Rainbow vs Sparrow Wallet Sparrow Wallet leads by 1 point.
Sparrow Wallet scores 1 point above Rainbow, led by incident record. Rainbow ranks #8 and Sparrow Wallet #7 of 11 published wallets. Every term of the gap is on the ledger below; the inputs are on the audit receipt.
Rainbow67
vs
SPSparrow Wallet68
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #8 and #7 of 11
Sparrow Wallet scores 1 point above Rainbow, led by incident record.
Rainbow #8 of 1167
SPSparrow Wallet #7 of 1168
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99; a bar is empty at 41 and full at 99.
Why, term by termSparrow Wallet leads on 1 of 4 published criteria; Rainbow on 1. The terms sum to the gap.
TermSparrow WalletRainbowWeightPoints
Key export6/108/106.7−3.5for Rainbow−1.8 of 32
Incident record5/102/105.8+4.5for Sparrow Wallet+2.3 of 32
Net of the terms+1.0
Reproduced gap+1.0
Weight is in points of the 86-point weighted total. Points are score points of the gap between the two.
Sparrow Wallet's lead rests on lighter criteria: Rainbow is ahead on key export, which carries more weight (28) than any criterion Sparrow Wallet leads on (24).
Sparrow WalletScore 68A Bitcoin-only desktop wallet built for coin control, multisig and hardware signers: BIP-39 with the derivation path shown, every input and output decoded before signing, no bounty and no audit.Strength: Recovery exit — 9/10Watch-out: Sparrow is desktop-only and Bitcoin-only, and it is built for users who want to see every input and output: a newcomer should expect a transaction editor, not a one-tap send. No Sparrow page documents exporting a single private key (read 2026-10-28), and its security policy says "There is currently no bug bounty programme for Sparrow." It has published no security advisory and no fund-loss incident was found.RainbowScore 67GPL-3.0 open-source EVM wallet whose export and exit docs are unusually complete, wrapped in a vendor that publishes no security surface at all and has repositioned itself as a leveraged-trading app.Strength: Recovery exit — 9/10Watch-out: Read the security surface before you commit, because there isn't one. rainbow.me/security is a 301 to a marketing article whose case for safety is "Rainbow is open source" and a "world class team" — no advisory archive, no linked audit, no bug bounty, and the GitHub Security tab says outright "This project has not set up a SECURITY.md file yet" with zero advisories. Rainbow's own sitemap lists 11 URLs and not one of them is a security page. Everything verifiable about this wallet, you verify yourself from the GPL-3.0 source; nothing is verifiable from the vendor. That matters more in 2026 than it did in 2024, because the app you install today is a leveraged-trading front end — 50x perps via Hyperliquid, prediction markets, $RNBW staking tiers — while the Terms of Use governing it were last updated December 13, 2023, the release-notes feed stops at September 23, 2024, and the App Store listing, refreshed with version 2.0.45 on 2026-09-17, still describes a six-chain Ethereum wallet with no mention of perps. The wallet underneath is genuinely good and genuinely exportable. The company around it stopped publishing.
Quick facts
At a glance
3 of 4 rows read the same for both.
FactRainbowSparrow Wallet
PricingSnapshotFree to download and use (iTunes lookup for app id 1457119021, fetched 2026-10-28: formattedPrice "Free", version v2.0.46 released 8 October 2026). The only vendor-stated charge on the wallet is on swaps, quoted without a rate, on rainbow.me/support/app/bridge-and-swap-tokens (fetched 28 October 2026): "Rainbow Fee: This is the percentage/amount that Rainbow applies. This fee will always be visible for you to review." No Rainbow page loaded publishes the percentage; the learn.rainbow.me article cited in August now returns HTTP 404. A separate page, rainbow.me/support/app/staking-rnbw (fetched 28 October 2026), prices tiered cashback against that unstated fee: "Silver (5,000) → 25% fee cashback in RNBW. Gold (10,000) → 50% fee cashback in RNBW. Diamond (15,000) → 75% fee cashback in RNBW. Black (20,000) → 100% fee cashback in RNBW." and "When someone unstakes, they pay a 10% exit fee, which is distributed to everyone still staking.""Sparrow is licensed under the Apache 2 software licence." (sparrowwallet.com/download/, fetched 28 October 2026). The download page lists installers for Windows, macOS and Linux with no price, and the site asks for donations. The features page lists no in-app swap or purchase; the only cost of a payment is the network fee, chosen against the fee chart Sparrow shows.
