How we compare 312,660 eSIM plans from 68 providers

Data collection

Where our data comes from

We don’t copy plan tables from provider marketing pages. Each of the 68 providers we compare is connected to an automated sync that pulls their current catalog directly from their feed or API. One scheduled run per day works through those catalogs; the biggest ones can fail mid-fetch and get picked up on a later run, so catalogs refresh on a rolling basis rather than all on the same night — the live picture is in data freshness below. Each sync normalizes every plan into the same comparable shape: price converted to your selected currency, price per GB computed, validity and data allowance standardized, and coverage mapped to the country and regional pages it actually serves — that’s how one plan can appear on dozens of the 218 destination pages it covers. Plan data originates from those feeds; occasional manual corrections are logged and superseded by the next sync.

• 68 direct provider feed/API integrations — no hand-copied plan tables
• One scheduled sync run every 24 hours at 03:17 UTC, working through the catalogs in sequence
• Normalization: currency, price per GB, validity, data allowance, coverage mapping
• Plans explicitly labeled cruise/maritime by their providers are routed to the dedicated cruise guides

Data freshness

How current the data actually is

“Updated daily” is a claim every comparison site makes and almost none can prove. Here is ours, measured rather than asserted, straight out of the database this page is rendered from — including the catalogs that are behind.

• Country pages print that country’s real last-sync date, never today’s date
• A country page whose newest plan sync is more than 3 days old says so in its byline
• The same figures are served as JSON at /freshness.json for anyone verifying a citation
• The Price Index writes one append-only snapshot per run, so its history is auditable

Rankings

How rankings and sorting actually work

Plan tables on country and country-provider pages default to cheapest-first and can be re-sorted by price, price per GB, and data allowance; other comparison pages use the same attribute-based logic. Two things are deliberately absent from every sort: how much a provider pays us, and whether a provider pays us at all. A provider cannot buy a higher position, and no plan is ever hidden to make a commission-paying plan look better.

• Sorting inputs: price, price per GB, validity period, data allowance
• Identical ranking logic for all 68 providers
• Affiliate commission is not an input — not a weight, not a tiebreaker
• Highlighted plans never reorder tables or hide cheaper options

Pricing

How prices and coupons are shown

The price you see is the price we expect you to pay at the provider’s checkout. When we have a verified coupon code that applies automatically through our link, we show the coupon-applied price — clearly, not as a fake “was/now” strike-through game. There are currently 90 active verified codes. A code makes it onto the site only after we confirm it applies at the provider’s checkout, and codes that stop working are removed. One honest caveat: providers control their own checkouts, so the provider’s final price always wins.

• Coupon-applied prices shown only for verified auto-apply codes (90 live — see deals)
• Prices refresh when their provider's catalog is next re-synced — see data freshness
• The provider’s checkout is the final source of truth

Transparency

How we make money

eSIM Advice is funded by affiliate commissions. When you click a buy button, you go through a tracked redirect (you’ll see /go/ in the URL) to the provider’s site, and if you purchase, the provider may pay us a commission. Three things this does not change: the price you pay — commissions come out of the provider’s margin, never added to your total; the order of any table — ranking is computed without commission data; and what we publish — plans from every synced provider appear in results whether or not a click earns anything. Full details are on the disclosure page.

• Buy links route through visible, tracked /go/ redirects
• Commission never changes the price you pay or the ranking order
• Affiliate links carry rel="nofollow sponsored" markup

Accountability

Corrections, disputes, and what we can’t control

If you find a wrong price, a dead coupon, or incorrect coverage information, tell us through the contact page — reports go to the eSIM Advice Editorial Team. Because catalogs re-sync every 24 hours, most pricing discrepancies self-correct within a day; everything else we investigate and fix. Providers who believe their plans are listed inaccurately can dispute a listing the same way, with the same standard of evidence: the provider’s own feed and checkout. Some things sit outside our pipeline and are worth verifying yourself before you buy: device compatibility, local network quality on the ground, and each provider’s refund terms.