Bitcoin wallets that actually protect your coins
A wallet is where your bitcoin lives once you own it, and the question that matters is who can move the coins. In a self-custody wallet that is you, which is the whole point: an exchange balance is a claim on a company, and a wallet balance is not.
The reviews below cover hardware devices, phone apps, desktop software and several wallets that no longer exist. The dead ones stay up on purpose: a wallet being seized, abandoned or quietly switched off is what you need to know before trusting it with money, and a marketplace listing will not tell you.
Last reviewed 2026-08-26.
Every wallet, side by side
Sort by any column. Price is blank for software wallets because a download has no price to publish, and the status column is where a wallet that is gone, or that carries a warning, says so.
| Review | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aqua | Software | You | No | Available | Free download | Review |
| BitBox02 | Hardware | You | No | Available | Not stated | Review |
| Bitcoin Core | Software | You | Yes | Available | Free download | Review |
| Blockstream Green | Software | You | No | Available | Free download | Review |
| Blockstream Jade | Hardware | You | Yes | Available | $99 | Review |
| BlueWallet | Software | You | Yes | Available | Free download | Review |
| Cake Wallet | Software | You | No | Available | Free download | Review |
| Coinbase Wallet | Software | You | No | Available | Free download | Review |
| Edge | Software | You | No | Available | Free download | Review |
| Electrum | Software | You | Yes | Available | Free download | Review |
| Exodus | Software | You | No | Available | Free download | Review |
| Foundation Passport | Hardware | You | Yes | Available | $349 | Review |
| Guarda Wallet | Software | You | No | Available | Free download | Review |
| Keystone 3 Pro | Hardware | You | No | Available | $149 | Review |
| Ledger Flex | Hardware | You | No | Available | $249 | Review |
| Ledger Nano S Plus | Hardware | You | No | Available | $59 | Review |
| Ledger Nano X | Hardware | You | No | Available | $79 | Review |
| Ledger Stax | Hardware | You | No | Available | $399 | Review |
| MetaMask | Software | You | No | Available | Free download | Review |
| Muun | Software | You | Yes | Available | Free download | Review |
| Mycelium | Software | You | No | Available | Free download | Review |
| OneKey | Hardware | You | No | Available | $99 | Review |
| Phoenix | Software | You | Yes | Available | Free download | Review |
| SafePal S1 | Hardware | You | No | Available | Not stated | Review |
| Sparrow Wallet | Software | You | Yes | Available | Free download | Review |
| Tangem Wallet | Hardware | You | No | Available | $59.9 | Review |
| Trezor Safe 3 | Hardware | You | No | Available | $59 | Review |
| Trezor Safe 5 | Hardware | You | No | Available | $129 | Review |
| Trust Wallet | Software | You | No | Available | Free download | Review |
| Zengo | Software | You | No | Available | Free download | Review |
| Atomic Wallet | Software | You | No | Caution | Free download | Review |
| Coldcard | Hardware | You | Yes | Caution | $189 | Review |
| KeepKey | Hardware | You | No | Caution | $59.95 | Review |
| Wallet of Satoshi | Software | Company by default | Yes | Caution | Free download | Review |
| Wasabi Wallet | Software | You | Yes | Caution | Free download | Review |
| BRD | Software | You | No | No longer sold | Free download | Review |
| Jaxx Liberty | Software | You | No | No longer sold | Free download | Review |
| Ledger Nano S | Hardware | You | No | No longer sold | Not stated | Review |
| Samourai Wallet | Software | You | Yes | No longer sold | Free download | Review |
| Trezor Model One | Hardware | You | No | No longer sold | Not stated | Review |
| Trezor Model T | Hardware | You | No | No longer sold | Not stated | Review |
Hardware wallets
Dedicated devices that keep your keys offline and make you press a button to spend. This is where savings belong.
- BitBox02
Swiss made, fully open source, sold in Multi and Bitcoin-only editions, with a Nova model that works from an iPhone.
- Blockstream Jade$99
Bitcoin-only line from $79 to $149 that ships no secure element on purpose: a locked Jade holds nothing worth extracting.
- Foundation Passport$349
Bitcoin-only hardware from a US company, now sold as the $349 Passport Prime: keys, two factor codes, security keys and encrypted storage in one device.
- Keystone 3 Pro$149
Air-gapped signing on a 4 inch touchscreen, with three security chips and a fingerprint reader, at $149.
- Ledger Flex$249
The Ledger to buy if you want a touchscreen: $249, the same certified chip as the Stax, and more screen pixels than it.
- Ledger Nano S Plus$59
Ledger's $59 entry device: the same certified secure element as the $399 Stax, no Bluetooth, and no iPhone support at all.
