The methodology and the money
How we test and what we earn
Every number on this site comes from somewhere we can name. Where we have not tested something ourselves, this page says so plainly.
What we actually verify
and how
| Claim on this site | How it is verified | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Plan prices in USD | Read live on the brand's own Vietnam page, in USD, before promo codes. If a page shows us another currency, we say so and do not convert silently. | Monthly, and the year is printed on every table |
| Which Vietnamese network a brand uses | Only from the brand's own product page. If it publishes nothing, we write "not published" rather than repeating a travel blog. | Monthly |
| Fair-use caps on unlimited plans | Read out of the brand's published terms. "None published" means we looked and it is not there. | Monthly |
| Trustpilot scores and review counts | Read directly from trustpilot.com, including any warning banner Trustpilot shows. | Monthly |
| Vietnamese network coverage by region | Traveler reports, labelled as such. We have not yet found operator coverage maps detailed enough to cite route by route. Not our own driving. | Quarterly |
| SIM registration law and local tourist eSIMs | The decree text on the government portal (Decree 163/2024/ND-CP), and the operators' own tourist eSIM pages (Viettel, MobiFone). | Quarterly |
Every page carries the date of its last check in the text, not just in a schema field nobody sees. If a date looks old, the numbers are old, and you should assume the price has moved.
What we have not done
the part most sites leave out
We have not published our own speed tests yet. No Mbps, no ping, no "tested in Hanoi" line on this site comes from us, because we have not measured them.
So we do not print speed numbers we did not measure, we do not claim a plan "held 4G over the Ma Pi Leng pass" unless we watched it happen, and we do not invent test dates. Where our coverage information comes from traveler reports, the page says so, every time.
What we do instead is verify the things that can be verified from a desk and that nobody else bothers to check: which network each brand actually names, what the fair-use caps really say, what Trustpilot shows today, and what Viettel and MobiFone charge tourists on their own pages. Those turn out to matter more than a speed test taken on a different day in a different district.
When we run our own tests, they will appear here with the city, the date and a screenshot, and they will replace the traveler-report material rather than sitting alongside it.
How this site makes money
with the rates written down
Affiliate commissions, through the Travelpayouts network, and nothing else. No display advertising, no sponsored posts, no paid placements, no guest articles. A provider cannot buy a position in any table here, and none has ever asked.
| Brand | What we earn | Where it ranks on this site |
|---|---|---|
| Airalo | 12% | Top pick. The lowest rate of the four. |
| Saily | 15% | Third pick, for support and hotspotting. |
| Yesim | 18% | Fourth; our pick for the north, because its page lists Viettel. |
| GigSky | 20% | Second pick, on price. |
| Holafly | nothing | Reviewed in full and linked nowhere. |
| Viettel | nothing | Its tourist eSIM is in our tables and recommended for the northern mountains. |
Read the first and last rows together. The brand we recommend most pays us least, and two of the six things we recommend pay us nothing at all. That is the only test of an affiliate site's ranking that means anything, and it is why we publish the rates.
Buying through a link here never changes your price. It also never changes the order of the picks, which is a promise that is only worth anything alongside the table above.
How the picks are ordered
the criteria, weighted
In rough order of weight:
1. Does the brand tell you which network you get? In Vietnam this matters, because travelers report VNPT and Viettel diverge north of Hanoi. It is why Airalo leads despite never being the cheapest.
2. Price at the sizes people actually buy, which for Vietnam is 5 and 10GB. It is why GigSky is second.
3. The review record. We read the Trustpilot score and any warning banner. A suspended or flagged profile would rule a brand out of the default pick, not out of the tables.
4. Whether "unlimited" comes with a published number. A cap you can read beats a bigger cap you cannot.
5. Practical restrictions that only appear in the terms: hotspot ceilings, validity windows, regional exclusions.
Commission rate is not on this list, and the table in the previous section is how you can check that.
When we get it wrong
and how to tell us
Prices move, brands change networks, airport counters close, and coverage improves. Some of what is on this site will be wrong within a few months, which is why every table carries its own date.
Corrections are the most useful mail we get, particularly a coverage experience that contradicts our table, and most particularly from the far north where our information rests on traveler reports rather than on our own riding. The contact page has the address. Verified corrections ship in the next update and we note what changed.
We are an independent guide. We are not a mobile operator, we do not sell eSIMs, and we are not affiliated with any provider we review.