Both Yesim and Saily entered the market with a clear differentiation strategy while Airalo was busy being the default choice. Yesim went after heavy users with unlimited plans. Saily went after privacy-conscious travellers with a VPN baked into the profile. Two years on, both bets have largely paid off — but they serve very different trip styles.
Quick comparison
| Yesim | Saily | |
|---|---|---|
| Countries | 200+ | 150+ |
| Data type | Unlimited + Prepaid | Capped (1–20 GB) |
| Unlimited option | Yes (fair use ~70 GB/mo) | No |
| Cheapest plan | ~$1.50 / 1 GB | $3.49 / 1 GB |
| Hotspot | ✓ All plans | ✓ All plans |
| Privacy features | VPN (iOS only) | Built-in VPN + ad blocking (all platforms) |
| App quality | Good | Very good |
| Best for | Digital nomads, heavy data users | Privacy-focused travellers, cafe workers |
The case for Yesim over Saily
If your trip involves video calls, streaming, or any kind of heavy work-from-anywhere setup, Yesim wins this matchup outright. Saily has no unlimited plans and its largest single bucket is 20 GB — fine for a normal holiday, nowhere near enough for a two-week remote work stint. Yesim's weekly unlimited plan at around $27 is the cheapest way to get truly cap-free data on any travel eSIM right now.
Yesim also has a wider country list. Saily is at roughly 150 countries in 2026; Yesim is comfortably past 200. If you're going anywhere in Africa, Central Asia, or the less-touristy parts of South America, Yesim is more likely to have a plan for you.
Read full Yesim review → Get Yesim →
The case for Saily over Yesim
Saily's VPN and ad-blocking work across every platform — iOS, Android, desktop tethering — while Yesim's VPN is iOS-only. For Android users who care about privacy, Saily is the only serious eSIM option on this page. The ad blocking in particular is legitimately useful; running it for a day in a country with aggressive mobile ad networks is a revelation.
Saily's app is also more polished. Plan selection is cleaner, data usage tracking is more accurate, and the support chat actually responds in under an hour during European daytime. Yesim's app works but feels busier and the support wait times are longer.
Read full Saily review → Get Saily →
Where each falls short
Yesim: The iOS-only VPN is a genuine weakness in 2026 — the majority of eSIM-capable phones globally are Android, and Yesim leaves them without the privacy features. The "fair use" cap on unlimited plans is undisclosed (around 70 GB/month) which feels sneaky. And the 1 GB entry tier only lasts 3 days, which catches out most first-time buyers.
Saily: Country coverage is the smallest on this page — if you're heading to the Pacific, sub-Saharan Africa outside the major hubs, or obscure Central Asian destinations, Saily probably doesn't serve you. No unlimited option at all. And the built-in VPN adds a small latency penalty that sensitive Zoom users will notice on long calls.
The verdict: Yesim or Saily?
Pick Yesim if you need unlimited data, you're heading somewhere unusual, or you're doing a multi-week remote work trip. Pick Saily if your phone is Android, you care about ad-blocking and VPN features, and your destinations are mainstream (Europe, Japan, mainstream Southeast Asia, major Latin American hubs). For a privacy-focused digital nomad doing video calls from Bali, Yesim wins on price per GB but Saily wins on security — and for most people that tradeoff leans Yesim if budget is tight, Saily if it isn't.
For the complete four-provider picture, our 2026 eSIM article includes Airalo and Drimsim.
Each destination page shows real per-GB pricing and which networks each provider rides locally.
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