Best//
About us
BesteSIM is an independent editorial site that tests, scores, and ranks travel eSIM providers. We buy every plan with our own money, run structured speed tests across 185 countries, and publish honest scores even when they hurt affiliate earnings.
BesteSIM is led by Alex Chen, a travel technology reviewer with seven years of hands-on coverage in mobile connectivity. Alex spent four years before that as a telecom analyst, where the work involved evaluating network infrastructure and roaming agreements for enterprise clients across Southeast Asia and Europe. That background shapes how we read carrier routing tables and pricing structures today.
Alex has personally tested eSIM plans in 12 countries: Japan, South Korea, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Each test follows the same protocol: buy the plan, install it on arrival, run timed speed tests at 3 locations per city, measure app reliability, and contact support with a scripted question to log response time. Personal testing informs the scores on those destination pages before we expand coverage through our broader testing panel.
Our contributing reviewers focus on specific regions. One covers sub-Saharan Africa, where carrier partnerships shift frequently. Another covers South America, where data throttling policies vary significantly between providers even within a single country. Every contributor follows the same 5-criteria scoring rubric.
We do not accept free plans from providers in exchange for coverage. Every eSIM we test is purchased at the listed public price. This keeps our cost data accurate and our scoring free from preferential treatment.
We have run more than 1,400 speed tests across 4 providers and 185 countries since we launched. Each test uses three devices: an iPhone 15 Pro, a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, and a Google Pixel 8 Pro. Using three devices catches platform-specific QoS handling and eSIM profile delivery differences that a single-device test would miss.
Every eSIM earns a score from 0 to 10. The score is a weighted average of five criteria:
For the full methodology, including how we handle ties and how we weight plans with data caps differently from unlimited plans, read our testing methodology page.
BesteSIM earns revenue when readers click affiliate links and purchase an eSIM plan. We disclose every commercial relationship on our disclosure page.
Providers cannot pay for a higher score, better placement, or a positive review. Our affiliate agreements are signed after scoring is complete, not before. If a provider we earn from receives a poor score on a new destination, that score gets published without adjustment. We have dropped affiliate relationships rather than suppress findings three times since launch.
When we find a problem with a provider, we describe it specifically. We name the destination, the network, and the metric that underperformed. Vague disclaimers do not help a traveler decide whether to trust a plan before their flight.
Most eSIM comparison sites pick one provider as the overall best and apply that label everywhere. We do not do that. The best eSIM for Japan is not always the best eSIM for Brazil. Carrier routing agreements vary by country, and a provider with strong Asian network coverage often has weak Latin American partnerships.
We select a winner per destination based on the local test data. A provider ranked first in 40 countries might rank third in another because a competitor has a superior roaming agreement there. Our full destination list shows the per-country winner for all 185 destinations we cover.
We also publish carrier routing transparency. On each country page, we name the local network operator a plan connects to, not just the eSIM brand. This matters because two plans from different providers can route through the same local carrier and perform identically, or they can route through different carriers with a 30 Mbps speed difference.
Prices are verified weekly against each provider website. If a price changes by more than 5%, we re-run the pricing sub-score for that destination before the next publish cycle. Our buying guide explains how to read pricing structures so you can evaluate new offers yourself.
Travel eSIM pricing changes more often than most product categories. Providers run promotions, adjust data caps, and change network partnerships without notice. We run three update cycles to keep our data accurate.
We currently rank 4 providers across 185 countries. Those providers connect through more than 200 network operators worldwide. Browse the complete list on our destinations page, or go directly to a provider review:
Each country page shows the top-ranked plan, the local carrier it connects to, the current price per gigabyte, and the date we last verified the data.
We read every message and respond within two business days. If you found an error in a score, a price that no longer matches, or a carrier routing detail that has changed, please tell us. Editorial corrections improve the site for every future reader.
Reach us through our contact page. We do not accept guest posts, sponsored content, or paid placements. Outreach for those will not receive a reply.
See our work
Every page shows a per-country winner, carrier routing details, and a verified price. No guesswork.