Tax season is stressful enough without manually calculating crypto gains across a dozen exchanges, three wallets, and multiple DeFi protocols. We tested Koinly across three different portfolio types — a simple exchange-only portfolio, an active DeFi user, and a multi-chain NFT trader — to give you an honest picture of what it handles brilliantly and where it struggles.
The short version: Koinly is the best crypto tax software for most traders in 2026. The setup is easier than any competitor, the DeFi support is impressive, and the free plan lets you preview your entire tax liability before paying a cent. Here's everything you need to know.
💡 Smart Strategy: Start with Koinly's free plan — import all your transactions and see your full tax liability before choosing a paid plan. You only need to pay when you download the actual tax report to file. This is the best way to know exactly which plan you need.
What Is Koinly?
Koinly is a crypto tax software platform founded in 2018 that serves 500,000+ traders across 20+ countries. It works by connecting to your exchanges and wallets — via API for automatic syncing or CSV import for manual uploads — automatically categorizing every transaction, calculating your cost basis using the correct method for your jurisdiction, and generating tax reports in the format your accountant or filing software needs.
The platform has built a reputation for handling the full complexity of modern crypto portfolios — not just simple buy/sell transactions, but DeFi yield farming, liquidity pool positions, NFT sales, staking rewards, airdrops, hard forks, and margin trading. For anyone with anything beyond a simple exchange-only portfolio, this breadth is what separates Koinly from simpler alternatives.
Setup — Easier Than Any Competitor
The first thing that struck us during testing was how smooth the onboarding is. Connecting exchanges via API takes about 2 minutes per exchange — Koinly provides step-by-step instructions for every major platform. Importing CSVs is equally painless with clear guidance on where to find the right export file in each exchange's settings.
Once connected, Koinly automatically identifies and categorizes transactions — buys, sells, transfers, trades, income, expenses. Most standard transactions are categorized correctly without any manual review. Flagged transactions that need attention are clearly highlighted with explanations of why they need review, not just an error message.
📊 Test Result: In our exchange-only portfolio test (Coinbase + Kraken, ~80 transactions), Koinly correctly auto-categorized 97% of transactions with zero manual input. The 3% that needed review were correctly flagged with clear explanations. Setup took 22 minutes total.
DeFi Support — Impressive But Not Perfect
Koinly's DeFi support is the most comprehensive of any crypto tax platform we tested. It correctly handles Uniswap LP positions (treating liquidity provision and withdrawal as taxable events with correct cost basis calculations), Aave lending income, Compound borrowing, and yield farming rewards across most major protocols.
What Koinly DeFi Handles Well
- DEX trades on Uniswap, SushiSwap, Curve, and other major DEXs
- Liquidity pool positions — both the addition and withdrawal, including IL calculation
- Lending/borrowing income from Aave, Compound, and similar protocols
- Staking rewards on ETH, SOL, ATOM, and other PoS chains
- Airdrops and hard forks with correct income categorization
Where Manual Review Is Needed
In our DeFi power user test — a portfolio with positions across 12 different protocols, multiple Arbitrum and Optimism transactions, and some obscure yield aggregators — approximately 8% of transactions needed manual categorization. These were mostly interactions with newer or more obscure protocols that Koinly doesn't yet have specific support for. The platform correctly flagged them for review rather than silently miscategorizing them, which is the right behavior.
⚠️ Important: No crypto tax software handles 100% of DeFi transactions automatically. Koinly is the best available, but complex or obscure protocol interactions will always require some manual review. Budget 1-3 hours for DeFi transaction review depending on portfolio complexity — still much faster than manual calculation.
Country Support — 20+ Jurisdictions
One of Koinly's strongest competitive advantages is its international support. It applies the correct tax method for your jurisdiction automatically — FIFO for the US, HMRC share pooling for UK, FIFO/LIFO/HMRC depending on your country setting. It generates country-specific tax reports for the US (Form 8949, Schedule D), UK (HMRC Capital Gains), Australia (ATO compliant), Germany, Canada, and 15+ other countries.
For traders outside the US, this international support is what makes Koinly the clear choice over CoinTracker (US-focused) and CoinLedger (US-only).
Pricing — Start Free
The pricing is annual-only, which is the main friction point — there's no monthly billing option if you only need it for tax season. That said, $99/year for the HODLer plan works out to $8.25/month, which is very reasonable for the time it saves. Most active traders will fall in the HODLer tier.
Koinly vs CoinTracker vs CoinLedger
Choose Koinly if: you're outside the US, use multiple exchanges and DeFi protocols, or want the most comprehensive transaction support available. Also choose Koinly if you want to preview your full tax liability for free before committing to a plan.
Choose CoinTracker if: you're US-based, primarily use Coinbase, file with TurboTax, and want portfolio tracking and tax in one tool. CoinTracker's TurboTax one-click integration is genuinely best-in-class for US filers.
Choose CoinLedger if: you're US-based with a straightforward exchange-only portfolio and want the cheapest option that still generates clean reports.
Pros & Cons
✓ Pros
- Easiest setup of any crypto tax platform
- 700+ exchanges and wallets supported
- Free plan to preview before paying
- Best DeFi support available
- 20+ countries with local tax rules
- Generates TurboTax, H&R Block-compatible reports
- Real-time portfolio tracking as a bonus
✗ Cons
- Free plan doesn't include tax reports
- Annual pricing only — no monthly option
- Complex DeFi may need manual review
- Support can be slow in tax season
- Pricing jumps significantly at higher tx counts
Koinly is our top recommendation for crypto tax software in 2026. Start with the free plan — import everything and see your full tax liability before paying anything. Most active traders will need the HODLer plan at $99/year, which is genuinely excellent value for the time and stress it saves. If you're outside the US, Koinly's international support makes it the clear choice over every competitor.
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