Many people visit Saudi Arabia for religious reasons (Hajj and Umrah).
And as of 2019, the Kingdom opened up to tourism (which was surprisingly close to impossible before that time).
Being in the top 15 largest countries worldwide (rank 13), staying connected while exploring the country is crucial.
So, while trying to find the best way to stay in Saudi Arabia, I tried out seven travel eSIMs from various eSIM providers, including Alosim's Saudi Arabia eSIM, and three Saudi SIM cards.
I spent over 250 USD for my Saudi Arabia SIM card and travel eSIM review series – I went all out 😎.
In most countries, getting a local SIM card is the cheapest way to stay connected (and you will have a local phone number, something you often do not get with a travel eSIM).
But installing an eSIM is quick, easy & convenient, as you do not have to queue up upon landing (after a long flight) or deal with SIM card registration requirements (such as getting your passport details and fingerprints captured in Saudi Arabia – mandated by law).
And travel eSIMs, like Alosim's, are relatively affordable (especially compared to international roaming).
But what matters is how the eSIM performed in Saudi Arabia – especially compared to the local mobile operators (and the network Alosim uses in the Kingdom).
Let's get started.
Original publication: 16th of January 2024. Last updated: 29th of February 2024.
Table of Contents
Alosim's List of Compatible eSIM-Supported Phones
Before I even focus on Alosim's Saudi Arabia eSIM, does your phone support Alosim eSIMs?
If you have an eSIM-compatible smartphone, it is almost guaranteed that you can use an Alosim eSIM.
While Alosim had to certify phones in the past, almost all are supported nowadays.
As of December 2023, the phones shown in the infographic below are compatible with Alosim eSIMs:
Now we can actually focus on the Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM.
How Much Does the Alosim eSIM for Saudi Arabia Cost?
You can get the Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM for between 5 USD (1 GB for 7 days) and 27 USD (10 GB for 30 days).
Below is an overview of how much each Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM costs:
- Saudi Arabia 1 GB eSIM for 7 days, costing 5 USD
- Saudi Arabia 2 GB eSIM for 15 days, costing 8.50 USD
- Saudi Arabia 3 GB eSIM for 30 days, costing 11 USD
- Saudi Arabia 5 GB eSIM for 30 days, costing 16 USD
- Saudi Arabia 10 GB eSIM for 30 days, costing 27 USD
>>> Get your Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM and use code “PTW” for 5% off! <<<
The links above will bring you to the product page of the Saudi Arabia eSIM.
Regardless of the currency used in your country, Alosim will always charge you in USD (US Dollar).
If your credit/debit card charges you foreign exchange fees, get yourself a Wise Borderless Account and Debit Card.
Their fees are MUCH lower than banks and credit card companies charge you (and Wise is transparent about their fees, unlike banks).
I have saved literal THOUSANDS of Australian Dollars and Euros, my main currencies, when using Wise abroad when traveling compared to my debit and credit cards.
What if you buy the 5 GB Saudi Arabia eSIM, as I did, and realize you need another 3 GB of data close to exhausting your data allowance?
Would you need to purchase a new eSIM? Not at all.
You can top up your Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM for the same amount of data and prices as listed earlier.
The 3 GB top-up would still cost 11 USD as if you bought the 3 GB eSIM from the start.
That way, you will never run out of data.
You can top-up on the Alosim website or its apps.
And if you buy a top-up before you have fully exhausted your data allowance, Alosim will not use your top-up yet.
As a result, the validity of the top-up will not start until you start using the top-up data (which is not the case with all travel eSIMs).
>>> Get your Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM and use code “PTW” for 5% off! <<<
My Alosim eSIM in Saudi Arabia Experience
During this trip, I used my Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM only in Jeddah.
Although I plan on testing the eSIM in various other Saudi cities in the (near) future.
Travel eSIMs, including the Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM, roam on the networks of local mobile operators.
Alosim itself is not a mobile (network) operator (MNO), so it partners with various MNOs, which roam on local MNOs' networks.
Okay, that may sound a bit confusing – all you need to know is that you will be treated as a guest on one of the Saudi mobile networks while using another network to make this system work.
Alosim's Saudi Arabia eSIM uses the Mobily (review) and Zain Saudi Arabia (review) networks while being powered by Edge Mobile LLC/AT&T from the United States (so your phone, some apps, or sites you visit may claim you are on Edge Mobile LLC instead of Alosim – that is correct).
