All 2023 International eSIMs Compared!

foreign I love to travel and e-sims have revolutionized the way that I travel at this point I can't imagine going to another country without having service on my phone about a year ago I sat on a mission to find the best esim app for travel and made a video comparing eight of the most popular apps and I ultimately landed on Arlo and dent but a year later things have really changed a lot there are dozens of new apps and plans and I've learned from many of you in the comments that there isn't necessarily A one-size-fits all for everyone's travel needs so this year I've increased the number of apps and plans I've compared from 8 to 25 and because I value your time I'm not going to be reviewing each app individually in this video but instead I want to share the best apps I've found for three different types of Travelers your typical traveler a data burner and a Globetrotter in some cases it can be cheaper to use a physical SIM card and a plan local to the country you're visiting but in my opinion being able to set everything up on your phone over Wi-Fi in the airport without having to find a physical Sim and choose a local plan is a game changer for travel in an attempt to avoid bias when reviewing all 25 of these e-sim apps I created a comparison chart with various criteria including the number of countries supported the app interface ease of esim installation Customer Support options and price if you'd like to see a full list of esim apps I've tested I'll leave it down below the Subscribe button before we get started I want to point out that in order for any of these esim plans to work you'll need a device that supports esim and it will need to be unlocked I'll leave a link down below to help you determine if your device supports esim if you don't already know on iPhone you can check the carrier lock status under the tab in the settings to determine if your device is unlocked if your phone isn't unlocked you can still use some of these esim plans and I'll explain how later in this video alright so first let's talk about the typical traveler I'd consider this person to be someone who travels internationally a handful of times a year for a few weeks at a time you'll want to have access to your data while traveling for keeping in touch with family over iMessage or Whatsapp you'll want access to maps for navigation and for sharing some of your photos of your trip on social media in my comparison I assume this person would likely need their service to last about two weeks and offer around five gigabytes of data I chose Italy Georgia Chile South Africa and Thailand as my sample countries and rated them against the previously mentioned criteria in the top spot for the second year in a row for the typical traveler was erlo for the past year my family and I have used e-sims from arilo in over 20 countries airlo offers plans for over 200 countries and it's becoming easier to list the number of countries they don't support than those that they do their app interface is one of the easiest to navigate and their pricing has remained ultra competitive you can expect to pay between 10 and 15 dollars for five gigabytes of data in most countries around the world they also offer Regional plans that while slightly more expensive allow you to stay connected if you're traveling to multiple countries in the same region the European Regional plan is my go-to while traveling in Europe since it works in 39 European countries erlo also supports direct esim installation which allows you to get an esim installed on your phone without having to scan a QR code which is my preferred way to get an esim set up on your phone since it only takes a couple of TAPS and you don't have to scan that QR code from another device in second place this year beating out Dent is simile simile has many of the same features that Arlo has including a very clean and intuitive interface their pricing is very competitive with Arlo And beats it out about half the time it also costs between 10 and 15 dollars for five gigabytes of data almost anywhere in the world simile also supports Apple pay which makes it super easy to purchase your plan without having to jump through all the Hoops of entering your credit card according to their website they currently support 120 countries but out of all the popular destinations I tested only Thailand was missing simile also doesn't support direct installation but it does offer QR codes and manual installations I found it easy to copy and paste the codes it gave me into my cellular settings on my phone to get set up both airlo and simile support Hotspot data so if you want to share your data with your iPad laptop or even another traveler you can you can turn this on from the settings on your phone but any data used by these devices will count towards your overall data allotment you've purchased I want to point out here that after you install your e-sim you'll want to turn off your default line from your home country to avoid data charges you'll also want to enable data roaming on your e-sim in order for it to work properly if you plan to use any more than about 10 gigabytes of data on your trip I'd consider you a data burner and I would not recommend purchasing an esim from erlo or simli since their prices tend to go way up instead I'd recommend using olafly olafly offers unlimited data plans in 160 countries around the world and their prices vary depending on the number of days you'll be traveling most of their plans start out with five days and can go all the way up to 90 days a week's worth of unlimited data is usually around 25 dollars making it fairly affordable if you need lots of data olaffly does have an app but you can't purchase esims on it directly which I find really frustrating the app can only be used to track data usage which isn't very useful if you're on one of their unlimited plans instead you have to go directly to their website to purchase the plan and they do support Apple pay which makes checking out quicker but it would be nice if you could do everything inside of their app olafly activates using a QR code that's sent to your email after you purchase it on their website I find it handy to print these off prior to my trip so I can scan them when I'm connected to Wi-Fi in my country's destination Airport the plan will start as soon as it's activated so make sure not to activate these until you arrive unfortunately olafly's unlimited plans don't support hotspot so you won't be able to share your plan with any of your other devices or someone who's traveling with you olafly if you're watching I'd love to see this feature added in the future one feature I often get asked about is local calling and texting Arlo and simile and many other apps don't support calls and SMS messages with their e-sims but olaffly now offers a local phone number and two hours of talk time with some of their unlimited plans which is a great perk personally I find it easier to use WhatsApp for calls and texts over my data connection while traveling since it's really popular outside of the United States and almost everyone I've met has it installed on their phone if you travel frequently and find yourself outside of the United States for months at a time congratulations I would consider you a Globetrotter purchasing plans from heirlo simile or olafly will become really expensive really quick and instead I'd recommend joining Google fi's unlimited plus plan it's 65 a month for a single line and it gets cheaper if you add additional users to your plan it offers unlimited talk text and data in the U.S Canada and Mexico and you get unlimited data and texting in over 200 different countries you can also make phone calls for 20 cents a minute from virtually anywhere on Earth so what do you do if your phone is locked to your carrier like I said earlier esims will only work if your phone's unlocked and typically your carrier will require you to completely pay off your phone in order for it to be unlocked which could cost hundreds of dollars after some research I came across this it's the esunfy esim Wi-Fi router and for a little over a hundred dollars on Amazon this little box will let you install an esim on it that supports hotspot and you can connect to it over Wi-Fi I've tried it using both aerolo and simile and it works great it has a built-in battery that lasts around eight hours and will allow you to connect multiple devices to it so if you're traveling as a family everyone can connect to it and share a single esim plan I'll leave it linked down below if you're interested in picking one up well that's it those are my top recommendations for e-sims in 2023 thanks for watching and safe travels

Channel: Michael Vance

Views: 600

Keywords: Michael, Mike, Vance, Integrated, Tech, Technology, eSIM, Internationl, Compared, Comparison, Travel, Cell, Phone, Service, 2023, Airalo, Simly, Holafly, Google Fi, Review, Best, Europe, Unlimited, Budget, Cheap, Easy, Setup, Tips, Tricks, Hack, eSunFi, Mobile, Hotspot, Router, 4G, 5G, 4G LTE

Id: 5zcCAVkHz0g

Length: 8min 47sec (527 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 01 2023