When I first crossed a border with an eSIM instead of a plastic SIM, I stopped hunting for airport kiosks. The only question left was which provider? It almost always comes down to two — Airalo and Holafly. I use both depending on the trip, and here's an honest side-by-side.
TL;DR — if you're in a rush
- Airalo — best when you only want to pay for the data you actually use. Plans start around $4.50 for 1 GB / 7 days in Europe.
- Holafly — best when you want unlimited data and don't want to think about top-ups. More expensive per week, but cheaper per day when you're heavy on maps, hotspot, or video.
Price — head to head
| Provider | Plan | Price | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airalo | 1 GB / 7 days | ~$4.50 | Cheapest entry |
| Airalo | 5 GB / 30 days | ~$16 | Sweet spot for a month |
| Holafly | Unlimited / 7 days | ~$19 | No cap, hotspot limited |
| Holafly | Unlimited / 15 days | ~$34 | Longer trips |
Coverage and reliability
Airalo covers 200+ destinations and offers regional bundles (Eurolink covers 39 countries on one eSIM). Holafly is in 190+ countries and rolled out regional plans over the last year.
From my experience:
- Europe — both are solid, Airalo Eurolink is slightly cheaper.
- UK — Airalo dropped me on EE a few times, Holafly on Vodafone. Vodafone was slightly more stable on the London Underground.
- USA — Holafly uses T-Mobile, Airalo also T-Mobile. Effectively a tie.
- Turkey, Morocco — Holafly usually activated faster. Airalo occasionally needed a manual APN switch.
App and onboarding
Airalo has the better app — clean plan browser, real-time data usage, easy top-ups. Install via QR or directly in-app takes ~2 minutes.
Holafly has the simpler onboarding (with unlimited you never worry about consumption), but the app is mostly an info panel. Big plus: 24/7 chat support that actually answers within minutes.
Hotspot / tethering
The biggest difference:
- Airalo — hotspot works with no extra limit, it just eats from your plan.
- Holafly — on unlimited plans, hotspot is capped at 500 MB/day. Fine for sharing with a partner, not enough for working from a café.
Which one to pick
- Weekend trip, just maps and messages → Airalo 1 GB. $5 and done.
- Two-week trip with hotspot, streaming, WhatsApp calls → Holafly unlimited. No math required.
- Multi-country trip (Spain + Morocco + Portugal in one loop) → Airalo regional plan or Holafly regional. Airalo is usually 20-30% cheaper here.
- Business trip working from a laptop → Airalo. Uncapped hotspot is the killer feature.
My verdict
I use Airalo as my default for most trips — it's flexible, cheap, and the app is the best in the category. I switch to Holafly on longer trips where I know I'll burn 20+ GB (streaming, video calls, hotspot for my partner).