Saily vs Maya.net for cruises
Short answer
Saily covers 28 cruise and ferry operators, is metered, and activates only beyond 12 nautical miles — sea days only. Maya names 7 mainstream lines and sells unlimited 3, 7, 14 and 30-day windows covering land as well as sea. This is the page for someone who has already ruled GigSky out.
Neither offers a free trial, so whichever you choose you find out whether it works on your ship after you have paid. That single shared weakness matters more than the difference between them.
Prices last confirmed
Cheapest gigabytes against fewest decisions
Saily is the cheapest way to be online in open water that this site tracks. Maya is the way to stop thinking about data at all. There is no overlap in what they are optimising for, and the price comparison between them is close to meaningless without deciding which you want first.
The complication is that they are not equivalent purchases. A Saily plan leaves your port days uncovered, so an honest comparison puts Saily plus a regional eSIM on one side and Maya alone on the other. Do that arithmetic before concluding Saily is cheaper — on a port-dense itinerary it often is not.
And check both vessel lists before either. Saily publishes an operator count — twenty-eight cruise and ferry operators — while Maya names seven mainstream lines. Both are narrower than the market leader, and a plan that does not cover your hull is not a cheap plan.
Side by side
| Saily | Maya.net | |
|---|---|---|
| Works at sea | Yes | Yes |
| Works in port | No — activates beyond 12 nm only | Yes |
| Best effective $/GB | $11.00/GB | $15.00/GB |
| Entry price | $16.99 | $49.99 |
| Free trial | No | No |
| Ferry plans | No | No |
| Discount code | ESIMDUDE | — |
Saily plans
Nord Security's travel eSIM brand, which added a dedicated Cruise tab in June 2026 covering 28 cruise and ferry operators (only one of which, P&O Ferries, is a ferry line). Its at-sea pricing is the keenest per gigabyte we track, but the plans activate only beyond 12 nautical miles — they do nothing in port, so pair one with a regular regional eSIM.
| Plan | Data | Validity | Price | $/GB | Coverage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cruise 10GB | 10 GB | 30 days | $109.99 | $11.00/GB | 🟢 At sea | Get deal |
| Cruise 5GB | 5 GB | 30 days | $69.99 | $14.00/GB | 🟢 At sea | Get deal |
| Cruise 3GB | 3 GB | 30 days | $51.99 | $17.33/GB | 🟢 At sea | Get deal |
| Cruise 1GB | 1 GB | 7 days | $29.99 | $29.99/GB | 🟢 At sea | Get deal |
| Cruise 500MB | 512 MB | 1 day | $16.99 | $33.98/GB | 🟢 At sea | Get deal |
Maya.net plans
Maya sells a "Global + Cruise" unlimited plan in 3, 7, 14 and 30-day windows that bundles worldwide land coverage with at-sea data on Carnival, Celebrity, Disney, NCL, Princess, Royal Caribbean and Virgin Voyages ships. It is the simplest option for anyone who refuses to think about data allowances.
| Plan | Data | Validity | Price | $/GB | Coverage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Days Unlimited Global + Cruise Data | Unlimited | 30 days | $299.99 | $15.00/GB | 🟢 At sea | Get deal |
| 14 Days Unlimited Global + Cruise Data | Unlimited | 14 days | $160.99 | $17.25/GB | 🟢 At sea | Get deal |
| 7 Days Unlimited Global + Cruise Data | Unlimited | 7 days | $109.99 | $23.57/GB | 🟢 At sea | Get deal |
| 3 Days Unlimited Global + Cruise Data | Unlimited | 3 days | $49.99 | $25.00/GB | 🟢 At sea | Get deal |
What each one is actually for
Saily Cruise is built for the sea-day part of a trip and makes no attempt at the rest. It activates beyond twelve nautical miles, does not connect in port, and is priced to be bought alongside something else. Read as a component rather than a solution, it is very good.
Maya Global + Cruise is built to be the only thing you buy: unlimited by duration in three, seven, fourteen and thirty-day windows, covering supported vessels at sea and land worldwide. Read as a solution rather than a component, it is also very good.
The failure mode is buying either one in the other one’s role — Saily as a whole-trip plan, or Maya on a ship it does not cover.
