How we compare 279,741 eSIM plans from 85 providers
Every number on this site comes from a pipeline, not a pitch. Provider catalogs are re-checked against their feeds
or APIs, most of them once a week, table order is computed from plan attributes, and affiliate commissions are never an input.
This page explains each step — it’s maintained by the eSIM Advice Editorial Team and was last reviewed on November 2, 2026.
85providers compared
279,741live plans tracked
215countries & territories
Weeklyre-check of most provider catalogs
88coupon codes live
Data collection
Where our data comes from
We don’t copy plan tables from provider marketing pages. Most of the 85 providers we compare are
connected to an automated sync that pulls their current catalog directly from their feed or API; a few catalogs
are refreshed by a manual run instead, and a couple have stopped updating. Scheduled catalogs are re-checked
once a week on their own assigned night, so a seventh of them refresh every night; the biggest can fail
mid-fetch and get picked up on a later night — the live picture, including every catalog that is behind, 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 215 destination
pages it covers. Plan data originates from those feeds; occasional manual corrections are logged and superseded
by the next sync.
85 provider catalogs, read from their own feeds, APIs or stores — no plan tables copied by hand
Most catalogs re-checked once a week on an assigned night (scheduler at 03:17 UTC) — prices can be up to 7 days old, older where a catalog has fallen behind
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.
eSIM Advice re-checks most provider catalogs once a week, on an assigned night (the scheduler runs at 03:17 UTC). As of November 2, 2026, 77 of 85 connected provider catalogs had been refreshed within the last 8 days, covering 95% of the 284,342 plans in those catalogs; the median catalog was last refreshed 4 days ago. Per-catalog timestamps are published as machine-readable JSON at https://esimadvice.com/freshness.json.
Country pages print that country’s real last-sync date, never today’s date
A country page whose newest plan sync is more than 8 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
Plans sold with a speed limit for their whole validity (e.g. “Max 1 Mbps”) stay listed with that limit shown, but never take a “cheapest 1GB+”, “best value” or best-price-per-GB spot
Identical ranking logic for all 85 providers
Affiliate commission is not an input — not a weight, not a tiebreaker
Highlighted plans never reorder tables or hide cheaper options
Advertising is labelled: Featured cards and AD rows sit outside the ranked order and never change it
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 a provider has an unconditional
coupon code, we show the coupon-applied price — clearly, not as a fake “was/now” strike-through game. Some of our
links add that code at checkout for you; for the others, the provider’s page here shows the code to enter, and you
need to enter it to get the price we show. There are currently 88 active codes. They come from the providers
and our partner agreements; we add them by hand and confirm some at checkout ourselves, but not every one, and we
remove a code as soon as we learn it has stopped working. One honest caveat: providers control their own
checkouts, so the provider’s final price always wins.
Coupon-applied prices shown only for codes with no condition (88 codes live — see the coupon codes page)
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
No fake reviews or ratings. You won’t find star ratings or review counts on eSIM Advice today, because we only publish reviews from real users — and we haven’t collected any yet. We’d rather show nothing than invent social proof.
No pay-to-rank. There is no price at which a provider can buy a position in our ranked tables. Advertising exists — Featured cards and AD rows — and it is labelled and sits outside that order.
No invented discounts. Every coupon is a real code from the provider or our partner agreement with them; we remove codes that expire or stop working as soon as we know.
No test scores. We’ve tried some providers ourselves, but we don’t test every plan, so no ranking, badge or price on this site comes from a test.
No fake urgency. No countdown timers, no invented scarcity.
On our comparison pages, if a number can’t be traced to our pipeline or a provider’s feed, we don’t publish it.
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 every catalog is
re-checked weekly, most pricing discrepancies self-correct within a week; 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.
FAQ
Methodology questions, answered
Do affiliate commissions affect how plans are ranked?
No. Rankings are computed from plan attributes — price, price per GB, validity period, and data allowance. Commission data is not an input to the sorting, and highlighted plans never reorder tables or hide cheaper options.
How often are the prices on eSIM Advice updated?
Most provider catalogs are re-checked against the provider’s own feed or API once a week, on an assigned night (the scheduler runs at 03:17 UTC and refreshes that night’s share of providers). A price shown here can therefore be up to seven days old, or older where a catalog has fallen behind; every catalog’s last-sync date is in the freshness table below and in /freshness.json. The provider’s checkout remains the final source of truth.
Why doesn’t eSIM Advice show star ratings or user reviews?
Because we only publish reviews from real users, and we haven’t collected any yet. Rather than fabricate ratings or review counts, we show none. When user reviews appear, every one will come from a genuine submission.
Are the coupon codes on eSIM Advice real?
Yes. They are real codes from the providers and our partner agreements with them. We add them by hand and confirm some at checkout ourselves, but not every one, and nothing checks automatically that a code still works — tell us if one fails and we’ll remove it. There are currently 88 active codes. Where a provider has an unconditional code, its displayed prices already include it; some of our links add the code at checkout, and for others you enter it yourself.
Does buying through your links cost me more?
No. Buy buttons route through a tracked /go/ redirect so the provider knows we referred you; we don’t add anything to your price. A coupon lowers it only when its code is applied at checkout — some of our links add the code, and for others you enter it yourself. Any commission comes from the provider’s margin, not your total.
