Firsty eSIM Review UK: Is Free Data Enough, or Should You Pay for Unlimited?

Firsty is an eSIM app for mobile data. You install one Firsty eSIM on your phone, once, and reuse it on every trip, choosing a plan each time: Free, where watching ads earns you data; Classic, a prepaid bundle; or Unlimited, paid by the day. Paid plans cost the same in every country Firsty covers, which its website puts at 176 (its App Store listing says 170).

Your contract is with Firsty B2C Pte. Ltd., a company registered in Singapore (number 202507463H); the app is published by Bamboo Connected B.V. of Amsterdam. Firsty doesn't run its own network: its terms say the connection comes from third-party mobile networks it has commercial agreements with, and that it offers no contractual minimum speed. The terms are under Dutch law, with disputes going to the Amsterdam courts, although as a consumer you keep the mandatory protections of the country you live in. They don't name a UK regulator.

Money in your Firsty wallet is credit for plans and in-app calls, not a bank deposit, and referral credit can't be exchanged for cash.

Firsty changed its plans in mid-2026. The old Free tier, which gave you minutes of connection per ad, and the Comfort+ and First Class plans have gone; from 6 July 2026 users without an active plan were moved to Free, Classic and Unlimited. Many reviews online still describe the old system, and so do some of Firsty's own pages: its terms still mention 30-minute Free sessions, its China guide shows old prices, and its help centre quotes different starting prices from the website. We used the price list on Firsty's website on 13 October 2026; the price the app shows at checkout is what you pay.

Free is for staying reachable: maps, messages, email and booking a taxi. Classic suits a short trip or a light user, because you buy a fixed amount of data that lasts 30 days from activation. Unlimited suits anyone who streams, works on the move or shares a hotspot, and is priced by the day.

You can hold Classic and Unlimited at the same time. Unlimited is used first; once you pass its 5 GB at full speed for the day, the Classic bundle takes over until the day resets. If you are eligible for Free, you can also switch back to it in the app.

Firsty also advertises monthly 15 GB, 100 GB and World subscriptions, but they are for people living in Belgium and only take waitlist sign-ups, so they aren't covered here.

Each ad you watch earns 20 MB of data. You can watch up to 18 ads a day, so up to 360 MB, but you can hold no more than 240 MB of unused data at a time, and earned data lasts 7 days. Speed is capped at 1 Mbps, personal hotspot isn't allowed, and you don't need a card. Firsty itself pitches it at messaging, email and navigation.

To get it you verify a phone number from a country on Firsty's list. UK numbers are on it; Hong Kong numbers are not, so if you still have a +852 number, verify your UK one. Where you can use Free is a separate list: it works in 171 countries by Firsty's count, including the UK, but not everywhere paid plans do. Macau, Panama and Laos are among the places marked Unavailable, and there watching ads gets you nothing. Firsty's terms also let it switch Free off in any country without notice.

A few practical points from Firsty's help centre. Watch the ads on Wi-Fi when you can, so the ad doesn't use the data it earns you. The app has no live usage counter for Free, so check your phone's mobile data settings: background apps, photo backups and updates can drain 240 MB quickly. Accounts not yet moved to the new system may still see 30-minute sessions per ad instead.

Free also needs the Firsty eSIM installed, so it only appears on a phone the app recognises as eSIM-capable.

Classic bundles cost €2.50 for 500 MB, €4.50 for 1 GB, €7.50 for 3 GB, €9.50 for 5 GB, €17 for 10 GB, €26.40 for 20 GB and €49 for 50 GB, which works out at €0.98 per GB. Each lasts 30 days from activation, not from purchase, so you can buy ahead. After buying you can pick destination countries so the bundle activates when you arrive, or activate it yourself; if it activates too early by mistake, Firsty says support can reset it. Classic bundles can't be paused.

Unlimited costs €3.50 for one day, €22.40 for 7 days, €30 for 10, €42 for 14, €69 for 30, €90 for 45 and €120 for 60, which brings the daily price down from €3.50 to €2. You get 5 GB a day at the highest available speed, then 512 kbps until your allowance resets, 24 hours after activation. Hotspot use counts towards the 5 GB, and unused high-speed data doesn't roll over to the next day.

You can pause Unlimited whenever you like, for example the day you get home. The 24-hour period you are in runs to its end and the remaining full days are saved; Firsty's terms say paused days don't expire.

One quirk in the price list: some longer passes cost less than shorter ones. 16 days is €44.80 against €45 for 15, 23 days €57.50 against €61.60 for 22, 30 days €69 against €72.50 for 29, and 45 days €90 against €101.20 for 44. Because unused days can be paused and kept, the longer pass costs less and leaves you spare days for another trip.

Start with what your own network charges. From 1 April 2026, Three charges Pay Monthly customers who joined or upgraded on or after 18 December 2025 £8 a day in its 22 Around the World destinations, which include the USA and Hong Kong: £56 for a week. Seven days of Firsty Unlimited is €22.40, about £18.92, or €19.40 (£16.39) as a first purchase with our code. If 5 GB will cover your week, a Classic bundle is €9.50 (£8.03), or €6.50 (£5.49) with the code.

Europe is closer. Three charges the same customers £2.75 a day there, £19.25 a week, and EE says its packages start from £2.72 a day. That is about what Firsty Unlimited costs on a 7-day pass (€3.20 a day), so in Europe Firsty saves money only if a Classic bundle covers you or your network charges more.