- Ledger Nano X$79
The cheapest Ledger with Bluetooth, now $79 on Ledger's own store, and the one to buy if you want to sign from a phone.
- Ledger Stax$399
Ledger's $399 flagship, with the biggest screen it sells and exactly the same secure element as the $59 Nano S Plus.
- OneKey$99
Open source line from $79 to $278, including a bitcoin-only Classic 1S Pure, with apps on every desktop, phone and the browser.
- SafePal S1
Budget air-gapped signer with no USB data, WiFi, Bluetooth or NFC: every transaction crosses as a scanned QR code.
- Tangem Wallet$59.9
A smart card you tap against your phone, sold only in sets of two or three so your backup is another card rather than a written seed.
- Trezor Safe 3$59
Trezor's $59 entry device, pairing a certified secure element with fully open source firmware and two physical buttons.
- Trezor Safe 5$129
Trezor's touchscreen model at $129: a color display and haptic feedback over the same secure element the $59 Safe 3 uses.
- ColdcardWarning$189
Bitcoin-only air-gapped signer whose seed generation was weakened by a build error from March 2021 until fixed firmware landed on July 31, 2026.
- KeepKeyWarning$59.95
Cheap open source device with the most readable screen of its era, and a seed a thief holding it for 15 minutes can extract.
Phone wallets
Apps for iOS and Android, and nowhere else. Convenient for spending money, and a worse place for savings than a device, because your phone is online and a hardware wallet is not.
- Aqua
A self-custodial Bitcoin, Liquid and Tether USDt wallet built for people who need cheap dollars on a phone, not only bitcoin.
- BlueWallet
Bitcoin-only phone wallet with real coin control and multisig vaults, whose Lightning side is custodial unless you run the server yourself.
- Coinbase Wallet
Coinbase's self-custody wallet is now Base App, and the product has moved its center of gravity to Base.
- Edge
Open source mobile wallet that trades the seed phrase for a username and password, and published every detail of the one time it failed.
- Muun
On-chain and Lightning in one balance behind a 2-of-2 multisig, backed up by an Emergency Kit file rather than twelve words.
- Mycelium
One of the oldest bitcoin wallets still shipping, strong on Android with deep UTXO control, and an iPhone build nobody has verified.
- Phoenix
A real Lightning node on your phone from the team behind Eclair, with a published fee table and a privacy tradeoff ACINQ states outright.
- Zengo
The wallet with no seed phrase: two MPC shares replace the private key, which removes one risk and adds a dependency.
- Wallet of SatoshiWarning
The easiest Lightning wallet to start with, and a custodial one: the company holds your coins, and it has stopped offering that in the US and the EU.
Desktop and browser wallets
Anything that runs on a computer, as an installed program or a browser extension. Several also have phone apps, and each page lists what it runs on. Several more are signing tools rather than wallets in their own right, meant to be paired with a hardware device.
- Bitcoin Core
The reference implementation, and the only wallet here that checks the rules itself instead of trusting somebody else's server.
- Blockstream Green
Blockstream's own Bitcoin and Liquid wallet, whose 2FA cosigning multisig is its reason to exist and has been closed to new accounts since May 2025.
- Cake Wallet
Open source Monero-first wallet with real bitcoin privacy tools, carrying a 2021 key generation bug that is still costing people coins.
- Electrum
The oldest bitcoin wallet still in active development, and the one whose users are hunted by a fake-update scam running since December 2018.
- Exodus
The best looking wallet on this list, from an NYSE listed company, with closed source apps and swap rates starting at 0.5%.
- Guarda Wallet
A capable multi-platform wallet whose 2020 domain hijack exposed the real weakness: a login flow built on uploading your backup.
- MetaMask
MetaMask holds real bitcoin since December 15, 2025, but it is still an Ethereum wallet with a BTC address attached.
- Sparrow Wallet
The desktop wallet to coordinate hardware signers and multisig from, with a verification tool that also checks other projects' releases.
- Trust Wallet
Use the phone app, think twice about the extension: an attacker published a malicious build of it on December 24, 2025.
- Atomic WalletWarning
Do not keep bitcoin here: over 5,500 wallets were emptied in June 2023 and the cause was never published.
- Wasabi WalletWarning
Still a working bitcoin wallet, but the coinjoin coordinator that made its name was switched off by zkSNACKs on June 1, 2024.
No longer sold
Retired, shut down, or seized. Each page says what happened, with dates, and points at something that still works.
- BRDDiscontinued
Dead since 2023: Coinbase bought BRD, transactions stopped in March 2022, and your coins now live entirely in the 12-word phrase.
