How we make money
We have applied to 3 affiliate programmes and currently earn nothing from any link on this site. Either way, the code that decides which plan to recommend cannot see commission rates, and a test fails the build if anyone connects them.
Every comparison site says its rankings are unbiased. The claim costs nothing to make, so it's worth nothing on its own. Here is what we do instead of asking you to take our word for it.
What each provider pays
These are public affiliate programme rates as advertised. Real rates vary by network, country and negotiation, high-volume partners are routinely offered more than the published figure, which is precisely why a commission-driven ranking would be distorted.
- These are bands, not confirmed figures. Every live programme below sits somewhere in 10 to 15%, and we have not yet checked each network dashboard to pin down the exact tier we were approved at. Publishing a precise number we had not confirmed would be worse than publishing the band, so the band is what you see. When the dashboards are checked, the exact rates replace these and this note disappears.
| Provider | Rate band | Cookie | Network | Our status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airalo | 10-15% | 30 days | Travelpayouts | live | Band not yet confirmed against the network dashboard. Deep links to the destination page. |
| Holafly | 10% | 30 days | Impact | applied | Up to 20% negotiated for high-volume partners, the highest ceiling in the group. |
| Saily | 10-15% | 30 days | Travelpayouts | live | Band not yet confirmed against the network dashboard. Deep links to the destination page. |
| Nomad | 10% | 30 days | Impact | applied | Reported as low as ~7–8.5% on some networks. |
| Yesim | 10-15% | 30 days | Travelpayouts | live | Band not yet confirmed against the network dashboard. Deep links to the destination page. |
| Virgin Connect Roam | 10-15% | 30 days | Impact | live | Programme publishes no public rate. Band not yet confirmed against the network dashboard. |
| Lebara Travel eSIM | 10-15% | 30 days | Impact | live | Band not yet confirmed against the network dashboard. Catalogue read from their own JSON API. No deep linking: their country pages are client-rendered with no stable public URL per destination. |
| Ubigi | unknown | — | Impact | applied | No public programme rate found at time of writing. |
| co:sim | 10-15% | 30 days | Impact | live | Band not yet confirmed against the network dashboard. Catalogue read from their own storefront. Deep links to the destination page. |
Why this table is the point
Look at the spread. Holafly's programme goes up to roughly twice Nomad's. A site that ranked on commission would push Holafly at every opportunity — and you would never be able to tell, because the ranking would still look like a ranking.
Our planner regularly recommends against Holafly, because its unlimited plans cap hotspot sharing at 1GB a day and that disqualifies it for anyone working off a laptop. That recommendation costs us money. It's also correct, which is the only reason this site is worth visiting.
The guarantees
- Separation is architectural, not a policy. Commission data lives in a module the ranking engine does not import. It isn't a rule someone remembers to follow, the ranking code has no access to the numbers.
- A test enforces it. The build fails if the ranking engine ever references commission, affiliate or payout data, or imports the monetisation module.
- We tell you when we're ranking against ourselves. If we'd earn more from an option we placed second, the result page says so in plain language rather than hiding it in a footer.
- Rankings are deterministic. Same trip, same dataset, same answer, every time. No personalisation, no auction, no rotation.
- This page stays current. A programme's status changes here before its links change anywhere else, and once the dashboards are checked the exact rates replace the bands above.
- Deep links go to the plan, not a homepage. Where we have verified a provider's country page, the link takes you straight there. Where we haven't, it falls back rather than guessing at a URL that might 404.
What we will never do
- Sell placement. No provider can pay to be ranked higher, featured, or included.
- Hide a provider because they don't pay. Ubigi has no public programme we could find, and Ubigi still wins recommendations on this site.
- Let commission decide which plans we collect. The dataset is chosen by what travellers actually need compared, not by what pays.