The short answer
You carry an Orange Polska SIM and you are flying to Dubai or Abu Dhabi. I read Orange's roaming page of 1 November 2026, priced the five travel eSIM brands on 10 November and added Ringo Light, for a stopover, a fortnight and a month. The UAE is where Orange is furthest ahead on price, so for a normal holiday I would stay on Orange, and I would buy Ringo Light only when 10 GB will not do.
Unlimited data at full speed, 2 weeks at $39.99, $9 under Saily's 15 days at $48.99. 30 days at $71.99, the same as Saily and one cent under Airalo. Nothing renews. Orange's packs cost less, but stop at 10 GB.
Three days of unlimited at $12, a week at $27, 10 GB for 30 days at $18.50 and 20 GB at $29, on du.
30 days of unlimited at $71.99, with 3 GB a day at full speed, then 1 Mbps. It also sells 7 days at $28.99.
You buy days, not gigabytes, from 3 to 15 days on its page, with no daily cap stated for your own phone. A week is $27.90, and sharing is limited to 1 GB a day.
Prices read on 10 November 2026: Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, Orange Polska, Ringo Light, 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.
The prices, charted
US dollars, 10 November 2026 (Saily as read on 25 October). Ringo Light sells 2 weeks, the others 15 days. Nomad stops at 10 days ($34) and Ubigi sells no UAE unlimited longer than 7 days.
The 30-day plan at each brand. Ringo Light is unlimited data at full speed. Saily and Airalo give 3 GB a day at full speed, then 1 Mbps. Holafly's page lists nothing beyond 15 days; Nomad and Ubigi sell no 30-day UAE unlimited.
Holafly sells no buckets. Ringo Light sells no bucket either: its 2 weeks is unlimited and lasts 2 weeks, not 30 days, and costs about twice as much.
Side by side
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Get Ringo Light for the UAE, from $17.99.
Installed once, next to your own SIM. Your eSIM arrives by email in seconds.
- 7 days $17.99
- 2 weeks $39.99
- 30 days $71.99
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 the UAE, and what your phone needs for it
Eight places most trips to the UAE include, from Dubai to Abu Dhabi and the desert, with the one thing your data does for you at each. Roaming or eSIM, the phone does the same job.
Roam with Orange Polska, or buy an eSIM
The United Arab Emirates are outside the EU and on Orange Polska's list for its roaming packs. I read the page on 1 November 2026. Pakiet Roamingowy GO 10 GB is 79 zł (about $20) for 10 GB over 15 days. Bezpieczny Roaming is 15 zł (about $4) for 1 GB, charged only on a day when data starts abroad, so fourteen days of daily use is 210 zł (about $53). The page shows no monthly plan, so 30 days is two GO packs, 158 zł (about $40).
Orange Polska's GO 10 GB pack is 79 zł (about $20) for 15 days and two packs are 158 zł (about $40) for a month, against Ringo Light's $39.99 for 2 weeks and $71.99 for 30 days, so Orange is about $19.99 cheaper for a fortnight and $31.99 cheaper for a month.
Among the travel eSIMs, Ringo Light is the cheapest unlimited for two weeks, against Saily at $48.99, Airalo at $49 and Holafly at $50.50, all for 15 days. For a month it only ties: $71.99 at Ringo Light and Saily, $72 at Airalo. But a ten gigabyte bucket from Nomad, Saily, Airalo or Ubigi costs $18.50 to $20, about half of Ringo Light's fortnight.
So the choice is 10 GB against unlimited. For maps, rides, messages and photos in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, I think 10 GB is enough, and Orange also keeps your Polish number on a bill you already pay. I would buy Ringo Light when the phone is the office, a hotspot for several devices or a cinema in a hotel room.
Networks in the UAE, and what changes for a visitor from Poland
The UAE has two networks: e&, which most people still call Etisalat, and du. Both have 5G across Dubai and Abu Dhabi and cover the highways between the emirates well. Airalo names e&, and Nomad and Ubigi name du. In the Liwa dunes and the Hajar Mountain wadis signal thins out on both, so I save offline maps before those drives.
An Orange pack is started by you, in the Mój Orange app, by texting GO10GB or BR to 80060 (80214 on a card), or by calling *100. Contracts signed after 20 January 2024 already have Bezpieczny Roaming switched on, while older ones and cards must switch it on. When the day's 1 GB is gone, the page says data stops until you text DOKUP for another 1 GB at 15 zł. It names no speed for either pack.
Calls are the part I would read twice. Every eSIM here is data only, and the UAE restricts internet voice and video calls to apps its regulator allows. WhatsApp messages and voice notes go through, but WhatsApp calls are restricted. Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet and Botim place calls normally. On Orange your Polish number can ring through the network instead, at 0.99 zł a minute and 0.50 zł a text, which for a call home may be the practical answer.
