eSIM India Experiences: What is the Best Card for India?

If you want to navigate through India without stress, you know that having Internet access on a trip to India is a significant advantage. To find restaurants, attractions, or book a rickshaw via an app, an eSIM card for India is the best option. I recommend the easiest way to have Internet in India. Wi-Fi in hotels is often slow, or you might not have reception in your room. This can be frustrating when you want to send your family and friends pictures of tigers, the Taj Mahal, or other highlights.

In this article, I've selected the most important providers that sell eSIM cards in India. Generally, the cheapest option is to buy an eSIM card locally. However, this is not so easy in India. Therefore, I'm mentioning convenient - but pricier - alternatives like Jetpack, Airalo, Ubigi, and Holafly.

Note up front: From my experience, Holafly always has the highest prices. Even though many other travel blogs recommend purchasing an eSIM from Holafly: Don't do it. Trust me, as I compared all prices before traveling to India.

Travel bloggers and social media influencers often advertise Holafly as the best eSIM for travelers. Is it true? No. The cheapest recommendation is always to buy a local SIM card on the spot. This is significantly cheaper. However, I sometimes find it too inconvenient to buy a SIM card right after arriving at the airport. Here are my solutions and how I find the best deals. But you should know one thing in advance: There are no plans for calls and text messages; it is purely data packages.

eSIM (Embedded SIM) are virtual SIM cards that you can use without a physical card. So, you don't have to insert a card into your phone on-site. Perfect, right? For India, there are many providers offering us tourists eSIM options, which are affordable and convenient.

Before each trip, I book my suitable data package and can activate the eSIM right after landing, check emails, and order a taxi via an app. Sounds perfect, doesn't it? There is only one downside to eSIMs: You don't get a local phone number.

This is how eSIM providers like Holafly, Airalo, Jetpack, Saily, Nomad, or Ubigi work. It makes my blood boil when travelers recommend Holafly for India, so I had to write this text. Please don't buy an eSIM from Holafly just because others recommend it. Before every trip to a new country, I compare which eSIM provider is the cheapest. Holafly isn't it for India either. They often rank among the most expensive.

Unfortunately, it doesn't help, but before each trip, you need to compare the main eSIM providers for data packages for your next travel destination. You can buy different data packages depending on how much you use the Internet on the go. I save Google Maps offline on my phone, so I don't have to use data for navigation. This is helpful for receiving current traffic updates. When I travel by bus or train, I don't need live navigation.

In this case, I check if an eSIM is worth it for India. I compared offers from Nomad, Saily, Jetpack, Airalo, and Holafly. Since I upload videos on Instagram, need to check emails (as a freelancer, it's necessary) and research where to eat, I always need quite a bit of data. You can't rely on good Wi-Fi connections in hotels.

If you need a fast connection, you should pay attention. Because not everywhere is 5G available. If 4G is sufficient for you, you can ignore this note.

For India, Jetpack and Nomad are the best providers. Since I received advice from several Indians that Jio currently has the best network and that Jetpack uses it, I chose Jetpack. Nomad uses Airtel, which is reportedly expanding its network significantly right now. So Nomad could also be a good option in the future.

There are many other eSIM providers. With Saily, who are currently shaking up the market, I can't find out which provider (network) I buy the eSIM from. That's not good, as I like to check the network coverage. I ignored Airalo for India due to the unknown Indian network. However, it worked great in Uzbekistan and South Africa.

Regardless of which provider you ultimately buy an eSIM from: The activation process is the same everywhere. Download the app, log into your account (or register anew), and activate the eSIM. It's best to do this before flying from Germany or while connected to good Wi-Fi. However, you will also receive a step-by-step guide for activating your eSIM, either sent to you or displayed directly in the app. The only important thing is that you have an Internet connection for the eSIM installation to work.

Once the eSIM is activated, you just need to activate the line on your smartphone. You can set it on an iPhone so that you can receive calls with your regular number, while using the data from the eSIM provider. In the respective app, you can find out how much GB you have already used.

Do you want to use your smartphone as a hotspot to make your Internet access available on your laptop as well? I work on the go and often use the hotspot function on my phone because Wi-Fi in accommodations is often slow. Many providers have restricted this feature. Jetpack and Airalo are not among them. It has worked in my past travels (Uzbekistan, South Africa, Zanzibar).

One of the main downsides is that you don't get a local phone number (but this is changing with some eSIM providers). However, you can call via WhatsApp, which we believe is the best way to communicate abroad anyway.

Many phones also support dual-SIM, which means you can switch to your normal phone for calls and back to the eSIM for data. On my iPhone (also works on Samsung), I can even route my calls through my own SIM card and my data through my eSIM, which is perfect and convenient!

As soon as we landed, I was able to activate my eSIM card and was online. This was good because at the airport (both in Mumbai and Delhi), I couldn't log into the Wi-Fi with a German phone number.

During my road trip in Rajasthan (including the Taj Mahal and Ranthambore National Park) as well as in Goa, I had almost constant reception. Only in the Ranthambore National Park was there no signal at times, which is entirely normal. There, I wanted to focus on the safari and searching for the Bengal tiger anyway.

In general, my Indian friend with his "real" SIM card from Jio often had a better network, and thanks to his flat rate, he didn't have to worry about how much data he was using. But he confirmed to me that it's not easy for a tourist to quickly get a SIM card at the airport. Therefore, for us, the eSIM with Jetpack was the best choice.

What have been your experiences with the eSIM for Internet in India: Is it worth it? Let us know your alternatives.

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