Solana wallets compared: Phantom, Solflare, Backpack, Ledger and Trezor on custody, fees, code and incidents
Solana wallets compared: custody, fees, code
Five wallets that hold SOL were compared on what their own documents say. Only one, Backpack, puts a swap fee percentage in writing, and its blog contradicts it. Phantom's help centre said in September that its Google or Apple wallets split a key with Phantom; Solflare's terms say it never holds enough to move funds.
Piece published Reviewed by CryptoGuardz Register Desk, editorial desk
Five wallets that hold SOL were read on 14 October 2026: Phantom, Solflare, Backpack, and the Ledger and Trezor hardware wallets. Only Backpack puts a swap fee percentage in its terms, a flat 0.85%, and its own blog has since announced zero fees. Under every wallet sits the same chain cost: Solana's documentation sets the base fee at 5,000 lamports per signature.
Each figure below comes from the wallet's own terms, help centre or code repository, or from the record on the wallet register. Nothing here is financial advice, and no wallet is ranked.
Which Solana wallets were compared?
| Wallet | Type | Networks named by the provider | Custody, per its documents | Swap fee in its documents | Public source code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phantom | App and extension | 9, Solana first | Self-custody; Google or Apple wallets split a key with Phantom | Fees possible, no figure | App source not found |
| Solflare | App and extension | Solana only | Self-custody, no key material held | Not stated | App source not found |
| Backpack | App and extension | 14 in a March 2026 post | User holds the seed phrase | 0.85% in terms, zero in blog | GPL-3.0 repository exists |
| Ledger | Hardware | SOL listed | Keys on the device | Third-party swaps | MIT repository, Ledger Wallet apps |
| Trezor | Hardware | SOL in Suite | Keys on the device | Third-party swaps | GPL-3.0 firmware |
The register's comparison of the two app wallets is on Phantom vs Solflare.
What does a Solana transaction cost?
The base fee is fixed; the priority fee is not. Solana's fee page lists "Base fee per signature" as "5,000 lamports", "split 50% burned / 50% to the validator". On top of that a sender can add a prioritization fee, defined as "ceil(compute_unit_price * compute_unit_limit / 1,000,000) lamports. 100% to the validator."
So a plain transfer signed once pays 5,000 lamports in base fee, whichever wallet signs it. What differs between wallets is what they add on swaps, and whether they say so in writing.
Phantom: nine networks and a split key
Phantom's help centre, read on 14 October 2026, lists nine networks: Solana, Ethereum, Robinhood Chain, Arc, HyperEVM, Bitcoin (Native Segwit/Taproot), Base, Polygon and BNB Chain. The same help centre notes that "Phantom ended its support for Sui network on September 24, 2026."
Custody depends on how the wallet was created. A wallet made from a recovery phrase keeps keys on the device. A wallet made with a Google or Apple login does not work that way:
One part is held by Phantom. The other part is stored across the decentralized Juicebox network.
The same help article, read again on 14 October 2026, no longer contains that passage. It now says a four-digit PIN is used "together with your Google or Apple account to restore the wallet", and that the wallet also has an exportable recovery phrase. Whether the key split described in September still applies: not verified on the current page.
On fees, the terms (last updated 17 March 2026) say only: "You may be charged fees for access to some or part of the Functionality you use, including fees charged on token swaps", and "Those fees may change at any time without notice." No percentage appears. Phantom's swap fee rate: not verified.
Phantom's GitHub organisation shows SDKs and demos; no repository there is identified as the wallet app's source. Whether the app is open source: not verified. The register records no Phantom incident.
Solflare: Solana only, and a hard custody clause
Solflare's terms describe a Solana wallet and nothing else. The issuer is Solrise Finance Ltd, and its custody clause is the most specific of the five app documents read:
Solrise is not a custodian of your Wallet or of the Digital Assets held in it, has no power to make any transaction on your behalf, and at no point holds sufficient information to access, transfer or dispose of your Digital Assets.
Swaps route through Jupiter. The help centre says "The default slippage tolerance is set to 0.5%" and advises keeping at least 0.05 SOL to cover transaction fees. It states no Solflare swap fee: not verified. A Ledger can be paired over Bluetooth, which needs "A Ledger device that supports Bluetooth, already set up, with the Solana app installed". Solflare's public GitHub repositories are SDKs, token lists and blocklists; the app source was not found. The terms cap Solrise's liability at US$100.
Backpack: the fee that is and is not charged
Backpack's terms, issued by 200ms Labs Ltd. and dated 20 June 2023, say: "Currently, we charge a flat 0.85% transaction fees on swaps." A Backpack blog post of 10 March 2026 says: "Backpack Wallet now charges zero fees on swaps and bridges across every supported network."
