Start with the entry price
Entry price sorts a shortlist quickly, and the spread between these operators is wide. GETESA lists prepaid and contract plans with entry prices of XAF 300. Lonestar Cell MTN lists prepaid and contract plans with entry prices of $0.20. yesss! lists a pay-per-use option with no commitment at €0. Across the wider set of networks on the site, entry prices run €0 to €42.24, so a low headline number on its own tells you very little.
The useful move is to read the price, then read what the entry plan includes, then read the commitment length. That is why the mobile network rankings sit beside the prices rather than replacing them.
Billing style and commitment length
Billing style changes how exposed you are to a price rise or a change of mind. GETESA and Lonestar Cell MTN both sell on prepaid and contract terms, as does Movistar El Salvador. yesss! adds a rolling option to prepaid and contract, so a pay-as-you-go habit and a fixed monthly habit both have somewhere to land under one roof.
Contract length is where the plans separate more clearly. Lonestar Cell MTN lists contract terms of 1 months, while yesss! lists 1 and 12 months. yesss! also lists a yearly plan billed monthly alongside its pay-per-use plan, so a short stay and a long stay both have a route in. Before you commit, read the yesss! review and the Lonestar Cell MTN review to see how those terms are described in practice.
Data limits and what unlimited costs
Unlimited data is the headline most readers look for first, and among these operators it appears as a paid plan only once. GETESA lists an unlimited monthly plan at XAF 33,000. Unlimited prices across the wider set run €0.88 to €100, so an unlimited plan is not automatically the cheapest way to buy data.
yesss! lists no unlimited mobile plan, and its largest listed plan is SIMple XL, a fixed allowance rather than an open one. Its entry option bills per use, which suits light data and costs more for heavy data. Lonestar Cell MTN lists a social bundle, a day bundle and a longer bundle, and the same list carries no long-term bundle and no unlimited option, a shape that suits a reader who wants control rather than a promise.
GETESA builds its list upward instead: a small prepaid combo pairing a modest data block with text messages, a mid-size monthly data plan, and then the unlimited plan. Movistar El Salvador adds a different kind of value, since data rollover is available, so unused data carries into the following period instead of disappearing.
Roaming and travel
Roaming is where the internationally oriented plans differ most. Lonestar Cell MTN offers paid roaming across 170 countries, which suits a reader who crosses borders regularly and prefers a known arrangement to sorting cover out while abroad.
yesss! takes a different approach, with fair use inside Europe, so regular travel needs a careful read of the terms before you rely on it. GETESA trades in a single market, GQ, so its plans are shaped for local use rather than for a reader who travels.
Sim only, eSIM and how you connect
Sim only options appear on the lists of GETESA, Lonestar Cell MTN and yesss!, so you can bring your own number and skip a bundled handset. A sim only plan keeps the commitment on the tariff rather than on a device, which makes it easier to compare allowances directly.
An eSIM removes the physical card from the equation, and Lonestar Cell MTN, yesss! and Movistar El Salvador all offer one. Check an eSIM against your handset's compatibility before you settle on a plan, and check which network generation you need, since yesss! lists 5G. The GETESA review and the Movistar El Salvador review cover the remaining setup detail for the other two.
Support, checks and staying power
Support matters most when a line goes quiet, and here the options are close. Each operator lists the same channels, phone, email, a help centre and chat, which removes the guesswork about where to raise a problem.
Two other facts shape the decision. Movistar El Salvador requires a credit check, so approval forms part of signing up, and it layers data rollover on top of its prepaid and contract terms. GETESA is the older operation of the group, founded in 1984 and trading as General de Telecomunicaciones SA, while yesss! runs on the A1 host network and is sold by A1 Telekom Austria AG. A network you resell on someone else's coverage is a different proposition from one carrying its own name.
A shortlist checklist
A workable order of checks runs like this. Take the entry price, then confirm the billing type and whether the term is contract, rolling or prepaid, then hold the data allowance against how much you actually use, then check roaming if you travel, then read the support channels and any credit check, and finally confirm the network generation your handset needs. Doing it in that order stops a low price on a small allowance from outranking a plan that actually fits your usage.
Once the shortlist is short, the rankings at mobile networks and the individual reviews carry the detail that tables cannot: what the allowances are like day to day, and what the terms mean when plans change.