Our Comprehensive Yesim eSIM Review: Is It Really Any Good?

Yesim is a Swiss-based eSIM provider that offers market-leading rates for mobile data in around 135 destinations around the world. Although it's not yet quite as well known as the big players like Airalo and Holafly, Yesim nevertheless matches both in terms of its affordability and coverage, offering both fixed-data and unlimited plans to customers.

In this review, we look at Yesim's pricing, coverage, and customer satisfaction to see how it stacks up against the rest and offer some tips and experiences along the way.

What Monito Likes About Yesim

• Market-leading per-gigabyte rates for most destinations,
• Offers both fixed and unlimited data packages,
• Comprehensive global and regional packages,
• Well-designed mobile app,
• Hotspots/tethering is supported,
• An attractive referral bonus,
• Option to purchase a virtual mobile phone number.

What Monito Dislikes About Yesim

• Email and app notifications can be a bit spammy,
• Installation and activation aren't as smooth as competitors.

What Are eSIMs, Anyway?

Simply put, eSIMs are regular SIM cards that don't require inserting an actual microchip into your device while providing the same benefits. Newer smartphones (but also smartwatches, tablets, and other devices) can be equipped with eSIMs, and since you don't need an actual SIM card to install an eSIM, you can also get one before your trip to France. To do this, you must visit an online eSIM service, purchase the eSIM you want, and follow the instructions to download and install it onto your device.

Like regular SIM cards, prepaid eSIMs come bundled with a certain fixed amount of data, SMSes, or telephone minutes, which you can use at your leisure while travelling. You get to choose the package you want, and you can generally extend your eSIM's validity easily from an app.

Pros of Using an eSIM

In general, eSIMs have numerous advantages and are often a better alternative to regular SIM cards for most tourists. In our opinion, the most significant advantages include:

• internet immediately upon arrival in France,
• no negotiating with SIM card sellers at the airport,
• transparent and fair pricing,
• online extension is often possible,
• credit card payment is possible,
• local telecom provider networks are used.

In our opinion, there are only a few reasons against using an eSIM when travelling to France (which we'll discuss below), and in most instances, we're sure that it's a far better deal than using your normal SIM card from your home country on French networks.

Cons of Using an eSIM

As we've already seen, eSIMs have very few drawbacks and are an excellent option for accessing mobile internet on your French vacation.

However, one disadvantage is the slightly higher upfront cost than physical SIM cards. That said, eSIMs are still comparatively cheap, especially for use in France from abroad. In our opinion, the significantly higher level of comfort and the possibility of having access to the internet immediately upon arrival are worth the extra pennies. Another disadvantage is related to installation, where the process may be unfamiliar to you if you've never installed an eSIM before. However, if you follow the instructions carefully, you'll be fine.

Finally, there's a compatibility issue: not all devices support eSIMs. Suppose your device was released before late 2019. In that case, we recommend double-checking on the internet or contacting a representative from an eSIM service to confirm whether your device is compatible before you purchase an eSIM. In general, the following devices will support eSIMs though:

• iPhone 11 or later
• iPhone XS, iPhone XR, or iPhone SE
• iPad 7th generation or later,
• Galaxy S20 or later
• Google Pixel 3 or later
• and many other devices (see our full list of compatible devices)

Yesim eSIM at a Glance

Founded in 2019, Yesim is a relatively new and fast-growing eSIM provider headquartered in Switzerland. The company had around 300,000 customers as of 2024, making it one of the most popular providers of eSIMs on the market, although it's still a long way behind Airalo and Holafly with their millions of customers each. Like Airalo and Holafly though, you can also purchase quick-to-install eSIMs directly via Yesim's app or website and take advantage of affordable per-gigabyte rates for dozens of destinations globally.

Yesim works with one or more of the leading mobile phone carriers in each destination. For example, in the USA, you'll get coverage through T-Mobile and Verizon networks, Thailand through AIS networks, and Turkey through Türk Telekom, Turkcell, and Vodafone networks. Generally, these are always large local carriers with solid network coverage around the country. What's more, since Yesim is transparent about the mobile carriers it works with in each country, you can always check the network coverage ahead of your trip on a nifty coverage map like this one to make sure that the area you're travelling to is covered by the network offered through Yesim's eSIMs.

What Are Yesim's Plans Like?

Yesim offers local eSIMs in over 130 destinations, many of which can also be bundled into 11 separate regional or global packages (more on these shortly). Not surprisingly, Yesim offers different rates depending on the destination. These provide different durations (usually 7 to 30 days) and different amounts of data volume (usually between 3 and 20 GB).

As Yesim's data packages have a duration of at least seven days, we think they're especially well-suited if you travel to a country for at least a week and no shorter. We also found it appealing that, unlike Airalo, Yesim offers smaller packages of at least 3 GB of data in many countries. Although the total costs are somewhat higher than those of Airalo, depending on your destination, the cost per gigabyte is typically slightly lower.

What We Found Good-to-Know

As mentioned earlier, in addition to fixed packages, Yesim also offers unlimited packages in many destinations, including all of the popular tourist spots across the globe. However, since this involves a higher upfront cost than the per-gigabyte rates, we'd only recommend this option if you want to stream high-resolution videos or download apps with your mobile data, for example.

