Breez Wallet Review 2026: Point of Sale Lightning

Update (3 November 2026): the Breez app reviewed here has left the app stores. If you still have a Breez backup, Breez has published an experimental recovery tool that restores it on a desktop and sends the funds to a bitcoin address. The app Breez publishes now is Glow, which it calls a reference app for the Breez SDK; we have not reviewed it. For wallets you can install today, see our Lightning wallet comparison.

Breez was a self-custodial Lightning wallet (you held the keys) that could also turn a phone into a cash register for a shop. Its app has left the app stores, so this guide has two jobs: to show you how to get your money out of an old Breez backup, and to explain what the wallet did, so you can choose a wallet you can install today.

If you hold a backup, four steps on a computer take your bitcoin from that backup to an address you control.

Four steps get an old Breez backup back to your own address. Breez’s recovery tool is experimental and runs on a desktop. It restores your backup, waits for the wallet to catch up with the chain and sends what is on-chain to an address you choose.

Breez never gave you a seed phrase (the list of recovery words most wallets show you). Recovery relied on its backup instead: a copy of the wallet’s own files, keys included, kept in Google Drive, iCloud or a WebDAV server such as Nextcloud. If you set backup words, the 12 or 24 words only locked that copy. Without the backup files, the words restore nothing, in Breez or in any other wallet. Keep an unlocked backup as private as a seed phrase: anyone who has it can restore the wallet.

Breez's backup words are a lock, not a seed. The backup file holds the wallet's own files, keys included; the optional backup words are a password that locks that file. Backup file plus backup words: the words unlock the file and the wallet comes back. Backup words only: nothing comes back, in Breez or in any other wallet, because the words are not a seed. A backup you never locked: it restores with no words at all, so keep the file private. — **Without the backup file, Breez’s backup words restore nothing.** Breez had no seed phrase: recovery relied on the backup file, and the 12 or 24 words, if you set them, only locked that file.

Breez Wallet Specifications

Specification	Detail
Developer	Breez
Lightning Implementation	LND, running on your phone (the app is retired; Breez now builds its SDK on Spark)
Custody Model	Self-custodial
Platforms	Android, iOS (no longer in the app stores)
Point-of-Sale	Yes (built-in cash register with item catalog)
Channel Management	LSP-assisted (automated)
On-chain Support	Yes (via submarine swaps)
Invoice Support	BOLT 11 invoices, LNURL (pay, withdraw, auth), Lightning addresses
Podcasting 2.0	Yes (built-in player with streaming sats)
Backup	Copy of the wallet’s files in Google Drive, iCloud or a WebDAV server, optionally locked with backup words; no seed phrase
License	Open source (GPL-3.0)

The Point-of-Sale Feature

Breez’s point-of-sale mode turned the wallet into a merchant terminal. From the menu, one tap changed the screen from a personal wallet to a cash register. Merchants could:

Keep an item catalog with names and prices in their local currency
Take payments: the customer scanned a QR code on the merchant’s phone, and the payment settled in seconds
Price in their own currency while receiving bitcoin over Lightning, converted at the current exchange rate
Set a manager password, so sales staff could receive payments but not send any
Export sales records for accounting and tax purposes

Each phone ran its own Lightning node, so a shop with three tills had three separate balances. For a coffee shop, market stall, or any small business that wanted to accept Lightning payments without a payment processor, Breez offered a complete solution in a single app: no merchant account, no monthly fees, no hardware beyond the phone they already owned.

How Breez's point-of-sale mode worked. The shop entered a price, for example a coffee at 3.50, in its own currency. The shop's phone showed a QR code: a Lightning invoice for the same amount in sats at the current rate. The customer scanned it and paid over Lightning, and the sats landed in the shop's own wallet in seconds, with no payment processor in between. Each till phone was its own wallet with its own balance. — **The shop priced in its own currency and got paid in bitcoin over Lightning.** Breez turned the price into an invoice in sats at the current exchange rate; the customer only had to scan a QR code, and the money went straight to the shop’s wallet.

