Cost, safety, and internet speed rarely line up in the same city. A cheap city may have a weak connection, and a very safe city may cost twice your budget. The five-step method below uses real data from Numbeo, Ookla, and the Global Peace Index. You set three limits, test each city against them, and then decide which limit to bend.
How to compare cities with limits instead of scores
A total score can hide a failure. A city with a top safety record and rent far above your budget is still a poor fit, even if its total looks high. Limits work better because each city has to pass all three before you compare anything else.
1. Write down your three limits
Start with numbers drawn from your own life. Each limit should be a number or a clear yes or no.
- Budget ceiling: the most you can spend in one month, counting rent, food, coworking, and local transport.
- Internet floor: the slowest connection that still lets you finish your work. Zoom lists about 1.2 Mbps up and down for 720p one-to-one video, and about 3 Mbps to send 1080p video in a group call.
- Safety floor: the lowest level of safety you will accept, such as the highest government advisory level you will live under.
According to SpeedGuide, video calls need much more upload speed than most other online tasks. For that reason, the internet floor works best as an upload number.
Visa rules add a fourth filter. A city drops off the list if the rules do not let you stay as long as you plan. Which visa you actually need depends on the country and the length of your stay.
The examples in this guide follow a designer who has four video calls a week and a budget ceiling of $1,800 a month.
2. Check the cost with two sources
Numbeo is a good first stop. The site compares prices in each city with New York City, which scores 100. A city that scores 60 is estimated to cost about 40% less than New York, before rent.
Numbeo splits the picture into three scores:
- Cost of Living Index: groceries, restaurants, transport, and utilities, with rent left out.
- Rent Index: apartment prices compared with New York City.
- Cost of Living Plus Rent Index: both together.
Numbeo builds its numbers from prices that users report, so the scores work best as a rough guide. A dollar budget gives a clearer picture, but budget guides disagree with each other.
Nomada’s May 2026 city comparison lists a mid-tier nomad budget of $1,030 a month in Chiang Mai. CostLiving’s June 2026 index lists $1,325 for one person with a moderate lifestyle. For Lisbon, the same two sources show $1,980 and $2,575.
The two sources define a normal lifestyle in different ways, which explains part of the difference. Testing a city against the higher figure is the safer approach.
CostLiving ranked 24 nomad hubs, and the moderate monthly cost for one person ran from $1,150 in Hanoi to $2,575 in Lisbon. Rent is often the largest line in a budget. One guide estimates that rent takes 30% to 50% of a nomad budget, so the neighborhood you rent in can change the total by a noticeable amount.
A list of cities under $1,500 a month can narrow the search if your ceiling is low.
For the designer, Lisbon fails the $1,800 ceiling under both estimates. Chiang Mai passes under both.
3. Check the internet at three levels
A fast country can still have a slow apartment. Checking the country, the city, and the exact place covers all three levels.
- Country: Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index reports the median fixed broadband download speed, which means half of the tests ran faster and half ran slower. In May 2026 the world median was 125.47 Mbps for fixed broadband and 113.16 Mbps for mobile, according to Speedtest data published by Statista.
- City: the same index also lists median fixed broadband speeds for cities.
- Exact place: a host can send a screenshot of a speed test taken at the desk, and a test on the first day confirms the number. A separate guide explains how to find reliable wifi speed before booking a stay.
One city comparison lists typical speeds of 50 to 200 Mbps for both Chiang Mai and Lisbon. At those levels, one weak building is often a larger risk than the city itself. Some countries do fall below any workable floor, though. In Ookla’s December 2025 data, the slowest fixed median was 2.72 Mbps in Turkmenistan.
Ookla measures from a device to the web, so a poor router can lower a result even when the building has fast service. A second test on another device can help rule that out.
A backup connection protects the floor on days when the apartment wifi fails, and eSIM, local SIM, or portable hotspot are the usual choices.
The designer needs about 3 Mbps of upload at the desk. Internet is unlikely to be the deciding limit here, provided the specific apartment tests well.
