Is Holafly Legit? Our Honest Review After 3+ Years of Full-Time Travel (2026)

The questions keep coming in, and they're good ones. Is Holafly actually legit? What are the real disadvantages? How does it stack up against the competition? And does it work in Japan? We've been traveling non-stop since May 2022 with our three daughters, burning through eSIMs across more than 40 countries, and Holafly has been our go-to for the better part of that. Here's the unvarnished take.

Get your Holafly eSIM here and use code ADAMANDLINDS at checkout to save 5% on any destination plan, or 10% on monthly plans.

We also made a dedicated video review if you'd rather watch than read:

Is Holafly a Legit Company?

Yes, Holafly is a legitimate company. They're a privately held tech company founded in Spain in 2018 that has grown into one of the largest eSIM providers in the world, with over 12 million travelers having used their service. They carry a 4.6-star rating on Trustpilot across tens of thousands of verified reviews. That's not an easy number to fake or maintain, and it has held consistently across years of real-world use.

When we first started recommending Holafly back in 2022, eSIMs were still something a lot of travelers were skeptical about. Physical SIM card hunting was the norm. Holafly was one of the early players making eSIM technology accessible to regular travelers rather than just tech-savvy digital nomads. Today they cover 200+ destinations, offer destination plans, regional plans, and monthly global subscription plans, and have real human support available 24/7 via chat, WhatsApp, and email.

The concerns we hear about legitimacy usually come from one of a few places: people who've had a setup issue and panicked (usually a device compatibility problem, not a Holafly problem), people who've conflated Holafly with shady VPN resellers that populate certain corners of the internet, or people who just haven't used an eSIM before and are nervous. All fair concerns. The legitimacy question has a clear answer: yes, they're a real company, they deliver what they promise, and they stand behind their product with a 6-month refund policy on unused eSIMs.

We've personally used Holafly eSIMs in Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, across Europe, and in the US. It has worked every single time. When it hasn't worked perfectly out of the gate, their support team has sorted it out quickly. That's about the most honest endorsement we can give.

What Are the Disadvantages of Holafly?

Honest answer: there are a few real ones, and anyone telling you otherwise is just trying to sell you something.

No voice calls or SMS. Holafly eSIMs are data-only. You cannot make or receive regular phone calls or text messages through your Holafly plan. For most travelers this is a non-issue since WhatsApp, FaceTime, and similar apps handle communication perfectly well over data. But if you need a local phone number for 2FA messages, hotel confirmations, or any service that sends verification texts to a local number, you'll need to keep your home SIM active alongside your Holafly eSIM. That's how dual SIM works, which modern phones all support, but it's worth knowing before you travel.

Fair Use Policy throttling. Holafly's unlimited plans are genuinely unlimited in the sense that you won't hit a hard data cutoff. But like any carrier anywhere in the world, they apply a Fair Use Policy that can reduce speeds after heavy sustained usage. In practice, we have never experienced noticeable throttling during normal family travel, which includes navigation, video calls, uploading content, and kids streaming YouTube. Power users hammering torrents or doing constant 4K uploads might notice it. Regular travelers generally won't.

Hotspot is capped on destination plans. Most Holafly destination eSIMs cap hotspot sharing at 500MB per day. That's plenty for keeping a kid's iPad connected to Google Classroom or Maps, but it won't sustain a family movie night through one phone's hotspot. If you're relying heavily on hotspot sharing, check the specific plan details before buying, or look at the monthly global plans which include unlimited hotspot.

Not the cheapest option for light users. You can find data-capped eSIMs cheaper per gigabyte elsewhere. What you're paying for with Holafly is unlimited data and the reliability that comes with it. For a 30-day stay, you should be looking at the monthly subscription plans rather than stacking destination plans.

Requires a compatible device. eSIMs need phones released roughly 2018 or later. iPhones from XS onward, Samsung Galaxy S20 and above, Google Pixel 3 and above. If you're traveling with an older handset, check Holafly's compatibility page before you buy.

Those are the real disadvantages. None of them are dealbreakers for most travelers, but you should know them going in.

Holafly vs. Other eSIM Providers: How Does It Stack Up?

People ask this comparison constantly. Here's how we actually think about it after years of using eSIMs in over 40 countries.

eSIM providers differ primarily on two things: whether they offer unlimited data, and the quality of their customer support. On both counts, Holafly is at the top end of the market. Providers that cap your data at 1GB, 3GB, or 5GB are often cheaper upfront, but traveling with capped data means constant mental arithmetic: how close am I to the limit? Should I turn off data? Can the kids use the hotspot? When you're navigating an unfamiliar city with a family in tow, the last thing you need is data anxiety layered on top of everything else. Unlimited plans eliminate that stress entirely.

On support quality, Holafly runs genuine 24/7 live chat that actually responds quickly. We've contacted them from Japan, Vietnam, and Europe at odd hours and have always gotten responsive, helpful answers. Budget providers often have email-only support with multi-day response windows, which is useless when you're standing at an airport with no internet and a flight in two hours.

The honest caveat: some data-capped providers are genuinely better value for light users on short trips. If you need 2GB for a 4-day trip and you're certain about that usage, a cheaper capped plan might make sense. But for most travelers, especially families, underestimating data usage is the more common mistake. Our recommendation across the board: go unlimited. Use code ADAMANDLINDS for 5% off at Holafly.