If you want a data bucket: Nomad, or Orange
- Nomad, $18.50 for 10 GB. The cheapest 10 GB at $18.50 and the cheapest 20 GB at $29, on du.
- Saily, $19.99 for 10 GB. Its 20 GB is $33.99, both read on saily.com on 25 October.
- Airalo, $20 for 10 GB. The Burj Mobile plan on e&, with buckets from $4 for 1 GB. Its 20 GB is $34. Both come from the esimdb listing of 9 November, since Airalo's page shows only the unlimited plans.
- Ubigi, $20 for 10 GB. On du with 5G. 25 GB for 30 days costs $46, and 20 GB a month $34 on a plan that renews.
- ✓Orange GO 10 GB, about $20. Ten gigabytes over 15 days on your own number, with nothing to install. It lands level with the cheapest eSIM buckets.
- ✓Ringo Light, no buckets. Its 2 weeks is unlimited for $39.99 and its 30 days unlimited for $71.99. For a fixed amount of data every rival here is much cheaper, about half the price for 10 GB. I would buy Ringo Light for unlimited and skip it for a bucket.
What Ringo Light is
Ringo Light is the data eSIM from Ringo, the company I write for, so weigh my picks with that in mind. It is sold to fund the full Ringo, one plan that works everywhere with your own number ported onto it. For the UAE it sells three trips, all unlimited data at full speed: 7 days at $17.99, 2 weeks at $39.99 and 30 days at $71.99. Nothing renews. The eSIM arrives by email in seconds and installs in one scan, no app.
Your Orange SIM stays in the phone next to it, so the Polish number still rings, billed at Orange's rates. One thing I would rather you hear from me: the Ringo Middle East trip covers the UAE as well, and costs $45.99 for 2 weeks and $62.99 for 30 days. For a month that is $9.00 under the UAE trip. The card to buy Ringo Light is further up this page, just after the side-by-side table.
Pick by trip
I would stay on Orange and use Bezpieczny Roaming at 15 zł (about $4) a day. If you prefer an eSIM, Nomad sells 3 days at $12.
I would take one Orange GO 10 GB pack, 79 zł (about $20), on your own number.
I would buy Ringo Light unlimited, 2 weeks, $39.99, the cheapest unlimited eSIM for 15 days or so.
Orange's two packs at about $40 are the cheap answer if 10 GB per fortnight works. If you need no limit, Ringo Light at $71.99 ties Saily.
I would buy Nomad, 10 GB for 30 days at $18.50, or the Orange pack if you want to keep your number.
I would keep the Orange SIM in for voice at 0.99 zł a minute. WhatsApp calls are restricted in the UAE, so I would not plan on them.
Frequently asked questions
How we compared, and our sources
Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, Orange Polska, Ringo Light, European Central Bank, Ringo Light
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for UAE 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/united-arab-emirates-esim?currency=USD, Burj Mobile unlimited read on the site in dollars, 10 November 2026; network e& from the same page; 10 GB ($20) and 20 GB ($34) buckets from the esimdb.com/uae/airalo listing dated 9 November 2026
- Holafly: esim.holafly.com/esim-dubai/, read on the site in dollars, 10 November 2026; its UAE plan is sold as Dubai and its dollar table stops at 15 days
- Saily: saily.com/esim-united-arab-emirates/, prices in dollars on saily.com, read 25 October 2026; not readable on 10 November 2026, figures kept from 25 October; 7-day unlimited $28.99, no 3-day plan
- Nomad: www.nomadesim.com/united-arab-emirates-esim, dollar prices from the page's own data, read 10 November 2026; network du
- Ubigi: cellulardata.ubigi.com/rates-and-coverage/uae-data-plans/uae-unlimited-7-days/, 7-day unlimited ($32, du) on cellulardata.ubigi.com in dollars, 10 November 2026; 10 GB ($20), 20 GB and 25 GB from the esimdb.com/uae/ubigi listing dated 5 November 2026, before its 10% promo code
- Orange Polska: www.orange.pl/roaming, roaming page, read 1 November 2026: Pakiet Roamingowy GO 10 GB, 10 GB for 79 zł over 15 days; Bezpieczny Roaming, 1 GB for 15 zł per 24 hours; the packs started in Mój Orange, by text or by *100; the United Arab Emirates on the list of countries outside the EU. The address orange.pl/roaming/cennik returned not found and was not used
- Ringo Light: ringoesim.com/uae, 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 30 October 2026, the latest published on 1 November 2026, used for the dollar figures (1 zł = $0.2537)
- 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.