Both are Backpack documents. The terms are what a user agrees to; the blog is newer. Which one binds a disputed swap: not verified. A public repository, coral-xyz/backpack, is listed under the GPL-3.0 licence, but its history showed a single commit when read on 14 October 2026, so whether it matches the shipped app is not verified.
Ledger and Trezor: hardware that signs for Solana
Ledger's supported-assets page lists SOL with send and receive, buy, swap and stake, and the tag "Compatible with third-party wallets". The page says "Ledger hardware wallets are compatible with Metamask, Phantom, Rabby Wallet, Electrum and more", then adds "Ledger does not guarantee such compatibility". The Ledger Wallet apps sit in a public repository whose page says most projects are under the MIT licence.
Trezor's Solana guide gives send instructions for the Model T, Safe 3 and Safe 5, and on the Model One says: "No, we do not plan on introducing support for the Model One." Staking runs through a third party: "Trezor users can stake Solana via the supported third party application NuFi." Trezor's firmware repository is public under GPL-3.0.
Trezor carries the only incidents among the five on the register, three of them, all at third-party providers rather than in its devices: a January 2024 breach of a support portal that exposed contact details of up to 66,000 people; an August 2026 breach at shipping provider ShipMonk that Trezor counts as affecting 80,689 customers; and a September 2026 breach at its newsletter provider Brevo, where a phishing email promoting a malicious app went to about 347,000 contacts and 347,149 addresses were exported. Ledger's own 2020 customer-data breach and 2023 Connect Kit attack are not in its register entry; they are covered in the Ledger Nano X review. Trezor states funds were at risk only for anyone who typed a wallet backup into that app. The hot and cold trade-off is on cold vs hot wallets, and the hardware basics on what is a hardware wallet.
Which Solana wallet holds the keys?
The user, for four of the five as documented. Phantom's Google and Apple wallets are the exception, with one encryption-key part held by Phantom per the help text recorded in September 2026. All five say the same about a lost phrase: nobody can restore it. How the words work is set out in what is a seed phrase.
A practical point from the search for this piece: on 14 October 2026 a search for Phantom's help centre returned lookalike "Phantom" guides hosted on teachable.com and daftpage.com among the results. Phantom's help pages live on help.phantom.com. Anything else asking for a recovery phrase is a theft attempt, and the paid "recovery" services that follow are covered on the crypto scam recovery page.
Quick answers
Which Solana wallets did CryptoGuardz compare?
Phantom, Solflare, Backpack, Ledger and Trezor, read on 14 October 2026. Each has an entry on the wallet register quoting its terms.
What is the fee for a Solana transaction?
5,000 lamports per signature as the base fee, half burned and half paid to the validator, per Solana's documentation. Priority fees are extra and go 100% to the validator.
Does Phantom charge a swap fee?
Its terms say fees "including fees charged on token swaps" may apply and "may change at any time without notice". No rate is published in the documents read, so the figure is not verified.
Can I use a Ledger with Phantom or Solflare?
Ledger lists Phantom among compatible wallets but says it "does not guarantee such compatibility". Solflare documents a Bluetooth Ledger connection with the Solana app installed. See Ledger on the register.
Sources
- Solana documentation, fees, retrieved 2026-10-14
- Phantom help centre, supported networks, retrieved 2026-10-14
- Phantom terms of use, last updated 17 March 2026, retrieved 2026-10-14
- Phantom help centre, create a wallet with Google or Apple, as recorded on the wallet register 2026-09-22 and re-read, retrieved 14 October 2026
- Phantom GitHub organisation, retrieved 2026-10-14
- Solflare terms of service, as recorded on the wallet register 2026-09-28
- Solflare help centre, how to swap tokens, retrieved 2026-10-14
- Solflare docs, connect a Ledger wallet, retrieved 2026-10-14
- Solflare GitHub organisation, retrieved 2026-10-14
- Backpack terms of service, last updated 20 June 2023, retrieved 2026-10-14
- Backpack blog, Backpack Wallet zero fees on swaps and bridges, 10 March 2026, retrieved 2026-10-14
- Backpack repository coral-xyz/backpack, retrieved 2026-10-14
- Ledger supported crypto assets, retrieved 2026-10-14
- Ledger Wallet repository LedgerHQ/ledger-live, retrieved 2026-10-14
- Trezor, managing Solana tokens in Trezor Suite, retrieved 2026-10-14
- Trezor firmware repository, retrieved 2026-10-14
- Trezor security update, January 2024, as recorded on the wallet register 2026-10-07
- Trezor, customer data exposed in shipping provider incident, as recorded on the wallet register 2026-10-07
- Trezor, security incident at Brevo, as recorded on the wallet register 2026-10-07
- CryptoGuardz wallet register
About this piece
Compiled by the CryptoGuardz register team from the sources listed above. Research and drafting are AI-assisted and reviewed by a named editor before publication. Nothing here is a recommendation to gamble. If a figure or a reading is wrong, tell us and the correction is logged in public.