The short answer
You hold an O2 or Three contract and a flight to Kuala Lumpur, and the choice is whether to roam or buy a travel eSIM first. I read what each carrier charges in Malaysia on 10 November 2026 and set it against the travel eSIMs I priced the same day and Ringo Light. For a trip of two weeks or more I would buy Ringo Light and keep my own SIM in for calls and texts.
Unlimited data at full speed for 2 weeks at $16.99 or 30 days at $35.99, nothing renews. Airalo asks $48.50 for 15 days and $71 for the month.
10 GB for 30 days at $12 and 25 GB at $22, on Maxis and YTL with 5G. Its 15 days with 30 GB at full speed costs $29.
Unlimited for 3 days at $11.50 on Maxis, on its Sambungkan plan, and buckets from $4 for 1 GB.
Days, not gigabytes, on Celcom and Digi. $27.50 for a week; sharing limited to 1 GB a day.
Prices read on 10 November 2026: Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, O2, Ringo Light, European Central Bank, Three on their own sites or listings, Ringo Light from its catalogue. All in US dollars unless stated. Treat every number as a snapshot.
See the full price index for every country.
Travelling further? Compare the best eSIM for Asia and the eSIM for Asia-Pacific.
The prices, charted
US dollars, 10 November 2026. Ringo Light sells 2 weeks, the others 15 days. Ubigi's 15 days is 30 GB at full speed, then 2 Mbps. Nomad stops at 10 days, $33.
The 30-day plan at each brand. Ringo Light is unlimited data at full speed. Ubigi's month is 60 GB at full speed, then 2 Mbps. Nomad sells no month.
Holafly sells no buckets. Ringo Light sells no bucket either: its 2 weeks is unlimited, and lasts 2 weeks, not 30 days. At $16.99 it is under Airalo's $20 and Saily's $21.99 for 10 GB; only Nomad at $16 and Ubigi at $12 sell 10 GB for less.
Side by side
Swipe to compare →
Get Ringo Light for Malaysia, from $6.99.
Installed once, next to your own SIM. Your eSIM arrives by email in seconds.
- 7 days $6.99
- 2 weeks $16.99
- 30 days $35.99
We sell data eSIMs for now to fund the full Ringo service. Ringo is self funded. Every plan bought here pays for the build of one plan that works everywhere.
Want to keep your own number abroad?
That is the full Ringo service: one plan that works everywhere, with your own number included.
It is a separate product from Ringo Light and it is still being built, so it is not on sale yet. Join the waitlist to hear when it opens.
What to see in Malaysia, and what your phone needs for it
Eight places most trips to Malaysia include, from Kuala Lumpur and Penang to the Cameron Highlands, the islands and Borneo. Whichever plan you pick, the tip under each one is where your phone matters.
Roam with your carrier, or buy an eSIM
O2 Travel works in Malaysia at £7 a day, charged only for days of use, and each charge covers 24 hours from first use. At the ECB reference rate of 10 November 2026, £1 = $1.34, so one day is about $9, three days £21 (about $28), two weeks £98 (about $131) and a month £210 (about $281). Three lists Malaysia in Go Roam Around the World Extra, at £8 a day (about $11) on plans joined on or after 18 December 2025 and £7 on earlier ones. That makes about $32 for three days, about $150 for two weeks and about $322 for thirty days at the £8 rate. I read all of it on 10 November 2026. Three's page did not show pass prices that day, so I leave passes out.
Ringo Light is one payment per trip. For Malaysia it sells 2 weeks at $16.99 and 30 days at $35.99, and no 3-day plan. Two weeks is about $131 on O2 and about $150 on Three against $16.99, and a month is about $281 on O2 and about $322 on Three against $35.99.
Among the travel eSIMs, Ringo Light is the cheapest unlimited for two weeks and a month. Ubigi asks $29 for 15 days with 30 GB at full speed, Airalo $48.50, Saily $48.99 and Holafly $50.50, and for a month the rivals run $49 to $73.90. For a few days, Airalo sells 3 days of unlimited at $11.50, against about $28 on O2 and about $32 on Three.
What O2 and Three win is real, and I do not wave it away. Your UK number keeps ringing, calls and texts come with it, nothing needs installing, a phone with no eSIM slot works, and the charge lands on a bill you already pay. For one night in Kuala Lumpur on the way to somewhere else, O2's £7, about $9, beats every eSIM here, and Ringo Light sells nothing under 2 weeks. From the second day on I would buy a plan.
Networks in Malaysia, and what changes for a visitor from the UK
Malaysia has two big networks, Maxis and CelcomDigi, plus U Mobile, Unifi and Yes, which is YTL. All of them cover Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Malacca and the main highways well. Coverage thins in the rainforest, in the Cameron Highlands, on the East Coast islands and in the interior of Sabah and Sarawak, where Maxis and CelcomDigi reach furthest. Airalo, Nomad and Ubigi name Maxis, and Holafly names Celcom and Digi. Ringo Light uses a local partner network. For the city and coast route I would not pick a plan on network, and I would download offline maps before Borneo or an island crossing.
