User Review of World eSIM and Holafly, Popular eSIMs for Japan Trips

This service includes sponsored advertisements.

We tried Holafly and World eSIM, which are popular eSIMs for traveling in Japan, and reviewed them in comparison looking at prices, available plans, communication speed, usability, and other aspects.

Written by

Mizzochi

Mitoyo, Kagawa, Japan

I worked in a PR agency for corporate IR/CSR and a publisher which publishes a magazine focused on international cooperation before joining MATCHA in October 2017.

In April 2019, I moved to Mitoyo City in Kagawa Prefecture. I write articles for tourists visiting Japan, and also contribute to regional revitalization.

My main focus is on writing about internet services, rental cars, hotels, and tourist attractions in western Japan.

Holafly and World eSIM: Popular eSIMs in Comparison

eSIMs have become a popular way to connect to the internet when traveling in Japan in recent years. There are many different eSIM services available, but Holafly and World eSIM are particularly well-known.

In this article, we will compare and review both services based on our actual experience of using them. We hope this will be helpful for you when purchasing an eSIM.

What are the benefits of eSIM in the first place?

eSIM is an abbreviation for Embedded SIM.

It is a service that allows you to purchase and use eSIMs online, and it has become popular in recent years because it eliminates the risk of losing SIM cards, which is a common problem with physical SIM cards.

MATCHA has also reviewed Airalo and NINJA eSIM in addition to Holafly and World eSIM. For more information, please see the following articles.

Comparing Holafly and World eSIM

First, let's take a look at the companies behind each service.

Picture courtesy of Holafly official website

Holafly was founded in 2017 by two young travel enthusiasts. Headquartered in Spain, with offices in Colombia, Peru, and Thailand, they have provided eSIM services to over 500,000 people worldwide.

Picture courtesy of World eSIM official website

On the one hand, World eSIM is a service from the Global WiFi brand that provides internet services around the world. Based in Japan and established in 1995, its long history adds to its reliability as a company.

In this article, we compared Holafly and World eSIM based on the following criteria:

- Ease of purchase
- Variety of prices and plans
- Communication speed
- Usability

The comparison was conducted using the author's Android devices: the "Google Pixel 9 pro" (for Holafly) and the "Galaxy A23 5G" (for World eSIM). The tests were carried out in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan.

1. Ease of Purchase and Activation

The left is the Holafly screen, and the right is the World eSIM screen. Both use QR codes.

Summary: Both send an email immediately after application. Easy setup and ready to use.

First, let's compare the process from purchase to activation. The overall evaluation is "both are the same".

Time from application to receiving the activation email

Holafly sent an email with the QR code required for activation at the same time as the application. World eSIM also received the email within 5 minutes of ordering.

Both are very quick to respond.

Ease of Activation

Both allowed easy setup with QR code scanning, APN settings, and roaming settings. There is no major difference in this regard.

Note: With both Holafly and World eSIM, you need to scan the QR code sent by email with the smartphone you want to use the eSIM on. You will need to prepare another smartphone for QR code scanning, or open the email on your computer.

Do you need a dedicated app?

Both Holafly and World eSIM have dedicated apps, but you can use the eSIM without the app.

If you travel to Japan many times, it is convenient to download the app. However, if this is not the case, your smartphone may become cluttered with apps that you do not use.

In that sense, it is helpful that you can use it without the app!

2. Variety of Prices and Plans

Summary: World eSIM is cheaper and offers a greater variety of plans.

Holafly

	Data Volume	Days	Price
Unlimited Data Plan	Unlimited	1 to 90 days	6.9 USD and up

Holafly offers only Unlimited Data Plans. You can choose the number of days you want to use it, from 1 to 90 days, in increments of 1 day.

For example, 1 day is 6.9 USD, 2 days is 9.9 USD, and 1 week is 29.90 USD. The price per day decreases as the number of days of use increases.

Multi-country plan: There is a plan that can be used in 16 Asian countries including Japan.

