The best global eSIM in 2026. Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light Global priced on the same day: 133 countries for $49.99 a month, and where a rival is cheaper.
Prices read on 28 September 2026. Six travel eSIMs sell one plan for most of the world and get most of the traffic for this search. We priced all six global plans on the same day, for a month of 10 GB, a month of unlimited, and a year of travel, counted the countries each one covers and read the fine print. Here is where each one wins, including where it is not us.
Ringo Light: Cheaper than Airalo, Nomad and Holafly's one-off Global for a month, and the only plan that earns the €5 Pioneer credit. 133 countries, 10 GB a month at full speed for $49.99, topping itself up at 80%. A month of 10 GB costs $57 at Airalo and $62 at Nomad; Holafly's one-off Global month is $161.50. Only this plan earns €5 of Ringo credit, once, toward the first bill of the full Ringo when it launches.
Ubigi: Cheapest month of global data. Best World, 178 destinations: 10 GB for 30 days at $39, one payment. Its World plan also sells 20 GB a month for $44, renewing, with a three-month minimum. Both beat our $49.99.
Saily: A month of 10 GB for less than ours. 10 GB for 30 days at $44.99 across 121 countries, $5 under our $49.99. Its "unlimited" month is 30 GB at full speed, then 1 Mbps, for $59.99.
Holafly: Most data on a monthly plan. Its monthly plans, not the Global eSIM: 25 GB a month for $49.90 or unlimited for $64.90, 160+ destinations, cancel anytime. The one-off Global eSIM is $161.50 for 30 days.
Nomad: Cheapest year for a light traveller. Global-EX, 98 countries: 20 GB that lasts 365 days for $59. Airalo sells 20 GB for 365 days at $66 in 168 destinations.
Model: Airalo Discover: buckets from 7 to 365 days, or unlimited days; Holafly Global: unlimited days, one payment; also monthly plans that renew; Saily Global: buckets from 7 to 365 days; Nomad Global: 30-day buckets; Global-EX: buckets that last up to a year; Ubigi Best World and World: buckets, and monthly plans that renew; Ringo Light One plan, 133 countries, 10 GB a month that tops itself up.
Countries: Airalo 168 destinations listed; Holafly 142 on Global; 160+ on the monthly plans; Saily 121; Nomad 123 on Global; 98 on Global-EX; Ubigi 178 on Best World; 201 on World; Ringo Light 133.
1 GB: Airalo 7 days $8.50; Holafly No buckets; Saily 7 days $8.99; Nomad 7 days $12; Ubigi 30 days $9; Ringo Light No small buckets; the plan is 10 GB a month.
5 GB: Airalo 60 days $35; Holafly No buckets; Saily 30 days $29.99; Nomad 30 days $40; Ubigi 5 GB a month, renews, $17; Ringo Light No small buckets; the plan is 10 GB a month.
10 GB: Airalo 180 days $57; no 30-day 10 GB; Holafly No buckets; 25 GB a month plan $49.90; Saily 30 days $44.99; Nomad 30 days $62; Ubigi 30 days $39; Ringo Light $49.99 a month.
20 GB: Airalo 365 days $66; no 30-day 20 GB; Holafly No buckets; 25 GB a month plan $49.90; Saily 365 days $66.99; no 30-day 20 GB; Nomad 30 days $103; Global-EX 365 days $59; Ubigi 20 GB a month, renews, $44; Ringo Light 10 GB plus one automatic top-up at the member rate.
Unlimited, 30 days: Airalo $159, 3 GB a day at full speed; Holafly Global $161.50; monthly unlimited plan $64.90; Saily 30 GB, then 1 Mbps, $59.99; Nomad No global unlimited; Ubigi 60 GB, then 2 Mbps, $108; Ringo Light No unlimited plan; 10 GB that tops itself up.
Renews?: Airalo No; Holafly Global: no. Monthly plans: yes, cancel anytime; Saily No; Nomad No; Ubigi Buckets: no. Monthly plans: yes, three-month minimum; Ringo Light Yes, monthly, until you cancel.
Full speed: Airalo Buckets at full speed; unlimited 3 GB a day, then 1 Mbps; Holafly No daily cap stated; sharing 1 GB a day on Global; Saily Buckets at full speed; "unlimited" 30 GB, then 1 Mbps; Nomad Buckets at full speed; Ubigi Buckets at full speed; unlimited a fixed amount, then 2 Mbps; Ringo Light No throttling; tops itself up at 80%.
App needed: Airalo Yes; Holafly No, QR code; Saily Yes; Nomad Optional; Ubigi Optional; Ringo Light No, the eSIM arrives by email.
