Choose a travel eSIM by the trip you are taking, not its advertised starting price. A fixed data bundle for Spain, a prepaid wallet you can reuse and a plan that works at sea solve different problems.
This comparison covers Saily, Yesim and GigSky. The useful question is which specific plan covers your route without making you pay for data, features or a recurring service you do not need.
This guide compares their published prices and policies. It is a three-provider comparison, not a ranking of every travel eSIM on the market, and we have not conducted hands-on speed or customer-support tests.
Disclosure: We may earn a commission if you purchase through our Saily or Yesim offer links. The GigSky link is a standard, non-affiliate link. Source citations identify the documents behind our findings.
Saily vs Yesim vs GigSky: the short answer
- For a fixed allowance in one country, compare the actual bundles first. GigSky’s selected Spain offer was cheaper than Yesim’s equivalent allowance in our check. That does not make it the cheapest provider in every destination.
- For several countries, compare the regional plan rather than repeating the single-country result. Yesim’s selected Europe & UK bundle cost less than GigSky’s listed Europe equivalent in our example.
- For light or uncertain use, examine Yesim Pay & Fly’s funding requirement. A low usage charge can still require more cash upfront than a small fixed bundle.
- For a cruise, decide whether you need data at sea, in port or both. Saily has dedicated at-sea plans. GigSky offers cruise-only and Cruise + Land products. Yesim’s cruise page describes port and near-shore connectivity, not an equivalent open-water service.[2–9, 17–21]
We have not quoted Saily prices that we could not independently confirm. Its product and policy details remain in the comparison, but we do not use an unverified price to declare a winner.
Before buying: check your phone and your existing plan
Your phone must support eSIM and allow use with another provider. Those are separate checks. For an iPhone, Apple says to look under Settings, General, About: an unlocked device shows “No SIM Restrictions” beside Carrier Lock. Check the exact model and market version, not just the phone’s family name.[1]
Next, ask your existing carrier what your trip already includes. If its included roaming allowance covers your destinations and expected use, buying another data plan may add cost without solving a problem. Apple specifically recommends checking existing roaming benefits before buying a travel option.[1]
The prices in this article compare data allowances. Do not assume they also buy ordinary calls, SMS or a local number. For example, Yesim labels the selected fixed plans as data-only. Saily advertises separate phone-number functionality, but that is not included in the data-bundle prices used here.[2, 3, 6]
What the same data allowance costs
The examples below are for one traveler using one eSIM. Trip durations are comparison scenarios, not bookings we made.
Price-method note: We checked sources on October 26, 2026. Yesim and GigSky prices were read from their browser-rendered offers. We omitted Saily price figures because we could not independently confirm a live offer. Amounts are in U.S. dollars and include displayed public sale prices where shown, but not coupon codes, future cashback or cardholder-only benefits. We did not complete checkout or verify payment-stage taxes and charges. Treat these as plan-price evidence, not guaranteed all-in purchase totals.
Example 1: seven days in Spain, with 5 GB available
The two verified offers below provide a 30-day validity period. That is longer than the example trip, but the comparison uses the same 5 GB allowance rather than putting one provider’s smallest teaser package against another’s larger plan.
- GigSky: 5 GB for 30 days, $7.46 displayed sale price, with $8.29 crossed out. We selected the 5 GB option in the Spain plan selector.[4]
- Saily: Its published Spain page includes fixed-data bundles, but we have not quoted a price because a current live offer was not independently verified. Check the allowance and validity alongside the price before buying.[2]
- Yesim: 5 GB for 30 days, $11.52 in the selected Spain offer. Use the actual displayed total, not the rounded price-per-GB label.[3]
Among those two verified offers, GigSky is the first fixed bundle we would check for this particular trip. Its displayed price was $4.06 below Yesim’s selected price. The next checks are whether your exact destinations are covered, what happens if you need more data and whether the final purchase total matches the offer.
A 30-day bundle is not automatically a better purchase than a shorter one. If you only need a small amount of backup data, compare the smaller allowances too. Unused capacity has no value if it expires before you use it.
Example 2: fourteen days across Spain and France, with 10 GB available
Here, the requirement changes: one regional allowance that covers both countries. Do not buy a Spain-only package and assume that crossing the border makes it a regional plan.
- Yesim Europe & UK: 10 GB for 30 days, $19.20 in the selected offer. Its coverage panel included Spain and France.[6]
- GigSky Europe: 10 GB for 30 days, $20.69 displayed sale price, with $22.99 crossed out. The regional page listed both countries.[7]
- Saily Europe: A regional option to check against the same itinerary. We are not quoting an independently verified current price, so this is not a complete three-way price ranking.[5]
Yesim’s selected price was $1.49 below GigSky’s listed regional price. That is a much smaller gap than the Spain example. A confirmed hotspot restriction or a better-fitting refund policy could matter more than that difference.
