Merhaba alternatives
Short answer
Merhaba is Turkcell's prepaid tourist SIM, sold inside Turkey. It gives you a Turkish number; a travel eSIM gives you data without the queue.
What Merhaba actually is
Merhaba is the tourist-facing prepaid brand from Turkcell, Turkey's largest mobile operator. You buy it after arriving — at the airport or a Turkcell store — with your passport, and it comes with a Turkish phone number alongside a data allowance. It is a physical SIM, not an eSIM, and it is a genuinely reasonable product. It is just answering a slightly different question from the one most visitors are asking.
Who it suits
- ✓Stays long enough that a local number is worth the setup — a month or more
- ✓Anyone who needs a Turkish number for local services or SMS verification
- ✓Travellers comfortable queuing at the airport on arrival
When to look elsewhere
- →Short trips where you want data working the moment you land
- →Anyone who does not want to hand over a passport at a counter
- →Travellers whose route continues beyond Turkey — a regional eSIM covers the whole trip
Verdict
If you need a Turkish number, buy Merhaba. If you need data — which is what almost everyone actually means — a travel eSIM is installed before you fly and works on landing, with no counter, no passport copy and no queue. The live comparison below shows what Turkey eSIM plans cost today.
Travel eSIMs for Turkey, priced live
Sorted by best cost per gigabyte. These are bought before you fly, work on landing, and expire with your trip — no counter, no passport copy, no contract.
| Provider | Best $/GB | From | Plans |
|---|---|---|---|
| BreezeSIM | $0.34 | $1.32 | 29 |
| Airalo | $0.69 | $4.00 | 56 |
| Roamix | $0.71 | $0.85 | 400 |
| eSIMPal | $0.80 | $2.90 | 8 |
| Saily | $1.92 | $4.99 | 20 |
| Nomad | $2.17 | $12.00 | 13 |
Merhaba alternatives: common questions
Prices are read from provider APIs at page load and change frequently. Updated for 2026. We may earn a commission from partners we carry — see our affiliate disclosure. Brands we do not carry earn us nothing, and are described here for comparison only.