In short
If your phone supports eSIM and you need data — take the eSIM: cheaper in time, safer for your main number, bought in advance. Plastic wins when you need a local number for calls, when the phone is old, or when you’re going for long and ready to sign a contract.
Where eSIM wins
Purchase — a minute in Telegram, installation — two at home. Plastic — a queue at the airport counter or hunting for a shop in the city, a passport, a conversation in a foreign language.
An eSIM works as a second line. A plastic SIM goes in instead of your own — and bank codes, calls and number-bound messengers stay in the suitcase.
You can buy and install the plan a month before the flight — it waits up to 180 days for activation. You’re online in the arrivals hall, not after the counter.
A regional plan works in dozens of countries on one eSIM. With plastic — a new SIM at every border or expensive roaming between them.
Where plastic is still handier
- You need a local number. Our eSIMs are data only: no calls or SMS. You can call via messengers, but if you need a number for local services and phone-booked taxis — that’s plastic.
- A phone without eSIM. Old models and iPhones from mainland China. Check —
*#06#, the EID line. - Long and heavy. For several months with big volumes a local contract may come out cheaper per gigabyte — at the cost of paperwork and being tied to a carrier.
- Countries we don’t cover. There are few, but they exist; the list of countries is in the catalog.
Honestly about price
A gigabyte from a local carrier is usually cheaper than from any tourist eSIM — because the local one sells a contract with a passport on its own turf. Our price includes convenience: no documents, in a minute, with your main SIM in place. For a week or two of vacation the money difference is a few dollars, while the difference in time and nerves is noticeable. For three months do the math: plastic may win.
The bottom line
A vacation, a business trip, a multi-country route, a phone from 2018 or newer — eSIM. A long stay in one country, a local number, an old phone — plastic. Not sure your phone will do — check by model, it takes ten seconds.