Six options, checked on September 26, 2026, and not one of them is the answer by itself.

Which one works depends on records you already hold: how many accounts, how many tax years, whether a Form 1099-DA showed up, and where the finished figures have to land.

These programs read imported transaction history, calculate gains, and produce the schedules a return needs. That is the whole category recap you get here.

The rest of this page is a sorting job on your records, not a ranking.

Every dollar figure below carries the date and scope we checked it under. Treat the checkout page, not a marketing figure, as the price.

Start with Your Filing Task

Write down six things before you open anyone's pricing page:

  1. Accounts and wallets. All of them, including the exchange you quit in 2022 and the hardware wallet you moved coins to.
  2. Forms 1099-DA received, and which broker each one came from.
  3. Tax years still open for a return or an amendment.
  4. Transaction count across all of those years, added together, not just last year's.
  5. Complex activity: staking rewards, bridges, liquidity pools, NFTs, anything that was not a plain buy or sell.
  6. Filing destination: your own return in consumer software, a report handed to a preparer, or a service that prepares and files for you.

That inventory splits the field. If a whole tax year sits inside one exchange that feeds a broker import, a supported record can carry you into filing software without a separate calculator. The moment coins left for a wallet you control, or moved between exchanges, no single record holds your basis, and you need something that merges sources before it calculates anything.

The mechanics are identical everywhere: connect accounts or upload CSVs, let the program categorize what it sees, correct what it got wrong, then export. The differences that cost you money sit at the two ends, in what got imported and what you are allowed to download.

For the tax rules underneath the software, read check what the 1099-DA covers, review lot-method choices, and take reconciled figures to Form 8949.

To see the individual write-ups, compare the software options.

How This Shortlist Was Made and Dated

We filled the facts on this page on September 26, 2026. That is the snapshot date, not a claim that every figure was published that day. Some values come from vendor pages we read on that date, tied to a stated tax year.

Others carry only an as-of year, 2025 or 2026, from our own working knowledge of the products, and those need a checkout check before you buy. Where the two disagree in scope, we show the scope rather than averaging them into a single number.

Five things decided what went in a card: whether the product covers the records a US filer actually holds, what the entry price buys once all your years are counted, what it does with a received Form 1099-DA, where the output can be filed, and whether a human is available and what that human is allowed to do.

No link on this page pays us. Product links go to our own reviews; the rules we compare by are in how we compare these programs.

Each card names one role the product fills and one condition under which it fails you. A feature we did not list is a feature we did not check for this page, not a hole in the product. The six reviews own the detail.

Options by Task

Self-serve reconciliation you drive yourself

Koinly. A received Form 1099-DA is uploaded in Tax Reports and reconciled by wallet or exchange against the transactions and basis Koinly calculated, as of 2026. That wallet-level view is the reason it shows up on filers' shortlists when a broker total looks wrong.

Where it stops: at the export. Nobody at Koinly reviews your figures or signs anything. Open before you pay: your own cart total once your transaction band and every back year are in it.

See Koinly's documented discrepancy workflow.

CoinTracking. There is no dedicated Form 1099-DA file import as of 2026. Exchange API connections or CSV history supply the cost-basis calculation, and any comparison against the broker form is one you make yourself, line against line.

That suits someone whose history is long and whose forms are few. It works against you if you wanted the form matched for you. Open question: how much of the transaction allowance your older years eat.

See CoinTracking's multi-year plan.

Calculator with an optional human layer

CoinLedger. Basic Form 1099-DA import and reconciliation is available as of 2026, and expert help can be bought alongside the report. Fit: a filer who wants the comparison done inside the product and a second pair of eyes on request.

Failure condition: you need to see which transaction caused the gap, and not just that a gap exists. Unresolved: whether that reconciliation displays per-transaction detail or a summary. See CoinLedger's review and help boundary.

CoinTracker. It imports Form 1099-DA data and reconciles it with synced wallet and exchange transactions before filing, per the product page we read on September 26, 2026. Its named routes to Coinbase, H&R Block and TurboTax are the draw for filers who already use one of those.

Failure condition: you want to price the thing before loading data, because a current tier grid is not something we can date to a vendor page. Open: what your volume costs today at checkout. See CoinTracker's filing handoffs.

TokenTax. Exchange and wallet history imports by API or CSV, and the received Form 1099-DA is then compared against the reconstructed basis, per its documentation as of September 26, 2026. Three distinct things carry the TokenTax name, and they are not interchangeable: the calculation, VIP consultations, and Full Filing, which is scoped and priced on its own.

A consultation answers questions. Failure condition: assuming the subscription includes the return. Open: what Full Filing quotes for a return shaped like yours.

See TokenTax's filing service boundary.

