Holafly's Philippines eSIM: the wrong country to be the expensive one

Six durations, one product

Holafly does not sell gigabytes in the Philippines. It sells days of unlimited data, and the only tier structure is how many. These prices were read off Holafly's own site on 18 August 2026.

A correction, and it removes half of this page's case. We previously listed six different durations, including a 20-day plan at $61.90 that we called the only three-week-shaped plan on the market and one of the two reasons to buy Holafly here. There is no 20-day plan, in the Philippines or anywhere: Holafly sells 3, 5, 7, 10, 15 and 30 days. The five other prices we printed were wrong too, mostly high — seven days is $27.50, not $29.90.

We also had a section arguing that the seven-day plan was priced worse per day than the five-day one, at $4.27 against $4.18. On the real prices the seven-day plan is the better rate of the two — $3.93 against $4.10 — so that advice has gone. If anything, five days is the rung to avoid.

Airalo's verified unlimited is cheaper everywhere

Airalo also sells unlimited for the Philippines, and those prices were read off Airalo's own site.

Airalo is cheaper at all six. The fifteen-day tie-break this page used to claim for Holafly — ten cents, which was not a win in the first place — went the other way once the real price was read: $50.50 against $48. Nomad is cheaper again at the two lengths it sells.

This is not the usual shape of things. In most countries Holafly is pitched as the cheap route to unlimited. In the Philippines it is simply the dearest, and the cheaper side is also the side whose prices have been checked.

Our records used to put eSIMCard's unlimited plans below everyone else's. Those rows have been withdrawn: we read eSIMCard's own pages on 18 August 2026 and the figures we held were not the ones it charges.

And fixed data undercuts all of it

The wider point about unlimited in the Philippines: Airalo's verified 50GB for 30 days costs $48 against Holafly's $73.90 month, and Nomad's 50GB month is $45. Fifty gigabytes is more than most people manage to use on a four-week trip, even working remotely. At the ordinary end, Nomad's verified 10GB month is $17 and Airalo's is $19. Unless you are streaming daily or tethering a laptop for hours, the unlimited premium here buys reassurance rather than data.

What Holafly says about the network

Nothing. The older version of this page said Holafly's Philippines listing pointed to Globe and Smart and that the eSIM switched automatically between them. Both came from our own data rather than from Holafly, which names no carrier for the Philippines or for any of the countries we read. No travel eSIM sold here publishes its host network, so there is nothing to buy on.

That caution has weight here. Philippine coverage is strong in Manila, Cebu, Boracay and the developed resorts, and drops away in Batanes, the Camiguin hinterlands, the smaller Visayas islands, the interior of Palawan and Mindanao, and on the water between island-hopping stops such as Big Lagoon and Kayangan Lake. Unlimited data is worth nothing without a signal, and a $73.90 month is a lot to spend on a trip that spends its best days out of range.

Verdict

There is one reason left to buy Holafly for the Philippines: its unlimited is uncapped, where several rivals apply an unquantified daily fair-use limit. That is a real distinction, and it costs you $2.90 a month over Airalo's unlimited.

Everything else points away. Airalo undercuts Holafly at every one of the six durations with prices we have verified, Nomad undercuts both where it sells, and a 50GB month at $45 to $48 covers more data than most trips need for a third less than Holafly's unlimited. Holafly's plans are data only, with no Philippine number, and no ID is needed to buy — the same as everyone else here. A local SIM is about $5 but requires passport registration. See the Philippines hub for the full comparison.