SimCorner vs Holafly: gigabytes from Australia, or days from Dublin

At a glance

Price, on a real trip

A comparison table of gigabytes against days is meaningless, so here are two actual trips.

One week in Europe. Most travellers spend somewhere between 5GB and 8GB in a week on maps, messaging, socials and the odd video call.

Two weeks in Europe.

Two weeks in Thailand.

That last one is the clearest illustration of the two models. Same trip, same phone, A$14 against A$79.

Where Holafly’s model wins on price is at the extremes.

Very short trips. A single day is A$6 on Holafly. No SimCorner plan competes at that size.

Very heavy use. If you genuinely burn three or four gigabytes a day, a Holafly week at A$43 beats buying twenty-plus gigabytes from anyone. But read the next section before you rely on that, because Holafly has not told you what happens when you do.

The number one of them publishes and the other does not

Both sell something called unlimited. Neither is unlimited. That is normal in this category and it is not the criticism.

SimCorner publishes the mechanics, in their own Europe comparison table:

“3GB/day (5G/4G), then unlimited @128kbps”

Holafly publishes no threshold and no throttled speed. Their marketing pages say the unlimited data is not throttled. Their terms and conditions say:

“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 for a number. There is not one. “Deemed excessive” is the entire published standard.

Now the part that is uncomfortable for SimCorner. 128 kbps is a very low number. It is roughly one eighth of the 1 Mbps most of this category throttles to, and it will not run maps reliably. SimCorner also markets hard on transparency, with lines like “No hidden throttling. No unexpected slowdowns” and “Be wary of advertisements claiming ‘unlimited data’ without addressing typical limits or throttling practices.” Publishing 128 kbps next to that copy is a choice, and it is the honest one, but it is a rough number to be honest about.

So the fair summary is this. On disclosure, SimCorner wins clearly. On the actual post-throttle experience, neither is good: one is bad and stated, the other is unknown. If you are a heavy user choosing between them, you are choosing between a known 128 kbps and an unpublished ceiling.

SimCorner also sells fixed-data Europe plans with “no daily usage caps or limits” running up to very large allowances, which sidesteps the throttle question entirely. That is probably the better way to buy from them if you use a lot of data.

Our international daily high-speed eSIM guide explains how daily allowances and reduced speeds work across plans.

Hotspot, which settles it for a lot of people

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).”

SimCorner, on theirs:

“Full Hotspot & Tethering: Share up to your full data allowance with laptops, tablets, or travel buddies at no extra cost.”

Their Europe comparison table lists hotspot as “Yes, uncapped” across all four Europe plans.

So on Holafly, an unlimited plan gives you one gigabyte a day to share. On SimCorner, you can share the whole allowance you bought.

If you are travelling as a couple with one phone carrying the data, or you work off a laptop, or there is an iPad in the family, this is not a tiebreaker, it is the decision.

Worth noting for fairness that Holafly’s separate subscription product advertises unlimited hotspot. The 1GB cap applies to the trip plans, which is what a holidaymaker buys. Our travel eSIM hotspot guide explains the checks that still vary by plan and phone.

Refunds

These two have almost opposite problems.

Holafly’s window is the best in the category and its process has the most friction.

Six months to refund an unactivated eSIM. Nobody else in this category comes close, and if you are a nervous planner buying months ahead, that is genuinely valuable.

After something goes wrong, it tightens. The connection failure route carries a US$3.50 administrative fee, and their policy warns that they “cannot guarantee a refund if you contact us after your trip.” Report the problem while you are still away. Refunds to your card run 5 to 10 business days, which is fast. Their HolaCoins store credit has no published conversion rate.

SimCorner’s promise is broad and its paperwork does not match the product.

Their refund policy covers “Sim cards and/or Accessory” and never once says eSIM. It includes:

“You are responsible for the cost of returning your faulty Sim Card.”

You cannot post an eSIM back. There is no digital goods carve-out.

It also excludes locked and incompatible handsets outright:

“SimCorner Pty Ltd will not provide a refund if the sim Card is not functional due to the handset you are using is locked or incompatible with the provider.”

And a more generous promise sits on the product pages, unreferenced by the policy page:

“We have a 100% Money Back Guarantee policy, which means that if you have a bad experience with one of our sim card and receive no value from it, we will provide you a refund. However, you MUST contact us whilst you are having the issue.”

A third window is buried in the Terms of Service: seven days from receipt to give written notice in writing.

But SimCorner has something Holafly does not, and it is the biggest structural difference between them:

“You will be are entitled to a Full refund for the Sim cards and/or Accessory purchased that is deemed faulty under Australian Consumer Law.”