It isn't quite like for like. Three's daily charge lets you use your UK minutes, texts and up to 12GB of your data on your own number, and customers who joined Three earlier pay less: £2 a day in Europe and £7 further afield if they joined between October 2021 and December 2025, and no daily charge on plans started before 1 October 2021. Firsty is data only. Check your own plan before you buy: if roaming is included where you are going, Firsty adds little.

Firsty charges in euros only, and the account currency can't be changed. We converted at the European Central Bank's reference rate for 12 October 2026 (€1 = £0.84478); your card's exchange rate and any non-sterling transaction fee come on top, so a card with no foreign fee keeps you close to our figures. Firsty takes Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay and AliPay, among others, but not crypto.

New Firsty users get €3 off their first purchase of at least €4. Sign up through our link and the code should be filled in for you; if it isn't, enter 69SR-OUUA at checkout. That takes a 1 GB Classic bundle from €4.50 to €1.50 (about £1.27), the 5 GB bundle to €6.50 and a 7-day Unlimited pass to €19.40.

The conditions, from Firsty's terms: it applies to your first purchase only, and that purchase must be at least €4, so the 500 MB bundle (€2.50) and a single Unlimited day (€3.50) don't qualify. It can't be combined with other offers. It discounts paid plans, so it does nothing for Firsty Free. Firsty can cancel orders or remove you from the programme for suspected abuse, including creating multiple accounts or reselling. It is a discount at checkout, not cash.

Disclosure: 69SR-OUUA is GetQuids' own code, so we receive €3 of Firsty credit when you make a qualifying first purchase with it. That credit can only be spent in the Firsty app.

You need an unlocked phone that supports eSIM; on iPhone the app needs iOS 15.6 or later. Firsty says installing the eSIM needs Wi-Fi, so do it at home before you go.

If your iPhone was bought in Hong Kong or Macao, check Apple's list rather than Firsty's. Firsty's device page says iPhones bought in China and Hong Kong aren't eSIM-compatible, but Apple says the Hong Kong and Macao models of the iPhone XS, SE (2nd and 3rd generation), 12 mini, 13 mini, 16e, 17, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air, 17e, 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max can use an eSIM. Apple lists the other Hong Kong models, from the XR and XS Max to the iPhone 16 range, as phones that take two nano-SIMs. Mainland China models have their own list on the same Apple page.

Firsty gives you data, not a phone number. You can keep your UK SIM on for calls and texts, but your network's roaming charges apply to anything that SIM uses abroad, so turn its data roaming off. The app's Phone tab makes calls on prepaid calling credit, and the first outgoing call needs at least one real paid purchase on the account: free or promotional credit alone won't do.

Firsty says your traffic may pass through network hubs in Belgium, because it uses the Belgian operator Proximus for part of its network. Websites may then think you are in Belgium, so streaming services and local news sites limited to your own country may not work, and you may see Belgian ads. Firsty's own suggestion is a VPN.

For mainland China, Firsty says WhatsApp, Google, Instagram and YouTube work without a VPN because its data is routed outside mainland China, while hotel Wi-Fi and local SIMs are still filtered. That is Firsty's claim; we haven't tested it.

You can withdraw within 14 days of buying a plan, as long as it is unused, which Firsty defines as under 10 MB consumed. For an accidental purchase or a change of mind you choose between a 90% cash refund, with 10% kept as an admin fee, and 100% back as Firsty credit. If your phone turns out not to support eSIM and the plan is unused, you get a full cash refund if you ask within the same 14 days.

If the eSIM won't connect when the plan activates, report it within 72 hours of activation (with auto-activation, the clock starts at the push notification Firsty sends) and give support at least 30 minutes of troubleshooting in one session. Firsty says it resolves technical cases within 24 hours or refunds in full, and pays approved refunds within 5 business days. The same 72-hour rule applies to a long loss of service partway through a plan.

Once a plan is active and more than 10 MB has been used, there is no cash refund, even for data you haven't used, and expired plans aren't refunded at all.

Classic and Unlimited are one-off purchases, so nothing renews. To close your account, tap Delete Profile at the bottom of your profile page in the app. Deletion isn't instant: it can take up to about three months, logging back in cancels it, and your phone number stays tied to the old account until it finishes. Deleting the account doesn't remove the eSIM; delete that in your phone's settings.

On 13 October 2026 Firsty was rated 4.6 from 303 ratings on the UK App Store and 4.4 from about 4,170 reviews on Google Play, which lists more than 100,000 downloads and notes that the app contains ads. On Trustpilot it scored 4.0 from 335 reviews, 17% of them one star. Firsty's App Store listing quotes 4.8 on Trustpilot; that isn't what we saw.

The complaints repeat: an eSIM that installs but won't connect on arrival, very slow Free speeds, Free data running out or expiring even with the line switched off, and support that starts with a bot and can be slow to sort out a refund. Some long-standing users dislike the 2026 overhaul, saying prices went up and Free got worse. On the other side, reviewers often praise the human chat support once they reach it.

Install and test the eSIM at home, and if it fails on arrival, contact support straight away: the refund rules depend on reporting within 72 hours.

Use it if you are going outside Europe and your network charges as much as Three's £8 a day there, if you travel several times a year and like one eSIM you install once with days you can pause, if you want a large daily allowance with hotspot, or if a 1 GB bundle for €1.50 on your first purchase covers a short trip. With a UK number, Free is a handy fallback for maps and messages.

Skip it if your plan already includes roaming where you are going, if you need a local number, if your phone is locked or has no eSIM (check the Hong Kong models above), if you rely on UK-only streaming over mobile data, or if you would rather pay in pounds. And don't plan a trip around Free alone: it is capped, slow and can be switched off country by country.