Is Saily Good for Bali? An Honest Review vs Telkomsel (2026)

We are an authorized Telkomsel retailer and we set up eSIMs for travelers every day, so we are not neutral — check our numbers against Saily's own site. Every Saily figure on this page is quoted from saily.com and Saily's help centre, checked 26 August 2026.

First, a 60-Second Guide to Indonesian Networks

Three operators cover the whole country. Which one your eSIM rents decides whether your phone works past the tourist strip.

#	Operator	Subscribers	Population covered
1	Telkomsel Balitel and Saily both use this	157.6 million	Over 97%
2	Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison	93.7 million	About 90%
3	XLSmart	73 million	Similar to Indosat

Subscriber figures: Telkomsel Q3 2025, Indosat and XLSmart Q4 2025.

Telkomsel is the market leader and won five awards at the 2026 Ookla Speedtest Awards, including Best Mobile Coverage, plus 11 metrics in Opensignal's 2026 Indonesia analysis.

👉 The full network guide: which of the 13 eSIM brands uses which operator

Saily Runs on Telkomsel Too

Straight from Saily's own Indonesia page:

That is the single most important thing on this page, and it is in Saily's favour. If you buy Saily, you get Telkomsel coverage. Nusa Penida, Amed, Sidemen, the fast boat, the Gilis — the places where Airalo and Ubigi thin out, Saily will hold up, because it is riding the same towers we are.

The one difference that remains

You are on Telkomsel as a roaming guest. We put you on it as a local customer with your own number.

Networks can put roaming traffic behind local traffic when a tower is congested. That is why a roaming eSIM can crawl at 7pm in Canggu while a local line keeps going. It is a real effect, but it is a much smaller difference than being on the wrong network entirely — so we are listing it as a footnote here rather than a headline.

The Phone Number Catch

Saily advertises something no other travel eSIM in our comparison offers: a phone number with SMS and calls. Their own comparison table puts a green tick next to "Phone number (SMS and calls)" and a cross next to Holafly, Nomad and Ubigi.

That sounds like it closes the gap with a local SIM. It does not, and the reason is one word.

Why that matters in Bali

Gojek, Grab and QRIS payment apps send their verification code to an Indonesian +62 number. A US number cannot receive it. Neither can most Indonesian banking or delivery apps.

What you want to do in Bali	Saily US number	Balitel +62 number
Create a new Gojek account	❌ Code never arrives	✅ Works
Create a new Grab account	❌ Code never arrives	✅ Works
Register a QRIS payment app	❌ No	✅ Works
Receive SMS from an Indonesian bank or hotel	❌ No	✅ Works
Give a driver a number he can ring	⚠️ International call for him	✅ Local call
Receive a code from your bank at home	⚠️ Only if that bank has your Saily US number	Use your home line for this

To be fair, the US number is genuinely useful — for keeping a reachable number while you travel, for services that want any number at all, and for people who actually want a US line. It is a good product. It is just not an Indonesian line, and Bali runs on Indonesian lines.

It is also a paid add-on with separate call and text plans, on top of the data plan price.

Every Plan, Priced

Fixed-data plans against ours

Saily plan	Their price	Closest plan of ours	Our price	Verdict
1 GB — 7 days	$4.79	we sell nothing this small	—	Saily wins
3 GB — 30 days	$8.99	we sell nothing this small	—	Saily wins
5 GB — 30 days	$13.99	10 GB — 30 days	$13	cheaper and double the data
10 GB — 30 days	$21.99	10 GB — 30 days	$13	41% less
20 GB — 30 days (their Best Choice)	$35.99	21 GB — 30 days	$17	53% less, 1GB more
—	—	45 GB — 30 days	$26	Saily has no plan this big
—	—	83 GB — 30 days	$37	Saily has no plan this big

Saily only beats us below $9. That is a narrower window than Airalo, Ubigi or Holafly. And note the 5GB row — Saily charges $13.99 for 5GB where we charge $13 for 10GB. Less money, twice the data.

Unlimited plans against ours

Trip	Saily Unlimited	Best plan of ours	You save
5 days	$18.99	$13 (10GB)	$5.99 — 32%
7 days	$26.99	$13 (10GB)	$13.99 — 52%
10 days	$34.99	$13 (10GB)	$21.99 — 63%
15 days	$48.99	$17 (21GB)	$31.99 — 65%
20 days	$59.99	$17 (21GB)	$42.99 — 72%
25 days	$65.99	$26 (45GB)	$39.99 — 61%
30 days	$71.99	$26 (45GB)	$45.99 — 64%

What Is the Cap on Saily's Unlimited Plan?

This is the most honest unlimited plan in the market

We have now read the fair use terms of every major unlimited seller, and Saily comes out on top on both counts — the number is the most generous, and it is the easiest to find.

