Disclosure: WhatAllSay is reader-supported. Some links on this page are affiliate links, and we may earn a commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what we write or the scores we give.
Saily is a good travel eSIM for trips that need roughly 5 GB or less, where 1 GB starts at US$3.99 and hotspot use carries no restrictions. Buy it for short trips and the bundled Nord Security extras. Skip it if you need 10 GB or more, or calls and texts on one plan.
How we made this estimate
We compiled this from five sources checked between April and October 2026, and we have not used Saily ourselves. The inputs were Saily's own destination, Ultra and refund pages; the Trustpilot and Google Play rating pools; published reviews from Cybernews, Cloudwards and TechNovice; and one cross-provider price comparison built from esimDB listings. Every price and speed figure below is traceable to one of those.
What Saily actually sells
Saily is a prepaid travel eSIM launched in 2024 by Nord Security, the company behind NordVPN, NordPass and Incogni. You buy a data plan for a country or region, install the eSIM profile in the Saily app, and keep your normal SIM in place for your usual number.
Standard plans cover 200-plus destinations and are data only. Saily sells a separate US phone-number add-on from US$0.99 a month for calling and texting, and a Saily Ultra subscription that bundles the Nord apps with travel data.
The Ultra tier is a different product rather than a bigger one. Saily's own Ultra page states 30 GB of full-speed data a month, then unlimited data at up to 1 Mbps, across 121-plus destinations, with 8% of the spend back as Saily credits and NordVPN, NordPass, NordLocker and Incogni included.
Other extras sit around the edges: 3% back in Saily credits on standard plans, a 180-day window to activate a plan after buying it, gift vouchers redeemable within 12 months, a referral scheme worth US$5 in credits to each side, student pricing through Student Beans verification, and discounted plans for registered nonprofits by application.
Is Saily's pricing fair?
At the bottom of the range, yes. Saily's US plans read like this on its own destination page, checked in October 2026.
| Plan | Validity | Price | Per GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | 7 days | US$3.99 | US$3.99 |
| 3 GB | 30 days | US$8.99 | US$3.00 |
| 5 GB | 30 days | US$13.99 | US$2.80 |
| 10 GB | 30 days | US$22.99 | US$2.30 |
| 20 GB | 30 days | US$36.99 | US$1.85 |
| Unlimited | 15 days | US$45.99 | n/a |
Entry prices move by country rather than by plan size. Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United States all start at US$3.99 for 1 GB over seven days, while the UK, Germany and Greece start at US$4.49 and Canada at US$5.29.
Regional plans start at US$3.99 for Europe, US$4.99 for Asia and Oceania and US$5.99 for North America. The Global plan covering 121 destinations starts at US$8.99.
The picture changes at mid-size volumes. A September 2026 cross-provider comparison built from live esimDB listings put a 10 GB, 30-day Europe plan at US$35.99 on Saily against US$31.00 on Airalo and US$23.00 on Nomad, which works out at US$3.60 a gigabyte versus US$2.30 at the cheapest. Holafly was not in that race at all, because it sells no 10 GB pack and its only Europe option was an unlimited month at US$73.90, per the same September 2026 comparison.
One detail that annoys non-US buyers: Saily lists prices in US dollars whatever country you are in, and that shows up repeatedly in its weaker user ratings. Budget for your card's conversion spread.
How fast is it, really?
The most useful data we found comes from TechNovice, which published 132 non-Wi-Fi mobile measurements across 12 countries and updated the set in September 2026. Median download speeds, by its figures:
| Country | Median download |
|---|---|
| Latvia | 375.63 Mbps |
| Turkey | 342.39 Mbps |
| France | 254.73 Mbps |
| Thailand | 222.91 Mbps |
| Singapore | 119.84 Mbps |
| Portugal | 66.12 Mbps |
| Switzerland | 60.35 Mbps |
Those medians are more than enough for maps, messaging and video calls. The spread is the part worth reading carefully: individual readings in that same 132-test set ran from under 1 Mbps to 798.49 Mbps.
Headline speed also hides latency. Singapore returned a 119.84 Mbps median download alongside a 272.5 ms median latency, which is fine for streaming and poor for anything real-time.
What this actually means for you. An eSIM resells capacity on local carriers, so your speed is mostly a fact about the local network, not about Saily. Check which carrier Saily partners with in your destination before assuming rural coverage.
Where the ratings agree
Across two large customer pools and three published reviews, the pattern holds: easy install, fast chat support, competitive small plans.
| Source | Score or verdict | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Trustpilot | 4.7/5 from 31,863 ratings (83% five-star, 3% one-star) | October 2026 |
| Google Play (Saily app) | 4.5/5 from 97,800 ratings, 5M+ downloads | October 2026 |
| Cybernews | 4.9/5 | Updated June 2026 |
| Cloudwards | 95% ease of use, 90% coverage, 85% speed, 85% pricing | Updated April 2026 |
| TechNovice (132 field tests) | “My preferred all-round travel eSIM” | Updated September 2026 |
Where the sources disagree
Ultra's price is the biggest gap. Cybernews lists three monthly tiers at US$26.99, US$40.49 and US$53.99 as shown through its own discounted link, while Cloudwards quoted a single US$59.99 unlimited tier in April 2026. Saily's own Ultra page publishes the allowance and the destination count but not the price, so treat any Ultra figure as a starting point and read the checkout total.
Ultra also narrows coverage rather than widening it. Cybernews flags that the subscription reaches 121 destinations against 200-plus on standard plans, which matters if your route includes somewhere unusual.
