Choosing between Koinly and CoinLedger comes down to one question most Australian crypto investors don't ask until tax time is already upon them: which tool actually understands how the ATO treats crypto? Both platforms promise automated CGT calculations, DeFi support, and clean tax reports. The differences lie in how well each one maps to Australian financial year reporting, SMSF edge cases, and the ATO's specific guidance on disposal events.
What each platform actually does
Koinly is a UK-founded crypto tax tool that expanded aggressively into the Australian market. It connects to over 700 exchanges and wallets, imports transaction history automatically, and produces ATO-compliant CGT reports formatted for the Australian financial year (July–June). It has a dedicated AU tax report type that flags the discount method for assets held longer than 12 months, which is the single most important CGT calculation most Australian investors need to get right.
CoinLedger (formerly CryptoTrader.Tax) is a US-founded platform. It handles Australian tax reporting through a general-purpose engine that can be configured for different jurisdictions, but its primary audience is American. The platform supports a similar number of integrations and produces a capital gains summary, but the ATO-specific formatting requires more manual effort to map into your tax return or hand to an accountant.
ATO compliance: where the real difference shows up
The ATO treats crypto as a CGT asset under TR 2014/26, with additional guidance on DeFi, wrapping, and staking issued in recent years. Koinly has built those rules directly into its calculation engine. It applies the 50% CGT discount automatically for assets held over 12 months, handles the Australian financial year boundary correctly (30 June, not 31 December), and supports the ATO's preferred cost basis methods: FIFO, HIFO, and minimisation. The report output uses terminology an Australian accountant will recognise immediately.
CoinLedger's default output is structured around US tax forms. It does produce a capital gains summary that Australian investors can use, but the cost basis method labelling doesn't align perfectly with ATO terminology. FIFO is supported, but the CGT discount calculation is not automatic. You'll need to manually identify long-held assets and apply the discount yourself, or pay an accountant to do it. For a casual investor with a handful of trades, that's manageable. For someone with 2 years of DeFi activity across 4 chains, it's a significant gap.
Pricing in AUD
Koinly prices in AUD for Australian users. The free tier covers up to 10,000 transactions in portfolio tracking mode, but you need a paid plan to generate a tax report. Paid plans start at around AU$59 for up to 100 transactions, scaling to AU$179 for 1,000 and AU$399 for unlimited. Pricing can shift, so check the Koinly site directly before committing.
CoinLedger prices in USD. The Hobbyist plan runs US$49 for up to 100 transactions, the Day Trader plan is US$99 for up to 1,500, and the Unlimited plan sits at US$199. At current exchange rates those figures are cheaper than Koinly on paper, but the USD pricing means the cost fluctuates with the AUD/USD rate. More importantly, the output requires extra work to make ATO-ready, which can erode any apparent saving if you're paying an accountant to clean up the report.
If you're already looking at other ATO-focused tools in this space, the comparison between Koinly and CryptoTaxCalculator is worth reading alongside this one, since CryptoTaxCalculator is the third major contender built specifically for Australian investors.
Exchange and wallet integrations
Both platforms support the major Australian exchanges. Koinly connects directly to CoinSpot, Swyftx, BTC Markets, and Independent Reserve via API or CSV import. CoinLedger supports the same platforms, though some connections are CSV-only rather than live API. For international exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken, both tools perform comparably.
DeFi support is where things get more nuanced. Koinly handles Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and Arbitrum on-chain data through wallet address imports, and it classifies most common DeFi actions (swaps, liquidity provision, yield farming) automatically. CoinLedger's DeFi support is solid for Ethereum but thinner on newer L2s and Solana-native DeFi. If your portfolio is heavy on multi-chain DeFi, Koinly's classification engine will save you more manual correction time.
SMSF and accountant use cases
Australian SMSF trustees holding crypto face a specific reporting challenge: they need fund-level CGT records, not just individual investor records. Koinly supports multiple portfolios under one account, which is useful for SMSF reporting. Its export formats (including CSV and PDF summaries) are accepted by most Australian accountants who handle SMSF audits.
CoinLedger doesn't have a dedicated SMSF workflow. You can manage separate accounts for different portfolios, but the reporting terminology won't match what an SMSF auditor expects. For trustees who want a clean handoff to their accountant or auditor, Koinly is the cleaner option. If you want to understand how the ATO's data matching program might interact with your SMSF records, the detail on ATO crypto data matching is directly relevant.
User experience and support
Koinly's interface has improved considerably since its early versions. The dashboard surfaces unrealised gains, cost basis, and financial year summaries in a way that makes sense to Australian investors. Support is ticket-based, with response times that vary. The documentation is thorough and AU-specific guides are genuinely useful.
CoinLedger's interface is clean and well-designed. Onboarding is faster than Koinly's for simple portfolios. Live chat support is available on higher-tier plans, which is a genuine advantage when something breaks during import. The platform's US focus does mean some help articles reference IRS forms and US-specific scenarios, which can be disorienting.
The verdict for Australian investors
Koinly is the stronger choice for most Australian crypto investors. It prices in AUD, handles the financial year correctly, applies the CGT discount automatically, and produces output that an Australian accountant can work with immediately. Those aren't minor conveniences. They're the difference between a clean tax filing and a manual reconciliation exercise.
CoinLedger suits investors who already have a trusted accountant handling the ATO-specific calculations, or who have significant US tax obligations alongside their Australian ones and want a single platform. For everyone else, paying for a tool that requires extra work to meet ATO requirements doesn't make much sense when Koinly is priced competitively and built for the job.
Before committing to either, use the free tier to import your transaction history and see how many errors surface. The correction rate is a better benchmark than feature lists.