Personal Wallet Features

In personal wallet mode, Breez worked as a straightforward self-custodial Lightning wallet:

Sending: you scanned Lightning invoices, pasted LNURL links or used Lightning addresses, and Breez found the route.
Receiving: you created invoices for a set amount or an open one. Breez’s LSP (Lightning service provider, the company node your channel was with) handled inbound liquidity: if a payment needed a new channel, Breez opened it on the spot.
On-chain interoperability: you sent and received ordinary bitcoin through submarine swaps, which convert between Lightning and on-chain funds.
Fiat display: your balance and payments showed in your local currency next to the bitcoin amount.

Podcasting 2.0 Integration

Breez had a built-in podcast player that supported Podcasting 2.0, the open standard for streaming satoshis to podcast creators in real time. As you listened, the wallet sent small payments to the creator at the rate you set, and Breez kept no more than 5% of them.

Breez SDK: Lightning for Developers

Beyond the wallet app, Breez makes the Breez SDK, a toolkit that lets developers add Lightning payments to their own apps. It has come in three versions, and Breez now points developers to one of them:

Native (Greenlight): Uses Blockstream’s Greenlight service to run a CLN node in the cloud on behalf of the user, with keys remaining on the user’s device. Self-custodial by design. Breez’s documentation now calls it deprecated and no longer maintained.
Nodeless (Liquid integration): Uses the Liquid sidechain for seamless Lightning-compatible payments without running a node. Lower friction, different trust assumptions. Breez now tells both new and existing partners to build on Spark instead.
Nodeless (Spark): The current SDK. It sends and receives over Lightning and Spark, a separate system built on Bitcoin, with on-chain interoperability, and is free for developers. Breez calls it non-custodial. Spark’s operators must co-sign every off-chain transfer, which is why some reviewers dispute that label; users can always withdraw to the Bitcoin blockchain without the operators. Glow, the app Breez publishes now, is built on it.

Other apps build their Lightning payments on the SDK, and that is now Breez’s business.

What is left of Breez in November 2026. The Breez app has left the app stores; restore a backup with the recovery tool. The Greenlight SDK is deprecated, no longer maintained and not for new integrations. The Liquid SDK: Breez tells new and existing partners to use Spark. The Spark SDK is current: Breez calls it non-custodial; Spark's operators co-sign every off-chain transfer, and you can exit to the blockchain without them. Glow is Breez's reference app, built on the Spark SDK; we have not reviewed it. — **Breez now builds on Spark; the wallet app is gone.** Breez’s own documentation marks the Greenlight SDK as deprecated and asks Liquid partners to move to Spark. Glow, the app Breez publishes now, runs on the Spark SDK.

Fee Structure

These are the fees from Breez’s own help pages, as they stood while the app was available.

Setup fee for a new channel: When a payment needed a new channel, Breez charged 0.4% of the amount received, with a minimum that moved with on-chain fees. It opened the channel 50,000 sats larger than the payment, so the next payments had room to arrive.
Sending payments: Lightning routing fees, which depend on the route. You could cap them in the settings, at the risk of some payments failing.
Receiving payments: free when the payment fitted in an existing channel.
Receiving from a bitcoin address: a submarine swap, with no extra fee unless it needed a new channel.
Sending to a bitcoin address: a reverse swap through Boltz, at 0.5% plus the mining fee, for at least 50,000 sats. Boltz has been offline since 3 August 2026.
Podcasts: up to 5% of the sats you streamed.
No monthly fees, no subscription.

How Breez's setup fee worked. 50,000 sats arrived in a wallet with no channel. Breez's server opened a new channel on the spot, 50,000 sats bigger than the payment: a 100,000-sat channel. Your side held the 50,000 sats you received minus the setup fee; Breez's side held 50,000 sats of room, so the next payments could reach you. The setup fee was 0.4% of what you received, 200 sats on 50,000, or a minimum that rose with on-chain fees, whichever was higher. Later payments that fitted in the channel paid no setup fee. — **The first payment paid for the channel; later ones were free to receive.** Breez opened each new channel with 50,000 sats of extra room, so the next payments fitted. The setup fee was 0.4% of the payment, but never less than a minimum that followed on-chain fees, so on small payments the minimum decided.

