Holafly eSIM in Saudi Arabia Review (+5G Speedtests)

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 Holafly'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 Holafly'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 Holafly uses in the Kingdom).

Let's get started.

Original publication: 16^th of January 2024. Last updated: 29^th of February 2024.

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Table of Contents

Holafly's List of Compatible eSIM-Supported Phones

Before I even focus on Holafly's Saudi Arabia eSIM, does your phone support Holafly eSIMs?

If you have an eSIM-compatible smartphone, it is almost guaranteed that you can use a Holafly eSIM.

While Holafly 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 Holafly eSIMs:

Now we can actually focus on the Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM.

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How Much Does the Holafly eSIM for Saudi Arabia Cost?

You can get the Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM for between 19 USD (unlimited data for 5 days) and 54 USD (unlimited data for 20 days).

>>> Get your Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM and use code “PHONETRAVELWIZ” for 5% off! <<<

Did you say… unlimited data!?

It started offering unlimited data in about 45 countries in June 2022.

By the end of 2023, over 100 countries have unlimited data eSIMs, including Saudi Arabia.

Initially, I was told that all plans would have truly limitless data.

Not even a few weeks later, this section was added to its “Can my connection speed be reduced?” FAQ:

[…] if the mobile operator estimates the usage of more than 90 GB of data in a month, it may temporarily reduce the speed to 256 Kbps – 1 Mbps to avoid affecting other users. This limitation is intended to prevent network saturation and will be removed within 24 hours.

I guess offering truly unlimited data was too much for Holafly's partners 🤪.

While I have yet to hit this fair use policy, mainly because I spread my data usage among multiple SIM cards and eSIMs when I travel, one of Holafly's competitors (an eSIM reseller, not me, lol) claimed you hit this policy after using more than 2.5 GB to 3 GB daily.

Heck, another competitor claimed this is up to 1.5 GB (in Indonesia).

These claims are pretty old now, so I hope they have never been factual or at least outdated… for Holafly's sake.

Anyway, back to the Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM: here are all your options:

1. Saudi Arabia unlimited data eSIM for 5 days, costing 19 USD – very popular with Phone Travel Wiz readers
2. Saudi Arabia unlimited data eSIM for 7 days, costing 27 USD – most popular with Phone Travel Wiz readers
3. Saudi Arabia unlimited data eSIM for 10 days, costing 34 USD
4. Saudi Arabia unlimited data eSIM for 15 days, costing 47 USD
5. Saudi Arabia unlimited data eSIM for 20 days, costing 54 USD

Note: Phone Travel Wiz reader popularity ranking was updated in December based on data up to the 30^th of December (2023 data only).

>>> Get your Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM and use code “PHONETRAVELWIZ” for 5% off! <<<

Previously, Holafly's Saudi Arabia eSIMs were unpopular.

Mainly because it was significantly more expensive than its competitors.

For example, both Airalo (Red Sand (review)) and Alosim (review) sell 3 GB of data for only 11 USD.

No wonder almost no Phone Travel Wiz reader used to get Holafly's Saudi Arabia eSIMs 🗿 (but the situation is better now with its unlimited data offering).

Holafly sent me the 6 GB for 15 days eSIM, valued at 49 USD, back in August (2023) – way before it introduced unlimited data eSIMs.

Data-limited eSIMs had no speed restrictions (applies to Asian and North American eSIMs), and you were allowed to tether (mobile hotspot) as well (impossible with unlimited data eSIMs to prevent abuse)

Anyway, the links from earlier will bring you to the product page of the Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM.

Holafly allows you to pay for its eSIMs in many currencies, including American/Australian/Canadian Dollar, Euro & British Pound (Sterling).

I found that paying in USD is often cheaper than in other currencies.

For example, the 20-day eSIM costs 54 USD but 57 EUR. Even though it should cost around 49 EUR when taking currency exchange rates into account (1 USD was about 0.91 EUR at the time of writing) – a premium of over 16%.

That is why when I buy a Holafly eSIM, I pay in USD with my Wise account/debit card.

Their exchange 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.

Open a Wise account for FREE!

What if you buy the 10-day Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM but need data for an extra five days because you love the country so much? What should you do?

As of Q3 2023, Holafly allows for top-ups (it took a while – most of its competitors had this feature for literal years).

You can do this on the Holafly site or apps (Android/iOS).

That way, you will never run out of data.

A handful of Holafly eSIMs do not allow for top-ups. But that does not apply to the Saudi Arabia eSIM – so worry not.

