Monero wallets compared on open source, Tor and your own node
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Which Monero wallet fits depends on facts that marketing pages rarely put side by side: whether it is open source, whether you can point it at your own node, whether it speaks Tor, whether it supports a hardware wallet.
The four questions that actually decide it
Most wallet advice is a popularity list. These are the properties that change how a wallet behaves for you. This table collects those, each checked against the project itself.
- Open source: can anyone verify what the binary does with your keys?
- Node choice: can you use your own node, or must you trust someone else with your queries?
- Tor support: does it hide the network layer, or does your address exposure just move to your IP?
- View-only mode: can you watch a balance from a machine that holds no spend key?
Light wallets trade privacy for convenience, honestly
A light wallet asks a remote server to scan the chain for you, which is why it syncs in seconds instead of hours. That server learns which outputs are yours. It is a defensible trade for spending money, and a poor one for savings - and the wallets that admit this are the ones worth trusting.
Hardware wallets and Monero
Support exists but is narrower than for Bitcoin or Ethereum, and it changes with firmware releases in both directions. Check the current state on the vendor page before buying a device specifically for Monero - this table records what we verified and when, not what was true a year ago.
Nothing here is tracked
The table ships with the page as static data, so filtering and comparing ask nothing of any server. Which wallet you are considering is nobody else’s business, including ours.
Questions
- Which wallet is best for a beginner?
- One that is open source, actively released, and lets you move to your own node later. The table marks all three so you can pick without taking anyone’s word for it.
- Do I need to run my own node?
- Not to start. It is the strongest privacy position and it costs disk and sync time; a wallet that supports both lets you decide later rather than at install.
- How current is this table?
- Each row carries the date we verified it against the project. Wallet capabilities change, so treat an old date as a prompt to re-check the vendor page.