Today's pick: Coinbase Wallet
- Jaxx LibertyDiscontinued
Retired on March 27, 2023: the wallet no longer works, and everything now depends on the 12-word backup phrase you were given.
- Ledger Nano SDiscontinued
The device that made hardware wallets mainstream, manufactured from 2016 to 2022 and now replaced by the $59 Nano S Plus.
Today's pick: Ledger Nano S Plus
- Samourai WalletDiscontinued
Seized by law enforcement in April 2024: the domain serves nothing, the app is gone, and both founders were sentenced in November 2025.
- Trezor Model OneDiscontinued
The original hardware wallet from 2014, pulled from Trezor's store in January 2026 and replaced by the Safe 3.
Today's pick: Trezor Safe 3
- Trezor Model TDiscontinued
The first touchscreen hardware wallet, launched February 2018, retired from Trezor's store in January 2026 and replaced by the Safe 5.
Today's pick: Trezor Safe 5
Wallets by platform and type
The same reviews filtered to what you can actually run, each ranked by rating with its own comparison table and answers.
Hardware or software: which do you need?
Both, most likely, and for different jobs. A hardware wallet keeps your keys on a device that never goes online and makes you press a button to spend, which is what savings want. A phone or desktop wallet keeps keys on a machine that is online all day, which is convenient for spending and a worse place to leave a balance you would mind losing.
So the usual arrangement is a little in a phone wallet for paying people and the rest behind a device. If you will only have one, the test is the amount: a hardware wallet costs a fixed sum once, and the risk it removes grows with the balance.
What the statuses on this page mean
Active means the wallet is still sold or maintained. No longer sold means you cannot get it, and each of those pages says what happened and names something that works. Caution means something is wrong beyond the product being old, and it does not mean the same thing twice.
KeepKey is the physical case: Kraken Security Labs showed in 2019 that its seed can be read out by anyone holding the device for a quarter of an hour with about 75 dollars of gear, and that no firmware update can close it. The chip is the problem, not neglect. Atomic Wallet is harder: it never publicly confirmed what caused the June 2023 compromise that drained over 100 million dollars from more than 5,500 wallets, and never compensated anyone.
Coldcard is in the same band for a narrower reason: a firmware build error weakened seed generation from March 2021 until Coinkite patched every affected model on 31 July 2026, and updating does not repair a seed already made on it. The device itself was never broken, and a seed made with 50 or more private dice rolls was never at risk. A warning with a remedy, not a verdict.
What to look for when comparing wallets
On a device, screen size matters more than the spec sheet suggests: it is the only part an attacker on your computer cannot lie through, and a screen too small to read comfortably is one people stop checking.
In software, the question is what leaves your machine. Some wallets here hold keys entirely on your device, some keep an encrypted backup on a server they cannot read, some split signing across parties, and one of the best known is fully custodial. Every review says which applies, and whether the recovery phrase is one that other wallets can restore from.
Buying or installing one without getting robbed
Buy a device from the manufacturer or a reseller it lists. Never secondhand, and never from a marketplace listing however well reviewed the seller looks: a tampered device is indistinguishable from a new one until your coins leave. Generate a fresh seed when it arrives. One that arrives with a recovery phrase already written down is a theft in progress.
For software the equivalent mistake is the download. Electrum users have lost more than 22 million dollars since December 2018 to a fake-update scheme that shows a convincing prompt inside the real app, and Mycelium is old enough and copied often enough that its own site warns about impersonators. Type the project's own domain, and treat any wallet asking for a two-factor code at startup as an attack.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a hardware wallet to own bitcoin?
No. You can hold bitcoin on an exchange or in a phone wallet. A hardware wallet is what removes the counterparty: it keeps the keys offline so no company failure, freeze or hack can move your coins. For savings that is worth the cost; for small trading balances it usually is not.
What is the difference between a custodial and a self-custody wallet?
In a self-custody wallet you hold the keys and nobody moves your coins without you. In a custodial one the company holds them, which is simpler and means you can be frozen, hacked or shut out. Most wallets here are self-custody; the reviews say where that is not true.
What happens to my bitcoin if the maker goes out of business?
Nothing, provided you have your recovery phrase and the wallet follows the common standards. The coins live on the bitcoin network, not in the wallet, and a standard phrase restores into another maker's software. That is the reason to prefer wallets using those standards.
Is a discontinued wallet still safe to use?
It depends which kind. A device no longer sold but still getting security updates is usually fine, and several here are. A wallet whose servers were switched off or seized is unusable, and one nobody patches should be emptied. Each page says which case it is.
New to self-custody? Start with our guide to storing crypto safely before you move any coins. Most of the wallets here are free; the ones that cost money are devices, and they are the last thing you should buy in a hurry.