eSIMs have totally changed the game for getting high speed data while traveling internationally, eliminating the need for physical SIM cards or expensive roaming plans. However, there are a LOT of eSIM companies on the market, so it can be tough to know which one to use.
Sim Local has been in this space for 14 years, so we decided to put their eSIMs to the test. Here’s our honest thoughts on Sim Local, including some of the unique features that set them apart and whether it’s one of the best eSIM options for international travel.
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This post is sponsored by Sim Local. We’ve tested using Sim Local ourselves during international travels several times, so all opinions are our own.
What is an eSIM?
Before diving into Sim Local, let’s back up for a minute and address…what the heck is an eSIM?
Before eSIMs, you used to only have a few, not-so-great choices to get data on your device while you were traveling internationally.
For example, you could purchase an international data plan through your normal cell phone carrier, which are frequently REALLY expensive and can often lead to incurring even pricier roaming and overage fees.
Alternatively, once you’ve landed in a new country, you could wait in line at an airport kiosk for a physical SIM card and pray that it works once you pop it into your phone or mobile router. There’s even been many reports of scammers selling physical SIM cards that work for a short period of time, only to fail shortly thereafter, leaving the purchaser without any data—AND without recourse to recoup the money you spent on the fraudulent SIM card.
eSIMs, which are digital versions of a traditional physical SIM card, are SO much easier and more affordable than these previous options. You can purchase an eSIM online through a provider, like Sim Local, before you even leave your home country, by heading to its website or app, choosing which countries you’re heading to and how much data you need while you’re there.
Once the eSIM is enabled on your device, you’ll have high speed data on your phone once you land in whatever country or region you purchased the eSIM for, without having to mess around with a physical SIM card, roaming around looking for a public Wifi network, or worrying about scary overage fees. Plus, you’ll be using the same local networks as the people that actually live there—no glacially slow international roaming data!
Who can use an eSIM?
Most cell phones these days are eSIM compatible, but you can double check whether your device is compatible with this list.
Your phone also has to be unlocked, which basically means that it isn’t restricted to a single cellular network, which may be the case if you’re paying for your phone in monthly installments.
Only your home cell phone carrier can unlock your device (here’s a guide on how to do it or you can simply contact your cell phone carrier). I’d strongly suggest confirming whether it’s unlocked before you travel internationally, so, if you happen to run into any issues, you’re not wasting your precious vacation time, sitting on an expensive international phone call with your cell carrier.
What is Sim Local?
Sim Local opened its first retail location in the Dublin Airport in 2011, quickly expanding into the London Heathrow Airport. Since then, their physical footprint has grown to having stores, kiosks, and vending machines in over 100 airports across nine different countries.
While the company started largely in the physical SIM card space, they started to really focus on the eSIM market around 2020. Now, they offer eSIM plans that have connected over 4 million travelers with local 4G and 5G networks in over 200 countries and regions (including plans for Europe and even a global one!).
What are the benefits of Sim Local?
My husband, Justin, and I travel fulltime. We spend about half our time traveling around the U.S. and Canada in our RV, and the rest of our time traveling internationally. So we use eSIMs to get data a LOT and definitely know what features an eSIM needs to make it easy and convenient for international travel.
I recently used Sim Local while traveling in Canada and Mexico. They were super easy to install (honestly, easier than a lot of other companies we’ve used) and I had a really great experience while relying on them for data as we traveled around.
Here’s some of the features that I think make it one of the best eSIMs for international travel.
Cheap pricing
There are literally HUNDREDS of eSIM providers and their pricing can be all over the map, depending on the provider and which country you need data. As mentioned above, we’ve used a ton of different eSIM companies in a variety of different places and have been consistently impressed by the competitive pricing that Sim Local offers.
For example, for a 20 GB 30 day plan in the United Kingdom, Sim Local’s plan is over 50% cheaper than one of the most popular eSIM companies. Similarly, their 20 GB 31 day plan in Asia is almost 33% LESS than the cost of one of the most popular eSIM companies—it’s kind of WILD how much cheaper they are in comparison!
