At this point in time, most people have gotten over their fears of doing some online shopping. The numbers that stores put up on Cyber Monday or Prime Day for Amazon seem to clearly reflect that. However, there are certain things that you may still be on the fence about purchasing online. An eSIM should be able to grant you phone service, particularly in a foreign country when you travel.
Unlike a regular SIM card, an eSIM isn’t an actual card. Think of it more as an app or software that you’ll install on your phone. That app is what’s going to be the link between your phone and the service provider. There are actually certain eSIMs that you can purchase online that you’ll do so through an app. That’s the case of Airalo for example. We’re going to dive deeper into that possibility later on in this article.
Can you order an eSIM online though? The short answer is yes. The issue is you need to make sure that you’re ordering it from the right place so that you don’t get burned. There are places out there that offer eSIMs that are total scams. In most of these cases, they’ll be offering an eSIM that’s free! Trying to get a free eSIM is one of the best ways to get your phone hacked. You don’t want to fall for that one.
Ways to Order an eSIM Online
There are going to be different ways to order an eSIM online. If you’re under contract or want to be under contract with a company, you can now complete the process of installing your eSIM without having to go to the store. The same thing goes for prepaid eSIMs that you buy directly from the manufacturer. You can get them directly from their site in some cases.
eSIM marketplaces online are the other main spots that you could potentially obtain an eSIM from. If there are ways to get SIM cards directly from the manufacturer, why would you use third party sites to complete this operation? A lot of times, the direct providers require certain legal information to grant you access to their network. They’ll ask for your passport number or ID. If you don’t want to go through that process it could be a better idea to just use a marketplace.
Directly From The Service Provider
We just mentioned that there could be a bit of a downside to getting an eSIM card directly from the service provider. We’re just talking about when you’re traveling. Also, in some cases, companies are still going to require that you head down to their store to be able to get an eSIM card from them on a long-term contract. The simple reason behind this requirement is that they need you to go ahead and sign the contract with them to be able to get the eSIM.
If you can get a prepaid eSIM online from the service provider directly as a traveler, should you do it? There are a couple of things that you would need to keep in mind. In most cases direct service providers are going to be selling national coverage only. Let’s say you’re going on a Euro Trip. Your Orange or Vodafone eSIM from Spain may not grant you coverage in France. If it does, you could be spending more data or minutes because you’re essentially using it under the roaming fees.
Modern eSIM marketplaces have started to provide users with regional eSIM cards. These are going to grant you coverage through multiple countries. The reason why they are able to do this is because, a lot of times, they’re working with multiple network providers at once. If you’re in Spain, they may work with Telefonica’s network and switch to the Orange network when you’re in France, and you won’t be charged roaming costs.
eSIM Marketplace
We already mentioned one of the main benefits that you’re going to get with an eSIM marketplace. In fact, there are two main benefits that you’ll be able to obtain. With these marketplaces, everything is going to be done through their website. They usually don’t sell longer term plans. In some situations, they may require that you give them your ID or passport number. Even when this is the case, you won’t need to head to a physical store to provide this information.
In some of these marketplaces another one of the benefits that you’ll have is that you actually get to choose from different networks that are all available under one roof. You can go and compare the cost of the eSIM on that marketplace versus what you’d pay directly from the service provider. Can you actually get better deals on these marketplaces than you would directly from the service provider?
It may seem odd to think that this is a possibility, but technically yes. You could be getting better deals from a marketplace than what’s offered directly from service providers. Why is that? The reality is that many service providers don’t love selling their prepaid deals. They would rather have their prepaid deals at higher prices within their stores. That can push you to buy a long term plan.
What they can do to ensure that they still make money off of their prepaid deals is give them out at a discount to an eSIM marketplace. In other cases, these marketplaces work out deals with different networks to provide their own brand name eSIM options. This may sound a bit weird right now, but we’ll talk about it in-depth when we look at the Airalo case. Airalo is a full marketplace that does this!
