For most UK families, a local VinaPhone SIM at about £6 for 50GB is the cheapest way to get data in Vietnam, while a Maya or Airalo eSIM, from roughly £8 for a few days up to about £37 to £54 for a month of unlimited, is the simplest if you would rather arrive ready to go.
Our pick: the two eSIMs we would actually install
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You land in Vietnam, you want Grab working before you have left the airport, and you have two real choices. Pay a few pounds for a local SIM and sort it out on the ground, or pay more for an eSIM that is already installed and switches on the moment you connect. Both work. The right one depends entirely on how you travel and how much hassle you are willing to trade for a lower price.
We have used Maya and Airalo eSIMs across our Southeast Asia legs, but in Vietnam itself, on Phu Quoc, we went local. This article covers what we actually paid, what the eSIM alternatives cost, the details on Maya and Airalo worth knowing before you buy, and an honest recommendation for which suits which kind of family. Everything here is data only, with no calls or texts, which for most families is all you need given your UK number still works for iMessage and WhatsApp over data. Prices are quoted by both providers in US dollars, so the pound figures below are approximate at roughly $1.34 to the pound at the time of writing.
If you want the wider picture beyond Vietnam, we cover the whole region in our guide to the best eSIMs for Southeast Asia, and the cost logic of eSIM versus local SIM in general in our eSIM versus local SIM cost breakdown.
What We Actually Used: A Local VinaPhone SIM
On Phu Quoc we bought local VinaPhone SIM cards for around £6 each, which gave us 50GB of data, no calls or texts. For maps, Grab, messaging, video calls home, and the kids watching the odd thing, 50GB a month per phone was comfortably enough.
The catch was the structure of the plan. It ran for a month and could not be extended. When it ran out, we could not simply top it up, so we bought a brand new SIM the following month and started again. For a family staying put in one place for a while, that was a minor errand rather than a real problem. If you are moving around the country quickly, or you do not fancy finding a phone shop and registering a SIM with your passport every month, it becomes more of a chore.
The maths is the reason to consider it. At roughly £6 for 50GB, the local SIM is the cheapest route by a wide margin, and on a family of four where everyone needs their own data, that gap multiplies fast. Four local SIMs is around £24 a month. A month of unlimited eSIM data for four phones is several times that.
Maya Mobile: The Best Unlimited and Multi-Country Option
Maya is the one we lean on when we want genuine unlimited data or we are crossing borders, and for a family that wants the simplest possible setup it is our top pick for Vietnam. Its plans are all unlimited, all run on local 4G and 5G networks, and all cover Vietnam plus more than 165 other countries on the same eSIM.
The current pricing is straightforward, billed per cycle: around $9.99 for 3 days, $19.99 for 7 days, $27.99 for 14 days, and $49.99 for 30 days. In pounds that is roughly £7.50, £15, £21, and £37. A couple of features make it genuinely family-friendly. The prices already include all taxes and fees, so the figure you see is the figure you pay. Hotspot tethering is included, which matters if you want to share one plan to a tablet or a second device. And because one eSIM follows you across the region, you are not reinstalling at every border, which is a real simplifier when you have several phones in the family to manage.
Setup is through the Maya app on iPhone or Android. You sign up, buy a plan, and it activates on arrival, and auto top-up keeps it running while travel mode is on so you do not have to think about it.
Buying separate plans for every phone is where eSIM costs creep up. A family of four on a month of unlimited Maya is roughly £150, against about £24 for four local VinaPhone SIMs. Always do the maths per person before deciding, because that gap is the single biggest reason the local SIM still wins on pure cost.
Maya advertises no caps and no throttling, which is a strong claim for an unlimited plan. As with any unlimited eSIM it is still worth a glance at the fair use terms before you buy, and we explain why in our piece on whether unlimited data eSIMs actually have limits.