Filing software as the endpoint

TurboTax. This is where a return actually gets filed, and for tax year 2025 it takes Form 1099-DA data through a supported broker or exchange import in TurboTax Online. When one exchange holds the whole year and issues a form TurboTax can pull, the calculator layer is redundant.

It fails the self-custody filer: nothing here reconstructs basis for coins that moved to a wallet, and there are two separate official presentations of what crypto filing costs. See TurboTax's filing route.

Compare the Cost of Your Actual History

Option Entry price, as checked Transactions in that price Download or filing outcome Tax-year model Human help Check before paying
Koinly $49 per tax year (Koinly comparison page, checked September 26, 2026) 100 per tax year Form 8949, Schedule D, Schedule 1, plus TurboTax and TaxAct reports Priced per tax year Not part of the plan The cart total once your band and every back year are added; the $49 is the entry band only
CoinLedger $49 per tax report (CoinLedger comparison page, checked September 26, 2026) 100 Form 8949 and Schedule D Priced per report Expert Review sold alongside Whether one report covers the year you need, and each extra year's price
CoinTracker $59/year (figure as of 2025, not a current vendor quote) 100 in the entry paid tier; free import unlimited Form 8949 and Schedule D, downloadable for a CPA or for use with TurboTax and H&R Block Annual Assisted reconciliation offered The live tier grid at checkout; do not budget from the 2025 figure
CoinTracking $49/year (figure as of 2026) 200 cumulative across all tax years IRS Form 8949 tax report Annual subscription A narrower named route than the others How much of the 200 your back years consume before the current year starts
TokenTax $49/tax year (figure as of 2026) 100 per tax year Form 8949 for filing or transfer into TurboTax, H&R Block or TaxAct Priced per tax year VIP consultations; Full Filing quoted separately The Full Filing quote, which is a different purchase
TurboTax $79 for a self-prepared federal return with crypto (2025 scope, figure as of 2026) Up to 20,000 crypto transactions by automatic import for tax year 2025 (vendor page checked September 26, 2026) Form 8949 and Schedule D prepared inside the filed federal return; no separate form export Per filed return Filing is the product, not reconciliation The federal price and the transaction allowance are published in separate places; get the total for your return and state at checkout

Two words in that table decide your real cost. Cumulative means CoinTracking's 200 transactions cover all tax years together, so 2022 and 2023 history spends allowance you might have wanted for this year's trades. Per tax year means Koinly's and TokenTax's 100 resets each year and so does the charge, which is fine for one year and multiplies fast for four.

Take a filer with roughly 400 transactions spread over two exchanges and one wallet, and three back years to settle. Under a per-tax-year model that is three separate purchases at a band above the entry tier. Under CoinTracking's cumulative count, 400 transactions have already passed the 200 the entry price covers.

Under CoinLedger's per-report scope, the question is how many reports three years takes. Run that arithmetic with your own count, then read the tier page.

The other trap is the free tier. Importing and previewing a gain figure is not the same as downloading a document you can attach to a return. We have paid for a tier that showed a confident total and then found the Form 8949 download sitting behind the next price up.

Preview the numbers for free, by all means. Confirm which tier releases the file before the card comes out.

Check the 1099-DA Mismatch Before Filing

A broker total and a software total disagreeing is normal and is not by itself a verdict on either one. It is a prompt to look at records. Work down this list before you accept any figure:

  • Every account is connected. One missing wallet moves basis out of the calculation and the mismatch follows.
  • No overlapping upload range. A CSV covering a period you already imported counts the same disposals twice. This is the error we have personally made, and the report looks perfectly plausible afterwards.
  • Basis is populated where the broker left the field empty. See check blank basis fields and rebuild missing cost-basis records.
  • Fee treatment reviewed. Koinly's support documentation names fee handling among the causes of a discrepancy between its figures and a broker's, so check how fees landed in your proceeds and basis.
  • Transfers read as transfers, not as sales. A move between your own accounts that got booked as a disposal inflates gain; see wallet transfers.
  • Lot setting checked, not assumed. Products offer FIFO, LIFO, HIFO and specific identification as of 2026, and the setting changes the number. Which one you are entitled to use is a rules question: review lot-method choices.
  • Complex categories reviewed by hand: liquidity-pool deposits and withdrawals, wraps and unwraps, cross-chain bridge transfers, liquid-staking derivatives, airdrops, and yield-farming rewards. Automated categorization goes wrong most often in exactly these. A cross-chain bridge may be classified as a transfer by one product and as a disposal plus reacquisition by another, and defaults differ.
  • Depth of the comparison. Some products show you the mismatch per transaction; for CoinLedger, whether the reconciliation goes to transaction level is open, and that matters if you plan to defend a figure.

Koinly's own workflow, as of 2026, has you upload the received Form 1099-DA in Tax Reports so it is reconciled by wallet or exchange against the transactions and basis it calculated.