The lesson is to compare the route you will actually travel. A provider’s total destination count does not tell you which countries are included in the specific bundle you are buying.
Yesim Pay & Fly: usage cost is not the same as cash paid
Pay & Fly replaces a fixed data allowance with a prepaid balance and country-dependent usage charges. In our browser check, the page displayed a Spain rate of $1.80 per GB. The smallest starting-balance option shown was $18; that is an observed offer, not a verified minimum for every account or purchase route.[8]
At that advertised rate, a nominal 1 GB of use would represent $1.80 in data charges, leaving $16.20 from an $18 starting balance. That is illustrative arithmetic based on the displayed rate, not a bill from a tested connection.
You would still have paid $18 upfront, not $1.80. Whether that is worthwhile depends on whether you will use the rest of the balance.
Yesim’s Ycoins help page says credits last one year from receipt and cannot ordinarily be withdrawn or exchanged for cash. It also describes an optional automatic top-up that can add more funds when the balance reaches its trigger.[9]
Pay & Fly is worth comparing if you take repeated trips or need occasional data in different countries. For a one-off short trip, a small fixed bundle may be a more sensible use of cash. Check the country rate and credit-expiry rules before funding the wallet.
Compare Yesim plans for your route.
We may earn a commission if you purchase through this provider offer.
“Unlimited” does not promise unlimited full-speed data
A large data allowance and a daily high-speed allowance are different products. If you need video meetings or laptop tethering, find out what happens after the fast allowance runs out.
Saily: the daily allocation depends on the offering
Saily’s consumer terms give regular unlimited plans either 3 GB or 5 GB of full-speed data per local calendar day, depending on the destination. Its subscription products have separate rules. Read the allocation for the plan you select rather than carrying one advertised daily figure across every Saily product.[10]
GigSky: check the current help page, not an old comparison
The current GigSky help page we inspected described a 3.5 GB daily high-speed allowance, with speed reductions possible beyond it. It said the allowance resets every 24 hours from activation. That differs from older material quoting 2.5 GB, so an old review should not settle your purchase.[12]
Yesim: partner-network limits matter
Yesim’s unlimited-plan policy says partner networks may impose their own fair-use limits. After the applicable high-speed allocation, speeds can fall until the relevant daily or monthly cycle resets. The policy does not establish one universal high-speed ceiling for every destination.[11]
If uninterrupted high-speed use is essential, ask what the selected plan actually promises. None of these policy descriptions is a substitute for testing a connection at your destination.
Hotspots, top-ups and activation can change the choice
Do not assume every plan has the same hotspot rights. Saily’s Spain page advertises hotspot sharing, and GigSky’s selected cruise-plan details include it. Yesim’s selected fixed-plan details say hotspot availability depends on the operator. Sharing also consumes data; permission to tether does not make a 5 GB allowance unlimited.[2, 3, 19]
Check what a top-up buys. Does it extend the current plan, add a new package with its own validity or refill a wallet? Saily’s published pages describe a new data plan activating after the existing one runs out. Yesim’s wallet funding is a different arrangement. Watch for automatic top-up and renewal choices rather than treating every purchase as a one-time charge.[2, 5, 9]
Separate installation, service validity and refund eligibility. Yesim’s selected plans say their validity starts on connection to a compatible network, with activation required within 180 days of purchase. But its refund policy counts installation of the eSIM profile as activation. Installing early can therefore have a refund consequence even before the travel-data validity clock starts.[3, 6, 14]
Saily’s terms also distinguish regular plans, with a 180-day activation period and automatic activation if unused by then, from subscriptions that activate immediately on purchase. Do not apply the regular-plan rule to a subscription.[10]
Check Saily's plans for your destination.
We may earn a commission if you purchase through this provider offer.
A refund guarantee needs a closer read
Saily: a full refund is not promised after ordinary use
Saily’s published refund help page describes a 30-day full-refund route for non-activated data plans. Once an eSIM is installed and its data plan activated, it treats the plan as used; a full refund is not guaranteed. Other full or partial refunds are conditional. Read the current eligibility rules before installation.[13]
Yesim: installation can close the ordinary unused-plan route
Yesim allows refund requests within 30 calendar days of purchase, but its ordinary data-plan and top-up policy requires the product to be unactivated, unused and unexpired. Installation counts as activation. Used data and services are not refunded under that policy.[14]
It also says approved refunds of €10 or less go to the internal Ycoins balance, rather than back as cash. That matters when comparing inexpensive packages: an approved refund is not necessarily money returned to your bank.[14]
GigSky: its terms and current help pages need reconciling
GigSky’s consumer terms contain broad nonrefundability wording for SIMs, top-ups and unused balances. Its current help center nevertheless describes individual eligibility review and a refund-request process. An approved transaction may be refunded as GigSky Credit or to the original payment method.[15, 16, 22]
That does not support either a blanket money-back promise or a claim that no refunds are possible. Check the rules shown for your exact purchase and retain the order details.
