Zerion vs Owlio: which crypto portfolio tracker to use, and when

Zerion or Owlio: the short answer

Both Zerion and Owlio let you watch a wallet by its public address, for free. Zerion fits if you also trade from your wallet, need deep DeFi coverage with profit and loss (PnL), and want your portfolio on your phone. Owlio fits as a Zerion alternative if you only watch wallets on a computer, want a tracker with no server, account or analytics of its own, and keep Bitcoin or TON next to EVM assets.

• Choose Zerion if you swap and bridge in the same app, hold LP positions, loans or debts that need tracking, or want PnL per position (a paid feature).
• Choose Owlio if you want a read-only view in a Chrome side panel and hold Bitcoin, Tron or TON wallets next to EVM ones.
• Use both if Zerion is your wallet and you want a separate read-only overview on your computer.

Facts about Zerion come from Zerion’s own pages, linked in the text and in the list of sources, and were checked on 25 September 2026. Facts about Owlio describe version 1.0.0, the version on the Chrome Web Store on that date.

What are Zerion and Owlio?

Zerion is a self-custodial crypto wallet with a portfolio tracker built in, for iOS, Android, desktop browsers and the web. According to Zerion’s download page, the wallet, the web app and the browser extension are free, and the same app lets you send, swap and bridge tokens.

Owlio is a free crypto portfolio tracker for Chrome that opens in the browser’s side panel, which stays open while you switch tabs. It only reads. You give it public addresses; it never asks for a private key or a seed phrase and cannot sign a transaction. It has no server and no accounts, so the wallet list and everything Owlio downloads stay in your browser.

Zerion vs Owlio at a glance

As of 25 Sep 2026	Zerion	Owlio 1.0.0
What it is	Wallet for iOS, Android and browsers, plus a web app	Read-only Chrome extension in the side panel
Watching an address	Yes, no sign-up, no limit on watch-only addresses	Yes, no sign-up, every wallet is read-only
Account	Not needed to watch	Does not exist
Own server	Yes, it builds the portfolio	None; the browser asks public services directly
Networks	66 listed, balances tracked automatically on 45; Solana yes; no Bitcoin or TON; Tron unclear	Ethereum and other EVM networks, plus Bitcoin, Tron and TON
DeFi positions	4,500+ protocols: LP, staking, lending, debts, rewards	Only positions held as tokens: staked ETH and Aave deposits
Profit and loss	Detailed PnL in Premium	Not shown
Transaction history	Free	Free; downloads in the background
Trading	Swaps and bridges, 0.67% service fee	None
Price	Free; Premium $99 a year for one wallet	Free
Where it runs	iOS, Android, Chrome, Brave, Firefox, Arc, web	Chrome on a computer

The Zerion column comes from Zerion’s networks, tracker, DeFi, Premium and download pages, its help center and its privacy policy.

Can you watch a wallet without connecting it?

Yes. Zerion and Owlio both show a wallet from its public address alone, with no sign-up and no seed phrase or private key. Watching without a connection still sends the address to whoever supplies the data: Zerion’s servers in Zerion’s case, public blockchain services in Owlio’s. In Zerion you paste the address into the web app or add it as a watch address. With Owlio, you paste it into the side panel.

Zerion’s tracker page says you need no sign-up and no connection, and that there is no limit on watch-only addresses. In the extension this is called a watch address, a view-only wallet that shows balances and activity but cannot send or sign anything. The phone app keeps such wallets in a separate Watchlist.

Owlio cannot sign anything. Every wallet in it is view-only. It accepts Bitcoin, TON and Tron addresses and EVM addresses, which start with 0x; one EVM address is read on every EVM network Owlio supports.

If a page or an extension asks for your seed phrase to “track” or “sync” a wallet, close it. Whoever has the phrase controls the funds, and no tracker needs it.

What can Zerion and Owlio see about you?

Zerion builds your portfolio on its own servers. The addresses you watch go to Zerion, and its privacy policy lists what else it collects. Owlio has no server, and its developers receive nothing. The public services Owlio reads from still see your IP address and the addresses you added. So in both cases your addresses reach servers you do not control.

Zerion. Zerion describes its API as the same infrastructure behind Zerion Wallet, and its privacy policy lists Amazon Web Services as the provider for the portfolio view. So the addresses you look at are sent to Zerion’s servers, which return the portfolio.

According to Zerion’s privacy policy, last updated on 26 November 2025, Zerion collects your device type, browser version and IP address, your city and country, how you use the interface (taps, clicks, scrolling) and public wallet addresses. Zerion says it stores IP addresses in hashed form where possible and keeps logs for 14 days. For push notifications it keeps the list of addresses each device is subscribed to. Your name, street address and date of birth are not on the list.

The policy names the analytics services Zerion works with, including Firebase, Mixpanel and Google Analytics. In the Zerion app, turning off Share app usage analytics (under Settings, then Privacy) stops the collection of your location and the sharing of usage data with Firebase, Mixpanel and other outside analytics tools. The policy also says that Zerion does not collect data about what you do on websites and apps it does not own. According to the same policy, its use of some targeted-advertising services counts as “sharing” under California law, and Zerion does not sell personal data for money.