Asset coverageEditorial——
Region fitSnapshotglobalglobal
Custody modelEditorialSelf-custody: the vendor cannot move funds without your keySelf-custody: the vendor cannot move funds without your key
From the published criteria
Which should you pick?
Rainbow
67#8 of 11
Pick it when
Pick Rainbow if key export matters most — it scores 8/10 to Sparrow Wallet's 6/10 there (weight 28).
Strength
Recovery exit — 9/10
Tradeoff
Read the security surface before you commit, because there isn't one. rainbow.me/security is a 301 to a marketing article whose case for safety is "Rainbow is open source" and a "world class team" — no advisory archive, no linked audit, no bug bounty, and the GitHub Security tab says outright "This project has not set up a SECURITY.md file yet" with zero advisories. Rainbow's own sitemap lists 11 URLs and not one of them is a security page. Everything verifiable about this wallet, you verify yourself from the GPL-3.0 source; nothing is verifiable from the vendor. That matters more in 2026 than it did in 2024, because the app you install today is a leveraged-trading front end — 50x perps via Hyperliquid, prediction markets, $RNBW staking tiers — while the Terms of Use governing it were last updated December 13, 2023, the release-notes feed stops at September 23, 2024, and the App Store listing, refreshed with version 2.0.45 on 2026-09-17, still describes a six-chain Ethereum wallet with no mention of perps. The wallet underneath is genuinely good and genuinely exportable. The company around it stopped publishing.
SP
Sparrow Wallet
68#7 of 11
Leads
Pick it when
Pick Sparrow Wallet if incident record matters most — it scores 5/10 to Rainbow's 2/10 there (weight 24).
Strength
Recovery exit — 9/10
Tradeoff
Sparrow is desktop-only and Bitcoin-only, and it is built for users who want to see every input and output: a newcomer should expect a transaction editor, not a one-tap send. No Sparrow page documents exporting a single private key (read 2026-10-28), and its security policy says "There is currently no bug bounty programme for Sparrow." It has published no security advisory and no fund-loss incident was found.
Self-identify in 10 seconds
Which one is actually for you?
Rainbow
Choose Rainbow if key export matters most
Key export: 8/10 against 6/10 for Sparrow Wallet (weight 28)
RainbowScore 67GPL-3.0 open-source EVM wallet whose export and exit docs are unusually complete, wrapped in a vendor that publishes no security surface at all and has repositioned itself as a leveraged-trading app.Strength: Recovery exit — 9/10Watch-out: Read the security surface before you commit, because there isn't one. rainbow.me/security is a 301 to a marketing article whose case for safety is "Rainbow is open source" and a "world class team" — no advisory archive, no linked audit, no bug bounty, and the GitHub Security tab says outright "This project has not set up a SECURITY.md file yet" with zero advisories. Rainbow's own sitemap lists 11 URLs and not one of them is a security page. Everything verifiable about this wallet, you verify yourself from the GPL-3.0 source; nothing is verifiable from the vendor. That matters more in 2026 than it did in 2024, because the app you install today is a leveraged-trading front end — 50x perps via Hyperliquid, prediction markets, $RNBW staking tiers — while the Terms of Use governing it were last updated December 13, 2023, the release-notes feed stops at September 23, 2024, and the App Store listing, refreshed with version 2.0.45 on 2026-09-17, still describes a six-chain Ethereum wallet with no mention of perps. The wallet underneath is genuinely good and genuinely exportable. The company around it stopped publishing.
