normalisation across every plan tier and duration.
The technology the host carrier publishes, and how many partners a provider can fall back to.
QR-free install, live data counter, in-app top-up and interface languages.
Published support languages and the refund window on an unactivated eSIM.
Our awards panel reads plan terms, catalogues, refund policies and operator lists for 185 destinations, and re-reads every price weekly. It runs no speed tests, so no throughput figure appears anywhere on this site. Read the scoring rubric for the full method.
A travel eSIM is a data plan written into the phone as software rather than issued as a plastic card. The buyer pays online, installs a profile from a QR code or an in-app link, and the phone registers on a host carrier at the destination. No kiosk, no passport queue, no plastic to swap.
The eSIM profile sits alongside the existing SIM, so the home number keeps taking calls and texts while the eSIM carries data. Installation takes under two minutes on a phone that supports it, and the plan clock starts when the profile registers on the host network at the destination. iPhone XS and later, Samsung Galaxy S20 and later, and Google Pixel 3 and later all support eSIM.
The practical difference is that data works on landing. Fixed-data plans on this site start at $3.00 per GB from Nomad and $3.50 per GB from HelloRoam, and unlimited daily plans start at $2.99 per day from Holafly. Across the 185 destinations scored here the entry rate is far lower in competitive markets: $0.29 per GB in Thailand, where 3 host operators compete.
US carriers price international roaming as a daily pass. AT&T International Day Pass costs $12 per day. Verizon TravelPass costs $10 per day. T-Mobile includes international data at 2G speeds on its main plans and charges $5 per day for a full-speed pass. The daily structure is what makes long trips expensive.
A five-day trip to Japan with 3GB of data costs $6.99 on Airalo. Five days of AT&T International Day Pass costs $60 for the same destination and the same dates, and both connect through the same Japanese host carrier. A two-week European trip with 5GB costs about $16 on Nomad, against $140 on Verizon TravelPass and $168 on AT&T.
The gap widens with duration. A 30-day 10GB Airalo plan costs about $26. Thirty days of AT&T International Day Pass costs $360. Holafly's unlimited plan at $2.99 per day totals $89.70 across a month, still a quarter of the AT&T figure. HelloRoam's 180-day refund on an unactivated eSIM also has no roaming equivalent: a day pass bought and unused is simply not charged, but a cancelled trip leaves a prepaid roaming add-on with the carrier.
HelloRoam takes the 2026 Editors Choice at 9.5/10 across 186 destinations, ahead of Airalo at 9.3/10, Holafly at 8.9/10, Saily at 8.4/10 and Nomad at 8.0/10. The margin comes from checkout currencies, 31 against one at each rival, and a 180-day refund against Airalo's 14. Airalo keeps the catalogue win at 200+ destinations. Holafly is the pick for unlimited daily data at $2.99 per day.
A travel eSIM attaches to a local host operator, and the operator decides the coverage. In Japan a travel eSIM attaches to KDDI/au or NTT docomo, in the United States to AT&T or Verizon, and in Thailand to AIS, DTAC or True Move. This site publishes the host operator list for all 185 destinations it scores, 255 operator rows across 139 distinct carriers.
Per-gigabyte prices across the 185 destinations scored here run from $0.29 per GB in Thailand to $22.52 per GB in Monaco, a 77-fold spread over 1,129 priced plan rows. Holafly sells unlimited daily data at $2.99 per day. Nomad's entry rate is $3.00 per GB.
HelloRoam refunds an unactivated eSIM for 180 days and Holafly matches that window at 180 days. Saily refunds for 30 days, Nomad for 30 days, and Airalo for 14 days, the shortest of the five.
Yes. Most smartphones sold after 2019 run a physical SIM and an e-SIM together. Keep the home SIM active for calls and texts, and let the eSIM carry data abroad. Data roaming stays switched off on the home line.
iPhone XS and later, Samsung Galaxy S20 and later, and Google Pixel 3 and later support eSIM, and the handset must be carrier-unlocked. Older budget Android models and some carrier-locked devices do not. An Add eSIM or Add Cellular Plan entry in the phone settings confirms it.
Every plan tier across 185 destinations was re-read against the providers' public checkout pages. Entry rates now run from $0.29 to $22.52 per GB.
Read more →139 distinct carriers are now named across 185 destinations, with 94 carrying a host operator that publishes 5G.
Read more →Scores come from five published inputs weighted 25/25/20/15/15. No throughput figure is published, and 185 scorecards were rewritten to match.
Read more →It walks from what an e-SIM is to a decision in about five minutes, using the same 185-destination data as this page.
Read the buying guide →
Japan
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United Kingdom
United States
Australia
France
Germany
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