Ledger vs Trezor: how the two best-known hardware wallets differ

Ledger and Trezor make the two best-known hardware wallets. Both keep your private keys on the device, and both make you approve each transaction on the device's own screen. Lesson 28 explains what any hardware wallet should do. This page sets out where these two makers differ, using what each company has published.

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Open code

Trezor says that "everything about Trezor hardware wallets has been open source" from the start. Anyone can read its firmware and its hardware designs.

Ledger publishes its companion app and most of its software. The low-level code that talks to the secure chip is closed. Ledger says its agreement with the chip maker, STMicroelectronics, does not allow it to publish that code.

Lesson 28 suggests looking for published code and outside review, because open code lets independent researchers check what a device does. A secure chip is built to resist someone who has the device in their hands. Trezor's current models now have a secure chip as well. On the Safe 7, Trezor says the design of its second chip, TROPIC01, is open for researchers to review.

Backups

Ledger devices give you a 24-word recovery phrase. This is the BIP39 standard explained in Lesson 23, and most wallets can read it.

Current Trezor models create a 20-word backup by default, using a different standard called SLIP39. Trezor names several other wallets that can restore it, including Sparrow, Electrum, BlueWallet and MetaMask. Not every wallet can. Trezor's guide also covers 12- and 24-word backups.

This matters if you buy a metal backup plate, covered in Lesson 30. Trezor sells separate Keep Metal plates for 20-word and 24-word backups.

Ledger Recover

Ledger offers an optional paid service called Ledger Recover. In October 2026 it cost $9.99 a month. With your approval, the device encrypts your recovery phrase and splits it into three pieces. Ledger, Coincover and Escrowtech each hold one. To restore, you prove your identity with an ID document and a selfie, and two of the three companies send their pieces back.

You do not have to use it. It is a trade-off. Your recovery no longer depends only on your own paper or metal backup. Instead it depends on three companies and an identity check. Lesson 24 explains that trade between holding your own keys and trusting someone else.

Coin support

Ledger says its app supports thousands of coins. Trezor publishes its list at trezor.io/coins. Both say some coins work only through a third-party wallet app, so check your coins on the maker's list before you buy.

Data leaks

In July 2020, Ledger's shop and marketing database was breached. Ledger says more than a million email addresses were taken, and about 272,000 customers' names, postal addresses and phone numbers. The full lists were posted online in December 2020. Ledger says its devices were not affected and coins stay safe as long as no one shares their recovery words.

In January 2024, someone got into a third-party support ticketing tool that Trezor uses. Trezor says the names and email addresses of up to 66,000 people who had contacted support may have been accessed, and that 41 of them were emailed by the attacker asking for their recovery seed. Trezor says no one's coins were affected.

Neither leak exposed keys. Both led to scam messages aimed at owners. No real wallet company will ever ask for your recovery words. Lesson 37 shows how these scams work.

How to choose between them

Use the six checks in Lesson 28. A few questions bring out the differences:

• How much weight do you give to code that anyone can inspect?
• Which backup format do you want, and can the other wallets you might use read it?
• Are your coins on the maker's list, and in the maker's own app?
• Do you want Bluetooth, or a device that only connects by cable?

Whichever you choose, buy from the maker's own shop.