Brand	Daily cap	Where they tell you	Speed after
Saily	5 GB — the highest	✅ On the product page, under the price	1 Mbps
Airalo	3 GB	✅ On a separate fair use page	1 Mbps
Ubigi	Whole plan, not daily	⚠️ A range in text, per-country only as an image	2 Mbps
Holafly	Reported 2–5 GB	❌ Nowhere before you buy	256 kbps – 1 Mbps

Saily did not have to publish that. Holafly does not. We are competing with Saily and we still think this is the right way to sell an unlimited plan.

Now do the maths on 5GB a day

If you used every gigabyte Saily allows at full speed for 30 days, that is 5GB × 30 = 150GB for $71.99.

Hotspot: Saily Does Not Cap It

Saily's Indonesia page says it in three words: "Unlimited access with no restrictions."

Provider	Hotspot allowance
Saily	✅ Unlimited, no restrictions
Airalo	✅ No limit on tethering or device count
Ubigi	✅ Uncapped on all plans
Balitel (Telkomsel)	✅ No separate limit
Holafly prepaid	❌ Capped ~500 MB – 1 GB a day

Another tie. If hotspot is your deciding factor, it is not a reason to choose between us and Saily — only a reason to avoid Holafly.

Where Saily Genuinely Wins

This is the longest version of this section we have written, because Saily has earned it.

1. The small plans

1GB for 7 days at $4.79. 3GB for 30 days at $8.99. We sell nothing under 10GB. Three or four days in Seminyak checking maps and WhatsApp, and Saily's $8.99 plan is the correct purchase.

2. They are on Telkomsel

The best network in Indonesia, same as ours. No caveats, no "it depends on the tower."

3. The most transparent unlimited plan we have found

5GB a day, the highest cap in the market, printed under the price rather than buried in a policy page.

4. Security features nobody else has

Saily is built by Nord Security, the NordVPN company. The app includes virtual location switching across 115+ locations, malicious URL blocking, and an ad and tracker blocker. No other travel eSIM in this comparison offers any of that, and we certainly do not.

5. A phone number, even if it is the wrong country

Most travel eSIMs give you nothing. Saily gives you a US number with call and text plans. It will not fetch a Gojek code, but it is more than Holafly, Nomad or Ubigi offer.

6. Reviewed at real scale

4.7 on Trustpilot from over 97,000 reviews, and 4.7 on both app stores. In a category full of brands nobody has heard of, that is a large amount of independent feedback pointing the same way.

7. Uncapped hotspot and 24/7 chat

Both genuine, and their support runs around the clock where ours stops at 2am Bali time.

Where Saily Falls Short in Bali

1. Price, the moment you need more than 5GB

41% more at 10GB. 53% more at 20GB. 64% more on a month of unlimited. And they have nothing at all above 20GB, so a heavy user has to buy unlimited at $71.99 where we would sell them 45GB for $26.

2. The phone number is American

Covered in full above. No Gojek, no Grab, no QRIS, no Indonesian SMS.

3. No IMEI registration

Indonesia requires foreign phones to have their IMEI registered before using a local network. Roaming eSIMs like Saily do not do this and do not need to — but it also means that if you later want a local line, that work is still waiting for you. We complete it before you land.

4. Nobody to walk in and see

Saily is part of Nord Security, headquartered in Lithuania. Support is a chat window. There is no Saily counter in Indonesia.

5. You are a roaming guest on our network

Same towers, lower priority when they are busy.

How Much Data Do You Actually Need?

Nobody knows how many gigabytes they use. Everybody knows how many days their trip is. So start from days.

What you are doing	Data used
Google Maps, one hour of driving	about 5 MB
WhatsApp messages, all day	under 20 MB
Instagram, 30 minutes of scrolling	about 150 MB
One hour of Netflix or YouTube in HD	about 3 GB

Maps and WhatsApp are basically free. One hour of Netflix uses three days' worth of everything else.

Now pick your plan

Your trip	Normal use	Video most days
3–4 days	Saily 3GB — $8.99	Our 10GB — $13
5–7 days	Our 10GB — $13	Our 21GB — $17
10 days	Our 10GB — $13	Our 21GB — $17
2 weeks	Our 21GB — $17	Our 45GB — $26
3 weeks	Our 21GB — $17	Our 45GB — $26
A month	Our 45GB — $26	Our 83GB — $37

So Where Do You Actually Buy a Telkomsel eSIM?

You cannot buy one online from Telkomsel as a tourist. Their website sells eSIMs to Indonesian citizens, verified by national ID card and family card. Foreign residents with a KITAS permit must visit a service centre in person. Tourists hold neither document.