>>> Get your Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM and use code “PHONETRAVELWIZ” for 5% off! <<<

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My Holafly eSIM in Saudi Arabia Experience

During this trip, I used my Holafly 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 Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM, roam on the networks of local mobile operators.

Holafly 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.

Holafly's Saudi Arabia eSIM uses the Mobily (review) and Zain Saudi Arabia network (review) while being powered by Drei/3 from Austria (so your phone, some apps, or sites you visit may claim you are using a Drei eSIM instead of a Holafly one – 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 Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM performed in Jeddah.

>>> Get your Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM and use code “PHONETRAVELWIZ” for 5% off! <<<

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Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM in Jeddah Speed Test Results

I tried to test the Holafly 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 Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM).

So I will compare the Holafly 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), Alosim (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:

>>> Get your Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM and use code “PHONETRAVELWIZ” for 5% off! <<<

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My Overall Experience with the Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM – Is It Worth Your Money?

I would recommend the Holafly Saudi Arabia, but it would NOT be one of my top eSIM recommendations for anyone wanting to buy an eSIM for Saudi Arabia.

Getting the Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM or any other Holafly eSIM is easy.

You scan the QR code shown on the app or send it to your email (the latter method works better).

Previously, the Saudi Arabia eSIMs were relatively expensive, with 3 GB (7 days) costing 34 USD and 6 GB (15 days) 49 USD.

Nowadays, unlimited data plans from 5 days (19 USD) to 20 days (54 USD) are available, which is a much better value than before.

I still used the old plan (6 GB) in Saudi Arabia because Holafly gave it back in September.

And the performance with the eSIM was… impressive.

It used 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 Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM (even though it is/was not mentioned on its site at the time of writing (January 2024)).

With an average download speed of 80.21 Mbps, there is not much to complain about in terms of speed.

But I doubt your speed will be as fast as mine.

As of mid-2023, countries that have unlimited data plans are speed-capped @ 18 (except for eSIMs for Europe and the European eSIM (review)).

I noticed this when I was in Canada and the United States on my North American trip and in Indonesia, Taiwan & Vietnam when I headed to Asia immediately after North America.

This was a surprise because you can get blazing-fast speeds in Canada, the United States & Taiwan (especially the latter – even with eSIMs).

What is more surprising is that the eSIMs I tested in Asia were powered by a different operator (China Mobile HK), while Drei Austria powers most others – yet, they had the same issue.

My contact at Holafly blamed the local mobile operators (Mobily and Zain KSA if we focus on KSA).

But as you can see in my other Saudi Arabia eSIM reviews, fast speeds are available – even for eSIMs powered by Drei Austria (Nomad Saudi Arabia and Nomad Middle East).

So, it is Holafly's decision with its partners not to mention the restriction on their product pages, which I am not a fan of.

As a result, I suspect your speeds will be significantly slower than what I got.

In March 2024, I will revisit Qatar – I visited Qatar before Saudi Arabia in November 2023 and tried Holafly there too (and speeds were acceptable because unlimited data plans were unavailable).

Now, Qatar also has unlimited data plans. If I notice speeds are suddenly throttled now, we know why – and I can assume the same applies to the Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIMs then 😔.

This would not be very reassuring because you pay one of the highest prices for Holafly eSIMs.

Even if you had to deal with a high-speed data cap before your speeds would be throttled, it would be much better than dealing with slower speeds at all times.

Or better yet, inform you about it on its site.

This is why I test eSIMs for you so you can get the best one(s) for your needs 😏.

By using a near-perfect 4G/LTE network, offering “unlimited” data plans for reasonable prices & offering super-fast download speeds ¹, you should have a smooth browsing experience with the Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM.

¹ at least when I used my Holafly eSIM in Jeddah. Speeds may be capped due to Holafly changing its Saudi Arabia eSIMs from data-limited to unlimited, which often means speeds are up to 18 Mbps

>>> Get your Holafly Saudi Arabia eSIM and use code “PHONETRAVELWIZ” for 5% off! <<<

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Saudi Arabia eSIM & SIM Card Reviews

Besides Holafly's Saudi Arabia, 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 | Alosim Saudi Arabia eSIM | Nomad Saudi Arabia eSIM | Nomad Middle East eSIM in Saudi Arabia <<<

Besides travel eSIMs, I also tried Saudi SIM cards.

You can find those below.

>>> STC Saudi Arabia | Mobily | Zain Saudi Arabia <<<

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