Airalo: Best for Paying for Just the Data You Need
Airalo is the eSIM marketplace we reach for most often, and its Vietnam plans run on VinaPhone, which is the same network as the local SIM we used on Phu Quoc. What sets it apart from Maya is choice. Alongside unlimited plans, Airalo sells fixed-data bundles, so if you only need a few gigabytes you can buy exactly that rather than paying for unlimited you will not use.
The fixed-data plans start at around $4 for small amounts, which is ideal for a light user or a short stay. The unlimited plans run from around $11.50 for 3 days up to $72 for 30 days, with $27 for 7 days and $35 for 10 days sitting in between. In pounds the unlimited ladder is roughly £8.50 to £54. That makes Airalo dearer than Maya for a full month of unlimited, so the reason to choose it is the flexibility of its fixed plans, not the unlimited price.
Two practical points worth knowing. You can top up an existing Airalo eSIM rather than buying a new one, so unlike our local SIM you are not starting from scratch each time. You can also switch on automatic renewals, which top the plan up when it drops to 10% remaining. The Airalo app handles all of this, is available in 53 languages, and has 24/7 support if something goes wrong.
If you are a light data user, Airalo's fixed plans are often the cheapest eSIM route, since you pay only for the gigabytes you need rather than for unlimited. Heavy streamers and families wanting one simple plan are usually better off on Maya's unlimited tiers.
Maya vs Airalo: Which Should You Use?
These two solve slightly different problems, so the choice is less about which is better and more about which fits your trip.
Choose Maya if you want unlimited data and the simplest possible setup, or if Vietnam is one stop on a longer regional route. It is cheaper than Airalo at every unlimited tier, taxes are included in the price, hotspot is built in, and the ability to keep one eSIM across 165+ countries is genuinely useful on a multi-month Southeast Asia trip.
Choose Airalo if you want to pay for a specific amount of data rather than unlimited. Its fixed-data plans are the better value for light users and short stays, it runs on VinaPhone, and the marketplace and app are as polished as eSIMs get. For anyone who checks maps and messages but does not stream much, a small fixed plan can undercut both the unlimited options.
Head-to-Head Comparison
What We'd Actually Recommend
For our own trip, on Phu Quoc, the local VinaPhone SIM won on cost and we were staying long enough that re-buying one each month was no real bother. If you are settling somewhere for a few weeks and want the cheapest possible data, do what we did, walk into an official carrier shop with your passport, and pay the local price.
For most families, though, the honest recommendation is to install an eSIM before you fly and skip the arrival-day faff entirely. We would pick Maya for unlimited data and for anyone hopping across several Southeast Asia countries on one plan, since it is the cheaper unlimited option and the simplest to run. We would pick Airalo if you want to buy a set amount of data rather than unlimited, especially for lighter users, given its flexible fixed plans on VinaPhone.
What we would avoid is leaving UK roaming switched on and hoping for the best, and buying from the overpriced kiosks in the airport arrivals hall. Both cost far more than they should for what you get.
Practical Tips Before You Land in Vietnam
- Check compatibility first. Make sure your phone is eSIM-capable and not network-locked before relying on one. Dialling *#06# shows your EID if your device supports eSIM.
- Install before you fly, activate on arrival. Both Maya and Airalo let you install ahead of time, with the plan typically starting when you first connect to a Vietnamese network.
- Bring your passport for a local SIM. Vietnam requires SIMs to be registered to ID, so buy from an official VinaPhone, Viettel, or MobiFone shop rather than a street stall, and have your passport with you.
- Decide unlimited or fixed before you buy. Heavy streamers and families wanting one simple plan get the best value from Maya's unlimited tiers. Light users who mostly use maps and messaging will pay less on an Airalo fixed plan or the local SIM.
- Count one plan per person. A family of four needs four lots of data. Work out the per-person cost across local SIM and eSIM before you commit, because that is what actually decides the cheapest option for your family.
Our pick: the two eSIMs we would actually install
If Vietnam is one leg of a bigger trip, it is worth reading our best eSIM for Thailand guide too, since the same value-versus-convenience logic plays out a little differently from country to country.