The setup fee was the cost that mattered: the first payment into an empty wallet paid for its channel, and later payments that fitted were free to receive. Phoenix works the same way today, with its own fees, as our lesson Lightning Wallets Compared explains.

Pros and Cons

What the app did well, and where it fell short, while it was available:

Pros

A full point-of-sale mode for merchants accepting Lightning payments
Self-custodial with automated channel management: no liquidity to manage by hand
Podcasting 2.0 with a built-in player and streaming sats
LNURL and Lightning address support alongside BOLT 11 invoices
Open source (GPL-3.0)
Fiat display and sales export for accounting

Cons

The app has left the app stores, so you can no longer install it
No seed phrase: getting your money back depended on the backup copy
New channels were slow and expensive when on-chain fees were high
The wallet depended on Breez’s LSP: when Breez closed its channels, users’ funds went back on-chain
The interface was less polished than Phoenix’s

Breez vs Other Lightning Wallets

Feature	Breez	Phoenix	Zeus
Can you install it today?	No (left the app stores)	Yes	Yes
Point-of-sale	Full POS system	No	Built-in POS mode
Merchant tools	Item catalog, fiat display, manager lock	None	Item catalog, fiat or BTC pricing, Square integration
Podcast support	Built-in player	No	No
Channel management	LSP-assisted	Automated (splicing)	Manual or LSP
Setup fee	0.4% of the payment, with a minimum set by on-chain fees	1% plus the mining fee for new liquidity; 1,000 sats to create the channel	On-chain fee on your own node; Olympus LSP fees otherwise
Developer SDK	Yes (Breez SDK, now on Spark)	phoenixd, a server version for developers	No
Best for	Merchants, podcasters (until it was retired)	Everyday users	Power users

Verdict

Breez served the merchant who wanted to accept Lightning payments without a payment processor, without handing custody to anyone and without technical work. Its point-of-sale mode turned a phone into a Lightning till with an item list and prices in the local currency.

The app is gone, so the practical advice is short. If you have an old Breez backup, recover it with the four steps at the top of this guide and move the funds to a wallet you control. For a new wallet, Phoenix is the easy self-custodial choice for everyday spending, and Zeus gives technical users more control and has its own point-of-sale mode (see our Zeus review). We have no current pick for merchants. Developers can still use the Breez SDK, now built on Spark.

For a broader view of the Lightning wallet landscape, see our complete Lightning wallet comparison.

Frequently Asked Questions

Could I use Breez as a regular wallet without the POS feature?

Yes. The point-of-sale mode was a switch in the app’s menu. You could use Breez only as a personal Lightning wallet and never touch the merchant features.

Is Breez truly self-custodial?

Yes. Your private keys were created and stored on your phone, and a copy went into your backup. Breez’s LSP opened your channels and provided their liquidity, but it never had your keys. Now that the app is gone, your keys are still yours; getting the funds back takes your backup, as the recovery steps above show.

Your keys stayed with you; the channel needed Breez. Breez’s server opened your channel and gave it liquidity, but the keys lived on your phone and in your backup. When Breez closed the channels from its side, your share came back as on-chain bitcoin.

Did Breez work for high-volume merchants?

It suited small volumes: market stalls, coffee shops and small shops. Each till phone was its own wallet with its own balance, so a busy shop with many tills had money spread across phones. Shops with hundreds of sales a day were better served by dedicated payment software such as BTCPay Server.

What is the Breez SDK?

The Breez SDK is a developer toolkit that allows third-party applications to integrate Lightning payment capabilities without building Lightning infrastructure from scratch. It handles Lightning payments, on-chain deposits, and balances behind the scenes, letting developers focus on their application’s user experience.

Part of our free Bitcoin course: This topic is covered in depth in Lightning Wallets Compared from the Lightning Network & Bitcoin Nodes course.

Filed under: Lightning Network & Layer 2