Electrum's focus is speed and simplicity, with low resource usage. It uses remote servers that handle the most complicated parts of the Bitcoin system, and it allows you to recover your wallet from a secret phrase.
The Electrum wallet features the Simple Payment Verification (SPV) method to verify all transactions without requiring users to download the entire Bitcoin blockchain. It makes Electrum lightweight, thus allowing users to send and receive BTC quickly. For an even better BTC payment experience, Electrum supports Lightning Network for faster and relatively cheap Bitcoin transactions.
Electrum wallet is non-custodial. Therefore, users are in control of protecting their private keys. However, they can use additional security features of the wallet. For example, users can select between 2FA and multisig to add a layer of protection from hackers or simply integrate their Electrum wallet with third-party hardware wallets.
Electrum never stores private keys. Instead, they are stored on the users’ devices locally. The wallet encrypts both—the private keys and the seed phrase—to protect users' privacy. To decrypt the wallet file, users must enter their password. In addition to wallet encryption, Electrum allows users to run their own servers if they prefer more privacy.