The short answer
You hold an O2 or Three contract and a long haul to Manila, and the choice is whether to roam or buy a travel eSIM. I read both carriers' own pages on 10 November 2026 and neither gives a Philippines price, so I leave the carriers unpriced. I priced the eSIMs on 11 November 2026, and for two weeks of island hopping I would buy Ringo Light and keep my own SIM in.
Unlimited data at full speed for 2 weeks at $22.99 or 30 days at $36.99, nothing renews. Airalo asks $48 for 15 days and $71 for the month.
10 GB for 30 days at $16 on Smart and DITO. Ubigi sells no unlimited plan for the Philippines.
20 GB for 30 days at $27 and 10 GB for 30 days at $17, on Globe. Its unlimited stops at 10 days.
Unlimited for 3 days at $11.50 on its Alpas Mobile plan, 3 GB a day at full speed, and small buckets too.
Prices read on 11 November 2026: Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, O2, Three, European Central Bank 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, 11 November 2026. The rivals sell 15 days, Ringo Light 2 weeks. Nomad stops at 10 days for $33; Ubigi sells no unlimited.
The 30-day unlimited plan at each brand. Ringo Light is unlimited data at full speed. Nomad and Ubigi sell no 30-day unlimited.
Holafly sells no buckets. Ringo Light sells no bucket either: its 2 weeks is unlimited and lasts 2 weeks, not 30 days.
Side by side
Swipe to compare →
Get Ringo Light for the Philippines, from $8.99.
Installed once, next to your own SIM. Your eSIM arrives by email in seconds.
- 7 days $8.99
- 2 weeks $22.99
- 30 days $36.99
- 90 days $82.99
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 do in the Philippines, and what your phone needs for it
Eight places most trips from Britain include, from Manila and the northern mountains to the Visayas and Palawan. The cities have good 4G and 5G; on the boats and in the lagoons plan for no signal, so the tip under each place is where your phone matters.
Roam with your carrier, or buy an eSIM
The carrier side first, because it is missing a number. O2 Travel is £7 a day for 24 hours from first use, capped at 2Mbps, on Pay Monthly plans, and the O2 Travel page I read on 10 November 2026 lists Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and others in Asia, but not the Philippines. For a destination that is not covered the page says you pay standard rates and prints none. Three's Go Roam page does not name the Philippines, and its roaming-destinations page lists the Philippines under Rest of the World, outside Go Roam, for Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go, with no price. I read the ECB reference rate of 10 November 2026, £1 = $1.34, but there is no pound figure to convert.
So I cannot write a carrier price for 3 days, 2 weeks or 30 days, and I will not borrow the Japan or Thailand rate. Before you fly I would ask O2 or Three for the Philippines rate in writing, or open your price guide in My O2 or My3. A long haul from Heathrow is when a surprise bill hurts most.
The eSIMs have prices. Ringo Light is $8.99 for 7 days, $22.99 for 2 weeks and $36.99 for 30 days, one payment each, with no 3-day plan. For 3 days Airalo asks $11.50 and Holafly $11.90. For 15 days Airalo asks $48, Saily $48.99 and Holafly $50.50, and for a month $71, $71.99 and $73.90.
What O2 and Three win, where they cover you, is your own number, nothing to install and a charge on the bill you already pay. For a 3-day stopover I would take Airalo at $11.50 over Ringo Light, which does not sell 3 days. Over two weeks the gap is clear: Ringo Light at $22.99 is under half of any rival unlimited.
Networks in the Philippines, and what O2 and Three say
The Philippines has three networks: Globe, Smart and DITO, the newest and smallest. Globe and Smart cover Manila, Cebu and the main tourist towns. Airalo and Ubigi use Smart, Holafly and Nomad use Globe, and Saily does not say. Ringo Light uses a local partner network. Signal thins out on boats between islands, in the lagoons of El Nido and Coron and in the mountains around Banaue, whichever network you ride, so I would save bookings and maps offline before each boat.
