Holafly vs Airalo: unlimited days or fixed gigabytes, and which suits your trip

At a glance

The price comparison, in Australian dollars

Holafly does not sell fixed-data plans, so a like-for-like table is impossible. What we can do is take a realistic trip and price it both ways.

A one week trip. Most travellers use somewhere between 5GB and 8GB in a week on maps, messaging, social and the occasional video call.

A two week trip.

A month. Holafly’s 30 day plan is A$117 across most destinations and A$108 for the USA. Airalo’s 20GB over 30 days ranges from A$26.00 in Thailand to A$53.00 in the USA.

The pattern is clear enough. If you can estimate your data, Airalo’s fixed plans are substantially cheaper. If you cannot or will not, Holafly’s flat rate removes the decision, and on their unlimited-versus-unlimited comparison the two are within a few dollars of each other.

The hotspot, which settles it for some people

This is the specification most comparison articles skip and it is the one that changes the answer.

Holafly, on their own destination pages:

“Share 1 GB of data per day with family, friends, or fellow travelers. Use your smartphone to create a WiFi network and connect multiple devices. Your total sharable data depends on the length of your plan (for example, a 7-day plan includes 7 GB).”

Airalo, in their fair use policy:

“You can also use your device as a personal hotspot to share your connection with other devices. There is no limit on tethering or the number of devices you connect.”

So an “unlimited” Holafly plan gives you one gigabyte a day to share. If you are travelling as a couple and one phone is carrying the data, or you work off a laptop, or there is an iPad in the family, that cap is the whole ballgame.

Worth noting that Holafly’s own subscription product advertises unlimited hotspot. The 1GB cap applies to the trip plans, which is what a holidaymaker buys.

What “unlimited” actually means on each

Neither is unlimited. The difference is that one tells you.

Airalo publishes the number on every unlimited plan:

“when you use more than 3GB in a day, we’ll slow down (or ‘throttle’) your internet speed to 1 Mbps for the rest of that day. Your full high-speed connection will automatically be restored when your daily allowance next resets.”

They also define the day precisely: 24 hours from when you activated, resetting from that time.

Holafly publishes no number at all. Their marketing says unlimited data is not throttled, while their terms and conditions reserve the right:

“your data coverage and speed may be subject to a network service provider’s fair use policy… the network service provider reserves its right to impose restrictions or limitations on data usage or speed if your usage is deemed excessive.”

We searched their site and found no numeric threshold and no throttled speed published anywhere. That is a genuine and checkable difference in consumer disclosure, and it is the single strongest point in Airalo’s favour.

Refunds

Two very different shapes.

Holafly is better before you travel. Six months to refund an unactivated eSIM is the most generous unactivated window in this category. Airalo’s equivalent right “expires on the earlier of 14 days after making the purchase, or the date on which the eSIM is activated.”

Airalo is better after something goes wrong, but only just. Their fault route runs 30 days from the issue, though Airalo gets 10 days to attempt a fix first, which on a one week trip outlasts the holiday. Holafly’s connection-failure route carries a US$3.50 administrative fee and the warning that they “cannot guarantee a refund if you contact us after your trip.”

Both push you toward store credit. Airalo’s self-service tool only offers Airmoney for two of its four refund reasons. Holafly’s HolaCoins have no published conversion rate at all.

One practical difference that matters more than either policy: Airalo card refunds can take up to 30 business days, roughly six weeks. Holafly quotes 5 to 10 business days.

Do not delete either one

Both companies treat a deleted eSIM as close to unrecoverable, and both say so.

Airalo: “No, eSIMs typically can’t be reinstalled. We highly recommend you don’t remove any eSIM that you still intend to use.”

Holafly contradicts itself across at least six pages. Their newest says up to four reinstalls on the same handset. Their main installation page says “Do not remove the eSIM from your device as you will not be able to use it again.”

Either way, if something is not working, disable the line rather than deleting it. We have written both troubleshooting sequences up: Holafly and Airalo.

Support

Holafly has WhatsApp, which Airalo does not, and it is genuinely useful when your data is broken. One caveat we found in their terms of use: the WhatsApp line is “operated 9.00 – 17.00 Central European Time”, which is roughly 5pm to 1am in eastern Australia, even though every other page says 24/7. Chat and email carry no such caveat.

Airalo is chat and email only, 24/7, with no phone and no WhatsApp.

Neither publishes a zero-rated support channel, so both require wifi if your eSIM never worked.

Which one for an Australian traveller

Choose Holafly if you are a heavy data user, you want zero decisions, your trip is an odd length like twelve or nineteen days, you might cancel and want a long refund window, or you want WhatsApp support.

Choose Airalo if you use a normal amount of data, you want to hotspot to a laptop or a partner’s phone, you want to know the throttle threshold before you buy, you need calls and SMS, or you want a plan larger than 20GB.

Choose neither if you want your money to stay in Australian dollars end to end with an Australian company on the other side of the email. That is what we sell, and our destination pages show the current plans and prices.

Questions people actually ask

Is Holafly or Airalo cheaper?

For a normal week of maps, messages and social, Airalo, usually by a wide margin. A week in Thailand is A$16.00 on Airalo’s 10GB plan against A$43 for Holafly’s 7 days unlimited. On unlimited against unlimited they are within a few dollars.

Can I use Holafly and Airalo as a hotspot?

Airalo, yes, with no limit on tethering or devices. Holafly caps hotspot at 1GB per day on trip plans, regardless of the unlimited headline.

Which one actually tells you when it throttles?

Airalo. They publish 1 Mbps after 3GB per day on every unlimited plan. Holafly publishes no numeric threshold anywhere.

Which is better for a digital nomad?

Airalo, for the long validity plans, the unlimited tethering and the published throttle. Holafly’s day pricing gets expensive past a month.

Do either work on Android?

Both, on any unlocked eSIM-capable phone. Airalo names one known issue with some Samsung Galaxy S22 handsets.

What if my eSIM does not work?

Do not delete it. Both treat deletion as effectively irreversible. Disable the line, then follow the troubleshooting sequence and report the problem while you are still travelling.

Do either price in Australian dollars?

Both do. Holafly uses fixed AUD price points. Airalo runs its own AUD rate card rather than a live conversion.

Sources

Holafly pricing and policy from their own destination pages, refund policy, terms and conditions and terms of use. Airalo pricing from their own AUD rate card, and policy from their Terms of Use (last updated July 2026) and Unlimited Data Plans Fair Use Policy. All retrieved 17 August 2026. We re-check every price in this article monthly.

Written by Lachlan, who runs The SIM Shop from Brisbane and answers the support email himself.