In my case, the eSIM kept defaulting to Zain KSA, so I will focus on that for the next section (but you can manually change it to Mobily in your phone's settings if you want).
So, is Zain Saudi Arabia any good? Kind of.
Regarding 4G/LTE availability in Saudi Arabia, the three mobile operators cover almost all populated areas of the country, with an availability of more than 95.7%.
If we focus on 5G NR availability, Zain Saudi Arabia is behind (19.9%) but not by much (20.8% for Mobily and 22% for STC Saudi Arabia (review)).
If we look at speeds, Zain Saudi Arabia is supposed to be the slowest in all categories (4G/5G download/upload speed).
Do not worry yet; these figures are worse than Zain's actual performance (in Jeddah) due to Opensignal not having as many data points as Speedtest typically has (but it has not made a recent report for the Kingdom at the time of writing).
I did speed tests with the Speedtest app throughout Jeddah.
For reference, I consider an average download speed of 25 Mbps and an average upload speed of 10 Mbps fast enough.
Why is that? A more than 25 Mbps download speed is enough to video stream content @ 4k resolution.
Social media sites that do live streaming, like Facebook Live, recommend an upload speed of at least 10 Mbps.
I have way higher standards, but not everyone demands a download speed of 500 Mbps 🤪.
In the section below, you will find various colors and formatting.
Results in dark green mean that the result was the fastest download or upload among all SIM cards and travel eSIMs I tested at that location.
Whereas results in light green were the fastest download or upload within the category (among all SIM cards OR all travel eSIMs) but not the fastest when considering the other category.
The same applies to dark red and light orange results – the slowest download or upload among all (dark red) or the slowest within a category (light orange).
All underlined results are on 5G NR, while results in italics are on 3G – results without additional formatting are on 4G/LTE.
That should clear up the colorful speed test results in the next section.
For now, let's see how the Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM performed in Jeddah.
>>> Get your Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM and use code “PTW” for 5% off! <<<
Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM in Jeddah Speed Test Results
I tried to test the Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM as much as I could.
But as I mentioned before, getting into the city from the airport took thrice as long and the next day's flight was moved forward by hours, leaving me with little time to explore Jeddah (which in turn meant fewer test locations).
Worry not; I will revisit Jeddah/Saudi Arabia for sure and get more results for you in the (near) future.
The majority of travel eSIMs I tested used the Zain Saudi Arabia network (including the Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM).
So I will compare the Alosim results with Zain Saudi Arabia and all the other travel eSIMs using the same network.
This includes Airalo Red Sand (Saudi Arabia), Airalo Menalink (Middle East), Airalo Discover (global – can also use Mobily), Holafly (can also use Mobily), Nomad Saudi Arabia (can also use Mobily) & Nomad Middle East (can also use STC Saudi Arabia).
But remember, you can manually select the Mobily network as well if you wish.
Below are the results:
Blazing-fast speeds with the Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM!
Even with my limited results, the Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM was almost always faster than other travel eSIMs using the Zain Saudi Arabia network.
In fact, it was even faster than Zain Saudi Arabia itself at one location.
That was at Prince Majid Park, where I got a download speed of 81.21 Mbps (4G).
Zain KSA managed to get 63.55 Mbps (4G) instead.
This can happen – perhaps the cellular tower was busier when I did the test with my Zain SIM card.
Around the A gates at Jeddah-King Abdulaziz International Airport, the Alosim eSIM had the fastest download/upload speeds among travel eSIMs (310.91 Mbps/19.64 Mbps (4G)).
No other eSIM came close – the Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM (review) was the second-fastest (151.70 Mbps (4G)).
Because none of the mobile operators sold SIM cards before customs, I could not test them at this location (hence, it says there are no results in the screenshot above).
Another notable result was at immigration and baggage claim at Jeddah Airport, where I got a download speed of 85.14 Mbps (4G)).
Here, it was the fastest among all the eSIMs.
Another observation I made is that the eSIM was never the slowest (among eSIMs or both eSIMs and SIM cards) in terms of download and upload speeds 😱.
Speaking of upload speeds, it also had the fastest upload result at Prince Majid Park (35.75 Mbps (4G)).
Even faster than any Saudi SIM card, including Zain KSA (29.41 Mbps (4G)).
