Coinbase reviews
What users love and hate, from real reviews
A major US crypto exchange with an easy on-ramp for beginners, where the convenience of buying coins constantly fights against high fees, app freezes, and being locked out of your own money.
What users love
An easy start for first-timers in crypto
This is the most common praise: for beginners Coinbase genuinely makes sense — a clean interface, simple buy-sell, clear steps, and the app teaches crypto by explaining coins. Many admit they'd never have figured it out without it.
I was never into crypto until I discovered this app. It has taught me alot about crypto.
For someone who has never done this, Coinbase makes it easy
The app is beginner-friendly, secure, and makes sending or receiving crypto simple.
An all-in-one platform: crypto, stocks, card, staking
Experienced users like the breadth: one app for crypto trading, stocks, derivatives, staking and lending, the Coinbase debit and credit card, and an Advanced mode with detailed charts and lower fees. For many it's "the only app you need."
now a fully realized money management platform, with trading, lending, staking, leveraged staking for crypto, also trading for stocks, derivatives, perpetuals, etc.
Coinbase has evolved into a fantastic, all-in-one ecosystem for more experienced users.
switching over to Coinbase Advanced unlocks the detailed charting, order books, and significantly lower maker/taker fees that serious traders need!!
Long-running reliability and trust among some veterans
Despite the wave of criticism, a noticeable group of long-time users find Coinbase reliable and proven: years without issues, fast transactions, easy withdrawals, and a feeling of safety from identity confirmation before transfers. Some rate it above their traditional bank.
Coinbase for me has always been reliable.
finding my account is smooth with money available instantly. selling and withdrawing cryptos, no headache either.
I've held crypto in several exchanges, and in my opinion Coinbase is top shelf.
What users hate
The app freezes at the exact moment you trade
Users describe the same scenario over and over: the moment they try to buy, sell, or open a futures position, the app stalls, spins, and crashes — and while it's frozen the price moves, taking money with it. Some even bought a new phone thinking it was the hardware, but the lag stayed.
the app freezes everytime I try to make a perpetual/futures trade.. every. single. time.
This app constantly freezes while trying to place a trade or view a chart. It is very frustrating.
It's so frustrating how slow this app is! You will lose money if you need to make a quick buy or sell. It will just spin and spin until you close and reboot.
Getting your money out turns into a siege
The most painful theme: money goes in easily, but trying to withdraw it gets held, transfers blocked for a week to a month with no clear reason, and sometimes released only at a loss. The feeling of funds being held hostage comes up again and again.
Worst withdraw process ever. Feels like they're holding my money hostage.
This app is absolutely terrible, takes money from my bank then doesn't let me trade it for a week.
charged me to move money in, then proceeds to block me from transferring for over a month, then charges me to deposit back into my bank. 100% scam to steal from people
Verification is a maze with no exit
KYC rejects every document, demands a passport and then another paper, and the ID screen rotates on its own. People spend days and hours trying to verify and never pass — especially those whose ID isn't in English or whose phone number changed.
Spent 4 HOURS over the past 5 days getting verified ....and still not verified. I've followed everything exactly as asked and spoken to the customer service 5 times.
too hard to verify ,,i used 3 issue government types of i.d ,,but still not accepted to verify ..TRASH !!
Useless apps... verification step like hell...
Support replies with canned templates, then ghosts you
When something breaks, there's no help: they tell you to reinstall and clear cache, make you keep a chat alive for hours, then stop replying. People complain of being "escalated" into nowhere with the problem never resolved.
App has many bugs. Even the support team faces it. And saddest part that nobody cares about it. All they can advice is "reinstall app, clear cache, clean cookies".
garbage platform. constantly breaking, even across desktop version. Support takes hours and requires you to keep the chat alive every 5 minutes, ridiculous.
its always "escalated it for you" and nothing happens. They then make you do quizzes over and over and over again.
Fees and spread eat your money before you even invest
Users tally exact losses: sold $25 of bitcoin and got $19, deposited $200 and saw $180, around 4% gone to fees and slippage before investing at all. Many name the fees directly as their reason for leaving for other exchanges.
Very difficult to transfer funds in or out. Insane fees, sold $25 worth of bitcoin, $19 made it to my account.
From deposit to investing I almost lost 4% in fees and slippage. Worst experience from coinbase
takes damn near most of your money in transaction fees. you literally lose just buying in. example buy in $200 balance $180
Sudden account lockout with no explanation
Long-time loyal customers suddenly lose access: the account gets closed for a "terms of service breach" no one will show them, or recovery sends a code to an old phone number. The money stays inside while login is impossible.
Was fine until they randomly locked me out of my account for 1 month due to their incompetence
they locked me out my account, keeps wanting to send a recovery number to a phone number that I don't have any more
Used the platform for over a year buying and selling then out of nowhere my account was closed, breach of "terms of service", no explanation given
The prediction market feels like a rigged casino
A distinct pain is the predictions feature: people win by the facts (temperature, coin price) but are scored as losing, and payouts never arrive. They complain of "slip" that turns a 98% gain into 28%, and call it gambling.
I never got my payouts from my predictions and costumer service never help
the amount of "slip" they allow in predictions is diabolical and might be considered illegal. up 98% no change in price, actively going up, sell and walk away with 28%..
I put 800 dollars to a prediction 63 highest temperature on Jun 8 Seattle. The official page from NWS says my prediction was correct
Intrusive pop-ups and ads for new features
Veterans dislike how bloated the app got: the screen is full of "new feature!" pop-ups, Coinbase One ads, games and predictions, while you have to scroll to find your own portfolio. They feel pushed toward gambling instead of simply buying crypto.
but lately it's being flooded with 'new feature!' pop-ups.
its bloated with extra stuff i don't use or care about and things are missing from the original. Also, you have to click many times to see ALL your important CRYPTO portfolio.
predatory fees and huge ads that take over the screen