Phoenix vs Wallet of Satoshi

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

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.

Wallet of Satoshi2.7Bitcoin-onlyWarning

The easiest Lightning wallet to start with, and a custodial one: the company holds your coins, and it has stopped offering that in the US and the EU.

Verdict: Phoenix

Phoenix rates higher on our rubric: 4.0 against 2.7 for Wallet of Satoshi.

Criterion: Editorial rating
Phoenix: 4.0
Wallet of Satoshi: 2.7

Phoenix and Wallet of Satoshi, 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.

Phoenix and Wallet of Satoshi compared fact by fact from their reviews; a check marks the side a decidable criterion favours.
Fact	Phoenix	Wallet of Satoshi
Editorial rating	4.0 (favoured on this row)	2.7
Status	Available	Caution: see the review
Made by	ACINQ	Living Room of Satoshi Pty Ltd
Price	Free download	Free download
Who holds the keys	self-custodial, a real Lightning node running on your phone behind a 12 word seed	custodial in its default mode, meaning the company holds the keys, with a separate self-custodial mode where you do
Bitcoin-only	Yes	Yes
Runs on	iOS, Android	iOS, Android
Screen	Not stated	Not stated
Connectivity	Lightning only, connecting to ACINQ's nodes, with the option to watch the chain through your own Electrum server	Not stated
Released	December 2019, alongside ACINQ's Eclair node implementation	The custodial service left the US on November 23, 2023 and the European Union at the turn of 2026
Countries on the maker's list	No published list	No published list
Last reviewed	2026-08-26	2026-08-25

Pros and cons, side by side

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

Wallet of Satoshi

What works

The fastest way onto Lightning there is: no channels, no liquidity management and no node to run
Free Lightning address that reads like an email, so anyone can pay you without scanning a code
Pays Lightning invoices and on-chain bitcoin addresses from the same box, detecting which you pasted
A self-custodial mode is offered everywhere, including in regions where the custodial one is not
No breach of its custodial infrastructure has been publicly reported

What to watch

Custodial in its default mode, so the company can freeze, lose or stop serving your balance
Left the US market on November 23, 2023 and has not announced a return
Withdrew the custodial service across the European Union at the turn of 2026, pushing EU users into self-custody
No published country list, so which mode you get is decided by the app rather than by a page you can read first
In-app buying runs through third-party partners whose country coverage changes without the wallet saying anything

Frequently asked questions

Is Phoenix or Wallet of Satoshi better?

Phoenix rates higher on our rubric: 4.0 against 2.7 for Wallet of Satoshi. 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 Phoenix and Wallet of Satoshi free?

Yes, both are free to download. What differs is who holds the keys: Phoenix is self-custodial, a real Lightning node running on your phone behind a 12 word seed; Wallet of Satoshi is custodial in its default mode, meaning the company holds the keys, with a separate self-custodial mode where you do.

Is Phoenix or Wallet of Satoshi bitcoin-only?

Both are bitcoin-only: neither supports another coin, which is a deliberate design choice for a smaller codebase.

Does Phoenix or Wallet of Satoshi carry a warning?

Wallet of Satoshi: Wallet of Satoshi pulled its app from US app stores and stopped serving US customers on November 23, 2023, then withdrew its custodial Lightning service across the European Union at the turn of 2026, as the MiCA transition periods and the DAC8 reporting rules closed in on custodial providers. EU users are offered the self-custodial mode instead. Wherever the custodial mode is still available, the company holds the keys, which is the risk to weigh before you put money in it.

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

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