World eSIM

	Data Volume	Days	Price
Unlimited Data Plan	Unlimited	5 to 15 days	29.95 USD and up
Fixed Data Plan	5GB to 20GB	15 to 30 days	11.95 USD and up
Daily Data Plan	500MB to 3GB per day	5 to 10 days	8.95 USD and up

World eSIM, on the other hand, is characterized by its wide variety of plans.

There are three types of plans: Unlimited Plan for unlimited data use, Fixed Data Plan with a fixed amount of data available during the period, and Daily Data Plan with a fixed amount of data available per day. There are 12 plans in total.

Multi-country plan: There are plans available for 34 countries in Asia, including Japan, and plans available for 141 countries around the world.

Comparison of Prices

When comparing 1-week Unlimited Plans, Holafly is 29.90 USD and World eSIM is 29.80 USD, which is almost the same.

However, as will be introduced below, World eSIM comes at a 15% discount, which makes it cheaper.

Furthermore, World eSIM has a Fixed Data Plan and a Daily Data Plan. There are many things to see while traveling, so the amount of internet communication tends to be small. In such a case, World eSIM is advantageous because you can flexibly choose a plan.

However, the disadvantage of World eSIM is that the number of days available is fixed, such as 5 days or 10 days. In that respect, Holafly allows you to adjust the number of days of use in 1-day increments, which may be convenient for those who have a fixed number of days to stay in Japan from the beginning.

World eSIM Discount

World eSIM offers a 15% discount for MATCHA readers. This applies to all plans, so it's a great deal if you're using a large amount of data or a long-term plan!

If you jump to the purchase screen from this link, the 15% discount will be applied automatically.

World eSIM 15% Discount

3. Communication Speed

Summary: World eSIM is smoother

This time, we used the app SpeedTest to measure the communication speed of Holafly and World eSIM.

The results are as follows, measured in Kagawa Prefecture where I live in early February for Holafly and early January for World eSIM.

Holafly: 20.6Mbps download, 12.0Mbps upload
World eSIM: 47.4Mbps download, 15.8Mbps upload

Communication speed varies depending on the communication line conditions at that time. Therefore, the above is just a reference value, but in reality, I felt that World eSIM was smoother in communication.

Impressions after using World eSIM and Holafly

First of all, with both, there is no problem with using SNS and email. I was also able to upload reel videos to Instagram.

Also, there was no problem even when tethering for PC work (both Holafly and World eSIM support tethering).

In addition to that, in the case of Holafly, there were several times when it took time to open images when trying to read manga on Kindle or other apps.

With World eSIM, there was not a single interruption when watching manga or videos. World eSIM is a service provided by a Japanese company, so it can be said that the communication is good.

Unable to watch Japanese videos on Holafly

One thing I noticed while using Holafly is that it seems to be treated as if you are living outside of Japan while using Holafly.

Although I live in Japan, when I tried to use Amazon Prime or other video services while using Holafly, videos that I could normally watch were either not available or required an additional fee.

Holafly has tethering restrictions

Holafly has unlimited data, but there is a limit of 500MB per day for tethering.

If you plan to do a lot of PC work via tethering, World eSIM is recommended.

4. Usability

On the left is Holafly, and on the right is the My Page for World eSIM.

Summary: Holafly has AI chat and also sends email notifications when the remaining days are low.

Both Holafly and World eSIM allow you to view the status of your eSIM on your My Page after purchase.

There is no major difference in this regard. However, Holafly has the following advantages:

- You can ask questions via chat.
- You can easily make additional purchases within My Page.
- You will receive an email notification when the remaining days are low.

World eSIM has a simple and easy-to-understand website, but I felt that Holafly is better in terms of usability.

Conclusion: World eSIM is better for communication and price. Holafly is better for usability.

After actually using both, I found both to be very easy to use.

Considering the smoothness of communication and the ease of choosing a plan, World eSIM is better. On the other hand, Holafly was better in terms of usability.

Please use this article as a reference to choose the service and plan that suits you best!

Read also