The short answer: for a typical trekking trip, Nomad was the cheapest eSIM in 9 of our 18 destinations, Lotso Travel (our own product) in 5, Ubigi in 3 and Maya Mobile in 1. The spread inside a single country is large. Two weeks of data in Chile costs $24 from the cheapest provider and $51.50 from the dearest; in Nepal it runs from $24 to more than $200, and the most expensive option there is ours.
Everything below comes from public price pages we read by hand on 31 October 2026, plus Lotso's own plan catalogue. Switch between trip lengths and price per GB, hover a dot for the provider and plan, or open the sources list at the bottom to see every page we used.
What the index measures
Most eSIM comparisons quote the cheapest plan on a page, which is usually 1 GB for 7 days and tells you very little about a real trip. We priced three standard trips instead, all at 0.5 GB a day: 7 days (3.5 GB), 14 days (7 GB) and 30 days (15 GB). That's roughly what a trekker uses with offline maps, messaging, weather checks and a few photo uploads, and it's the same yardstick for every country.
For each provider and trip we take the cheapest way to cover both the days and the data. If a provider's 3 GB plan is too small, we price two of them, the same as buying a top-up. If an unlimited pass is shorter than the trip, we price back-to-back passes. We cap stacking at six plans, which only matters for Nepal.
The per GB view is different: it's the lowest price per gigabyte among each provider's fixed plans of 3 GB or more. It flatters providers that sell big 30-day bundles, which is useful if you're going for a month and less useful for a long weekend.
What stands out
Nomad is the price leader for most trips. Its 30-day fixed plans are cheap (10 GB for $16 in Japan and Iceland, $13 in the USA) and it names the local network on every country page we read. The catch is in its unlimited passes, which slow down after 2 GB a day; see our fair-use explainer.
Lotso wins in Europe and loses badly in the Himalaya and East Africa. It was the cheapest for 7 and 14 days in Iceland, Norway, the UK, the Europe regional plan and Indonesia, where 5 GB for 10 days costs $9.99. But its fixed plans in Nepal ($70.99 for 3 GB), Tanzania ($33.99 for 5 GB over 10 days) and Canada ($14.99 for 3 GB over 15 days) are among the most expensive in the index. We run Lotso, and we'd point a Kilimanjaro or Everest trekker elsewhere.
Flat-rate unlimited changes the maths in expensive countries. Maya Mobile sells one "Travel Mode" price everywhere it operates: $9.99 for 3 days, $19.99 for 7, $27.99 for 14 and $49.99 for 30. That's poor value in Iceland, where 5 GB costs under $10, and excellent value in Nepal, Tanzania and Ecuador. Lotso resells Maya Mobile's network plans under different packaging, which is one reason we included Maya directly.
Holafly and Airalo's unlimited passes are the priciest way to stay online. Both price unlimited by the day and land at $48 to $55 for 15 days in most countries. They make sense if you'll burn through data on a laptop hotspot (Airalo) or never want to think about it (Holafly), but for trekking-level use you're paying for data you won't touch.
Where providers are missing
A dash in the table means one of two things. Either the provider doesn't sell a plan for that country (Ubigi's fixed Nepal plans, say, or Saily's unlimited in Chile), or we couldn't read one from its public page. That second case applies to Ubigi in most countries: its plan listing is one very long page that we could only read as far as Denmark, so we have Ubigi prices for Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Argentina (two plans) and Japan (one plan) only.
Airalo shows only its unlimited passes on most country pages; its fixed-data packages sit behind a filter that didn't render for us, except in Mexico. We left Airalo's fixed plans out rather than guess, so Airalo's per-GB column is mostly empty and its trip prices are for unlimited passes.
Holafly's Nepal page showed prices only in euros (€49.50 for 5 days, €117.90 for 15). We left them out of the USD rankings instead of converting.
How we collected the prices
For six providers (Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Maya Mobile) we opened each country page on 31 October 2026 and recorded every plan shown: data allowance, days, price in USD and any daily cap on unlimited plans. Where a page showed a sale price we used the sale price, because that's what you'd pay that day. Where an unlimited price wasn't tied to a duration on the page (Saily lists one price beside a row of durations), we used the 15-day option it shows by default and say so in the sources list.
Lotso Travel's prices come from its production plan catalogue, filtered the way lotsotravel.com filters what it sells, and we publish the public price an anonymous visitor sees. Lotso also sells to referred customers at a lower price; that number is in our data file but not in the comparison.
We didn't buy and test these eSIMs for the index, and we can't vouch for speeds or coverage from the price pages. The route guides cover what's known about signal on specific trails. If you spot a price that's wrong, the about page explains how to tell us.
Questions people ask
Which eSIM is cheapest for adventure travel?
In our 31 Oct 2026 index, Nomad was the cheapest way to get 0.5 GB a day for 14 days in 9 of 18 destinations. Lotso Travel (run by the team behind this site) was cheapest in 5 (Indonesia, Iceland, Norway, the UK and its Europe regional plan), Ubigi in Chile, Argentina and Costa Rica, and Maya Mobile in Ecuador.
Why is Nepal so expensive?
Fixed-data eSIMs for Nepal cost far more per GB than anywhere else in the index. Lotso's public price was $25.99 for 1 GB and $70.99 for 3 GB; Saily's 3 GB plan was $29.99. Unlimited passes are the better deal there, such as Nomad's 15-day pass on Ncell for $39 or Maya Mobile's 14-day pass for $27.99.
How often is the index updated?
This is a frozen snapshot dated 31 Oct 2026. eSIM prices change often and run frequent sales, so check the provider's page (linked in the sources list) before you buy.
Does the index include the lower referral price Lotso offers?
No. We compare the public price any visitor sees on lotsotravel.com. Lotso charges less to customers who arrive through a referral link, but comparing that against competitors' public prices wouldn't be fair.