On the carrier side, I read terms that apply elsewhere. O2 Travel starts its day when you call, text or use data, not when you receive, and Three's Go Roam allows up to 12GB a month in listed destinations. Neither page puts the Philippines inside those terms, so I would not count on them.
The travel eSIMs are data only, with no Philippine number. A local SIM has to be registered with your passport, and a travel eSIM skips that queue.
If you want a data bucket: Ubigi or Nomad
- Ubigi, $16 for 10 GB. The cheapest 10 GB for 30 days, on Smart and DITO, and 25 GB for $29.
- Nomad, $17 for 10 GB. The cheapest 20 GB at $27, valid 30 days, on Globe.
- Saily, $18.99 for 10 GB. 20 GB at $29.99, from a listing dated 5 October 2026.
- Airalo, $19 for 10 GB. 20 GB at $30 on Smart.
- ✓Ringo Light, no buckets. Its 2 weeks is unlimited for $22.99 and its 30 days unlimited for $36.99. For a fixed 10 GB that lasts a month, Ubigi and Nomad are cheaper. 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 the Philippines it sells three trips, all unlimited data at full speed: 7 days at $8.99, 2 weeks at $22.99 and 30 days at $36.99. Nothing renews. The eSIM arrives by email as a QR code in seconds and installs in one scan, no app.
It is data only: no number, no calls, no texts. It sits beside your own SIM, so your UK number is still in the phone for a bank code or a call if you pay your carrier for that. I pay once, up front, and there is no plan to cancel afterwards.
The card to buy it is further up this page, just after the side-by-side table.
Pick by trip
Airalo unlimited, 3 days, $11.50. Ringo Light sells no 3 days.
Ringo Light unlimited, 2 weeks, $22.99, against $48 or more for any rival's 15 days.
Ringo Light unlimited, 30 days, $36.99, against $71 at Airalo.
Ubigi 10 GB for 30 days at $16.
Keep your own SIM in beside the eSIM and ask O2 or Three what a call from the Philippines costs. The travel eSIMs carry no number; 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, Three, European Central Bank, Ringo Light
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for Philippines on 11 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/philippines-esim?currency=USD, unlimited in dollars on the site, read live 11 November 2026; buckets and daily cap from esimdb.com/philippines/airalo, read 31 October 2026 and not readable on 11 November 2026, figures kept as dated here
- Holafly: esim.holafly.com/esim-philippines/, read live in dollars, 11 November 2026
- Saily: esimdb.com/philippines/saily, listing dated 5 October 2026; saily.com refused the fetch; not readable on 11 November 2026, figures kept as dated here
- Nomad: www.nomadesim.com/philippines-esim, read live in dollars on nomadesim.com, 11 November 2026; network Globe as read there on 28 September 2026
- Ubigi: cellulardata.ubigi.com/rates-and-coverage/philippines-data-plans/philippines-10gb-30-days/, prices read live on cellulardata.ubigi.com plan pages, 11 November 2026; networks Smart and DITO from the same site
- O2: www.o2.co.uk/international/o2-travel, O2 Travel bolt-on page, read 10 November 2026: £7 a day in listed destinations, 24 hours from first use, data capped at 2Mbps while roaming, for Pay Monthly plans. the Philippines is not on the page's destination list, and the page names no standard rate
- Three: www.three.co.uk/go-roam, Go Roam page read 10 November 2026: daily charges, the 12GB fair use limit, and the destination groups. the Philippines is not named on it; Three's roaming-destinations page at three.co.uk/support/roaming-and-calling-abroad/roaming-abroad/roaming-destinations lists the Philippines under Rest of the World, outside Go Roam, and shows no price
- European Central Bank: www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml, euro reference rates of 10 November 2026 (£1 = $1.34), read the same day; no pound price needed converting
- Ringo Light: our own catalogue, the prices the checkout charges on 11 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.