4. Check safety at three levels
Safety data comes at the country, advisory, and neighborhood levels, and each one answers a different question.
- Country: the Global Peace Index 2026 ranks 163 countries on 23 indicators in three areas: ongoing conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. Iceland ranked first for the 19th year, Slovenia ranked fourth, and Portugal ranked seventh. The index describes the peacefulness of a whole country, so it works as a first filter only.
- Government advisory: the US State Department uses four levels. Level 1 means exercise normal precautions, Level 2 means exercise increased caution, Level 3 means reconsider travel, and Level 4 means do not travel. Levels can differ for areas inside one country. Level 3 and Level 4 advisories are reviewed at least twice a year, so the date on the page is worth reading. Many governments publish a similar page for their own citizens.
- City and neighborhood: Numbeo’s crime index sorts cities into bands. A score below 20 is very low, 20 to 40 is low, 40 to 60 is moderate, 60 to 80 is high, and above 80 is very high. The safety index is the opposite of the crime index. In Numbeo’s 2024 city ranking, Ho Chi Minh City scored 51.9, which is moderate, and Mexico City scored 67.8, which is high.
Numbeo’s crime index uses only the perceptions of website visitors. Africa Check looked at Numbeo’s 2021 list, which placed six South African cities, including Cape Town, in its top 20 for crime. The fact-checker found that the list measured perceptions and did not reflect recorded crime levels. Numbeo’s chief executive told Africa Check that the company does not claim to rank the most dangerous cities.
For that reason, a perception score is best used to start a question and not to end one. Many nomads also compare neighborhoods inside one city, such as El Poblado, Laureles, and Envigado in Medellín. A list of the safest digital nomad cities can supply candidates for a first pass.
For the designer, Portugal’s seventh place gives Lisbon a strong starting point. Chiang Mai needs a closer look at the season, covered below.
5. Decide which limit to bend
When two or more cities pass all three limits, pick the one you like best. When no city passes, one limit has to move. The three limits are not equally easy to move.
- Internet: usually the easiest to fix. A backup eSIM or a coworking pass can cover a weak apartment connection.
- Cost: can shift by changing the neighborhood or the length of the stay.
- Safety: harder to fix with money or gear, so it makes sense to bend this limit last.
The designer has two choices. Lisbon has strong safety and typical speeds of 50 to 200 Mbps, but it misses the ceiling by $180 to $775, depending on the estimate. Chiang Mai passes the ceiling with $475 to $770 to spare. The designer can raise the budget for Lisbon, or keep the budget and plan around the Chiang Mai burning season.
When two cities still tie, time zone overlap with clients can settle the choice. A separate guide explains how to manage client meetings across time zones.
The common mistake: trusting a yearly average
An average can hide a bad season, and Chiang Mai shows how.
- Timing: NASA’s Earth Observatory reports that fire activity around Chiang Mai usually peaks in March and fades by May. Chiang Mai CityLife reported that the skies cleared in late April 2026 after about a month of heavy smoke.
- Cause: by one estimate cited by NASA, about 70% of the city’s fine particle pollution in April comes from burning crops and other plant material.
- Numbers: A Way Abroad notes that a yearly PM2.5 average of about 18 micrograms per cubic meter hides a March level near 95.
- Cost: the same source prices the options. Leaving town for the season costs 40,000 to 80,000 baht a year, and sealing an apartment with air purifiers costs 8,000 to 15,000 baht in the first year.
A city that looks cheap on paper can carry a seasonal cost that a monthly budget does not show. Before committing, ask what the worst month looks like and whether your dates fall inside it. The same question fits any city with a rainy season or a heat season.
Turn the short list into a trip
Three limits and three levels of checking turn a long list of cities into a short one. Set the budget ceiling, the internet floor, and the safety floor first, then test each city at the country, city, and neighborhood levels. The worst month of the year deserves a look as well. When your short list is ready, search flights to your top cities on FlyBibe and compare dates before you pick a month to arrive.