The short answer
Every travel eSIM sells Melbourne as part of its Australia plan. We priced the six that get most of the traffic on the same day, for a long weekend, a week and two weeks with a day out on the Great Ocean Road, and looked at what your phone has to do between Tullamarine, the trams, the laneways and the coast.
Unlimited data at full speed for 2 weeks at $23.99 or 30 days at $35.99, nothing renews. Airalo asks $45 for 15 days and $66.50 for the month.
10 GB for 30 days at $15 and 20 GB at $24, on Optus and Telstra with 5G.
Days, not gigabytes: $27.50 for a week, $51.50 for 15 days and $76.50 for a month; sharing limited to 1 GB a day.
60 GB at full speed for 30 days at $65, then 2 Mbps. On Optus.
Prices read on 25 October 2026: Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi 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.
The prices, charted
US dollars, 25 October 2026. The rivals sell 15 days, Ringo Light 2 weeks. Ubigi's 15 days is 30 GB at full speed, then 2 Mbps.
The 30-day plan at each brand. Nomad sells no 30-day unlimited.
Holafly sells no buckets. Ringo Light sells no bucket either: its 2 weeks is unlimited, so it lasts 2 weeks, not 30 days.
Side by side
Swipe to compare →
Get Ringo Light for Melbourne, from $23.99.
Installed once, next to your own SIM. Your eSIM arrives by email in seconds.
- 2 weeks $23.99
- 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 do in Melbourne, and what your phone does for you there
Six places for a first visit to Melbourne, from the station on Flinders Street to the Twelve Apostles. Most sit on the tram network, with good 4G and 5G. The coast road is the exception: plan that one before you leave.
Getting online at Tullamarine and on the SkyBus
Most visitors land at Melbourne Airport, also called Tullamarine, MEL. Switch your eSIM on once the plane has landed and it should connect while you walk to the baggage hall, so the first thing you do is not a hunt for airport wifi.
The SkyBus runs between the airport and Southern Cross Station in the city centre, and taxis and ride hire cars wait outside the terminals. Check the current SkyBus timetable and fare on its own site before you fly, and keep your booking on your phone rather than relying on a screenshot you took last month.
myki, the free tram zone and signal on the trams
Melbourne runs on trams, trains and buses, paid for with a card called myki. Check on the Public Transport Victoria site how a visitor buys and tops up a myki, and whether your own bank card or phone wallet is accepted on the day you travel, since the rules have been changing. Do not assume it works like a contactless fare in other cities.
The centre of the city is a free tram zone, so a hop between Flinders Street and the Queen Victoria Market costs nothing. Phone signal on the trams is normally good because they run along streets in the middle of the city, so a map or a message keeps working between stops. Route planning is where most of your data goes: tram and train times, a maps app open on each trip, and the ticket or booking you saved.
Signal in the laneways and at the beach
The laneways off Flinders Lane and Little Collins Street are narrow, but they sit between tall buildings in the middle of the business district, where we would expect strong 4G and 5G. We could not test every lane, so check your own bars before you rely on a booking made on the spot.
Most cafes and bars in the centre take card and phone payments, and some take nothing else, so your wallet app on a working connection is worth having. Out at St Kilda and Brighton the beach is open to the bay and signal is usually fine, but check the beach car parks and the far ends of the piers yourself.
The Great Ocean Road as a day trip
Many visitors spend one day driving or taking a tour along the Great Ocean Road to the Twelve Apostles, a long day from Melbourne in each direction. Signal is the weak point. Coverage along the coast and through the Otway forests is patchy, and any cheap eSIM can drop out in the cuttings and the bends.
Before you leave the city, download an offline map of the whole route, save your tour or car hire booking, and note where you plan to buy fuel. The networks the rival plans use are listed in the table above, so check one of them covers the stretch you plan to drive. Ringo Light uses a local partner network, so we cannot name the exact stretches it covers; treat the coast as a place to plan for gaps, whichever plan you buy.
Which plan fits a Melbourne trip
A long weekend: Nomad sells 3 days of unlimited at $11, Airalo at $11.50 and Holafly at $11.90. Ringo Light sells no 3-day plan, so for two or three nights one of those is the better buy.
A week: Nomad sells 7 days of unlimited at $25, Airalo at $26.50, Saily at $26.99 and Holafly at $27.50. Ubigi sells 7 days at $22, but that is 20 GB at full speed, then 2 Mbps. Ringo Light sells no 7-day plan; its 2 weeks of unlimited data costs $23.99, which is less than the four weekly unlimited plans above, with days to spare.
Two weeks or a month: Ringo Light 2 weeks at $23.99 or 30 days at $35.99, against $45 for 15 days and $66.50 for a month at Airalo. The same plan covers all of Australia, so nothing changes if you fly on to Sydney or Tasmania after Melbourne.
What Ringo Light is
Ringo Light is our own data eSIM. For Australia, Melbourne included, it sells two trips, both unlimited data at full speed: 2 weeks at $23.99 and 30 days at $35.99. Nothing renews. Fair use policy, see Terms. The eSIM arrives by email and installs in one scan, no app.
If a fixed amount of data is enough, Nomad sells 10 GB for 30 days at $15 and 20 GB at $24, and Ubigi 10 GB at $16. Ringo Light sells no buckets. The card to buy it is further up this page, just after the side-by-side table.
Pick by trip
Nomad unlimited, 3 days, $11. Ringo Light sells no 3-day plan.
Ringo Light unlimited, 2 weeks, $23.99, less than a 7-day unlimited at Nomad ($25), Airalo ($26.50), Saily ($26.99) or Holafly ($27.50).
Ringo Light 2 weeks at $23.99 covers all of Australia; download offline maps for the coast road.
Ringo Light unlimited data, 30 days, $35.99.
Nomad 10 GB for 30 days at $15.
Frequently asked questions
How we compared, and our sources
Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, Ringo Light
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for Melbourne on 25 October 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/australia-esim?currency=USD, unlimited read on the site in dollars, 25 October 2026; buckets (10 GB $18, 20 GB $30) from the esimdb listing dated 4 October 2026
- Holafly: esim.holafly.com/esim-australia/, dollar prices read on its own page, 25 October 2026
- Saily: saily.com/esim-australia/, prices in dollars on saily.com, read 25 October 2026
- Nomad: www.nomadesim.com/australia-esim, dollar prices and networks read from the page data, 25 October 2026 (the page shows euros)
- Ubigi: cellulardata.ubigi.com/rates-and-coverage/australia-data-plans/australia-10gb-30-days/?wmc-currency=USD, 10 GB $16 read on its own page, 25 October 2026; the other plans (25 GB $32, unlimited 7 days $22, 15 days $42, 30 days $65) from the esimdb listing dated 4 October 2026
- Ringo Light: our own catalogue, the prices the checkout charges on 25 October 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.
