Cake Wallet vs Sparrow Wallet

Comparing: two wallets
Decided by: Editorial rating
Last reviewed: 2026-08-25

Open source Monero-first wallet with real bitcoin privacy tools, carrying a 2021 key generation bug that is still costing people coins.

Sparrow Wallet4.7Bitcoin-only

The desktop wallet to coordinate hardware signers and multisig from, with a verification tool that also checks other projects' releases.

Verdict: Sparrow Wallet

Sparrow Wallet rates higher on our rubric: 4.7 against 3.3 for Cake Wallet.

Criterion: Editorial rating
Cake Wallet: 3.3
Sparrow Wallet: 4.7

Cake Wallet and Sparrow Wallet, fact by fact

Every row is from the two reviews as of their review dates, with sources on each. A check marks the side a decidable criterion favours; rows without one are information, not a score.

Cake Wallet and Sparrow Wallet compared fact by fact from their reviews; a check marks the side a decidable criterion favours.
Fact	Cake Wallet	Sparrow Wallet
Editorial rating	3.3	4.7 (favoured on this row)
Status	Available	Available
Made by	Cake Labs	Sparrow Wallet
Price	Free download	Free download
Who holds the keys	self-custodial, seed and keys generated and stored on your own device, with no account and no telemetry	self-custodial, keys in an encrypted file on your own computer or on a hardware signer, with no account anywhere
Bitcoin-only	No	Yes
Runs on	iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux	Windows, macOS, Linux
Screen	Not stated	Not stated
Connectivity	Tor for all traffic, connection to your own node, Ledger hardware signing, and silent payments plus PayJoin on the bitcoin side	Public Electrum servers, your own Electrum server, or Bitcoin Core, with Tor built in
Released	2018, launched as the first open-source Monero wallet on iOS	Not stated
Countries on the maker's list	No published list	No published list
Last reviewed	2026-08-25	2026-08-25

Pros and cons, side by side

Cake Wallet

What works

Open source under an MIT license, with a public repository that is actively developed
Self-custodial with no account and no KYC, and, in Cake's words, zero data collection or telemetry
Genuine bitcoin privacy tooling: silent payments and PayJoin, plus Tor for all traffic and your own node
Handles Monero properly, which almost no other multi-asset wallet does
Ledger hardware wallet support, plus Cake's own two-factor option and biometric unlock
Reachable outside the app stores: direct APK, Accrescent, and Windows and Linux builds

What to watch

Bitcoin wallets created before v4.1.7 are permanently unsafe and have to be replaced, not just updated
The Milk Sad researchers traced sweeps of those weak wallets continuing into 2024, three years after the warning
The flaw was in Cake's own key generation code rather than a third-party library, and it ran through 2020 and 2021
Multi-asset by design, so it carries far more chains and far more code than a bitcoin-only wallet
Monero's privacy guarantees and much more transparent chains share one app, which takes care to use well

Sparrow Wallet

What works

Bitcoin only, open source and free, with no account and no server holding anything of yours
First-class multisig: build a quorum across several hardware signers and keep the descriptor
Works with hardware wallets over USB or fully air-gapped by QR code or SD card, with complete PSBT support
Full coin control and labels on every transaction, input and output, plus a transaction editor that shows the raw bytes
Every release ships a signed manifest, and Sparrow verifies the next download, Bitcoin Core and hardware wallet firmware from inside the app
Connects to your own Electrum server or Bitcoin Core, with Tor built in

What to watch

Desktop only: there is no iOS or Android app
The UTXO detail and the transaction editor are the point, and they are a lot to meet on day one
No built-in way to buy bitcoin, so the coins have to arrive from an exchange or a peer
Effectively a single maintainer, which is a concentration risk whatever the quality of the code

Frequently asked questions

Is Cake Wallet or Sparrow Wallet better?

Sparrow Wallet rates higher on our rubric: 4.7 against 3.3 for Cake Wallet. The rating follows the product rubric published on our about page; the rows above set custody, price and platforms side by side so you can check it.

Are Cake Wallet and Sparrow Wallet free?

Yes, both are free to download. What differs is who holds the keys: Cake Wallet is self-custodial, seed and keys generated and stored on your own device, with no account and no telemetry; Sparrow Wallet is self-custodial, keys in an encrypted file on your own computer or on a hardware signer, with no account anywhere.

Is Cake Wallet or Sparrow Wallet bitcoin-only?

Sparrow Wallet is bitcoin-only; Cake Wallet supports other assets too. Multi-asset: Monero, bitcoin, Lightning, Litecoin, Ethereum, Solana, Zcash, Bitcoin Cash and more

The full reviews: Cake Wallet and Sparrow Wallet, each with its sources, and every wallet we review.

More comparisons

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