How we rank

Plenty of comparison sites hand you a winner and expect you to accept it. Here the reasoning is on the table. Below is the complete procedure behind every position on eSIMShortlist: which numbers count, where they are read, when they are refreshed, and which lines stay uncrossed whatever an eSIM provider offers. A pick you cannot trace back to something on this page is an opinion dressed up as data, and we would like to hear about it.

What goes into a ranking

Positions follow measurable inputs, weighted in the order given here. You will not see a percentage score next to any eSIM, because the moment a provider drops a promo code or adds a region, a figure like that stops being true. What we stand behind is the order. How far apart two adjacent eSIMs really are is a matter of judgement, and each review says where that judgement comes from.

• Independent measurements. Wherever a neutral body has measured the thing that matters, its numbers take precedence. For travel eSIMs that means GSMA on eSIM technologyrather than the coverage maps and speed claims in a provider's own app.
• The real cost per gigabyte. We note what a gigabyte costs once the plan is installed and in use, not the headline of the smallest pack. Where a plan renews or tops up at a different rate than the first purchase, both figures are shown. That series is tracked in the Price Index, a benchmark of our own making.
• What it does on the ground. Coverage, partner networks, hotspot support and the fair-use rules, weighed against what a traveller genuinely needs abroad, not a feature grid padded with extras nobody switches on.
• Whether free already covers you. When a free tier, or roaming that is already part of your home plan, does the job for most travellers, we say so outright, even when there is no commission in it.

The principles we hold to

These are working rules, not taglines. Every one of them is baked into the way positions are decided.

• Priced per gigabyte. The number we compare is what a gigabyte costs you in a given region, never the teaser price on the smallest pack.
• Honest about unlimited. Most plans sold as "unlimited" carry a fair-use speed cap. We go through the fine print and say at which point the throttle starts.
• Coverage over claims. A bargain on a patchy local network is not a bargain. Where we can, we list the carriers each eSIM really connects to.
• Prices rechecked. Promotions push eSIM prices up and down all the time, so ours are rechecked on a regular basis and every review carries a date.

How fresh the data is

A traveller who spots a stale price stops trusting the whole page, so keeping the data current is handled by the build, not by good intentions. Each build re-reads the prices and recalculates the Price Index; automated monthly readings are being switched on, and from then on the movement of prices over time will pile up into a record. That running record is something almost no one else in the eSIM space publishes, which is exactly why this site is designed to be quoted instead of chasing links. Each data page shows its last updated date in plain sight next to a machine-readable feed, so you can check for yourself.

What we deliberately do not do

• No eSIM provider can buy a higher position, and nothing on this list has ever been placed for payment.
• Gut feeling, brand affection and slick app design count for nothing here. If there is no number to point to, the order does not change.
• We never bury the fair-use throttle, the true per-gigabyte price or the cheaper rival just to keep a commission.
• Star ratings are never made up. One appears only where there is genuine evidence to support it.

Who pays for this site, and why that never reaches the ranking

Using eSIMShortlist costs nothing; the site is paid for through affiliate links. Buy an eSIM through one of them and we may receive a commission, while the price you pay stays the same. Every position is settled on the inputs above before commission enters the picture. The full terms are in our disclaimer, and the people behind the site are on our about page.

Hold us to it

A published method is only worth something if you can test the outcome against it. Should a position on this site contradict the numbers, or a plan price turn out to be outdated, treat it as a bug and report it. The raw figures are out in the open on purpose: the Price Index publishes a machine-readable feed at no charge under CC BY 4.0, so readers and AI engines can both check the numbers and reuse them with attribution.