You've opened twelve tabs. Close eleven. Every eSIM store sells some version of country × GB × expiry. We sell the landing: the two hours that actually scare you. Here are the six axes that matter: on every one, the category's answer and ours.
“Typical eSIM store” is deliberately not one logo. The named specifics (current prices, refund policies) are footnoted below, because they change weekly. The model is what loses, and the model doesn't change.
The reason this table exists: everyone in the category is priced against each other. We're priced against the thing you're actually afraid of: your home carrier's roaming bill.
Day passes run $10-25 for 24 hours. Leave data roaming on without one and it's billed by the megabyte: the $180 surprise. Either way you're paying for a month-shaped product to cover a 2-hour window, and nobody checks your settings before you fly.
One price for the landing, quoted by destination before you pay. The T-3h checklist text so the $180 bill can't happen. Offline 15 minutes after wheels-down? Refunded: cash in 48h or 120% as wallet credit. Need the whole week? Top up the wallet: 1GB $3.90 · 3GB $7.50 · 5GB $10.50 in Europe, bigger = cheaper per GB, never expires.
Wholesale eSIM data is a commodity: resellers push bundles at pennies per gigabyte, and the floor only falls. The moment we sold GB buckets, we'd be a worse version of a dozen stores. So we don't.
We sell certainty at wheels-down: a named network before you land, the settings check that prevents the roaming bill, a human when it fails. The wallet exists only so the trip's leftovers are yours: never-expire credit, shareable, cheaper per GB as it grows. That's the whole catalogue: landing, wallet, family. No fourth tier, no GB-first hero, no “unlimited” asterisk.
Prices move weekly; refund policies don't. These were the published entry prices when this page was written: check them, we'll wait.
Entry prices as published in 2026 reviews and store pages; corridor anchor shown. We don't benchmark against their sales, but against their defaults.
Because the behavior is the point: every GB-bucket store: Airalo, Saily, Holafly, eSIMPal, and dozens of white-label resellers on the same wholesale: sells country × GB with expiry and a support queue when it fails. Brands change prices weekly; the model is what to compare. The named specifics are in the footnote table above.
You pay for the two hours that scare you: wheels-down, arrivals, the ride. Not for GB × days. A week of real tourist use runs about 600MB and hotel WiFi carries the rest. If you need more later, the wallet top-up is never-expire credit, and bigger top-ups get cheaper per GB.
$3.9 is the EU·UK corridor anchor. Landing cover is priced by destination: US·MX is $4.9, SE Asia is $5.9 in beta: quoted live at checkout before you pay. No upsell at the gate, and the refund guarantee is included in every corridor.
Top up the wallet: 1GB $3.90, 3GB $7.50, 5GB $10.50 for Europe: bigger top-ups get cheaper per GB, credit never expires, and the family shares one balance. We just refuse to sell you the bucket first and call it a landing product.
Unlimited is a month-shaped product for streaming on the beach. A landing needs about 2 hours and 600MB of essentials: maps, WhatsApp, Uber. Hotel WiFi carries the week. We sell the landing; we don't resell your hotel's WiFi as a premium.
A US day pass runs $10-25 for 24 hours, Europe similar. The landing needs about 2 hours and 600MB. Pay for the landing, not the month, and if you're offline 15 minutes after wheels-down, it's refunded. The day pass has never offered you that.