Airalo eSIM MarketPlace
The difference between Airalo and getting an eSIM directly from a provider is that Airalo is essentially selling its own service. It’s not its own service per se because they are linked to one or multiple of the popular networks in that country. You could be buying their Spanish eSIM, for example, and they have a deal with Telefonica and Orange to provide the coverage. The big question is, what’s the advantage that Airalo brings to the table?
There are a couple; the first one is the way that you can buy eSIMs from them. You download their app, and from that app, you can buy and activate different eSIMs from the countries that you’ll visit on your journey. You can purchase regional eSIMs as well, and all of them are going to be available on your “wallet” through their app. This makes it not only easier to make the purchase, but if you need more coverage you can get it instantly.
Another advantage that’s rarely talked about is that, at times, they have a partnership with different networks. That’s something that we mentioned, but you may not be aware of the benefits that you get from that. The main benefit is that you’ll be getting coverage from the best network in your particular area. There’s a chance that you’ll be able to obtain better convergence from Airalo than you would from a regular service provider.
What’s the downside to this particular option? All of their eSIMs are data only options. If you want to have calls while you’re abroad, you’re going to want to look elsewhere. We actually don’t think that the call situation is such a big deal. Especially because most of the communication that gets done on phones these days is done through apps. You have to take that into account, though, before you make your purchase.
SIM Options
This is another marketplace that actually still offers regular SIM cards for its customers. Before the eSIM boom this was one of the best places to be able to get a SIM card before you traveled. You can still get your SIM card delivered to you before your trip or your hotel through this website. Now, they also sell eSIM cards. What’s the competitive advantage that this site has over Airalo or other options?
You can get SIM cards that feature calls and texts. This site is not limited to data-only SIM cards. As we just mentioned, calls may still be something that some people are going to be looking for. The thing you have to remember, though, is that these calls are going to be made from a local number in the country that you’re in. You won’t keep your number unless you’re using a dual-SIM phone. Still, in those cases, you’ll want to make sure that you’re making the call from the international number.
Another thing that you can count on with SIM Options is the possibility of buying SIM cards from some of the top service providers. This is a marketplace that takes advantage of the deals that some of these service providers often give out. As we mentioned, they usually want to sell their prepaid plans directly because that can limit their ability to sell long term plans.
What to Avoid When Ordering an eSIM Online
Even though these marketplaces that we talked about are 100% legit there are other options out there that are going to try to scam you. Here are a couple of things to be on the lookout for when you’re shopping for an eSIM online. The first thing is to be wary of deals that are too good to be true. We said at the beginning of the article that sites that offer free eSIMs are basically a scam 100% of the time.
It takes a lot of money to keep a wireless service network up and running. That’s why none of these companies would offer their services for free. Remember that the company that’s providing the service runs a completely different operation than the apps that allow you to call for free. A lot of people get that mixed up. They feel that since apps allow you to call for free, then wireless service companies can also give out freebies. That’s just not the case.
There are certain countries in the world where scams are more prevalent than in others. If you’re going to Russia, China, Mexico, or even India, just stick to the known marketplaces or companies in those countries to get coverage. There could be a lot of sites out here trying to get you to sign up for free coverage. What you’ll end up with is a hacked phone or massive data loss. You want to be very careful with that.
Final Thoughts on Can You Order an eSIM Online
There are certainly reputable sites that you can use to order a eSIM online. Getting an eSIM in an actual marketplace could be easier than doing so directly from the service provider. There may be fewer requirements in a marketplace and at the same time you could find better deals. Remember that a lot of these service providers aren’t necessarily fond of selling their own prepaid plans.
Should you get an eSIM or is there still value in buying a regular SIM card? At this point, the only reason why you’ll probably look into getting a regular SIM card is that you have a phone that’s old and doesn’t take eSIMs. When that’s the case you really should explore SIM options. One of the things that we haven’t mentioned about Airalo is that some devices may just not be compatible with their app.
Don’t fall for this idea that you can get free coverage. That’s almost 99% not true. These sites are typically built to hack your phone or just scam you out of money in one way or another. Stick to the sites that we know that work, and that can give you a lot more certainty in your situation.