The carrier passes have terms of their own. O2 calls the bolt-on unlimited, caps roaming speed at 2Mbps and names no fair use rule, and calls to the UK and within Malaysia are unlimited while other countries cost standard roaming rates. Receiving a call or text does not start the day charge, and you switch it on by texting TRAVEL to 23336. O2's page offers the bolt-on to Pay Monthly plans. Three's Go Roam page allows up to 12GB of data a month in a Go Roam zone as its fair use limit, and the page does not state a hotspot rule, so I would ask before I tethered a laptop.
The travel eSIMs here are data only, with no Malaysian number. Calls go over apps that use data, such as WhatsApp or FaceTime.
If you want a data bucket: Ubigi or Nomad
- Ubigi, $12 for 10 GB. The cheapest 10 GB and the cheapest bigger bucket, 25 GB for $22, on Maxis and YTL with 5G.
- Nomad, $16 for 10 GB. 20 GB for $25, valid 30 days, on Maxis and Digi.
- Airalo, $20 for 10 GB. Its Sambungkan plan has 20 GB for $32, with buckets from $4 for 1 GB.
- Saily, $21.99 for 10 GB. 20 GB at $35.99.
- ✓Ringo Light, no buckets. Its 2 weeks is unlimited for $16.99 and its 30 days unlimited for $35.99. For a fixed 10 GB over a whole month, Ubigi at $12 and Nomad at $16 are cheaper in Malaysia, and Airalo at $20 and Saily at $21.99 are not, though their buckets last 30 days where the 2 weeks lasts 2 weeks. I would buy Ringo Light for unlimited, not for a bucket.
What Ringo Light is
Ringo Light is Ringo's own data eSIM, and I write for Ringo, so weigh that. It is sold to fund the full Ringo, one plan that works everywhere with your own number ported onto it. For Malaysia it sells three trips, all unlimited data at full speed: 7 days at $6.99, 2 weeks at $16.99 and 30 days at $35.99. Nothing renews. The eSIM arrives by email in seconds and installs in one scan, no app.
It is data only, with no number, no calls and no texts, and it sits beside your own SIM. Keep your UK SIM in for calls and texts, and for any bank code. I would check how your carrier bills the day before leaning on that.
The card to buy it is further up this page, just after the side-by-side table.
Pick by trip
O2 Travel. A single £7 day, about $9, no purchase and nothing to install.
Airalo unlimited, 3 days, $11.50, against about $28 on O2. Ringo Light sells no 3 days.
Ringo Light unlimited, 2 weeks, $16.99, against about $131 on O2 or about $150 on Three.
Ringo Light unlimited, 30 days, $35.99, against about $281 on O2 or about $322 on Three. Ubigi at $49 for 60 GB if you use a lot.
Ubigi 10 GB for 30 days at $12.
Keep your own SIM in beside the eSIM. O2 and Three carry calls and texts on your number and the travel eSIMs do not; the full Ringo, which Ringo Light funds, ports the number you have.
Frequently asked questions
How we compared, and our sources
Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, O2, Ringo Light, European Central Bank, Three, Ringo Light
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for Malaysia on 10 November 2026, all on the same day, in US dollars. Each rival's price comes from its own website where it showed dollars, otherwise from an esimdb.com listing, and every source and its date is listed below. Ringo Light's prices come from the catalogue our checkout charges.
We compare the trips people actually book: a week, two weeks and a month of unlimited data, and a 10 GB bucket. We read each brand's fair use and speed rules and quote them as the brands state them. We did not run speed tests, so this page makes no speed claims for any brand.
Ringo Light is our own product. We put it in the table on the same terms as everyone else, and where a rival is the better buy the page says so.
Left out: Maya Mobile. We could not read its own prices for this country on the day, so it stays out rather than being guessed.
- Airalo: www.airalo.com/malaysia-esim?currency=USD, unlimited and network in dollars on the site; buckets from esimdb.com/malaysia/airalo, listing dated 4 October 2026
- Holafly: esim.holafly.com/esim-malaysia/, own site, 10 November 2026
- Saily: saily.com/esim-malaysia/, prices in dollars on saily.com, read 25 October 2026; not readable on 10 November 2026, figures kept from 25 October
- Nomad: www.nomadesim.com/malaysia-esim, prices and networks in dollars on nomadesim.com/malaysia-esim, read 10 November 2026
- Ubigi: esimdb.com/malaysia/ubigi, listing dated 4 October 2026; networks from cellulardata.ubigi.com
- O2: www.o2.co.uk/international/o2-travel, O2 Travel bolt-on page, read 10 November 2026: £7 a day, charged for the 24 hours from first use, unlimited data capped at 2Mbps while roaming, unlimited calls to the UK and within the destination; Malaysia is on the page's list of destinations
- Ringo Light: ringoesim.com/malaysia, the catalogue the checkout charges, read the same day
- European Central Bank: www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml, euro reference rates of 10 November 2026, used for the dollar figures (£1 = $1.34)
- Three: www.three.co.uk/go-roam, Go Roam daily charges and the 12GB fair use limit at three.co.uk/go-roam, Malaysia in Around the World Extra at three.co.uk/support/roaming-and-calling-abroad/roaming-abroad/roaming-destinations, read 10 November 2026; the page shows no pass prices
- Ringo Light: our own catalogue, the prices the checkout charges on 10 November 2026.
Written and priced by the Ringo team. Prices change often; if you spot one that has moved, tell us through the contact page and we will update the table.
