About cheaper abroad

cheaper abroad is an index of what things cost in places where they are cheap, next to what the same things cost at home. It covers Da Nang in Vietnam, Hoi An in Vietnam, Hanoi in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Bangkok in Thailand, Budapest in Hungary, and Tirana in Albania. The same catalogue is used for each of them, so any item can be read across destinations. Every price carries its date and its source. The calculator is an extra: pick items and it adds up the difference.

It started as one person's research before a trip to Da Nang: a long list of what a dental cleaning, a pair of progressive lenses, a blood panel, a tailored suit and a phone battery cost there, against what the same things cost in the Netherlands. The list turned out to be more useful than the trip.

Why it exists

Prices at home are easy to compare. Prices abroad mostly are not, so most people never check. cheaper abroad puts the same things side by side, here and elsewhere, so anyone can see the difference and decide for themselves. Prices everyone can see are prices that have to compete.

What it is

A directory of providers in each destination, with addresses and prices, plus a calculator that adds up the things you would have done there and prices the same basket against every destination and against home.

You do not need to have planned a trip. Plenty of people arrive here looking up one thing and find out there are seven more worth scheduling into the same week. That is the point.

What it is not

It is not a booking site, and it has no opinion about whether you should travel.

It also does not always say yes. A good share of the items here are cheaper, better or simply easier at home, and those say so plainly.

How it differs from a booking site

Most pages that answer "how much is a dentist in Vietnam" belong to agencies and clinic comparison sites that arrange the treatment for you. That is a useful service, and a different one.

• A price, not a quote form. Every price is on the page. You do not leave a name, an email address or a phone number to see it.
• Dated and sourced. Each price says when it was seen and where, with a link to the seller's own page where one exists.
• Every seller we found. A shop is listed because it publishes a price, not because it signed up.
• Against your own country. Every item is set against what it costs at home (Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, United States, and Australia), and when home is cheaper the page says so.

The data

Everything on this site is generated from one database. Each price carries its date, its source and how it was obtained. If a number here is wrong, the source is named so you can check it.

The database itself is not published as a download. The raw rows are available on request at [email protected].

Page views are counted with a self-hosted copy of Umami, served from this domain: no cookies, no account, no personal data, only which pages are read and where visitors come from. Your basket in the calculator stays in your own browser and is never sent anywhere.

Key facts

Who makes this

cheaper abroad is made by bb-projects, a one-person company in the Netherlands. Corrections, a price you paid, a provider that is missing: [email protected]. A price sent in becomes an observation like any other, with its date and its source, marked as sent in by a reader.