Ledger vs Trezor vs SafePal: how the three brands actually differ

📊 The three brands in one table

Here are all three, taken from the manufacturers' own spec pages. Every price is what SIAMBC actually charges.

If you only read one row, read Send from an iPhone. It eliminates options faster than anything else here, and it is the single most common reason someone buys the wrong wallet.

🔵 Who Ledger is for

Ledger has the widest range of the three, from the Nano S Plus at ฿2,060 up to the Stax at ฿16,800, and every model has a certified secure element.

The clearest strength is phone support. The Nano X, Nano Gen5, Flex and Stax all pair with an iPhone over Bluetooth, which neither of the other two brands matches across their range.

There is one trap. The Nano S Plus, the cheapest at ฿2,060, does not work with iOS at all — Ledger says so on its own product page. Plenty of people order on price and find out afterwards.

Worth knowing too: the Nano S Plus is certified CC EAL6+ while the Nano X, at twice the price, is CC EAL5+. The extra money buys Bluetooth, not a higher security tier. We went through that in our Ledger Nano comparison.

🟢 Who Trezor is for

If we had to sum Trezor up in one word it would be transparent. Firmware and hardware design are both open for anyone to inspect. If you would rather not take a manufacturer's word for it, this is the brand that answers that.

There is a catch. Trezor's cheaper models have no secure element. Trezor reserves that chip for the Safe 3, Safe 5 and Safe 7. The One and Model T rely instead on auditable open firmware plus a PIN and passphrase. If you want the chip without flagship pricing, the Safe 3 at ฿3,690 is the cheapest way in.

The iPhone is Trezor's weak spot. The Safe 7 at ฿11,900 is the only model you can actually send from on an iPhone. The rest let you open the app and watch balances, but not sign a transaction. For that you need a computer or an Android phone.

What Trezor has that the others largely do not is splitting your backup into several shares, kept in different places, with a threshold for how many are needed to restore. It suits someone more worried about fire or flood than theft. We compared every model in our Trezor line-up comparison.

🟡 Who SafePal is for

SafePal is the most accessible of the three. The S1 starts at ฿2,190 and the dearest model, the S1 Pro, is only ฿2,890.

But price is not what makes SafePal interesting. The S1 and S1 Pro are genuinely air-gapped: no Bluetooth, no WiFi, no NFC, and the USB port charges only — it carries no data.

Phone and wallet talk to each other purely in QR codes, held up to a camera. Which means it works the same whether you are on an iPhone or an Android: every phone camera reads a QR code already.

That produces something worth noticing. The cheapest wallet in this article works with an iPhone, while the ฿2,060 Ledger Nano S Plus does not — because SafePal never depended on an iOS connection in the first place.

The X1 is a different animal: Bluetooth 5.0, not air-gapped. Pick it if day-to-day speed matters more to you than cutting the connection entirely. The S1 and S1 Pro are both CC EAL6+ and open source.

📡 What air-gapped means, and why it comes up

Air-gapped means literally that: a gap of air between the device and everything else. No cable, no radio, nothing.

The reason people value it is that every connection is also a way in. USB, Bluetooth, NFC — remove them all and there is nothing left to attack over.

The trade is convenience. Every transfer means picking the device up and scanning QR codes back and forth twice, which is meaningfully slower than approving over Bluetooth.

There is no universally right answer here. If you move funds once or twice a month, air-gapped never feels slow. If you move them weekly, Bluetooth is far more comfortable. Choose on how you actually behave, not on which word sounds safer.

🎯 So which brand should you pick

Mainly on an iPhone and want plenty of choice? Ledger — but skip the Nano S Plus, which does not work with iOS. Start at the Nano X, ฿4,200.

On Android or a computer, watching the budget? The Ledger Nano S Plus at ฿2,060 is the best value here, and it is CC EAL6+, the same tier as the flagships.

Want everything auditable? Trezor. If you also want a secure element, start at the Safe 3, ฿3,690.

Want nothing connected at all, or a small budget and an iPhone? The SafePal S1 at ฿2,190 answers both at once.

Whichever brand you land on, what protects your coins is the recovery phrase, not the device. A broken device can be replaced and restored from the same words. Lost words cannot. We go into it properly in our seed phrase guide.

Ledger

Ledger Nano S Plus

฿2,060

• The best-value entry point of the three brands
• CC EAL6+, the same tier as Ledger's flagships
• USB-C only, and it does not work with iPhone

Add to cart

Ten colors on the product page

Trezor

Trezor Safe 3

฿3,690

• The cheapest Trezor with a secure element
• OPTIGA Trust M (V3), certified CC EAL6+
• Fully open source, with multi-share backup

Add to cart

SafePal

SafePal S1

฿2,190

• Genuinely air-gapped: no cable, no Bluetooth
• Talks in QR codes, so iPhone and Android both work
• CC EAL6+ secure element, 1.3-inch color screen

Add to cart

The S1 Pro adds an aluminum body and a bigger battery

❓ Common questions

Which brand is the safest?

All three keep the keys on the device and make you confirm on the device itself — same principle. The difference is in approach rather than level: Trezor opens the code, SafePal removes the connection, Ledger leans on a certified chip plus convenience. What actually goes wrong is almost never the brand; it is a badly stored recovery phrase.

Can I move from one brand to another?

Yes. All three use BIP39, so entering the same phrase into a different brand brings every balance back — the coins are on the blockchain, not in the device. The exception is Trezor's multi-share backup, which uses a different standard and does not always travel.

Is the cheapest model good enough?

For most people, yes. Within a brand the gap between cheap and expensive is usually screen, connectivity and convenience — not that the cheap one guards keys less well. The questions worth asking first are which phone you use and how often you send. Those decide more than price does.

Where should I buy?

This matters more than people think. A second-hand wallet, or one from an unknown middleman, is a real risk: if the device was set up before it reached you, whoever set it up holds the phrase. SIAMBC is an authorized distributor and every unit is new and sealed. How to check a device has not been opened is covered in our guide to spotting a tampered device.

🚨 One rule to remember

Anyone who asks for your recovery phrase is a scammer. No exceptions.

Neither SIAMBC nor any manufacturer will ever ask for it, whatever reason is given — warranty claims, identity verification, system updates or account recovery. Those words are the key to your funds. Whoever has them owns your crypto, and it can never be recovered.

SIAMBC is an authorized distributor for Ledger, Trezor and SafePal, and has specialised in hardware wallets since 2016. Our Bangkok store is open if you want to handle all three before deciding. Support in Thai and English.