It's also worth keeping in mind that Yesim's eSIMs only offer mobile data, not talk time or text. Although you can purchase separate mobile phone numbers in the USA, the Netherlands, Canada, and Israel, Yesim doesn't let you actually make local calls or SMSes with these numbers, so if you'd like to talk or text while you're abroad, you'll need to purchase an eSIM from a different provider.

Yesim's Regional Packages

If you're going on a cruise or travelling to several countries in a region in a short space of time, then one of Yesim's regional eSIM packages may be worth it for you. Yesim offers the following regional eSIMs that provide mobile data in multiple countries per region:

• Europe (31 countries)
• Asia-Pacific (15 countries)
• North America (3 countries)
• South America (11 countries)
• Caribbean (14 countries)
• Middle East (8 countries)
• Africa (15 countries)
• Scandinavia (6 countries)
• Central Asia (6 countries)
• South East Asia (8 countries)

In addition to these, Yesim also offers a West Caribbean regional package specifically designed for cruises, which gives you mobile data in the core Caribbean cruise destinations of the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.

All in all, these regional packages are usually slightly more expensive than single-destination eSIMs. We therefore only recommend regional packages if you're staying in several countries for a short period of time or you don't want to change eSIMs while travelling. In most other cases, local single-country eSIMs are often a much cheaper option, especially for stays of more than seven days per country.

Yesim's Global Packages

Yesim also offers several global eSIM packages. These special packages can be purchased either for Yesim's entire network of 136 countries or in selected regions, such as 43 countries that are frequently visited by business travellers, or 57 countries in Africa and Europe, for example.

Yesim's global eSIMs are often significantly more expensive than the regional variants. However, they offer a high level of convenience and the certainty that you won't have to change your eSIM while travelling, so depending on your needs and preferences, it can be a viable option for you. If you're interested in a global package at an affordable price, though, we normally recommend Airalo's Discover package instead.

How Good Are Yesim's Rates?

Although exact rates depend heavily on your destination, Yesim is generally a very affordable eSIM provider offering low rates per gigabyte for fixed packages (although its unlimited packages are a bit pricey).

We've collected Yesim's rates for a few popular destinations and laid them out in the chart below so you can get a sense of how much they cost. However, it's worth remembering that prices are subject to change without notice, so we recommend looking at the current pricing on Yesim's website yourself too.

In terms of comparison, Yesim is often neck-in-neck with Airalo when it comes to per-gigabyte rates for medium and large data packages: sometimes it's a bit cheaper, and sometimes it's a bit pricier. However, when it comes to its unlimited packages, Holafly is normally cheaper than Yesim. All things considered, if you want to use more than one gigabyte on your trip but don't need unlimited data, then Yesim is a decent choice pretty much every time.

Incidentally, Yesim displays its prices in euros, US dollars, and British pounds, which is convenient for European, British and American customers but not too great for customers from other countries. (However, Airalo, by contrast, only charges in US dollars.)

What Are Ycoins & Are They Any Good?

Yesim offers so-called Ycoins in its app, which can be used as a kind of in-app currency. New customers are incentivised to buy Ycoins before they buy an eSIM. At first glance, this offers a few advantages:

• when you top up for the first time, you get €5 as Ycoins,
• if you recommend Yesim to others, you get €5 in Ycoins,
• you get €10 as Ycoins if you enter a referral code.

In our test, this enabled us to purchase a 5 GB global data package for just €20 instead of €35. With Airalo, this would've cost us at least $35. Ycoins therefore helped us to save money when buying our first Yesim eSIM, which was quite neat!

However, we found one big disadvantage here. After a top-up, the default scenario is that Yesim will automatically top up Ycoins again if your account balance falls below a certain amount. If you don't want this, you should deactivate the function before spending your first Ycoins.

What Are Customers Saying?

Several members of our team here at Monito have tested Yesim so far, and overall it made a very positive impression on us. We liked the functional, highly intuitive mobile app and the fact that the pricing was very affordable for travellers who just need a few gigabytes of data as opposed to an unlimited package.

We also found the following perks especially noteworthy about Yesim:

• it supports personal hotspots,
• your eSIM can easily be topped up again,
• term only begins after arrival in your destination,
• an attractive referral bonus,
• very good support.

Our only major regret is that Yesim covers slightly fewer countries than other eSIM providers like Airalo and Holafly. Still, 135 countries is certainly not bad, and it covers all the main tourist destinations and more. So if Yesim is available for the country you're travelling to, you can rest assured that it'll be an excellent option.

Yesim Customer Satisfaction

It wasn't only our team who was impressed, but also a majority of customers too. At the time of writing this review, Yesim scored an impressive 4.2 out of 5 on Trustpilot (although it only had around 150 ratings there), a lukewarm 3.6 out of 5 on the Google Play Store (out of a total of around 2,000 ratings) and a very good 4.4 out of 5 on the App Store (out of around 600 ratings). Most customers expressed similar praise and reservations to the ones we noticed ourselves and have already covered.

Are Yesim eSIMs Worth It?

All things considered, we definitely recommend Yesim, particularly if you're looking for just a few gigabytes on your next trip and you don't need unlimited data (in which case Holafly is a better bet).

However, whenever you're shopping around for a new eSIM, we recommend choosing the provider that offers the best rates, since most of the top providers like Airalo, Yesim, Holafly, and Nomd all offer similar platforms, accessibility, and coverage anyway.