Where	Who runs it	Sorted before you fly?
GraPARI service centre in Bali	Telkomsel themselves	❌ In person only
Counters at Ngurah Rai airport	Third parties under Telkomsel branding	❌ Queue on arrival
Authorized retailer — this is us	Licensed businesses like Balitel	✅ Yes

We are both an online store and a real shop in Bali

Saily is online only. It is part of Nord Security in Lithuania, and there is no Saily counter anywhere in Indonesia.

We are both.

• Buy online before you fly. Order from home, send us your passport and IMEI, and we register everything while you are still packing. The QR code arrives on your WhatsApp. You land connected.
• Or come and see us. We are part of Diamond Handphone, trading in Bali since 1998, with five stores across Denpasar, Kuta, Seminyak and Canggu.

👉 The full explanation of why tourists cannot buy Telkomsel directly

An Honest Warning About a Local IP

A Telkomsel line gives you an Indonesian IP address. That is what makes you look local to the internet. It is also occasionally inconvenient.

What an Indonesian IP gives you	What it can cost you
✅ Gojek, Grab and QRIS work properly	⚠️ Netflix shows the Indonesian catalogue, not yours
✅ Tokopedia, Traveloka and local booking sites work	⚠️ Some home streaming services geo-block you
✅ Local prices on apps that vary by country	⚠️ Your bank may flag a login from Indonesia

Saily wins this one, and by more than anyone else. Their virtual location feature lets you appear in over 115 places, so streaming and banking behave as they do at home. That is a real advantage we cannot match. Keep your home line installed and switch to it over wifi for banking, or accept the Indonesian catalogue — those are our answers, and they are worse than theirs.

What Happens If It Does Not Work?

	Saily	Balitel
Not installed or not activated	Full refund within 30 days	Full refund within 30 days
Activated but barely used	Possible if over 99% of data remains	❌ Not refundable once activated
Quality problem caused by them	Partial or full refund considered	We fix it, replace it, or refund it
Where support sits	Lithuania — Nord Security	Kuta, on the same island as you
Hours	24/7 chat	8:00 AM – 2:00 AM Bali time
Can you walk in	❌ No office in Indonesia	✅ Five stores in Bali
Can they re-register your IMEI	❌ Not their product	✅ Same day

The refund windows are identical — 30 days, unactivated, both of us. Saily is actually slightly more generous after activation, because they will consider a refund if over 99% of the data is untouched and we will not.

So Which One Should You Buy?

Your situation	Better pick
You need under 5GB total	Saily — $4.79 or $8.99, we have nothing that small
You want streaming and banking to behave as at home	Saily — virtual locations, 115+
Bali is one stop on a multi-country trip	Saily — 200+ destinations on one eSIM
You need support at 4am	Saily — genuinely 24/7
You need 10GB or more	Telkomsel — $13 against their $21.99
You need 20GB or more	Telkomsel — $17 against their $35.99
You need more than 20GB	Telkomsel — Saily has no plan that big
You need a Gojek, Grab or QRIS account	Telkomsel — Saily's number is American
You need Indonesian SMS of any kind	Telkomsel
Trip of five days or more	Telkomsel — 32% to 72% cheaper
Worried about getting stuck with no help	Telkomsel — WhatsApp and a real shop in Bali

Frequently Asked Questions

Which network does Saily use in Indonesia?

Telkomsel. Saily's own Indonesia page states that its plans run on Telkomsel's 4G LTE and 5G networks, covering Jakarta, Bali and most Indonesian islands. This makes Saily one of the few travel eSIMs on Indonesia's largest network — Airalo and Ubigi both use Indosat, and Holafly does not disclose which network you get. You are on Telkomsel as a roaming guest rather than a local customer, which can mean lower priority when a tower is congested.

Does Saily give you an Indonesian phone number?

No. Saily offers a phone number add-on, but it is a US number, not an Indonesian +62 number. Saily's own site says "Get a US phone number, add it to your Saily eSIM app in a few taps." This matters in Bali because Gojek, Grab and QRIS payment apps send verification codes to Indonesian numbers only, so a Saily US number cannot receive them. A local Telkomsel line from an authorized retailer includes a real +62 number.

What is the cap on Saily's unlimited plan?

5GB per day at full speed, after which data continues at 1 Mbps. Saily prints this directly on the product page underneath the price. At 5GB it is the most generous published daily cap of the major unlimited sellers — Airalo is 3GB, and Holafly does not publish a figure at all.

Is Saily good for Bali?

For short trips, yes — it runs on Telkomsel, Indonesia's best network, and its 3GB plan at USD $8.99 is cheaper than anything a local retailer sells. It becomes expensive above 5GB: 10GB costs $21.99 against $13 for a local Telkomsel plan, and Saily has no plan larger than 20GB. Saily also cannot give you an Indonesian phone number, so Gojek, Grab and QRIS will not work.

Is Saily cheaper than a local Telkomsel eSIM in Bali?

