Our detailed Yesim review. Here's what we learned from testing Yesim in 6 countries.

Yesim is a popular eSIM provider that shot into the spotlight in 2024 and 2025 for its affordable rates and neat mobile app. But how good is it really?

My team and I here at Simsurf tested Yesim in six different countries—Switzerland, Colombia, Panama, Aruba, Curaçao, and the Caribbean Netherlands—and although we were delighted all around, there are a few things we think you should know before you purchase a Yesim eSIM yourself.

Stay tuned and happy surfing! 🏄

Yesim at a glance

If you're in a rush, here's all of the relevant info about Yesim condensed into a short section for your leisure. If you want to read deeper and find out about our experiences, the main article continues further down...

What impressed us about Yesim:

• Top-tier per-GB rates for most places,
• Choice between fixed or unlimited data,
• Global and regional plans,
• App is intuitive and easy to use,
• Hot-spotting/tethering worked great,
• There's a nice referral bonus,
• I could even purchase a virtual mobile number.

We didn't impress us about Yesim:

• I found the email and app alerts a bit much,
• Setup wasn't quite as seamless as some competitors.

What's it like to use Yesim?

On our comparison portal here at Simsurf, Yesim supports data plans to 151 countries, many of which can be bundled into 11 regional or global plans. Rates vary by destination, with options usually ranging from 3 to 20 GB and lasting up to 30 days. What's more, I found the app experience as top-notch and I basically had no complaints.

Since the minimum duration is three days, I personally found Yesim best when I was staying in one place for at least that long. I also liked that, unlike Airalo, it offered smaller 500 MB plans in many countries. However, the average per-gig costs tended to be a bit higher than Airalo's. For example, in my recent trip to Curaçao, Yesim charged me $48.60 for 5 GB (that's $9.36 /GB), where Airalo would've charged me $32.50 (i.e., $6.50 /GB) for the same package. But we'll get more into this later...

How strong is Yesim's connection?

One question our experts often get here at Simsurf is how fast the speeds are of one provider versus another.

Here, we always stress that it depends on the telco carriers with which the eSIM has partnered in each destination, rather than the eSIM provider itself. Yesim is no exception. On average, we found that Yesim partners with an average of three (3) telco operators per destination, which gives you some flexibility for switching networks if reception began to slow down on your trip.

In Curaçao, for example, I got connection only through Digicel (a regional provider). But Curaçao is a small island country, and therefore doesn't have a huge telco market. In Switzerland, though, I had connection through two providers: Salt and Sunrise (both of which, incidentally, connected me over 5G!).

What are Yesim's plans like?

As I already mentioned, Yesim doesn’t just offer fixed data plans—it also has unlimited packages in many popular travel spots. These come with a higher upfront cost, so I'd personally only go for one if I planned to stream high-res videos or download large files using mobile data. (Tip: if this is the case, be sure to compare Yesim's unlimited plans to Holafly's to make sure you're getting the best rate, or just use our travel data calculator to see which provider would best suit your data needs). In my travels, just browsing with 3 or 5 GB was more than sufficient...

It’s also important to know that Yesim eSIMs are data-only—that means there’s no talk or text included. You can buy a virtual number with a U.S., Dutch, Canadian, or Israeli country code, but you still can't make regular calls or send SMS with it. So if you need calling or texting abroad, I'd have to look at another provider (hint hint: aloSIM).

Here's what it looked like in my test to choose between the data ("Internet") option and the virtual phone number option as separate services (I tested Yesim in German but it's exactly the same in the English version):

Regional plans

Now, about regional plans: if you were cruising or hopping between countries in a region (as I happened to be doing in the Caribbean), Yesim’s regional eSIMs can be a good fit. These cover multiple countries per region, including:

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

Because of the regional specificity on offer here (e.g., plans for very particular sub-regions like Scandinavia, Central Asia, and the West Caribbean), Yesim is definitely the most comprehensive provider of eSIMs for regional travels that we've encountered so far. By contrast, most other eSIM providers only offer plans for larger regions (e.g., entire continents) and don't give more customizability than that.

Global plans

Yesim also has a few global eSIM options. I could either get one that covered 147 countries in its network, or choose a more targeted option—like a package for 43 countries popular with business travelers, or one that covers 57 countries across Africa and Europe.

These global plans are noticeably more expensive than the regional ones, but they're really convenient. Though I didn't test one myself, I did some digging and found that many customers reported that it works great, since they didn't have to worry about switching eSIMs as I move between countries. That said, if I want a global plan but don’t want to spend quite as much, I usually recommend Airalo’s Discover package—it tends to offer better value for similar coverage.

You can top up at any time

It goes without saying. As long as you have the Yesim app and an internet connection, you can top up your data plan whenever you like. We tested it and it only took a few taps! It even saves your card details from last time round, so it's really no hassle.

Customer support is top-notch

I contacted Yesim's customer support several times on my travels. Each time, they were fast and friendly and my questions could be sorted out without a hitch.

I was particularly impressed that it only took me around 90 seconds to be put in touch with a real human being via live chat

What about Ycoins?

Yesim also uses something called Ycoins in its app. They're basically an in-app currency. As a new user, I was encouraged to top up with Ycoins before buying an eSIM, and at first it seemed like a pretty good deal, namely:

• I get €5 in Ycoins with my first top-up,
• another €5 for referring a friend,
• and €10 more when I entered a referral code.

Thanks to those bonuses, I was able to get a 5 GB global plan for just €20 instead of the usual €35. That same plan on Airalo would’ve cost me at least $35, so the Ycoins actually saved me a decent chunk on my first purchase. I must say, that was a nice surprise.

That said, there's one thing to watch out for. After topping up, Yesim automatically enables auto-refill for Ycoins. So unless I turned that off right away, it would’ve kept topping up my balance once it dropped below a certain amount. It’s easy to miss, so I made sure to disable it before spending any of my Ycoins.

Is Yesim really as affordable as it says?

While rates vary by country, I've found Yesim to be a pretty affordable eSIM provider overall—especially for fixed data packages, where the per-gigabyte cost is usually low. The unlimited plans, though, do tend to be on the pricier side.

When I compare it to Airalo, the pricing is often very close for medium to large data plans—sometimes Yesim is slightly cheaper, other times it's the other way around. But if I'm specifically looking at unlimited plans, Holafly usually comes out as the cheaper option. That said, if I know I'll be using more than a gigabyte but don't need unlimited data, Yesim is almost always a solid pick.

One small thing to note: Yesim shows prices in euros, dollars, and pounds. That's great if you're based in Europe, the U.K., or the U.S., but less ideal if you're paying in another currency. (For comparison, Airalo only lists prices in dollars.)

You can use Simsurf's data usage calculator to see which provider and plan is best suited for your usage needs.

You can also compare pricing of the top eSIMs for yourself in real time using Simsurf's free comparison tool:

Is Yesim legit? What are other customers saying?

Yesim was founded in 2019, so it’s still fairly new, but growing fast. It's based in Switzerland and had about two million customers in 2025. That's a solid number, even if it's still behind bigger names like Airalo and Holafly, which each have millions of users. Like those providers, I can buy and install eSIMs quickly through the Yesim app or website—and get decent per-GB rates in lots of countries worldwide.

And it’s not just us—plenty of other users seem happy with Yesim too. At the time we checked, it had a solid 4.3 out of 5 on Trustpilot (from about 1,500 reviews), a 4.4 on Google Play (based on 8,000+ ratings), and an even better 4.5 on the App Store (from around 2,000 ratings). Most people highlighted the same strengths and a few of the same downsides we noticed, which reassured us that our experience wasn’t just a one-off.