SPSparrow WalletLeads
Choose Sparrow Wallet if incident record matters most
Incident record: 5/10 against 2/10 for Rainbow (weight 24)
Sparrow WalletScore 68A Bitcoin-only desktop wallet built for coin control, multisig and hardware signers: BIP-39 with the derivation path shown, every input and output decoded before signing, no bounty and no audit.Strength: Recovery exit — 9/10Watch-out: Sparrow is desktop-only and Bitcoin-only, and it is built for users who want to see every input and output: a newcomer should expect a transaction editor, not a one-tap send. No Sparrow page documents exporting a single private key (read 2026-10-28), and its security policy says "There is currently no bug bounty programme for Sparrow." It has published no security advisory and no fund-loss incident was found.
Criterion by criterion
Scorecard
Published criteria · weight in points of 868 of 8 cells scored. Strength is read from the evidence file; the weight is the published one. Methodology
Key export
by 2 of 10weight 6.7 of 86Rainbow leads
Rainbow8/10 out of 10
Sparrow Wallet6/10 out of 10
Clear signing
weight 7.2 of 86Tie
Rainbow5/10 out of 10
Sparrow Wallet5/10 out of 10
Incident record
by 3 of 10weight 5.8 of 86Sparrow Wallet leads
Rainbow2/10 out of 10
Sparrow Wallet5/10 out of 10
Account recovery
weight 4.3 of 86Tie
Rainbow9/10 out of 10
Sparrow Wallet9/10 out of 10
Score dimensions
weights sum to 86
The published score is five dimensions, each weighted for the category. "Published criteria" is the criteria block above; the other four are the engine's own terms — availability, friction, trust record, measured data. Each bar is one side's points out of that dimension's maximum; the weight beside the name is its points of the 86-point weighted total. The published criteria above can fill 24 of the block’s 30. A weight marked “constant here” belongs to a dimension every ranked product in the category holds at the same value: it still counts in the total, and it orders nothing here.
Availabilityweight 20 of 86 · constant here
Rainbow14/20Sparrow Wallet14/20
Tie
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
Rainbow14/30Sparrow Wallet14.4/30
Sparrow Wallet leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
Rainbow2.7/10Sparrow Wallet2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86 · constant here
Rainbow3.2/8Sparrow Wallet3.2/8
Tie
Measured dataweight 18 of 86 · constant here
Rainbow8.3/18Sparrow Wallet8.3/18
Tie
Decision rulePublished order
Choose Sparrow Wallet unless the term Rainbow leads on is the one you are buying.
Pick Rainbow if key export matters most — it scores 8/10 to Sparrow Wallet's 6/10 there (weight 28).
The published order weighs every criterion the same way for everyone. To weigh them your way, run .
From the published order
Next best action
If this isn't your case
Other matchups worth comparing
How you can lose money here, and what the ranking scores
Key failure: your own keys are made, shown or recovered unsafely.
Scored by Can I export my own keys and use them elsewhere? · 28% (Rainbow 8/10, Sparrow Wallet 6/10)
Scored by Can I see exactly what I am signing? · 30% (Rainbow 5/10, Sparrow Wallet 5/10)
Scored by What has gone wrong, and did they publish it? · 24% (Rainbow 2/10, Sparrow Wallet 5/10)
Scored by If I lose my device, how do I get back in? · 18% (Rainbow 9/10, Sparrow Wallet 9/10)
Sparrow Wallet scores 1 point above Rainbow, led by incident record. Published scores, out of 100: Rainbow 67 (rank 8 of 11 wallets), Sparrow Wallet 68 (rank 7 of 11).
ReviewedRe-read in progressOverdue; re-read by 10 November 2026.Methodology v2026.10.18
How this page is reviewed
Reviewed means both products compared here was read against its sources on or after that date; every ranked category is re-read at least every 45 days. Models research, extract and parse. A deterministic engine ranks. Every quote passes an adversarial refute pass.
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