Mycelium vs Phoenix

Comparing: two wallets
Decided by: Editorial rating
Last reviewed: 2026-08-26

One of the oldest bitcoin wallets still shipping, strong on Android with deep UTXO control, and an iPhone build nobody has verified.

Phoenix4.0Bitcoin-only

A real Lightning node on your phone from the team behind Eclair, with a published fee table and a privacy tradeoff ACINQ states outright.

Verdict: Phoenix

Phoenix rates higher on our rubric: 4.0 against 3.7 for Mycelium.

Criterion: Editorial rating
Mycelium: 3.7
Phoenix: 4.0

Mycelium and Phoenix, 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.

Mycelium and Phoenix compared fact by fact from their reviews; a check marks the side a decidable criterion favours.
Fact	Mycelium	Phoenix
Editorial rating	3.7	4.0 (favoured on this row)
Status	Available	Available
Made by	Mycelium	ACINQ
Price	Free download	Free download
Who holds the keys	self-custodial, keys generated and held on the phone, recoverable only from a backup you write down	self-custodial, a real Lightning node running on your phone behind a 12 word seed
Bitcoin-only	No	Yes
Runs on	iOS, Android	iOS, Android
Screen	Not stated	Not stated
Connectivity	Optional Tor, connection to your own Bitcoin node, NFC, and hardware wallet support for Trezor, Ledger and KeepKey	Lightning only, connecting to ACINQ's nodes, with the option to watch the chain through your own Electrum server
Released	Android on July 1, 2013 and iPhone on December 17, 2014, per WalletScrutiny	December 2019, alongside ACINQ's Eclair node implementation
Countries on the maker's list	No published list	No published list
Last reviewed	2026-08-25	2026-08-26

Pros and cons, side by side

Mycelium

What works

Shipping on Android since July 1, 2013, one of the longest unbroken runs of any mobile bitcoin wallet
Real UTXO control on a phone: unspent output visibility, fee bumping, watch-only and single-address savings accounts
Passed all seven of WalletScrutiny's wallet tests, including public source code and an unobfuscated binary
Hardware wallet support for Trezor, Ledger and KeepKey, plus spending directly from paper wallets
Direct APK download, an Obtainium link and a published signing certificate, so Google Play is not the only way in
Optional Tor and your own node, with each third-party service able to be turned off on its own

What to watch

The iPhone app trails badly: WalletScrutiny lists 3.22.0.2 for Android against 2.10 for iPhone
Mycelium's iOS source repository on GitHub is archived, with no commits since June 2024
WalletScrutiny says no iOS build has ever been reproduced, so the reproducibility claim covers Android and not iPhone
WalletScrutiny discloses that its own authors have contributed to Mycelium, so its verdict is not fully independent
No longer bitcoin only: Ethereum and ERC-20 accounts add code a bitcoin-only wallet does not carry
Dated interface, and support runs through a single email address with no live channel

Phoenix

What works

A real self-custodial Lightning node on the phone, not an account on somebody's server
Fees published as a table on ACINQ's own site: 0.4% plus 4 sat to send, free to receive when you have liquidity
Standard BIP39 seed on a BIP84 path, recoverable in Electrum if ACINQ ever disappeared
Built by ACINQ, which develops the Eclair implementation and runs a large routing node
Rotating taproot receive addresses, with swaps that look like ordinary transactions on chain

What to watch

ACINQ's own FAQ says Phoenix offers no privacy advantage over a custodial wallet and that ACINQ knows the destination and amount of payments
Receiving without enough inbound liquidity costs 1% plus mining fees, and a new channel costs 1,000 sat
No on-chain balance, which makes it a spending wallet rather than somewhere to park savings
Recovering from a force close takes roughly 720 blocks, about five days
Wake-up notifications rely on Google services, so GrapheneOS users need the sandboxed Play Services app
Was off US app stores from May 3, 2024 until some point in 2025, which is why some reviews still call it unavailable there

Frequently asked questions

Is Mycelium or Phoenix better?

Phoenix rates higher on our rubric: 4.0 against 3.7 for Mycelium. 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 Mycelium and Phoenix free?

Yes, both are free to download. What differs is who holds the keys: Mycelium is self-custodial, keys generated and held on the phone, recoverable only from a backup you write down; Phoenix is self-custodial, a real Lightning node running on your phone behind a 12 word seed.

Is Mycelium or Phoenix bitcoin-only?

Phoenix is bitcoin-only; Mycelium supports other assets too. Bitcoin first, with Ethereum and ERC-20 accounts in the same app

The full reviews: Mycelium and Phoenix, each with its sources, and every wallet we review.

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