A global eSIM bought trip by trip suits someone who flies once or twice a year. If you are abroad most months, for work, family or a life split between countries, rebuying a plan before every flight gets old: you pick the plan again, install again, and data you did not use expires. A subscription stays installed, renews on its own and never runs out between trips.
Three of these brands sell one. Ubigi's World plan gives 20 GB a month for $44, with a three-month minimum. Holafly's monthly plans give 25 GB for $49.90 or unlimited for $64.90, cancel anytime. Ringo Light Global gives 10 GB a month for $49.99 in 133 countries, and when you have used 80% it adds 10 GB on its own, charged at the per-10 GB member rate shown at checkout. On gigabytes per dollar, Ubigi and Holafly give you more than we do. We would rather you read that here than at checkout.
What ours does differently: it never stops at a limit, because it tops itself up instead of slowing you down; it has no minimum term; and it is the only one that earns the €5 Pioneer credit toward the full Ringo. A month where you use 20 GB costs $49.99 plus one top-up with us, more than Ubigi's $44 or Holafly's $49.90 for the same month. A month where you use 5 GB costs $49.99, the same as any other month.
Against the one-off global plans, ours is cheaper for a month. Airalo's nearest 10 GB costs $57 and lasts 180 days, Nomad's 10 GB for 30 days costs $62, and Holafly's one-off Global eSIM is $161.50 for 30 days of unlimited.
Global plans cover between 98 and 201 countries, and the lists differ in the places that matter to a real itinerary. Ringo Light Global covers 133: the United States, Canada and Mexico, all 27 EU countries plus the UK, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Turkey, Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru.
It does not cover Nepal, the Maldives, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Namibia, Botswana, Fiji, French Polynesia, Mongolia, Ukraine, Russia, Monaco or Andorra. Airalo's Discover list names Monaco, Andorra, Ukraine, Mongolia, Fiji, French Polynesia, the Seychelles and Botswana, and Ubigi's World plan lists 201 destinations. Ours names Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar and Malawi, which Airalo's list does not. Check every country on your year before you pay, with us or anyone else.
Ubigi, $39 for 10 GB. Best World, 178 destinations, 30 days: the cheapest month of global data we found. 1 GB for 30 days at $9.
Saily, $44.99 for 10 GB. 121 countries, 30 days, and 5 GB for $29.99. The listing we read is on esimdb.com; saily.com would not load for us.
Nomad, $59 for 20 GB for a year. Global-EX, 98 countries: the cheapest way to hold 20 GB for 365 days. Its 123-country Global plan sells 10 GB for 30 days at $62.
Airalo, $8.50 for 1 GB. Discover, 168 destinations: small buckets from 1 GB for 7 days, and 20 GB for 365 days at $66.
Ringo Light, no buckets. Ours is 10 GB a month at $49.99 that renews. For one month of 10 GB, Ubigi and Saily are cheaper. For a year of light use, Nomad and Airalo are far cheaper. Buy Ringo Light Global if you are abroad most months and want data that never runs out, not for a bucket. We would rather you read that here than at checkout.
Ringo Light is our own data eSIM, sold to fund the full Ringo, one plan that works everywhere with your own number ported onto it. Ringo Light Global is one plan for 133 countries, billed monthly: $49.99 a month for 10 GB at full speed, no throttling. When 80% is used it adds 10 GB on its own, charged at the per-10 GB member rate shown at checkout. It renews until you cancel. It is the only Ringo Light plan that renews; trips to one country or region are one payment each.
It is also the only Ringo Light plan that earns the Pioneer credit: €5 of Ringo account credit, once per customer, applied to the first bill of the full Ringo when it launches. It does not make Ringo Light cheaper this month. It is a one-time €5 toward a product that is still being built.
The eSIM arrives by email in seconds and installs in one scan, no app. The card to buy it is just below this article.
One trip a year. A one-off plan: Nomad Global-EX, 20 GB for 365 days at $59, or Airalo Discover, 5 GB for 60 days at $35. A subscription is the wrong buy.
A month away. Ubigi Best World, 10 GB for 30 days at $39, or Saily at $44.99 if its 121 countries fit your route.
Abroad most months, or you want the full Ringo later. Ringo Light Global, $49.99 a month in 133 countries, topping itself up so it never runs dry, and the only plan that earns the €5 Pioneer credit.
Heavy hotspot use. Holafly's monthly unlimited plan at $64.90, with unlimited hotspot, cancel anytime.
You need your own number to keep ringing. None of these travel plans does that. The full Ringo, which Ringo Light funds, ports the number you have.