These are provider-published policies, not a statement of every legal right that may apply to your purchase.
For a cruise, compare sea coverage and port coverage separately
“Cruise eSIM” can describe very different coverage. Yesim’s cruise page explicitly describes internet in ports and near the shore. That can be useful for shore excursions, but it is not evidence of an open-water connection.[21]
Saily’s dedicated Cruise plans use maritime networks on supported sailings. Its help page says they activate more than 12 nautical miles from the coast and do not connect in port or near the coastline. It also warns that availability is rolling out and may not appear for every account. You need a separate arrangement for port-day data.[17, 18]
GigSky distinguishes Cruise-only from Cruise + Land. The first does not include land coverage; the second can include both maritime service and covered land destinations. You must select the ship and the correct region, then check the ports on your route.[20]
A seven-day cruise-plan check, not a complete trip quote
We tested GigSky’s selector using Royal Caribbean International, Icon of the Seas, Cruise + Americas/Caribbean. After selecting 1 GB for seven days, it displayed $28.79, with $31.99 crossed out. The same page’s generic starting-price table showed a lower figure, which is why selecting the ship and region matters.[19]
Saily also offers dedicated at-sea plans. We did not independently verify a current price or eligibility for the same ship and account. Its Cruise plan does not cover port-day data, so any comparison also needs a separate shore-data arrangement.[17, 18]
This is not a matched all-in cruise comparison, so we are not declaring a price winner. We did not price a dated sailing’s Wi-Fi package, verify every port or complete either checkout. For your cruise, compare the maritime plan plus any shore-data purchase against the Wi-Fi package actually offered for your departure and devices.
If reliable work connectivity is essential, neither an untested eSIM nor a Wi-Fi sales page is enough to promise it. Keep that separate from the cheaper question of getting occasional messages through.
For the broader budget, our guide to the real cost of booking a cruise covers other extras that can sit outside the advertised fare.
Check GigSky coverage for your ship and ports.
This is a standard link, not an affiliate-tracked offer.
Set up the travel line without leaving the home line exposed
Installing a travel eSIM does not automatically prevent charges on your original line. Apple warns that keeping both lines active can still lead to home-line roaming fees, even when the travel eSIM handles data.[1]
Before departure:
- Save your installation instructions and support route while you have a connection.
- Confirm when installation affects refund eligibility and when the paid validity period starts.
- Select the intended travel line for mobile data. Follow the provider’s instructions for roaming on that line, rather than enabling it indiscriminately on every line.
- Check your home carrier’s rules for calls and texts if you want to leave your original number active. Do not assume using another line for data makes those services free.
- Keep a screenshot of the purchased plan, covered destinations and order confirmation.
Our recommendation
Start with the smallest fixed allowance that realistically covers your trip, then compare the regional version if you cross borders. Our Spain and Europe checks produced different price leaders between Yesim and GigSky, which is a good reason not to choose one brand permanently.
Consider Yesim Pay & Fly when you expect to reuse the balance, not simply because its usage rate looks smaller than a bundle price. Check Saily’s live offer where its features fit your trip; we have not included an unverified Saily price in our ranking.
For a cruise, make the coverage decision first. A port-only plan, an at-sea plan and a sea-plus-land plan are not interchangeable, however similar their marketing sounds.
If your existing carrier already gives you enough suitable roaming data, keeping it may be the best purchase decision of all.
Sources
Sources were checked on October 26, 2026. Saily product and policy descriptions were available through retrieved published pages, but direct live checks were blocked, so unconfirmed Saily price figures were omitted. Quoted prices are public offers, not paid receipts. Policies and promotions can change.
- Apple: using eSIM while traveling internationally.
- Saily: Spain plans and product details.
- Yesim: selected Spain 5 GB, 30-day plan.
- GigSky: Spain plan selector.
- Saily: Europe plans and product details.
- Yesim: selected Europe & UK 10 GB, 30-day plan.
- GigSky: Europe plans and coverage.
- Yesim: Pay & Fly prices and starting balances.
- Yesim: Ycoins funding, expiry and withdrawals.
- Saily: consumer terms of service.
- Yesim: unlimited data plans policy.
- GigSky: current unlimited data plans FAQ.
- Saily: refund policy.
- Yesim: refund policy.
- GigSky: refund eligibility.
- GigSky: consumer terms.
- Saily: cruise plans and product details.
- Saily: how Cruise plans work and availability limitations.
- GigSky: Royal Caribbean ship and regional-plan selector.
- GigSky: international, cruise-only and Cruise + Land plan differences.
- Yesim: cruise page and port/near-shore coverage.
- GigSky: requesting a refund and possible refund methods.