Rainbow review

Rainbow is a mobile wallet, so it runs on a phone rather than a device you plug in or a desktop app. Wallets in this category skew the same way, with mobile making up 58.4% of them. That makes it a pick for people who manage coins from a handset.

Rainbow uses self custody, so the coins stay with you rather than on a company balance. Bit2Me runs on custodial and bynex on custodial, the opposite model. With self custody at Rainbow, the recovery details are yours to keep safe.

Rainbow backs up through seed, which means a recovery phrase written down and kept somewhere safe. Among wallets compared, 82.7% use that same route, so the process is standard. Only 21.2% of this category offer a recovery service to lean on.

Rainbow is operated by Rainbow Studio, Inc., which is based in the US. The company publishes the app you install, and the wallet is part of that product rather than a separate service. You have a named company to hold to, even though the coins themselves are yours.

Support runs on email, help centre and community, so you have email, a help centre and a community to work with. A help centre is the most common route in this category at 85.7%, while phone lines sit far lower at 18.5%. Expect to search before you write.

Rainbow is a mobile wallet, while Trezor is a hardware wallet. One runs on a phone, the other on a device you keep, so the choice is about where the recovery details sit and what you can lose. Hardware wallets are 18.8% of this category.

Rainbow keeps the account work small: mobile software, self custody custody and support through email, help centre and community. The trade is that you handle the seed phrase yourself, and a lost phone is your problem to manage. Comfortable with written guides and your own notes is what it takes.