Monero wallets compared: Cake Wallet, Feather, the official GUI and CLI, and hardware

What a Monero wallet does

Your XMR lives on the Monero blockchain; the wallet holds the keys that control it. Every Monero account has two key pairs: a view key that lets the wallet find incoming payments, and a spend key that signs outgoing ones. Because Monero payments go to one-time addresses on the chain, your wallet has to scan each new block, about one every two minutes, to find the outputs that belong to you. That is why a Monero wallet syncs every time you open it, and why your balance can look wrong until the sync has finished. When you create a wallet you get a mnemonic seed, which holds everything needed to view and spend your funds. Write it down offline. Anyone who has it controls your XMR.

Choosing a Monero wallet

All the wallets below are open source and non-custodial: they keep your keys on your own device. The official GUI and CLI are released by the Monero project; getmonero.org lists the others as community wallets not managed by the Monero core team and asks you to do your own research. The descriptions come from each project's own site and documentation.

• Monero GUI: the official graphical wallet for Windows, macOS (Intel and ARM) and Linux. Simple mode connects to a remote node automatically; Advanced mode gives you full control of the wallet and your own node, with blockchain pruning and Ledger and Trezor support. Uses a 25-word seed.
• Monero CLI: the official command-line wallet, also built for Android (ARM) and FreeBSD. It has the fullest feature set, including multisig and freezing outputs, and uses a 25-word seed.
• Feather: a desktop Monero wallet for Linux, Tails, Windows and macOS, created by dsc, tobtoht and contributors and funded through the Monero community crowdfunding system and donations. Built-in Tor, detailed coin control, offline signing with animated QR codes, 16-word Polyseed seeds.
• Cake Wallet: built by Cake Labs, a multi-coin wallet for Android, iOS, macOS and Linux (new Windows builds are paused until a redesign Cake says is slated for late 2026). New Monero wallets use a 16-word Polyseed by default; it generates a fresh subaddress after each use and offers coin control, experimental built-in Tor and custom nodes.
• Monerujo: an open-source Android Monero wallet with custom node lists, a Street Mode that hides balances in public, and Ledger Nano S series support over a USB cable.
• Stack Wallet: an open-source multi-coin wallet from Stack Wallet LLC for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux; Monero is one of its supported coins, and you can connect to your own node.

Which Monero wallet fits you

There is no single right answer; pick the wallet whose trade-offs match how you use XMR. Many people keep two: a phone wallet for small amounts and a desktop or hardware setup for savings.

• Choose the Monero GUI if you want the reference wallet on a desktop and may run your own node later; it can start on a remote node and switch to your own once it has synced.
• Choose the CLI if you are comfortable in a terminal and want every option, including multisig.
• Choose Feather if you want a light, fast desktop wallet with Tor by default, fine-grained coin control or offline signing, and only need Monero.
• Choose Cake Wallet if you want Monero on a phone, or one app for Monero alongside Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and other coins.
• Choose Monerujo if you use Android only and want a Monero-only phone wallet.
• Choose a Ledger or Trezor with one of these apps if you hold an amount you would not keep on an everyday phone or laptop.

Monero nodes: local node vs remote node

A node is a computer that keeps a copy of the Monero blockchain. A local node runs on your own machine or private network; a remote node, sometimes called a public node, is run by someone else. Your wallet talks to a node to sync and to broadcast transactions. A remote node does not learn your addresses or balance and cannot steal your funds, but its operator can see the IP address a transaction comes from and, in rarer cases, attempt attacks that reduce your privacy. The Monero project's advice is to run your own node where you can, or use a node run by someone you trust, and to prefer nodes reachable over Tor or I2P otherwise. The full blockchain is large and keeps growing: the Monero FAQ put it at about 225 GB in 2024, and a pruned node, which keeps the full transaction history but drops most ring signature data, at about 86 GB.

• Own node: most private and helps the network; needs disk space and an initial sync that can take a long time.
• Bootstrap mode in the GUI: uses a remote node while your own node downloads the chain, then switches.
• Remote node: quick to start; the operator sees your IP unless you connect through Tor, I2P or a VPN.
• Feather by default routes everything except wallet synchronization over Tor, including the broadcast of your transactions.

Local-sync wallets and lightweight wallets

getmonero.org sorts mobile and light wallets into two groups. Local-sync wallets such as Cake Wallet, Feather, Monerujo and Stack Wallet connect to a node but scan the blocks on your own device, without sharing any key; they are more private but slower, because missed blocks are scanned when you open the wallet. Lightweight, or remote-sync, wallets hand your private view key to a server that scans for you. That server learns when you receive money, though not how much, from whom, or where you send. If speed matters more than that leak, a lightweight wallet works; if not, stay with local sync.

Wallet sync and restore height

The restore height is the block at which a wallet starts scanning. When you restore a wallet, a correct restore height saves hours of scanning; one set too high skips your earlier transactions and shows an incomplete history and a wrong balance. Polyseed seeds store the wallet's creation date, so Feather and Cake Wallet can work out the restore height for you. With a 25-word seed or a hardware wallet you may need to enter it yourself, or a creation date the wallet can convert. If you are not sure, choose an earlier date rather than a later one. Feather shows the restore height of an open wallet under Help, Debug info; note it next to your seed backup.