Owlio. Owlio’s developers receive no addresses, balances or usage data, and the extension has no analytics or telemetry. Everything you add and everything Owlio downloads is stored in your browser and nowhere else. To erase it, open Settings and press Wipe all data in the Data section.

That does not make you invisible. To show balances and prices, the extension asks public services directly from your browser: block explorers, indexers, network nodes, price providers and content delivery networks. As Owlio’s privacy policy puts it, these services can learn your IP address, the addresses you added and, because Owlio requests prices and pictures, which tokens and NFTs you hold. All of these requests leave from the same IP address, and a set of holdings is often unique, so a service could link your wallets to each other and to your IP address.

When the NFTs tab shows a card, Owlio loads its picture from the server that hosts it, and previews have no switch of their own. Only Privacy Mode (the Hide amounts button) stops these requests, and it hides every amount at the same time. The host of a picture learns which NFT is being viewed from your browser.

Which networks do Zerion and Owlio support?

Zerion supports far more networks: its networks page lists 66 and tracks balances automatically on 45 of them, including Solana. Bitcoin and TON are not on that list, and Zerion’s pages give different answers about Tron. Owlio reads fewer EVM networks and adds Bitcoin, Tron and TON next to them.

Zerion’s networks page lists 66 networks plus 8 testnets. The list last changed on 24 September 2026. On the other networks you can still send, swap or bridge where Zerion offers it. Solana is covered for portfolio tracking, while Zerion’s help center says Solana NFTs and Solana protocol positions are not available yet; Bitcoin and TON do not appear on the networks page.

On Tron, Zerion’s tracker page says you can follow any address, and the help center lists Tron with full support. The networks page marks portfolio tracking on Tron as not available. If your Tron wallet matters, add it as a watch address in Zerion and see what shows up.

Owlio reads Ethereum and other EVM networks, including Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Gnosis, zkSync Era, Scroll and BNB Smart Chain, and next to them Bitcoin, Tron and TON.

How do Zerion and Owlio handle DeFi, history and profit?

Zerion goes much deeper. It tracks positions across more than 4,500 DeFi protocols, including loans and debts, and shows detailed profit and loss in its paid Premium plan. Owlio 1.0.0 shows only DeFi positions held as tokens in your wallet and does not show profit and loss, though both show transaction history for free.

According to its DeFi tracker page, Zerion finds LP tokens, staked assets, lending positions, debts and unclaimed rewards across 4,500+ protocols. The FAQ on its tracker page says tokens, NFTs, DeFi positions and history are free on every supported chain, and that Premium adds profit and loss per position, alerts and feed customization. Realized and unrealized PnL and average cost are, in the words of the help center, a Zerion Premium feature.

Owlio’s DeFi tab shows two kinds of positions held in your wallet as tokens: staked ETH and Aave deposits. That is the whole list. Uniswap v3 style liquidity ranges, native staking and debts are not read. Transaction history downloads in the background in small portions from free sources, so a complete history can take hours, sometimes days.

As the history fills in, the Performance chart shows the value of the portfolio over a week, a month, a year or all time, and what moved it: deposits, withdrawals and price changes. A second line, “If it had all been BTC”, compares the result with holding bitcoin; cost basis and profit and loss are not shown.

Tokens Owlio cannot verify, such as airdropped tokens or copies of well-known symbols, are kept out of the total and out of every share. If a price source does not answer, the total is left out and the token amounts stay on screen. The Data status screen shows, network by network, whether balances were read and how fresh they are, and flags networks that could not be read or have no data source. Holdings on networks Owlio does not read do not appear anywhere in the panel. For the same wallets, the totals in Owlio and Zerion can therefore differ.

What do Zerion and Owlio cost, and where do they run?

Watching wallets is free in both. Zerion also sells Premium for $99 a year for one wallet and takes a 0.67% service fee on swaps and bridges; it runs on phones, in four desktop browsers and on the web. Owlio has no paid plan and no trading, and it runs only in Chrome on a computer.

Zerion Premium covers one wallet for a year and does not renew automatically. The 0.67% service fee applies to Zerion’s built-in swaps and bridges. According to the download page, Zerion runs on iOS and Android phones, as an extension for Chrome, Brave, Firefox and Arc, and as a web app in any browser.

Owlio needs Chrome 114 or newer on a computer, and its interface is available in ten languages. There is no phone app.

How to try Owlio with the wallets you watch in Zerion

If you are trying Owlio as a Zerion alternative, you need only the public addresses you already watch. The steps take a few minutes and change nothing in Zerion.

1. In Zerion, copy the public address of each wallet you want to watch. EVM addresses start with 0x. You will not need a seed phrase or a private key at any step.
2. Install Owlio from the Chrome Web Store. Click its icon to the right of the address bar, and Owlio opens in the side panel. If the icon is not there, open Chrome’s Extensions menu (the puzzle-piece icon) and click Owlio. To keep the icon in view, pin the extension.
3. Paste the first address and press Add address. Add the other wallets, including Bitcoin, Tron or TON wallets you keep elsewhere, from the All accounts list or in Settings.
4. Balances appear first. History keeps downloading in the background, and the Data status screen shows what has been read for each network. If a network could not be read, try again from that screen.
5. To move your setup to another browser, use Export data in Settings and Import data in the other browser.