Vietnam eSIM with unlimited data: POVNOMAD vs Airalo vs Holafly

Last updated on 6 September 2026

POVNOMAD Unlimited Smart for Vietnam costs €9.90 for 7 days and €30.90 for 30 days. Airalo’s unlimited plan costs €24.00 and €61.50 for the same trips. At every duration POVNOMAD lands at roughly half the price. Smart gives you 1 GB at full speed each day, then a steady 1 Mbit/s. Airalo throttles at 3 GB.

The comparison at a glance

All prices as of 5 September 2026, collected from povnomad.com and airalo.com (Vietnam product pages, EUR). The POVNOMAD prices apply to Unlimited Smart on the standard IP. “—” means Airalo lists no price for 21 days. Fair use: POVNOMAD states both figures on the product page, the daily high-speed allowance (1 GB on Smart) and the speed after that (a steady 1 Mbit/s). Airalo states its 3 GB per day threshold and the drop to 1 Mbps on a general fair-use page, not on the Vietnam product page. Holafly names neither a threshold nor a speed for Vietnam. Holafly appears here without figures: its German Vietnam page and its Hanoi page show the same price table, while Holafly’s own Vietnam roaming comparison page quotes different daily prices and a different hotspot allowance on the same date (retrieved 5 September 2026). Check Holafly prices directly at esim.holafly.com/de. Prices are subject to change.

You pay around half in every row of the table, €19.90 against €42.50 for two weeks. Stick to maps, Grab rides, WhatsApp and a few photos and you stay under 1 GB a day, which leaves most of Airalo’s 3 GB unused.

One tier breaks the pattern. Fifteen days cost €19.90, so €1.33 per day. Ten days work out at €1.19 (€11.90) and 21 days at €1.09 (€22.90). For a two-week trip, price up the 21-day plan first, since it costs €3.00 more.

One note on buying: purchases in the POVNOMAD app earn up to 10 percent of the amount paid as credits, redeemable on your next order. The web shop does not award credits. The prices in the table stay the same, the credits lower the bill on your next trip.

The network difference

Vietnam runs on three large mobile networks: Viettel, Vinaphone from the VNPT group, and MobiFone. The POVNOMAD product page names “local 4G/5G networks, for example MobiFone or Vietnamobile”. Airalo writes on its Vietnam product page: “Operates on the VNPT network in Vietnam.” Holafly names “GPC Vinaphone (VNPT)” on its German country page and on its Hanoi page (retrieved 5 September 2026). None of the three lists Viettel as a partner network.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology reports the launch of the country’s first commercial 5G network in October 2024 by Viettel. The same ministry gives 15 October 2024 as the date of the 2G shutdown, so an old 2G-only handset no longer connects in Vietnam.

Each provider defines “unlimited” its own way. Airalo’s fair-use rule reads: “The default daily high-speed data threshold is 3GB.” After that you get 1 Mbps for the rest of the day. Holafly’s Vietnam page says the throttling “is temporarily applied for no more than one (1) day”, with no GB figure attached. None of the three sells an unlimited plan for Vietnam that stays unthrottled.

No provider promises you a signal at a named spot. Travel blogs report steady 4G in Cat Ba town and on the main beaches of Ha Long Bay, with dead patches on overnight cruises into the quieter bays. Sapa town holds 4G, while trekking into the hill villages thins it out.

Data packages instead of unlimited

Plenty of Vietnam trips work without unlimited data. Save your maps offline, use the guesthouse Wi-Fi, and a fixed package costs you less.

Prices as of 5 September 2026, povnomad.com/en/produkt/vietnam-esim/. “—” means the 50 GB package comes with the standard IP only. Hotspot comes with every POVNOMAD eSIM for Vietnam, and validity starts with the first connection to the network.

The product page carries a second choice next to the duration, the IP variant. Unlimited Smart comes with the standard IP at the prices above, or a Singapore IP from €6.90 to €38.90. The data packages come in both variants. The page makes no promises about individual apps.

If you need 2 GB of high-speed data a day, take Unlimited L. That tier runs on the Singapore IP only: €10.90 for 3 days, €16.90 for 5 days, €21.90 for 7 days. From 10 days the maths turns, with L at €31.90 against Airalo’s €31.00 for 3 GB a day, and €86.90 over 30 days. For longer trips Smart stays cheaper. The unlimited plans overview explains the tiers.

Which plan for which trip

A week in Hanoi with a trip out to Ha Long Bay fits Unlimited Smart for 7 days at €9.90. Airalo charges €24.00 for the same seven days. You call a Grab in the Old Quarter, keep the map running on the back of a scooter and book the boat for the next morning. Days like that stay under 1 GB.

The north-to-south loop through Hanoi, Hoi An, Saigon and the Mekong Delta often runs three weeks. Airalo lists no price for 21 days, while POVNOMAD charges €22.90. Navigation keeps running on the night train to Da Nang, and once the high-speed gigabyte is gone, maps, messengers and email carry on at 1 Mbit/s.

For a month in Da Nang or Hoi An, Unlimited Smart costs €30.90 against Airalo’s €61.50. Work most of the time on the apartment Wi-Fi and 20 GB over 30 days at €20.90 covers you. Upload video every day and you do use Airalo’s 3 GB.

Many travellers add a neighbouring country. Thailand has its own profile, the Thailand eSIM, with the three providers side by side in the Thailand provider comparison. For Indonesia, the Bali provider comparison runs the same numbers.

Roaming from your home contract

Vietnam sits outside EU roaming, so your domestic allowance does not apply and your operator sells a separate add-on, usually a day pass or a monthly world package. Compare that against €9.90 for seven days of Unlimited Smart or €20.90 for 20 GB over 30 days.

Frequently asked questions

All prices as of 5 September 2026, sources: povnomad.com, airalo.com, esim.holafly.com. Prices are subject to change.