• Wallet shows less XMR than expected after a restore: rescan from an earlier height.
• Stuck on the same block: try another node or connection.
• Balance and history are only reliable once the sync has finished.

The 25-word seed, Polyseed and other formats

The official GUI and CLI use Monero's classic 25-word seed. Polyseed is a newer 16-word format with the wallet's birthday built in and an optional passphrase; Feather uses it for new wallets and also restores 14- and 25-word seeds, and Cake Wallet uses it by default. Cake Wallet can also create a 25-word legacy seed or a 12-word BIP39 seed, which it converts to a Monero wallet in its own way, so not every Monero wallet can restore that BIP39 phrase. The formats are not interchangeable everywhere. Feather can show a 25-word version of a Polyseed wallet, which lets you open it in the official wallets, but a 25-word seed cannot be turned into a Polyseed. Whatever the format, the seed only ever goes into a wallet you are restoring, never into a website, a chat or a swap form.

View-only wallets

A view-only wallet is built from your main address and private view key, without the spend key. It sees incoming payments but cannot sign transactions, and because it cannot reliably see outgoing ones, its balance should not be relied on. It is useful for watching a hardware or cold wallet from an everyday computer, or for checking that a payout arrived without exposing spending keys. The GUI creates one under Settings, Wallet; the CLI, Feather and Cake Wallet can restore one from the address and view key. Remember that sharing a view key lets the other person see every incoming payment to that wallet.

Hardware wallets: Ledger and Trezor support

A hardware wallet keeps the spend key on a separate device and asks you to approve each transaction there. Trezor Suite does not support Monero, and Ledger's own Monero page sends you to the Monero GUI wallet, so you manage XMR through a Monero wallet app with the device connected. getmonero.org lists Ledger Nano S, Nano S Plus and Nano X with the GUI, CLI, Cake Wallet, Feather and Monerujo, and Trezor Model T, Safe 3 and Safe 5 with the GUI, CLI and Feather. Trezor's own page adds Cake Wallet on Android for those models and the Safe 7 with Cake Wallet on Android and iOS, and says the Trezor Model One does not support Monero. Feather also supports Ledger Stax and Flex but not the Trezor Safe 7.

• Ledger: Ledger's Monero page directs you to the Monero GUI wallet for managing XMR.
• Trezor: Trezor Suite does not support Monero; use a third-party Monero wallet.
• Write down the restore height when you create a hardware-backed wallet; you may need it to restore.

Download from the official source and verify it

Fake wallet apps are the easiest way to lose XMR, so install only from the project's own site or the app store listing it links to. For the official GUI and CLI, getmonero.org strongly advises checking the SHA256 hash of the archive you downloaded against hashes.txt, a list signed with the GPG key of binaryFate, the Monero release signer; the advanced guide gives the key fingerprint and the commands for Windows, macOS and Linux. Some antivirus programs flag the official software because it includes a miner; the FAQ says to confirm the download is genuine before adding an exception. Feather publishes its release signing key and fingerprint in its documentation, and Cake Wallet lists its official store pages and GitHub releases.

Receiving XMR from a swap

Open your wallet's receive screen and copy a subaddress, which starts with 8 and is 95 characters long. Subaddresses are recommended over your primary address, which starts with 4, because each one keeps payments separate while the funds still land in the same wallet. VeriSwap accepts a standard address (4, 95 characters), a subaddress (8, 95 characters) or an integrated address (4, 106 characters). Paste it into the payout field and compare the first and last characters with the wallet before you create the order. Once the payout is sent, the wallet shows it as soon as it has synced, but the funds stay locked until 10 confirmations, roughly 20 minutes at two-minute blocks.

• BTC → XMR, ETH → XMR and LTC → XMR all pay to the Monero address you paste.
• Check the payout in your synced wallet; a public explorer cannot show Monero balances.
• Keep the order reference: the order page shows when the payout was sent.

Sending XMR to a swap

For XMR → BTC or another route out of Monero, send the exact amount shown on the order to its deposit address, within the 15-minute quote window, and from a fully synced wallet. Your wallet pays the Monero network fee; leaving the fee level on the default setting is usually fine. After you send, the change from the coins you spent is locked for 10 blocks, so your spendable balance can drop for about 20 minutes. The payout then arrives on a public chain, where the transaction and your receiving address are visible. Monero addresses you sent to are not stored on the blockchain, only in your wallet if it saves them, so keep the transaction ID; Feather, the GUI and the CLI can also create a spend proof if you ever need to show that a payment was made.

• Minimum order: 50 USD in value; the 0.5% service fee is already in the receive amount.
• Send the exact amount in one transaction from a wallet you control.

Mistakes to avoid

Most Monero wallet problems come from installation, syncing and backups.

• Installing a wallet from a search ad or an unofficial app listing.
• Typing the seed anywhere except the wallet you are restoring.
• Restoring with a restore height that is too late, then thinking funds are gone.
• Judging the balance before the wallet has finished syncing.
• Pasting a Bitcoin or exchange address that does not accept XMR as the payout address.
• Using a random public node for large amounts without Tor or your own node.
• Writing down a Polyseed and assuming the official GUI can read it directly.