Airalo in Vietnam: checked prices, an unnamed network, and a $7 local rival
Airalo's Vietnam prices were read off its own site — 10GB for 30 days at $18, 50GB at $49 — and now sit beside an equally checked Saily catalogue that matches them almost to the cent. A Vietnamese prepaid SIM costs about $7 at the airport, which changes the question.
Vietnam eSIM plans compared
Nomad50 GB · 30d$39$0.78/GB✓ checkedBest value6 plansData Days Price Per GB 3 GB 30 $8 $2.67 5 GB 30 $10 $2 10 GB 30 $17 $1.70 Unlimited 5 $18 — Unlimited 10 $33 — 50 GB 30 $39 $0.78 
Airalo50 GB · 30d$49$0.98/GB✓ checked18 plansData Days Price Per GB 1 GB 3 $4 $4 3 GB 3 $7.50 $2.50 3 GB 7 $8 $2.67 5 GB 7 $10 $2 5 GB 15 $10.50 $2.10 5 GB 30 $11 $2.20 Unlimited 3 $11.50 — 10 GB 7 $17 $1.70 10 GB 15 $17.50 $1.75 10 GB 30 $18 $1.80 Unlimited 5 $18.50 — Unlimited 7 $27 — 20 GB 15 $28 $1.40 20 GB 30 $29 $1.45 Unlimited 10 $34.50 — Unlimited 15 $48 — 50 GB 30 $49 $0.98 Unlimited 30 $69 — 
Saily20 GB · 30d$28.99$1.45/GB✓ checked5 plansData Days Price Per GB 1 GB 7 $3.99 $3.99 3 GB 30 $7.99 $2.66 5 GB 30 $10.99 $2.20 10 GB 30 $17.99 $1.80 20 GB 30 $28.99 $1.45 
HolaflyUnlimited · 3d$11.90unlimited✓ checked6 plansData Days Price Per GB Unlimited 3 $11.90 — Unlimited 5 $20.50 — Unlimited 7 $27.50 — Unlimited 10 $36.50 — Unlimited 15 $50.50 — Unlimited 30 $73.90 —
Providers marked ✓ checked were read from their own site on ; those marked indicative come from our earlier research and are not yet verified. Providers change pricing without notice — check before buying. Host networks marked ? are taken from provider listings and have not been confirmed by us; where no network is shown, the provider does not publish one. How we check prices.
What Airalo charges in Vietnam
These figures were read off Airalo's own site on 13 August 2026. Saily's Vietnam prices were read the same way on 16 August and Nomad's on 18 August, so those comparisons below are exact; the Holafly figures are indicative listings, and the gaps against them are approximate. eSIMCard's rows have been withdrawn: we read its own pages on 18 August 2026, found the figures we held were wrong, and could not store the real ones. See our eSIMCard page.
| Data | 3 days | 7 days | 15 days | 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1GB | $4 | — | — | — |
| 3GB | $7.50 | $8 | — | — |
| 5GB | — | $10 | $10.50 | $11 |
| 10GB | — | $17 | $17.50 | $18 |
| 20GB | — | — | $28 | $29 |
| 50GB | — | — | — | $49 |
Unlimited is sold separately by duration: $11.50 for 3 days, $18.50 for 5, $27 for 7, $34.50 for 10, $48 for 15 and $69 for 30.
Hotspot tethering is supported. No plan carries calls or SMS; messaging apps run over the data.
As elsewhere, the longer validity is nearly free — 5GB costs $1 more for a month than for a week, 10GB the same. There is no reason to buy the seven-day version of anything unless the price difference matters more to you than a dollar.
Middle of the market, not the front of it
Airalo dominates our table in some countries. Vietnam is not one of them.
At 5GB for 30 days, Saily's verified price is $10.99 and Nomad's a verified $10, against Airalo's verified $11. At 10GB, Saily is a verified $17.99 and Nomad a verified $17, against Airalo's $18. At 20GB, Saily is a verified $28.99 against $29. The differences are cents, and they run in the rivals' favour as often as not.