We've also put together a short video breaking down the discount:

Can I Use Holafly in Japan?

Yes, and Japan is one of the best places to use it. The Holafly Japan eSIM runs on NTT Docomo, Japan's largest and most reliable mobile network. Coverage is excellent in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and everywhere else you'd want to be as a visitor. We've used it on the Shinkansen bullet train between cities, in rural Nara among the deer, in small onsen towns off the beaten path, and across every major city across multiple separate trips. Coverage has been rock solid everywhere.

Japan is a place where having reliable data is particularly critical. Google Maps and Google Translate are the two apps you will lean on hardest, even if you have some Japanese. The train network is world-class but genuinely complex for unfamiliar visitors, and being without data navigation at a multi-exit station like Shinjuku or Osaka-Namba is a genuinely unpleasant experience. The eSIM takes that problem off the table entirely.

Use code ADAMANDLINDS at checkout to save 5% on any of these.

We're currently based in Osaka as of this writing, and the Holafly eSIM on Docomo is performing exactly as it always has: fast, consistent, zero drama. Speeds hit 4G/5G in urban areas consistently. The setup process is identical to any other destination: buy online, receive QR code by email, scan into your eSIM settings, activate roaming on arrival. Takes about three minutes.

One thing worth noting for Japan specifically: Japan doesn't block any internet services. Google, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, everything works without a VPN. That's a real quality-of-life difference compared to some other Asian destinations.

For a sense of what life in Japan actually looks like, and why you'll burn through data navigating it, here's our real budget breakdown for a family of five:

And our experience landing in Tokyo for the first time:

The Monthly Plans: When They Make More Sense Than Destination eSIMs

For trips approaching 30 days, or for long-term travelers moving between countries, Holafly's monthly global subscription plans are a significantly better deal than stacking individual destination eSIMs.

Get the monthly plan here and use code ADAMANDLINDS for 10% off.

One eSIM installation covers 160+ destinations. No buying a new plan every time you cross a border, no gaps in coverage, no mental math about whether your current plan covers the next country. For anyone doing multi-country travel over an extended period, this is the right product. The break-even math compared to destination plans works out around 20-25 days. Beyond that threshold, the monthly plan almost always costs less. Stack the 10% code discount with the 22% annual billing discount and the combined saving reaches roughly 30% off the standard monthly rate.

How to Set Up a Holafly eSIM: Step by Step

Setup takes about three minutes if you've done it before, maybe ten if you haven't.

Before you leave home:

1. Purchase your plan at holafly.com with code ADAMANDLINDS
2. Within minutes, you'll receive a QR code by email
3. On your phone, go to Settings > Mobile Data (or Cellular) > Add eSIM
4. Scan the QR code with your camera
5. Label the new line something useful like "Holafly Japan"
6. Do NOT activate data roaming yet

When you arrive at your destination:

1. Turn on data roaming for your Holafly line only
2. Turn off data roaming for your home carrier line
3. Wait a minute for the network to connect
4. Done

The most common setup mistake is forgetting to disable data roaming on your home carrier, which triggers charges from your regular provider on top of the Holafly cost. Follow the steps in order and that won't happen.

Holafly in China: A Different Situation

China is worth calling out separately because it behaves differently from every other destination on this list. The Holafly China eSIM runs on China Mobile's network and delivers reliable data connectivity across major cities and tourist destinations. The important caveat: China's internet firewall blocks most Western services including Google, YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Holafly provides the internet connection, but a VPN is separately required to access those blocked services.

The thing you absolutely must do before traveling to China: install and test your VPN before you enter the country. VPN websites and app stores are blocked inside China's firewall, making it nearly impossible to set one up after you've already arrived. We use ExpressVPN and have tested it successfully in Shanghai.

For travelers using China's 240-hour (10-day) transit visa, the 10-day plan at $36.90 before discount fits the trip duration perfectly.

Popular Destination Plans at a Glance

All plans below are unlimited data. Code ADAMANDLINDS saves 5% on all of them.

Our Take After 3+ Years of Full-Time Travel

We're writing this from Osaka. The Holafly eSIM on the Docomo network is doing exactly what it's supposed to do: sitting quietly in the background while we navigate, translate menus, take work calls, and let the kids watch YouTube. Nothing remarkable about that, which is precisely the point. It works the way the internet should work. You stop thinking about it.

The question we get asked most often is whether Holafly is worth the price compared to hunting down a local SIM card. The answer depends on who you are. If you're a solo traveler with no connecting flight, enough language skills to navigate a foreign carrier store, and no family to coordinate, a local SIM might save you a bit of money. If you're traveling with a family, on a tight itinerary, don't want to queue at a carrier kiosk after a long flight, and value reliability over the absolute cheapest option, Holafly is the right answer. We've made that choice consistently for three years.

Get your Holafly eSIM here and use code ADAMANDLINDS to save 5% on destination plans or 10% on monthly plans.

If you want to see more of what life in Japan actually looks like with three kids and a Holafly eSIM keeping us connected the whole way through, here's the Hello Kitty Shinkansen we took between cities:

And our Nara deer park day trip, which required constant navigation through rural Japan:

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. When you purchase through our Holafly links or use code ADAMANDLINDS, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products we genuinely use ourselves during our full-time travels. All opinions are our own.