Only below about 9 US dollars. Saily's 1GB at $4.79 and 3GB at $8.99 are cheaper than anything Balitel sells. Above that Balitel is cheaper on every comparable plan — 41% at 10GB, 53% at 20GB, and 32% to 72% across every unlimited duration. Unlike Holafly and Airalo, Saily has no trip length where its unlimited plan beats a local plan.

Does Saily limit hotspot or tethering?

No. Saily's Indonesia page states hotspot is "unlimited access with no restrictions." This matches Airalo, Ubigi and a local Telkomsel plan. Holafly is the only major provider that caps tethering, at roughly 500 MB to 1 GB per day.

What is Saily's refund policy?

If the eSIM has not been installed or the plan has not been activated, Saily gives a full refund within 30 days of purchase. If the plan has been activated but more than 99% of the data remains unused, a partial or full refund may be considered, particularly where the problem was a quality issue on Saily's side. Balitel's window is the same 30 days on unactivated eSIMs, though Balitel does not refund activated plans except for a technical fault.

Who owns Saily?

Saily is built by Nord Security, the company behind NordVPN, and is headquartered in Lithuania. That is why the Saily app includes security features no other travel eSIM offers, including virtual location switching across more than 115 locations, malicious URL blocking, and an ad and tracker blocker.

Can Saily receive Grab or Gojek OTP codes?

No. Gojek and Grab send verification codes to Indonesian +62 numbers. Saily's data plans include no phone number at all, and its optional phone number add-on is a US number. A local Telkomsel line from an authorized retailer does include an Indonesian number, which is what makes those codes arrive.

Which is the largest mobile operator in Indonesia?

Telkomsel, with about 157.6 million subscribers as of Q3 2025. Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison is second with roughly 93.7 million and XLSmart third with about 73 million. Telkomsel covers over 97% of Indonesia's population against about 90% for Indosat, and won five categories at the 2026 Ookla Speedtest Awards including Best Mobile Coverage. Both Saily and Balitel use Telkomsel.

How much data do I need for Bali?

About one gigabyte per day for normal use — maps, WhatsApp, photos and some scrolling. So a 10-day trip needs roughly 10GB and a three-week trip roughly 21GB. Double it if you stream video, because one hour of Netflix uses about 3GB. When in doubt, go one size up.

Why does a Telkomsel eSIM need my passport?

Because it is a local Indonesian line, not a roaming one. Indonesian law requires every mobile number to be registered against a verified identity — citizens use an ID card, foreign residents use a KITAS, and tourists use a passport. Indonesia also requires foreign phones to have their IMEI registered before using a local network. Balitel completes both before you arrive. Roaming eSIMs like Saily skip this because they never issue an Indonesian number.

What is Balitel?

Balitel is an authorized Telkomsel retailer based in Kuta, Bali, operating under registered Telkomsel outlet 3301071729. It sells official Telkomsel tourist eSIM plans that include a real Indonesian +62 phone number, handles the passport and IMEI registration required by Indonesian law, and sends the eSIM QR code by WhatsApp before travelers arrive. Balitel is part of Diamond Handphone, a Bali mobile retail business trading since 1998 with five stores across Denpasar, Kuta, Seminyak and Canggu.

Our Honest Summary

Saily is the best travel eSIM we have reviewed. It runs on Telkomsel rather than the second-place network, it publishes the most generous fair use cap in the market on the product page itself, the hotspot is uncapped, and the app has security features nobody else offers. We are not going to pretend any of that away.

Under 5GB and no need for Gojek? Buy Saily. Their $8.99 plan is the right purchase and we would be wasting your money.

Two things decide it after that. Price — 41% more at 10GB, 53% more at 20GB, 64% more on a month, and nothing at all above 20GB. And the phone number, which is American. In a country where Gojek, Grab and QRIS run the whole day, a US number is a nice extra rather than a local line.

If you are staying five days or more, or you want an Indonesian number that actually works here, buy a real Telkomsel line — and since Telkomsel cannot sell you one online, that means an authorized retailer like us.

All Saily prices, the network statement, the 5GB daily cap, the hotspot policy and the US phone number wording are quoted from saily.com and Saily's help centre, checked 26 August 2026. Operator subscriber figures are from published industry data (Telkomsel Q3 2025; Indosat and XLSmart Q4 2025) and award results from Ookla and Opensignal as announced in 2026. Saily's activation window differs by plan — we saw 30 days on the fixed-data plans and 180 days on an unlimited plan. All subject to change; tell us if a figure no longer matches and we will update it.

More reading

• Which network does your Bali eSIM actually use?
• Is Airalo good for Bali?
• Is Ubigi good for Bali?
• Is Holafly good for Bali?
• Do you really need unlimited data in Bali?
• Telkomsel eSIM not working? Eight fixes