The two rating pools disagree too, and the gap is informative. Trustpilot sits at 4.7 while Google Play sits at 4.5 across three times as many ratings, and the harsher app-store feedback clusters on connection failures in specific destinations and on sign-in problems. Buyers rating the purchase are happier than users rating the app.
What travellers praise and complain about
Strengths
- Verified buyers on Trustpilot return again and again to two things: installation that takes minutes and live chat that answers quickly. 83% rate it five stars.
- Hotspot is unrestricted on standard plans, in Saily's own words “unlimited access with no restrictions” — rare in a category that often caps or bans tethering.
- Field testing recorded median downloads above 250 Mbps in Latvia, Turkey and France.
- Ad and tracker blocking plus a virtual-location tool are included at no extra cost, per Cloudwards, and Ultra adds the full Nord app suite.
- Small housekeeping wins: 3% back in credits, a 180-day activation window, and vouchers valid for 12 months.
Weaknesses
- Standard plans are data only. Cloudwards notes Saily says it is “working on” calls and texts, and a US number is a paid add-on from US$0.99 a month.
- Value falls off above roughly 5 GB. At 10 GB in Europe, Saily was US$35.99 against Airalo's US$31.00 and Nomad's US$23.00 in September 2026.
- Refunds are conditional. A full refund needs the eSIM uninstalled or unused, or more than 99% of the data untouched.
- Customers in Trustpilot's negative band describe chatbot friction when chasing payment or activation problems before reaching a human.
- Prices are quoted in USD regardless of your country, a recurring complaint from non-US buyers.
Can you get your money back?
Saily's refund rules are clearer than most in this category, and narrower than they first look. The window is 30 days from purchase.
If you have not installed the eSIM, or installed it and used no data, you can ask for a full refund. If the plan is active, Saily says a full or partial refund “may be considered” when more than 99% of the data is unused, or when you could not use the data because of a problem on its side.
A decision takes up to five working days, and the money arrives no later than 30 calendar days after that, per Saily's own refund explainer. Anything left when a plan expires is gone, with no refund for unused data.
The trap to avoid. Buy the smallest plan that covers your trip, not the one with the best per-gigabyte rate. Unused data is not refundable once the validity period ends, so a cheap 20 GB rate is only cheap if you actually use 20 GB.
Who should buy it, who shouldn't
Buy Saily if you are taking a trip of a week or two and expect to use 5 GB or less; you want tethering without reading the small print; you already use NordVPN or Incogni and value one account across the lot; or you want the security extras bundled rather than bolted on.
Look elsewhere if you need 10 GB or more on one plan, where two rivals are meaningfully cheaper; you need a local number, calls or SMS without a separate add-on; you are heading somewhere rural where a single partner network decides your fate; or you want prices in your own currency.
Better picks for heavy data
Nomad was the cheapest of the four providers in the September 2026 comparison at US$23.00 for 10 GB over 30 days in Europe. Prefer it if cost per gigabyte is the only thing you are optimising for.
Airalo sat in the middle at US$31.00 for the same plan and runs the largest destination catalogue in the category. Prefer it for long multi-country trips with real data needs.
Holafly sells unlimited rather than capped data, at US$73.90 for an unlimited Europe month. Prefer it if you cannot predict your usage and would rather overpay than run out.
We have not used any of the three ourselves, so treat those as pointers to compare rather than as our verdicts on them.
Questions people ask before buying
Is Saily legit?
Yes. Saily launched in 2024 and is run by Nord Security, the company behind NordVPN. It holds 4.7/5 from 31,863 Trustpilot ratings and 4.5/5 from about 97,800 Google Play ratings, with more than 5 million app downloads.
Is Saily owned by NordVPN?
Both are products of the same company, Nord Security. The Saily Ultra subscription bundles NordVPN, NordPass, NordLocker and Incogni alongside travel data.
Can you make calls and send texts with Saily?
Not on a standard plan, which is data only. Saily sells a US phone-number add-on from US$0.99 a month, and calls over WhatsApp or FaceTime work on the data plan like any other app.
Does Saily allow hotspot tethering?
Yes. Saily's US plan page describes hotspot as “unlimited access with no restrictions”, which is more generous than several rivals that cap or prohibit tethering.
Can I get a refund on a Saily eSIM?
Within 30 days of purchase, yes, if the eSIM is uninstalled or unused, or if more than 99% of the data is still unused. Decisions take up to five working days and expired plans are not refundable.
Is Saily cheaper than Airalo?
At the entry level they are close, with Saily at US$3.99 for 1 GB over seven days against Airalo at about US$4.00. At 10 GB over 30 days in Europe, Airalo was cheaper in September 2026 at US$31.00 against Saily's US$35.99.
How many countries does Saily cover?
More than 200 destinations on standard plans. The Ultra subscription is narrower, covering 121-plus destinations.
Bottom line
Saily earns 8.3 out of 10 as a compiled estimate, and the confidence is reasonably high on prices and ratings, lower on real-world speed in any one destination. It is the easy choice for a short trip under about 5 GB, and the wrong one for a 10 GB month in Europe where Airalo and Nomad undercut it by US$5 to US$13.
Treat the security bundle as the reason to pay the small premium, rather than the per-gigabyte rate. If you want to narrow the gap, Saily runs a first-purchase discount on its own site, student pricing through Student Beans verification, and US$5 in referral credits for each side of an invite.