Sparrow Wallet
The desktop wallet many experienced bitcoiners recommend: works with all common hardware wallets, multisig and full coin control.
What is Sparrow Wallet?
Sparrow is a bitcoin-only wallet for Windows, macOS and Linux. It is free and open source, and it is built for people who want to see exactly what a transaction does before it is signed: every input, output and fee is laid out on screen. Most people use it together with a hardware wallet, which keeps the private keys and signs payments while Sparrow prepares them. It can also manage multisig wallets that combine keys from several devices. The price of all that detail is a steeper first day than in a simple phone app.Key facts
- Type
- Desktop
- Made by
- Sparrow Wallet
- Works with
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- Keys
- You hold the keys
- Bitcoin-only
- Yes
- Source code
- Open source
- Lightning
- No
- Multisig
- Yes
- Experience
- Intermediate
- Price
- free
Good for
- Managing a hardware wallet with full control over transactions
- Multisig with devices from different brands, over USB or air-gapped
- Connecting to your own Bitcoin Core or Electrum server
Watch out
- Shows a lot of detail, can feel overwhelming on day one
Sparrow Wallet features
Hardware wallets. Sparrow supports all common hardware wallets, either connected over USB or in airgapped mode. The maker’s documentation walks through USB devices such as Trezor, Ledger, BitBox02 and Jade. Airgapped signing. With QR codes, the device is never connected to the computer. Sparrow shows the unsigned transaction as animated QR codes, the device scans them and shows the details on its own screen, and the signature comes back as QR codes that Sparrow reads through a webcam. The documentation lists Passport, Jade, SeedSigner and Keystone among the devices that work this way, and describes a separate SD card method for devices such as Coldcard. Coin control and transaction editor. You choose which coins a payment spends and set the fee yourself. The transaction editor shows inputs and outputs as a diagram, works with PSBT files, and can also be used as a blockchain explorer. Inputs, outputs and addresses can carry labels. Single-sig and multisig. Sparrow handles ordinary wallets and multisig wallets on the common script types. A multisig setup can combine devices from different brands. Your own node. Sparrow can connect to a public server, to your own Bitcoin Core node, or to a private Electrum server. With Bitcoin Core, Sparrow reads transactions from your own node instead of asking a third party.Security and custody
Sparrow is open source under the Apache 2 licence, and its source code is on GitHub. Release binaries have been reproducible since version 1.5.0, which lets anyone check that a download matches the published code. When you pair an airgapped hardware wallet, only public key details are imported; the private key stays on the device. The wallet includes Tor. The documentation notes that Tor is slow with Bitcoin Core and suggests a private Electrum server for that case.Sparrow Wallet alternatives
Electrum
Also a lightweight desktop wallet with multisig and hardware wallet support, and it adds Lightning.
Bitcoin Core
The reference full node with a built-in wallet, if you want one program that verifies everything itself.
Wasabi Wallet
A desktop wallet focused on privacy, with Tor, coin control and coinjoin through independent coordinators.
Nunchuk
A multisig-first wallet that runs on phones as well as computers, with timelock-based inheritance planning.
Compare all desktop wallets side by side
Related lists: multisig wallets bitcoin-only wallets all wallets A–Z
Sparrow Wallet FAQ
Is Sparrow a hardware wallet?
No. Sparrow is a wallet application for your computer. It works with hardware wallets, which hold the private keys and confirm each payment on their own screen.
Which hardware wallets work with Sparrow?
The documentation covers USB devices such as Trezor, Ledger, BitBox02 and Jade, airgapped QR devices such as Passport, Jade, SeedSigner and Keystone, and SD card devices such as Coldcard. Check the current list in Sparrow's documentation before you buy.
Do I need my own Bitcoin node to use Sparrow?
No. The quick start guide sets Sparrow up with a public server. For more privacy you can connect it to your own Bitcoin Core node or a private Electrum server.
Is Sparrow free and open source?
Yes. The wallet is free to download and its source code is published under the Apache 2 licence.
Guides
Sources
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