One size is not a rounding error. Saily sells 3GB for 30 days at $7.99; Airalo's 3GB is $8.00 and expires after seven. Same money, four times the window, and both figures checked at source. If 3GB is the size you want, Airalo does not have the plan to buy.
The other real gap is at the top. Nomad's 50GB for 30 days is $39, ten dollars below Airalo's verified $49, and that figure is now verified too. It is the cheapest large plan in Vietnam by a wide margin — $0.78 a gigabyte against Airalo's $0.98 — and the conditional this page used to attach to it no longer applies.
Airalo's honest advantage here is not price but reach. Against Saily, whose prices are now as checked as its own, it is level to within a cent from 5GB to 20GB and behind at 3GB. Against Nomad it is behind at 5GB, 10GB and 50GB. An earlier version of this page said the 50GB month had no verified competition and that the Nomad gap sat on an unchecked listing; Nomad's Vietnam prices were read off its own site on 17 August 2026, and neither of those statements survives.
On unlimited, Airalo undercuts Holafly at every matching duration — $11.50 against $11.70 at three days, $27 against $27.30 at seven, $69 against $74.90 at thirty — but Nomad's verified five days at $18 and ten days at $33 come in below Airalo's $18.50 and $34.50.
The network it does not name
Airalo does not publish which Vietnamese network its eSIM roams onto. It does not do so for any country, so there is no field on the product page to check and nothing in our data to report. Any page that names a carrier behind an Airalo Vietnam eSIM inferred it.
In Vietnam that gap has teeth. Cities, the coast and the main routes are well served by everything. But the places people specifically travel to Vietnam for — the Sapa trekking routes, the Ha Giang Loop, the deeper karst channels of Ha Long Bay, the rural Mekong Delta waterways — are where the networks diverge, and Viettel is the only carrier with reliable 4G across most remote areas.
No travel eSIM in our Vietnam data has a confirmed host network, Airalo least of all. So if the Ha Giang Loop is the point of the trip, an eSIM cannot promise you the coverage you need, at any price.
The local SIM problem
Vietnam is one of the countries where the obvious answer is the local one. A prepaid SIM runs about $7 at the airport — roughly the price of Airalo's 3GB plan, and well under half its 10GB month at $18. You need your passport to register it, and it takes a few minutes at a counter.
For that money you also get to choose the carrier, which is the one thing no eSIM here will let you do.
The eSIM still wins in specific cases. You land at 1am and want to be online before you reach immigration. You want no ID handed over, no counter, no queue. You are in Vietnam for four days and cannot be bothered. Those are real reasons, and $18 for a month of 10GB is not an outrageous price to pay for them — but it is a convenience premium, not a saving.
Verdict
Buy Airalo for a short city-based trip where you want data working on landing: 5GB for 30 days at $11 covers a light week, 10GB at $18 covers most fortnights. If 3GB is enough, buy Saily's $7.99 month instead.
If you are staying longer, buy Nomad's verified 50GB at $39 instead. If you are heading into the mountains or the Delta, buy a local SIM from the carrier you want and take the passport check. The full comparison is on the Vietnam hub.
Common questions
Which Vietnamese network does Airalo use?
It does not say. Airalo publishes no host network for Vietnam or anywhere else, so there is nothing to check on the product page and nothing in our data. If a specific carrier's remote coverage is what you need, an eSIM cannot guarantee it.
Is Airalo cheaper than a Vietnamese SIM card?
No. A local prepaid SIM is around $7 at the airport, against $18 for Airalo's 10GB month. The eSIM buys you speed of setup, no passport check and no counter queue — not a lower price.
Which Airalo Vietnam plan is the best value?
10GB for 30 days at $18 is the sensible default at $1.80 a gigabyte. The 50GB month at $49 is $0.98 a gigabyte, though Nomad's verified $39 for the same size undercuts it at $0.78. Take 30-day validity at every size — it costs about a dollar more than seven days.