TokenTax's documented route, checked on September 26, 2026, runs the other way around: import the exchange and wallet history by API or CSV first, then compare the form against the reconstructed basis.

Either order works. Neither is a guarantee that every mismatch surfaces.

Which tax year a broker's form covers is set by the form year and not by when the envelope arrived, so match it against the IRS instructions for the year you are filing. The reporting year on a 2025 form is not automatically the year your next return covers.

Choose the Filing Handoff

A subscription calculates. A consultation answers questions. Neither one files a return.

Offering software does not make a company your return preparer; a human prepares a return inside a professional-assisted or full-filing service, and that is a separate purchase with a separate scope.

Where does the return get filed? Follow one branch.

  • Branch A: you file it yourself in consumer software.

    • Condition: your year sits in accounts a broker import supports.
    • Route: TurboTax takes Form 1099-DA data through a supported broker or exchange import in TurboTax Online for 2025, and prepares Form 8949 and Schedule D inside the filed federal return, with no separate form export to hand anyone.
    • Stop here if any coins sat in self-custody. Go to Branch B.

  • Branch B: a specialist report goes into your return or to a preparer.

    • Condition: several sources, transfers between them, or back years.
    • Route: Koinly exports Form 8949, Schedule D, Schedule 1, and reports formatted for TurboTax and TaxAct. CoinLedger exports Form 8949 and Schedule D. CoinTracking produces an IRS Form 8949 tax report. TokenTax gives you Form 8949 to file or to transfer into TurboTax, H&R Block or TaxAct. CoinTracker's downloadable Form 8949 and Schedule D go to a CPA or into TurboTax and H&R Block.
    • CoinTracker's named handoffs are an easier delivery of a report than a generic export. They are still a delivery. CoinTracking's named route is narrower than the export lists above, so check it against your destination before you subscribe.

  • Branch C: a human prepares and files it.

    • Condition: a discrepancy you cannot close, or years you would rather not handle alone.
    • Route: TokenTax Full Filing is scoped and priced separately from VIP consultations, and the consultations do not roll over into filing. CoinLedger Expert Review puts a reviewer on your figures within the software relationship.
    • Ask one question before paying: who signs the return.

What to Verify Before Paying

Do these in order. The sequence matters, because the cheapest tier for the wrong record set is money gone.

  1. Test coverage on your real data. Open a free account, connect every source on your inventory, and compare the accounts the program found against your written list.
  2. Inspect the mismatch detail. Open one Form 1099-DA comparison and see whether it names transactions or only shows a total difference.
  3. Count all history, not this year's. Then find the tier that covers that count under that product's year model.
  4. Confirm the export destination. If your preparer wants Form 8949 as a file, a product that only prepares forms inside its own return does not serve you.
  5. Get the current checkout quote for every year you are buying, and compare it against the figure you budgeted from.
  6. Decide on human help last, once you know whether the software's own output closes the gap.

Narrowing to two candidates is the point where a head-to-head helps: CoinLedger vs CoinTracker and CoinLedger vs Koinly carry that work, and the guides at check what the 1099-DA covers and take reconciled figures to Form 8949 carry the rules.

The recommendation is conditional and stays that way: choose the workflow whose output you have actually watched handle your records, and whose dated terms and export match the place your return gets filed. "Best overall" is a badge, not a decision.

Can I use TurboTax alone if I only traded on one exchange?

Possibly, yes.

If that exchange is a supported broker import and every coin stayed on it for the whole tax year, the Form 1099-DA data can flow straight in for 2025 and the forms are prepared inside the filed return.

The moment a wallet you control, a second exchange, or a transfer enters the picture, TurboTax has no way to rebuild basis, and you need a calculator first.

Why might my software total differ from Form 1099-DA?

Because the two are built from different record sets.

Work the checklist above: a missing account, an overlapping CSV upload, an empty basis field, fee treatment, and a transfer booked as a sale each move the total, and Koinly's support documentation names fee handling among the documented causes.

A gap tells you to inspect records; it does not tell you the broker or the software is wrong.

Does a free account give me a return I can file?

No, and this is where filers lose money.

Free tiers generally import history and show you a gain figure, and CoinTracker's free import is unlimited in scope, but the fileable output sits behind the paid tier: $49 per tax report at CoinLedger for 100 transactions, $49 per tax year at Koinly for 100 per year.

Confirm which tier releases the Form 8949 download before you pay.

If I pay for expert help, will someone file my return?

Only in one case. TokenTax Full Filing is a separately scoped and separately priced service where a human prepares the return; TurboTax is the product that actually files. CoinLedger Expert Review reviews your figures, CoinTracker offers assisted reconciliation, and TokenTax VIP consultations answer questions, and none of those three is a filing.

List your accounts and transaction years, run the mismatch checklist, then check the plan and export that fits your filing route before paying.

Sources