Choosing a Monero wallet
Every wallet here keeps your keys on your own device, so this isn't really about which app is "safest." The choice that matters is whether you run your own node or lean on someone else's. Here's how to pick.
- On a computer: Feather for light and private, or the official Monero GUI with your own node for maximum privacy.
- On a phone: Cake Wallet (or Monero.com) on iPhone; Monerujo or Cake on Android.
- Real savings: a hardware wallet (Ledger or Trezor) driven by the GUI or Feather.
On this page
What a wallet actually is
In Monero, your recovery seed is the wallet. That's a list of words, 25 in the classic format or 16 in the newer Polyseed one, that encodes your private key. Every address and balance is derived from it. Anyone who has those words has your money, and if you lose them with no backup, the money is gone. The app is just a convenient way to use the seed.
One thing worth being clear about: your private keys never leave your device, on any wallet in this guide, "light" ones included. A wallet talks to a node to read the blockchain and to broadcast the transactions you sign, but the signing happens locally. So the real question isn't "can the app steal my coins," it's "who am I talking to when I read the chain."
Your node vs a remote node
To show your balance, a wallet needs blockchain data. It gets that from a node, either one you run or a public one someone else runs.
A remote node cannot see your balance, your addresses, or which coins are yours. What it can see is metadata: the IP address that submitted a transaction, and the timing of your requests. That's the whole trade-off. It's real, but it's a lot smaller than "a stranger can see my money," which is what people often fear.
Three ways to handle it, from easiest to strongest:
- Use Tor. Feather routes over Tor by default and Cake has it built in, which hides the IP half of that metadata. For most people this closes the practical gap.
- Run your own node. Point your wallet at a node on your own machine or home network and there's no third party in the loop at all. This is what the official GUI does by default.
- Both. Your own node, reached over Tor, is the high-assurance setup.
A true "light wallet" (the old MyMonero, the newer Skylight) hands your private view key to a server so it can scan the chain for you. That server then sees your full incoming history. That's a bigger concession than a normal remote node. Feather, Cake, and Monerujo are not this, they scan locally against a node. MyMonero actually shut down in January 2026 partly because this model is costly and awkward for privacy; it pointed its users to Cake.
The main wallets compared
Official Monero GUI / CLI
The reference wallet from the Monero project (GUI 0.18.5.2, CLI 0.18.5.1 as of mid-2026). It runs your own full node by default, so you verify everything yourself and no one sees your metadata. The cost is weight: you download the full blockchain (well over 200 GB) and the first sync takes hours. Best for savings, and the natural pair for a hardware wallet.
Feather
A lightweight desktop wallet (Windows, macOS, Linux, Tails). Tor is on by default, and its builds are reproducible, meaning anyone can rebuild the release and confirm it matches bit-for-bit. That's the strongest supply-chain story of any Monero desktop wallet. The current release (2.8.1) is over a year old, which worries some people, but development is active and funded; the recent work has been on build infrastructure rather than new features. The near-universal power-user desktop pick.
Cake Wallet / Monero.com
The friendliest mobile option (iOS, Android, and desktop), open-source and non-custodial, with Tor built in and an in-app swap feature. It's now multichain, so it carries other coins too. If you only want Monero, Monero.com is Cake's Monero-only build on the same codebase, with less surface area. Cake ships updates very frequently. This is the default recommendation for iPhone.
Monerujo
A long-running Android-only wallet (Apache-2.0, on F-Droid and Play). It supports a Ledger hardware wallet over USB, and has its own Sidekick feature that turns a spare offline phone into a DIY air-gapped signer. The Android power-user pick; Cake is the friendlier one.
Others you'll see
Stack Wallet is an open-source multicoin wallet that includes Monero. Skylight (2025, from MAGIC Grants) is a fast Android light wallet, but it uses the view-key server model described above, so pick your server accordingly. MyMonero is gone (shut down 2026), so ignore any guide still recommending it.
Comparison table
| Wallet | Best for | Platforms | Node default | Tor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monero GUI / CLI | Max privacy, savings | Win, macOS, Linux | Your own full node | Manual |
| Feather | Verifiable desktop | Win, macOS, Linux, Tails | Remote (or your own) | On by default |
| Cake Wallet | Easy mobile, iPhone | iOS, Android, desktop | Remote | Built in |
| Monero.com | Monero-only Cake | iOS, Android | Remote | Built in |
| Monerujo | Android, Ledger | Android only | Remote | Via Orbot |
Hardware wallets
A hardware wallet keeps your keys on a separate device that signs transactions without ever exposing them to your computer. Both major brands work with Monero, with one catch: you don't use the vendor's own app.
- Ledger (Nano S, S Plus, X): install the Monero app through "My Ledger," then use it with the Monero GUI or Feather. Ledger Live itself does not handle Monero. Keep the firmware and app current.
- Trezor (Model T, Safe 3, Safe 5): driven through the Monero GUI/CLI or Feather, not Trezor Suite. One gotcha: Trezor derives Monero keys differently (SLIP-0010), so a Trezor Monero backup may not restore into a non-Trezor wallet. The newer Safe 7 isn't usable for Monero yet, as no wallet software supports it.
Hardware wallets add strong key protection at the cost of convenience, so they suit savings more than daily spending. On a phone, Monerujo with a Ledger (or its Sidekick feature) is the main route.
Backing up: seed and restore height
Back up two things: your seed and your restore height.
Write the seed on paper. Never photograph it, type it into a website, or store it in the cloud. No legitimate wallet or "checker" will ever ask for it online, and anyone who asks is trying to rob you.
The restore height is the block where your wallet first received funds. On restore, the wallet only scans forward from that height, which is what makes a restore take minutes instead of hours. Set it too high and the wallet skips right past your incoming coins and shows a zero or wrong balance. The coins are safe the whole time; the wallet just didn't scan far enough back. If you're unsure, use a date shortly before you created the wallet, then rescan.
Restore height calculator → Turn the date you first made a wallet into the block height to restore it from.
What you don't need to back up is the wallet cache, the local file of your synced history and labels. It's rebuilt from the seed. Losing the cache costs you a re-sync; losing the seed costs you the money.
Verify your download before you run it
Fake wallet apps and typosquatted domains are a real problem for Monero. Two habits keep you safe:
- Download only from the official source (getmonero.org, featherwallet.org, cakewallet.com, monerujo.app, or F-Droid). Don't trust a link from a forum or an ad.
- Check the signature. The official Monero binaries ship with a GPG-signed hash list you can verify against the project's signing key. A step above that is a reproducible build (Feather's model), where an independent rebuild proves the binary matches the public source, not just who released it.
So which one?
- New and on a phone: Cake Wallet, or Monero.com if you only want Monero.
- Privacy-focused on a computer: Feather.
- Maximum privacy: Monero GUI with your own node.
- Android power user: Monerujo.
- Serious savings: a hardware wallet with the GUI or Feather, ideally over Tor or your own node.
You can run more than one, and most people do: a phone wallet with a little for spending, and a desktop or hardware wallet for savings. They all restore from the same kind of seed, so nothing locks you in.