Eight trips the same eSIM covers. Eight places on six continents, from Paris to Sydney, with the one thing your data does for you at each. All eight are in countries Ringo Light Global covers, so the same eSIM works at every one.
The Eiffel Tower, Paris, France. Built for the 1889 World's Fair, 330 metres of iron over the Seine. After dark it sparkles for five minutes on the hour; watch from the Trocadéro across the river. Tickets to the top sell out in summer. Buy them on the official site and keep the QR code on your phone.
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York, United States. Opened in 1883, with a raised walkway above the traffic. Walk it from Manhattan early in the morning and finish in Brooklyn Bridge Park for this view. The subway takes OMNY: tap a contactless card or your phone at the turnstile, no MetroCard to buy.
Senso-ji and the Kaminarimon gate, Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo's oldest temple, entered through the Thunder Gate and its giant red lantern. The Nakamise shopping street leads to the main hall. On an iPhone you can add a Suica card to Apple Wallet and tap through the metro gates with your phone.
Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia. Jørn Utzon's sails on Bennelong Point, opened in 1973. Walk the harbour from Circular Quay, or see it from the water on the Manly ferry. Trains, buses and ferries take a contactless card or your phone at the Opal readers, so you need no travel card.
Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa. The flat-topped mountain over the city, about 1,085 metres high. Ride the cableway up or hike Platteklip Gorge, on a clear morning. The cableway closes in strong wind. Check its status online before you set out.
Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The statue on Corcovado, finished in 1931, with the whole city and the bay below. Cloud often wraps the summit, so pick a clear day. Book the Corcovado train online for a set time, and take Uber or 99 to the station in Cosme Velho.
Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The tallest building in the world at 828 metres, with observation decks on levels 124, 125 and 148. The Dubai Fountain plays at its foot in the evening. Book a time slot for the deck on your phone. Careem and Uber both run across Dubai.
The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok, Thailand. The former royal residence by the Chao Phraya river, with the Temple of the Emerald Buddha inside its walls. Shoulders and knees must be covered. Grab works across Bangkok, and the river boats stop at Tha Chang pier next to the palace.
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for the world on 28 September 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 compared the brands we priced that get most of the traffic for a global eSIM and did not price Maya Mobile's global plan on the day.
Source for Airalo: https://www.airalo.com/discover-esim?currency=USD (Discover and Discover+ buckets, unlimited, 168 destinations and the 3 GB daily cap read on the site in dollars, 28 September 2026).
Source for Holafly: https://esim.holafly.com/esim-global/ (Global prices and the 142-country list in dollars, 28 September 2026; monthly plans in dollars from esim.holafly.com/plans the same day).
Source for Saily: https://esimdb.com/region/global/saily (Global plans read 28 September 2026 on esimdb.com, whose Saily notes are dated 2 July 2026; saily.com refused the fetch).
Source for Nomad: https://www.nomadesim.com/global-eSIM (Global and Global-EX (nomadesim.com/global-ex-eSIM) dollar prices from the page data, 28 September 2026; the page shows euros).
Source for Ubigi: https://cellulardata.ubigi.com/data-plans-and-coverage/ubigi-esim-data-plans/ (World and Best World read on the site in dollars, 28 September 2026; country counts from esimdb.com/region/global/ubigi, listing dated 17 September 2026).
For one month of 10 GB on 28 September 2026, Ubigi Best World at $39 and Saily at $44.99, both under Ringo Light Global at $49.99. Month to month, ours is cheaper than a month at Airalo ($57 for 10 GB over 180 days), Nomad ($62 for 10 GB) or Holafly's one-off Global ($161.50), but Holafly's own monthly plan gives 25 GB for $49.90 and Ubigi's 20 GB a month for $44. For a year of light use, Nomad Global-EX at $59 for 20 GB.
Most do not: Airalo, Saily, Nomad and Holafly's Global eSIM are one payment and end when the days or data run out. Ringo Light Global renews monthly until you cancel, and so do Holafly's monthly plans and Ubigi's monthly plans, which have a three-month minimum.
€5 of Ringo account credit, once per customer, earned only on the Ringo Light Global subscription. It is applied to the first bill of the full Ringo, one plan everywhere with your own number ported, when it launches. It does not lower the price of Ringo Light.
It covers 133 countries. It does not cover Nepal, the Maldives, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Namibia, Botswana, Fiji, French Polynesia, Mongolia, Ukraine, Russia, Monaco or Andorra. If your travel includes one of them, buy a plan that lists it; Airalo's Discover and Ubigi's World cover several.
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