The two-plan arithmetic, done honestly
On a seven-night Caribbean sailing with five port days, a Saily setup means a Saily cruise plan for the two sea days plus a Caribbean regional eSIM for the other five. The regional eSIM is cheap; the total is frequently still lower than an unlimited week from Maya. It is also two purchases, two installs and a profile switch every morning.
On a transatlantic crossing with no port days at all, the second purchase disappears and Saily wins outright — there is nothing for Maya’s land coverage to do, and the metered plan is simply cheaper for the zone that matters.
On a fourteen-night world-cruise segment crossing several carrier territories, the balance flips again: Maya’s worldwide land data replaces several regional eSIMs, and the unlimited window removes the mid-voyage top-up that Saily’s app-only flow makes awkward at sea.
The shared weakness worth planning around
Neither provider offers a trial, so neither can be tested before you sail. That is a real gap on a product whose central uncertainty is whether the equipment on your particular hull supports it — and it is the strongest argument for installing a free trial from a third provider purely as a diagnostic, even if you intend to buy one of these two.
Both are data-only, so neither gives you a phone number or ordinary voice calls. Both depend on the same shared satellite backhaul that everyone aboard is using, so both slow down after dinner and on sea days.
Saily’s top-ups and live chat are app-only, which is exactly the wrong dependency when you have run out of data. Maya’s unlimited windows sidestep that problem entirely, which is a genuine operational advantage rather than a marketing one.
Who should buy which
The answer changes with the itinerary more than with the provider, so this is by traveller rather than by feature.
| If this is you | Buy | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A sea-heavy itinerary — crossings, repositioning, long ocean legs | Saily | There are no port days to lose to its limitation, and the cost per gigabyte at sea is the lowest available. |
| A port-dense Mediterranean or Northern Europe sailing | Maya | Most of the trip is ashore. A sea-only plan is off for the majority of it, and the second eSIM needed to fix that erodes the price advantage. |
| A heavy user who resents watching a counter | Maya | Unlimited by duration is exactly this reader’s product, and the per-day cost over a short sailing is competitive. |
| Someone already carrying a regional travel eSIM | Saily | The port gap is already covered, so what remains is the cheaper of the two by a clear margin. |
| Anyone on a ship outside Maya’s seven named lines | Saily | Check both lists, but Saily’s twenty-eight operators reach further into ferry and European coverage than Maya’s mainstream seven. |
Our verdict
Saily if the itinerary is sea-heavy or you already carry regional data — it is the cheapest way onto a ship network that does not compromise on being a real maritime product.
Maya if you want one purchase to cover the whole trip and your ship is on its list. The unlimited window genuinely removes a category of holiday admin, and that is worth paying for.
What we would say to anyone landing on this page: install a free maritime trial from a provider that offers one before you buy either of these. Neither of these two lets you test, and the question they cannot answer — does the equipment on my specific hull support this — is the only one that can render the purchase worthless.
Saily vs Maya.net: your questions
01Which is cheaper, Saily or Maya?+
Saily on cost per gigabyte at sea, clearly. But Saily does not work in port, so the fair comparison adds a regional eSIM to its side. On a port-dense itinerary that often closes the gap entirely; on a crossing it does not close it at all.
02Do either of them work in port?+
Maya does — it bundles worldwide land data with the cruise coverage. Saily does not: its cruise plan activates only beyond twelve nautical miles and is dead alongside, by design.
03Can I test either one before my cruise?+
No. Neither offers a free trial, which is the main shared weakness on this page. Since coverage is fitted vessel by vessel, consider installing a free trial from a provider that offers one purely to confirm your ship connects, even if you buy one of these.
04Which covers more ships?+
Saily publishes twenty-eight cruise and ferry operators; Maya names seven mainstream lines. Both are narrower than the widest list in the market, so check your exact vessel on whichever you are leaning towards rather than assuming your line implies your ship.
05What happens if I run out of data mid-cruise?+
On Maya you do not — the plans are unlimited by duration, so the risk is the window expiring rather than the allowance. On Saily you top up, and top-ups are app-only, which means needing data to buy data. Buy enough up front or budget for a session on the ship’s Wi-Fi.