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How this review was made, and what it isn’t
We have not used this eSIM. We have not run a speed test, stood in a terminal watching it fail to activate, or called the support line. If that is what you are after, this is the wrong page and we would rather tell you now.
What this is: every figure read off the provider’s own terms, plan pages and fair-use policy, dated, with the gaps left visible. Plus what the people who did test have published — and, where it matters, the fact that several well-known review sites claim to have tested and publish no measurements at all.
Six differences that decide it
| Airalo | Holafly | What it means | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full speed until | 3GB per day | Not published anywhere | Airalo tells you where the line is. Holafly does not publish a figure at all, and four independent estimates put it somewhere between 1.5GB and 5GB. |
| Then throttled to | 1 Mbps | 256–1024 kbps | Airalo’s floor is roughly four times Holafly’s worst case. |
| Hotspot | Unrestricted | 1GB per day | The single biggest difference. Travelling with a laptop rules Holafly out. |
| Phone number | On some packages | Never | Neither is a good answer if you need SMS codes. |
| Top-ups | Yes, without reinstalling | No — buy another plan | Holafly sells unlimited only, so extending means starting again. |
| Fixed-data plans | Yes, from 1GB | None anywhere | Holafly sells one product. If your usage is modest you are paying for headroom you will not use. |
Same duration, same destination, both unlimited
Where both sell an unlimited plan of the same length, this is what each charges.
| Destination | Duration | Airalo | Holafly | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indonesia (Bali) | 10 days | $34 cheaper | $36.50 | $2.50 |
| Japan | 10 days | $34.50 cheaper | $36.50 | $2 |
| China | 10 days | $35 cheaper | $36.50 | $1.50 |
| Vietnam | 10 days | $34.50 cheaper | $36.50 | $2 |
| Thailand | 10 days | $31 cheaper | $36.50 | $5.50 |
| Fiji | 7 days | $53 cheaper | $53.50 | $0.50 |
| Singapore | 10 days | $34.50 cheaper | $36.50 | $2 |
| New Zealand | 10 days | $34.50 cheaper | $36.50 | $2 |
| United States | 10 days | $34 cheaper | $36.50 | $2.50 |
| Europe | 10 days | $35 cheaper | $36.50 | $1.50 |
Prices in US dollars, read by hand off each provider’s own page. On this comparison Airalo is cheaper in every destination we checked — but only by between $0.50 and $5.50, which is not enough to decide anything on its own. The hotspot rule in the table above is worth far more than the price gap here.
You tether, or you want to know the rules
You travel with a laptop or share the connection; you would rather have a published 3GB cap than an unpublished one; you want fixed-data plans so you are not buying unlimited you will not use; or you want to top up without reinstalling.
See Airalo plans →You are phone-only in an expensive market
You will not tether at all; your usage is genuinely unpredictable; you are somewhere data is costly, where flat global pricing works in your favour; and you would rather buy one thing than weigh up a ladder of plans.
See Holafly plans →What each is scored, and why to discount it
| Provider | Score | Reviews | 5★ | 1★ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Holafly under review | 4.7 | 110,476 | 84% | 6% |
| Saily | 4.7 | 30,668 | 83% | 3% |
| Nomad | 4.3 | 43,079 | 72% | 8% |
| Airalo | 4.1 | 42,305 | 61% | 16% |
| Ubigi | 4.1 | 44,787 | 66% | 12% |
Read these with care. All five providers we hold ratings for invite their own customers to review, so none of these is an organic sample, and the gap between a 4.7 and a 4.1 says at least as much about when and how hard a company asks as about the product. Holafly — the highest score here — is also the only one of those whose profile currently carries a Trustpilot compliance notice: “Trustpilot is currently working with this business to address past violations of our Guidelines for Businesses and Legal Brand Guidelines. This profile is under active review to ensure full transparency for consumers.” Trustpilot does not say what the violations were, so neither will we. Checked 8 September 2026.
The honest summary
For most Australians most of the time, Airalo is the safer of the two — not because it is faster, which nobody can demonstrate, but because you can find out what you are buying before you buy it. Holafly’s hotspot cap is the tightest restriction in the category and it is not surfaced at checkout; its throttling threshold is not published at all.
That is a judgement about disclosure, not about network quality. On speed, published measurements of Airalo in one country alone span 10 to 141 Mbps, and there is no comparable recent dataset for Holafly. Anyone ranking these two on speed is guessing.