This is one of those questions where the honest answer depends on how much money you are protecting and how seriously you take risk.
Technically speaking, no.
A hardware wallet is not required to use a multisig.
Practically speaking, if you are managing real value, not using hardware wallets is a bad idea.
A multisig wallet created with platforms like Safe can use any normal wallet address as a signer. That includes browser wallets, mobile wallets, and hardware wallets. The multisig contract itself does not care. It only checks whether valid signatures are provided.
This is where people get misled. They assume multisig alone equals strong security. It does not.
Multisig protects you from a single person acting alone. It does not protect you from compromised keys. If all your signers use software wallets and one laptop gets infected, an attacker can quietly collect signatures over time. From the blockchain’s point of view, everything looks legitimate.
Hardware wallets change that equation.
A hardware wallet keeps the private key offline. Even if your computer is compromised, the attacker cannot sign transactions without physical access to the device and manual confirmation. That extra friction is exactly what saves treasuries from disaster.
This is why serious teams combine both.
Multisig for shared control.
Hardware wallets for key security.
Using multisig without hardware wallets is acceptable in limited situations. Small balances. Early stage experiments. Development and testing environments. In those cases, convenience may matter more than maximum security.
But once you cross into company funds, DAO treasuries, protocol reserves, or investor capital, relying only on software wallets is asking for trouble. History is full of examples where multisig wallets were drained not because multisig failed, but because the signers’ keys were compromised.
There is also a human factor. Hardware wallets force you to slow down. You physically review and approve each transaction. That pause prevents rushed mistakes and blind signing, which are common causes of loss.
The industry best practice is clear. For anything meaningful, every primary multisig signer should use a hardware wallet. Secondary or emergency signers may vary, but the core control should stay offline.
The takeaway is simple. Multisig controls who can move funds. Hardware wallets protect the keys that authorize those moves. One without the other leaves gaps.