As mentioned above, pricing fluctuates based on which country or region you’re buying an eSIM, so it never hurts to check around to see which providers offer the most affordable pricing. That being said, if you don’t want to spend a ton of time researching different options, Sim Local consistently provides some of the cheapest pricing on the market for eSIMs.
Plus, we even scored an additional 5% off for our readers (cuz we love y’all!), when you use the promo code “JUSTINANDJESS” here.
Unlimited data
We spent seven months at the beginning of this year traveling around South America and relied on eSIM plans for data, typically ranging from 3 GB to 10 GB, depending on how long we’d be in a certain country.
While this might sound like a lot of data, it always seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye if we weren’t careful with it—we rely heavily on our phones for our jobs, often doing data intensive work, like uploading large videos on YouTube or scrolling on social media for hours on end (I swear it’s actually part of our jobs!).
So when we found out that Sim Local provides unlimited data plans, we were absolutely floored—this would’ve been an absolute game changer while we were living in South America!
While it’s becoming more and more common for eSIM providers to sell unlimited data offerings, most of them offer much slower speeds on these plans once you’ve used anywhere from 1 to 3 GBs of data per day, also known as “throttling”. Not so, with Sim Local—they offer 10 GB of full speed data every day of your unlimited data plan (i.e., up to 10x the amount of data offered by other providers!), meaning it’s INCREDIBLY unlikely you’ll run into any issues with getting throttled.
I got an unlimited data plan from Sim Local for a recent road trip through Canada, where, for hours each day, I’d sit on my phone as we were driving around and engaged with other users on our Instagram and TikTok accounts. And, even then, I never came close to hitting the 10 GB daily high speed data cap!
If you use a lot of data while you’re on adventures abroad or simply don’t want to worry about limiting your data use, these unlimited plans are seriously a game changer and make Sim Local stand out as one of the best eSIM options for international travel.
Support and money back guarantee
Most providers, including Sim Local, offer step-by-step instructions to make installing your first eSIM less intimidating. Here are the instructions for iOS and Android, if you want to take a peek.
But, if you’re nervous about installing it for the first time or don’t know if your phone is eSIM compatible, there’s no need to worry. Sim Local offers 24/7 chat support through WhatsApp that will help you walk through the steps of installing and troubleshooting any issues that you might run into. There’s also email or chat support if you don’t prefer to use WhatsApp (or even in person support, if you’re traveling through any of the 100 airports where Sim Local has a physical location!).
And, if you run into any serious issues that you can’t troubleshoot—or you simply change your mind, you can actually get a full refund of your purchase from Sim Local, with no questions asked.
Justin has run into issues getting eSIMs from other providers to work on his Android phone for some reason and had to jump through some serious hoops to get a refund from those providers. It’s REALLY nice that Sim Local has a money back guarantee, so you don’t have to worry about spending your vacation chatting with tech support or squabbling to get a refund.
Hotspot and tethering
As digital nomads, it’s SUPER important for us to be able to use our mobile data for not just our cell phones, but also our laptops too.
So, it’s really cool that all Sim Local plans let you use your data for tethering and as a mobile hotspot so that you can connect your laptop and other devices to the internet, whenever you need to use it!
Call and text options
Before using Sim Local, I always thought that eSIMs were data only, meaning you aren’t able to call or text (unless you bought some expensive international plan through your normal phone carrier).
However, Sim Local has some really cool packages that actually include data, texts, and both local and international calls, which are available in countries that are popular with travelers, including the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands, and even in entire regions, like Europe and the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
With these kinds of packages, you’ll actually get a local phone number to use while you’re traveling. This can REALLY come in handy, especially if you’re going to be hanging out in a particular region for a long time. For example, we lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a month and a lot of apps we were interested in using during our time there (think food delivery or ride share apps) actually required us to have a local number in order to register.
As far as I can tell from poking around the internet, Sim Local is one of the only eSIM providers to offer these kinds of packages for international travel!
With so many unique features, Sim Local is absolutely one of the best eSIMs for international travel and has been a gamechanger for us when we’re adventuring abroad. Do you have any questions about using eSIMS or Sim Local specifically? Let us know in the comments below!
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