Airalo

Airalo is the best-known travel eSIM brand, and in our catalogue it's the only provider that reaches all 204 destinations we track — 11,842 plans in total, second in size only to Roamix.

That matters more than it sounds. For an unusual destination, where half a dozen providers simply don't operate, Airalo will have something. Not always the cheapest thing, but something.

What you pay for that reach is price. Airalo rarely wins on cost alone: its best rate on sensibly-sized plans sits around $0.20/GB, while RedteaGO goes below $0.10 and Stellar and Sim Local hover near $0.12. You're paying for the brand, the app and the support desk.

Airalo makes sense when the trip has complications: several countries in sequence, a destination with thin coverage, or simply when you'd rather not experiment. The app is genuinely well built, activation is among the smoothest in the sector, and support answers in several languages.

It's also the sensible pick if you travel often. One account with your history, top-ups and invoices in one place removes friction, and that has value even though it never shows up in a price-per-gigabyte comparison.

Where it doesn't make sense is a one-week trip to a competitive destination. In Japan, Thailand or Spain you'll find plans at half the price for the same data, and the difference in polish doesn't justify paying double.

Airalo reaches our comparison through the Impact network, and its catalogue doesn't publish whether plans allow tethering or include 5G. That doesn't mean they lack those features — most do — it means the data isn't in the file we receive.

We're flagging it because you'll see those fields empty on their rows, and we don't want that read as a shortcoming. When a provider doesn't declare something, we leave it blank rather than assume: inventing a feature is as bad as hiding one.

If hotspot use is essential for your trip, confirm it on the plan page before buying.