It was the fastest eSIM at Red Sea Mall, with an upload speed of 39.22 Mbps (4G).
Once again, it was faster than Zain KSA (33.93 Mbps (4G)) but not faster than STC KSA (40.65 Mbps (4G)).
Overall, the Alosim Saudia Arabia eSIM performed exceptionally well.
This eSIM and Airalo's Red Sand (Saudi Arabia) eSIM (review) were powered by the same provider (Edge Mobile LLC).
While the results fluctuated widely per location, the average results were similar (127.45 Mbps and 122.49 Mbps, respectively).
And both had 5G NR access at the same locations.
The eSIMs of Holafly and Nomad (Saudi Arabia (review) and Middle East (KSA review)) are powered by Drei Austria (although Nomad goes through eSIM Go instead).
While their results are nothing to scoff at (80.21 Mbps, 62.65 Mbps & 90.63 Mbps, respectively), they were worse than Alosim's.
Overall, the speeds I got with Alosim's Saudi Arabia eSIM were beyond satisfactory, especially for the price I paid (less than the Zain Saudi Arabia SIM card I bought).
>>> Get your Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM and use code “PTW” for 5% off! <<<
Overall Experience with the Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM – Is It Worth Your Money?
I would recommend the Alosim Saudi Arabia, and it would be one of my top eSIM recommendations for anyone wanting to buy an eSIM for Saudi Arabia.
Getting the Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM or any other Alosim eSIM is easy.
You scan the QR code shown on the app or send it to your email (the latter method works better).
However, you do have to change your APN settings to the following for the eSIM to work:
- Name: Alosim
- APN: alosim
Leave all the other settings untouched.
Alosim's Saudi Arabia eSIMs were one of the more affordable eSIMs I tested on this trip while having one of the most options (1 GB, 3 GB, 5 GB & 10 GB).
The Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM uses the Mobily (review) and Zain Saudi Arabia (review) networks, which both have extensive 4G/LTE availability throughout the country.
In my case, the eSIM used Zain KSA by default, but you can manually switch to Mobily in your phone's settings.
And its 5G NR coverage is good in urban areas – and yes, you get 5G NR access with the Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM.
Among the seven travel eSIMs I tested in Jeddah, the Alosim eSIM had the fastest download speed (slightly ahead of Airalo Red Sand (review) – also on the Zain KSA network).
With an average download speed of 127.45 Mbps, you do not have to worry about slow speeds with the Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM.
When looking at upload speeds, it also performed well – 24.83 Mbps.
All the other travel eSIMs on the Zain KSA network, except for Airalo Discover+ (review), had an average upload speed of more than 12 Mbps, which is fast enough for HD live streaming.
Moreover, those eSIMs are not (significantly) cheaper than Alosim's (with Airalo having the same prices but also a 20 GB option), so the price-to-performance ratio is excellent for Alosim.
You may want to consider Holafly's Saudi Arabia eSIMs (review) if 10 GB of data is insufficient or if you do not want to deal with data allowances.
Holafly offers unlimited data plans for 5 days, 7 days, 10 days, 15 days & 20 days between 19 USD and 54 USD (product page).
But Holafly throttles speeds for unlimited data eSIMs significantly, so it must be a trade-off you are willing to make.
Anyway, by using a near-perfect 4G/LTE network, offering affordable data plans & offering super-fast download speeds, you should have a smooth browsing experience with the Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM.
>>> Get your Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM and use code “PTW” for 5% off! <<<
Saudi Arabia eSIM & SIM Card Reviews
Besides Alosim's Saudi Arabia eSIM, I also tried other travel eSIMs in the Kingdom.
I encourage you to read those reviews to decide which eSIM suits your needs.
>>> Airalo Red Sand (formerly Salaam) eSIM | Airalo Menalink (Middle East) eSIM in Saudi Arabia | Airalo Discover (global) eSIM in Saudi Arabia | Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM | Nomad Saudi Arabia eSIM | Nomad Middle East eSIM in Saudi Arabia <<<
- Check out my eSIM reviews page if you want to read all the other eSIM reviews I have written, including those I tested in other Middle Eastern countries.
Besides travel eSIMs, I also tried Saudi SIM cards.
You can find those below.
>>> STC Saudi Arabia | Mobily | Zain Saudi Arabia <<<
