So you’ve decided that you’re done with swapping physical SIM cards, you don’t want to lose another one and you don’t want to line up in queues to discuss a SIM card plan struggling to understand one another. Enter eSIMs. With eSIMs, your next trip can be much more convenient. Simply download a travel eSIM app, make a purchase and install it. Voila, you’re done.

There are many travel eSIMs out there and we try to test the pick of the bunch. Today we’re putting two of the most famous head to head: Airalo vs Holafly. You may have seen Airalo being promoted by your favorite influencers or Youtubers and you may have seen Holafly… everywhere. We really do mean everywhere, we saw a Holafly advert before a movie on a flight in the US recently.

So let’s cut through the noise and give you real-world, uninfluenced opinions.

Airalo

Airalo, founded in 2019 in Singapore, claims to be the world’s first eSIM store. With over 20 million users and coverage in more than 200 countries, Airalo has established itself as a major player in the travel eSIM market.

At TEE, we’ve had our fair share of experiences with eSIMs from all sorts of apps and providers. Some have been great, others not so much. Airalo was among the first that we tried, being one of the early players in the market. After using it extensively, we’ve come to see it as reliable overall, if a little expensive. Here’s a quick summary of our Airalo review:

Airalo scores quite well thanks to its reliability, app quality, its amazing loyalty program, etc. We gave it 4 out of 5. However, reviews from the major public review sites are just a little bit varied…

• App Store score: 4.6/5
• Play Store score: 4.5/5
• TrustPilot score: 3.9/5

Holafly

In the other corner, another heavyweight. Holafly is a huge name in the eSIM space since its creation all the way back in 2017. Created by co-founders Pedro Maiquez and Yingyan Hu due to the frustration of getting online overseas (we knew the feeling), the company was originally based in Valencia, Spain, but now has multiple other offices all over the world. Holafly also offers plans in over 200 countries around the world.

The internet’s opinions are generally a bit more positive…

• App Store score: 4.8/5
• Play Store score: 4.6/5
• TrustPilot score: 3.9/5

In truth, we have 2 providers here who are big enough to not have to compete on price. Airalo’s prices are decidedly mid-range to expensive in most countries, with exceptions as there always are.

Holafly’s pricing is generally different due to the because of its unlimited data model. We see Holafly’s pricing broadly in line with traditional competitors such as Truely, Firsty and more. Price differences are minimal, promo codes will definitely come into play to get the best possible price.

What is interesting is where Airalo does offer unlimited plans (not in all countries), they tend to be right in line with Holafly’s pricing.

Our opinion: Holafly is our new winner