SimCorner names the Australian Consumer Law in its own refund policy, and uses it to grant a right rather than to limit one. Their terms put the contract under the law of Victoria and accept the jurisdiction of Victorian courts.

Holafly contracts under an Irish entity and Irish law, with no Australian entity and no acknowledgement of Australian consumer law anywhere.

Australian consumer guarantees apply to services supplied to Australian consumers regardless of what a contract says, and a term cannot exclude them. The difference is not whether you have rights. It is how you would exercise them. A dispute with SimCorner runs through Consumer Affairs Victoria and a Victorian tribunal. A dispute with Holafly over a A$43 data plan runs to Dublin, which in practice means it does not run anywhere.

Both processes written up here: how a Holafly refund works and how a SimCorner refund works, with the underlying rights in travel eSIM refunds and Australian Consumer Law.

Support

SimCorner advertises round the clock human support and makes a feature of it: “24/7 Human Support — No bots. Real travel experts are available to help you around the clock.” There is no phone number published anywhere on their site and no response time committed to. They require you to contact them while the fault is live, and they say so plainly, including where to do it from: “when you are in WiFi (generally at the airport when you land if not working to begin with).”

Holafly has chat, email and WhatsApp. WhatsApp is the useful one when your data is broken. One caveat from their own terms of use: the WhatsApp line is described as “operated 9.00 – 17.00 Central European Time”, which is roughly 5pm to 1am in eastern Australia, even though other pages advertise 24/7. Chat and email carry no such caveat.

Neither has a channel that works with zero data, so both assume you can find wifi.

If it stops working

Holafly contradicts itself on whether you can reinstall. Their newer help material describes a limited number of 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.” When a company’s own pages disagree, plan for the harsher one.

SimCorner does not clearly publish a reinstall rule either way.

On both: disable the line rather than deleting it while you troubleshoot, and contact them before you get home. Our sequences are here for Holafly and SimCorner.

Which one for an Australian traveller

Choose SimCorner if you use a normal amount of data, you are going to Asia where the price gap is largest, you need to tether to a laptop or share with a partner, you want an Australian company under Australian law with the Australian Consumer Law named in the policy, or you would rather buy a big fixed allowance and never think about a fair use policy.

Choose Holafly if your trip is one to four days, you genuinely use several gigabytes a day, you want to buy months ahead and keep a six month right to change your mind, you want WhatsApp support, or you simply do not want to estimate your data.

Choose neither if you want destination pricing and Australian consumer backing and a refund policy that actually mentions eSIMs, with someone answering the email in your time zone. That is what we are trying to be, and our destination pages show the current plans and prices.

Questions people actually ask

Is SimCorner or Holafly cheaper?

SimCorner, for almost any normal trip. Two weeks in Thailand is A$14 for 10GB on SimCorner against A$79 for Holafly’s 15 days of unlimited. Holafly wins only on very short trips, where a single day is A$6, and potentially for very heavy data users.

How much hotspot do you get on Holafly?

One gigabyte per day on trip plans, stated on their own destination pages, regardless of the unlimited headline. SimCorner lists hotspot as uncapped at no extra cost and lets you share your full allowance.

Does Holafly throttle you?

Holafly publishes no throttle threshold and no throttled speed anywhere. Their marketing says the data is not throttled while their terms reserve the right to restrict usage “deemed excessive.” SimCorner publishes 3GB a day then 128 kbps on its Europe Unlimited plan.

Is SimCorner Australian?

Yes. SimCorner Pty Ltd, ABN 87 161 420 542, trading since 2012, with its terms under the law of Victoria and Victorian courts named. Holafly contracts through an Irish entity under Irish law.

Which has the better refund policy?

Holafly has by far the best unactivated window in the category at six months. SimCorner is the only one of the two that names the Australian Consumer Law in its refund policy, but that policy never mentions eSIMs and asks you to return a faulty SIM at your own cost.

Is there a fee to get a Holafly refund?

There is a US$3.50 administrative fee on refunds for connection issues, and their policy warns they cannot guarantee a refund if you contact them after your trip has finished.

Do either offer phone support?

Neither publishes a phone number. SimCorner advertises 24/7 human chat and email. Holafly has chat, email and WhatsApp, though its terms describe the WhatsApp line as running 9am to 5pm Central European Time.

What should I do if my eSIM stops working?

On either, disable the line rather than deleting it, and contact support while you are still travelling, from wifi if your data is down. Both make reporting during the trip a condition of getting anywhere.

Sources

SimCorner pricing from their Australian store, and policy from their refund policy, Terms of Service, FAQ and Europe product pages. SimCorner publishes no last-updated dates on any policy page. Holafly pricing from their own destination pages, and policy from their refund policy, terms and conditions and terms of use. All retrieved 17 to 20 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.