Simbye alternatives: catalogue, limits, prices
Last updated: 29 August 2026. Written by the RapideSIM Travel Team. Every figure below was read on the two companies' own public pages on 29 August 2026, and each row says where. We are one of the two companies compared here, so the section headed "Where we come out worse" is the one to read first if you distrust this page — and you should.
The short answer
Simbye is the better buy for a long trip on an unlimited plan, and it is not close. 46.95 $ for 30 unlimited days in the United States or Turkey, 64.95 $ in Japan — against 61.99 $, 59.99 $ and 120.99 $ from us. They also sell something we do not sell at all: plans with local calls and a phone number.
We are the better buy if you want an unlimited option on a destination outside the usual list. Both catalogues are public and countable: 56 of Simbye's 170 plans have an unlimited tier (33 %), against 91 of our 103 (88 %). A plan counts if the word "unlimited" appears in its title or in any of its variant titles — that is the whole rule. Their catalogue is larger; ours has an unlimited tier on far more of it. That is a difference of breadth, not of quality — and it is the only claim on this page that either of us can settle with a browser in ten seconds.
If neither of those is your case, look past both of us. Simbye has 105 public reviews and we have 54. Neither is a sample you should lean on. Providers with tens of thousands of reviews are one click away and we list them at the end.
How we checked
Both companies run public Shopify stores, which means their entire catalogue can be read by
anyone at /products.json?limit=250 — no estimates, no guesswork, no numbers copied
from a third-party blog. That is how the catalogue counts below were produced, on
29 August 2026. Prices are for three strictly comparable tiers, data-only: unlimited for 7 days,
5 GB for 30 days, unlimited for 30 days, on four destinations both companies sell. We did not
measure network speed, so this page makes no claim about it.
Simbye and RapideSIM, side by side
| Criterion | Simbye | RapideSIM |
|---|---|---|
| Plans in the public catalogue | 170 simbye.com/products.json, 29 August 2026. |
103 — 102 single-country plans and one Europe regional plan rapidesim.com/products.json, 29 August 2026. |
| Plans that include an unlimited tier | 56 of 170 — 33 % | 91 of 103 — 88 % Same counting method, same day, both catalogues public. |
| Published daily full-speed allowance on unlimited plans |
2 GB per day — "Unlimited plans include a fair use policy of 2GB
high-speed data per day, after which speeds are reduced until the next 24-hour cycle."
The reduced speed itself is not given a figure. simbye.com/pages/faq, read 29 August 2026. An earlier version of this page said we had found no figure; that was our mistake, not their omission. |
2 GB every 24 hours at full speed, then 1 Mbit/s until the allowance
resets, which it does every 24 hours. Our unlimited usage policy. On this row the two of us are level, and level at the bottom: 2 GB is the lowest figure published by any of the six sellers that publish one — we tie Simbye and Nomad, and Airalo (3 GB), eTravelSim (4 GB) and Saily (up to 5 GB) all give more. What we publish that they do not is the speed you drop to. |
| Local calls and a phone number | Yes — a dedicated range, "eSIM with Calls & Phone Number". Visible in their public catalogue, e.g. esim-turkey-calls, 29 August 2026. |
No. Every plan we sell is data-only; no variant in our catalogue carries minutes or a number. If you need to receive a local call, we are the wrong shop. |
| Hotspot / tethering | Allowed on most plans: "Most Simbye eSIMs support hotspot/tethering" — most, not all —
and it is metered: "hotspot usage counts toward your data package limit". Their FAQ, simbye.com, and simbye.com/pages/faq, 29 August 2026. |
Allowed to a laptop or tablet; use as a router for several machines is excluded. Our own rule, in full; who allows what across the eight sellers is in the eight-provider table. |
| Topping up an active eSIM | Yes, by order number — "no second eSIM and no new QR code". Their FAQ, simbye.com, 29 August 2026. |
Yes, by order number, without reinstalling. Our home page FAQ: "RapideSIM eSIMs are
rechargeable — no need to install a new one… the data is added to your existing eSIM within
seconds." Sources: rapidesim.com (FAQ) and our top-up page, 29 August 2026. Same mechanism as Simbye's, on this row we are level. |
| App | Yes, iOS and Android. Whether the app is required to install the eSIM was not checked. | No app. QR code and instructions by email, plan managed from a web link. A limitation as often as an advantage, depending on whether you want a dashboard on your phone or one less thing to install. |
| Languages | 13 | 6 (English, French, Arabic, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish). They win this one. |
| Public rating | 3.9 out of 5 on 105 reviews — Trustpilot, 29 August 2026. | 2.5 out of 5 on 54 reviews — Trustpilot, 29 August 2026. Lower than theirs, and lower than every other rated provider we looked at. |
| Who you are actually buying from | No company name published on their own site. Their Trustpilot contact block gives a London address while the profile's country field reads Germany — the two do not agree. | MSN DIGITAL LLC, US tax ID 98-1800436, 2100 Eastridge Dr NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico
87112 — in our site footer and in the Organization structured data of every page. One thing
that does not agree: our Trustpilot profile still declares Morocco. It is being corrected,
and we would rather you read it here than find it yourself. Source: rapidesim.com, footer and page structured data, 29 August 2026. |
The same three plans, priced
US dollars, data-only, read on 29 August 2026 on the product pages linked at the end.
| Plan | Destination | Simbye | RapideSIM | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited, 7 days | United States | 18.95 $ | 18.49 $ | RapideSIM |
| Japan | 18.95 $ | 28.99 $ | Simbye | |
| Turkey | 18.95 $ | 15.99 $ | RapideSIM | |
| Europe | 23.95 $ | 16.49 $ | RapideSIM | |
| 5 GB, 30 days | United States | 11.95 $ | 10.99 $ | RapideSIM |
| Japan | 11.95 $ | 7.49 $ | RapideSIM | |
| Turkey | 9.95 $ | 5.49 $ | RapideSIM | |
| Europe | not sold — their Europe plan starts at 20 GB | 9.99 $ | not comparable | |
| Unlimited, 30 days | United States | 46.95 $ | 61.99 $ | Simbye |
| Japan | 64.95 $ | 120.99 $ | Simbye | |
| Turkey | 46.95 $ | 59.99 $ | Simbye | |
| Europe | not sold — their Europe plan stops at 15 unlimited days | 59.99 $ | not comparable |
Read that table as a shape, not as a verdict: we win the short and metered plans, they win every long unlimited plan. And four destinations is a small, flattering sample for us. The wider measurement is in the next section.
Where we come out worse
- Simbye is cheaper than us on every 30-day unlimited plan we priced. The gap in Japan is 56 $ — our 120.99 $ against their 64.95 $. That Japanese price is the worst line of our whole price survey, against any provider, and it is not defensible on price alone.
- Across the full catalogues, we are usually the more expensive one. A wider survey run on 26 August 2026 compared 571 strictly comparable plan tiers over 96 countries between us, Simbye and eTravelSim — every tier where we and at least one of them sell the same volume for the same duration. We were more expensive than the cheaper of the two on 489 of the 571, or 86 %, with a median gap of +36.1 % taken over all 571 tiers, the ones we win included, and we were never the cheapest on 20 GB / 30 days or on 30-day unlimited. Breadth of unlimited coverage is our argument. Price is not.
- Our daily allowance is 2 GB — the smallest published figure in this market, and Simbye publishes exactly the same one. Saily publishes up to 5 GB/day on its country plans, eTravelSim 4 GB/day, Airalo 3 GB/day, Nomad and Simbye the same 2 GB/day as us. Six of the eight sellers we surveyed publish a number, and ours is joint last of the six, not second-to-last. On this row we do not beat Simbye; we match them, and the only thing we add is the speed we drop to, which their FAQ does not give.
- We do not sell calls or a phone number. Simbye does. If you need a local number for a booking, a taxi app or a bank verification, this comparison ends here.
- Our public rating is lower — 2.5 on 54 reviews against their 3.9 on 105, on 29 August 2026. Both samples are small, and Simbye's moved from 94 to 105 reviews in three days, which is why no rating on this site is ever written into a title or a headline.
- Their site is in 13 languages, ours in 6.
Who each one is right for
Choose Simbye if…
- You need a local phone number or minutes alongside data — we simply do not offer it.
- You are staying a month and want unlimited data for it. They were cheaper on all three destinations where both of us sell that plan.
- You want the destination list to be as long as possible and are happy with a metered plan on the less common ones.
Choose RapideSIM if…
- Your destination is not one of the top sellers and you still want an unlimited option. That is the measurable difference: 88 % of our catalogue against 33 % of theirs, both countable from the public catalogues linked above.
- You are going for a week or two rather than a month, especially to Turkey or Europe, where our short unlimited plans were the cheaper of the two.
- You would rather not install an app — and you accept everything that comes with that, starting with no dashboard in your pocket.
Choose neither if…
- Public reviews carry weight in your decision. Between us we have 159 reviews. Holafly (4.7 on 108,922), Saily (4.7 on 30,148), Nomad (4.3 on 42,417) and Airalo (4.1 on 40,862) were the ratings on 29 August 2026, and those are samples worth something. Our own is 2.5 on 54.
- You want a published daily threshold from a large provider: Airalo, eTravelSim and Saily all publish one, and all three are more generous than ours.
Sources
- Catalogues — simbye.com/products.json?limit=250 and rapidesim.com/products.json?limit=250, both read 29 August 2026.
- Simbye prices — usa-data-esim, esim-japan, esim-turkey, esim-europe, read 29 August 2026.
- Simbye FAQ (hotspot, top-up) — simbye.com, read 29 August 2026.
- Trustpilot profiles — Simbye, RapideSIM, read 29 August 2026.
If you want to try ours
The four plans priced above: United States, Japan, Turkey, Europe. Before you buy from anyone, the two pages worth five minutes are what "unlimited" means day to day on our own plans and the eight-provider comparison.