The Best Koinly Alternative for UK Crypto Investors
If you are weighing a koinly alternative uk filers can rely on, one thing decides it: whether the tool applies HMRC's share identification rules in the right order. Section 104 pooling is not the first step, it is the last one, and a tool that goes straight to the pool will quietly produce the wrong gain. This page compares CryptaTax and Koinly on the points that decide a Self Assessment. Koinly is a capable product; comparison points are framed *as of June 2026*, and anything tied to Koinly's current plans should be verified on its own site.
General information provided as of June 2026, not tax advice. Koinly is a trademark of its respective owner; verify its current features and pricing on its official site. UK treatment of DeFi arrangements in particular depends on the facts of your specific position, so confirm it with a qualified adviser.
Why UK investors look for a Koinly alternative
The UK has one of the more mechanical sets of rules in crypto tax, and that is exactly why software either saves you or fails you here. HMRC does not let you pick which units you sold. It tells you which acquisitions a disposal is matched against, in a fixed order, and only what is left over is drawn from the averaged pool. Get the order wrong and every gain downstream is wrong with it.
So UK filers usually start looking for a koinly alternative after one of a few things: a figure they cannot reproduce by hand, a rebuy inside 30 days that was not matched, or a set of numbers that could not be explained line by line when an accountant asked. None of those are exotic. They are the ordinary consequences of a rule set that punishes averaging things too early.
CryptaTax vs Koinly for HMRC Self Assessment
The table covers what actually decides a UK filing. The CryptaTax column describes how CryptaTax is built. The Koinly column is not filled in with claims: vendor capability and pricing move, and pointing you at the source beats asserting something that goes stale.
| For a UK Self Assessment | CryptaTax | Koinly |
|---|---|---|
| Share identification order | Same day, then 30 days, then the Section 104 pool, in HMRC's order | Confirm the matching order it applies |
| Section 104 pool | Averaged cost maintained per token, updated on every acquisition | Check how the pool is maintained |
| Same-day rule | Acquisitions on the day of disposal matched first | Verify same-day handling |
| 30-day (bed and breakfasting) rule | Reacquisitions in the following 30 days matched before the pool | Verify 30-day handling |
| Reporting currency | Pounds sterling throughout, valued at the time of each event | Check the reporting currency and rate source |
| Self-transfers | Both legs matched automatically, so a move between your own wallets is not a disposal | Verify how transfers between your own accounts are treated |
| Output | SA108-ready capital gains figures, with the 3,000 pound and 50,000 pound thresholds flagged | Match against the outputs you need to file |
| Audit trail | Every figure traces back to a source transaction | Check traceability |
| Pricing | Published, and scales with transaction volume | Check current plans at your real volume |
Section 104 pooling done correctly
Under Section 104 pooling, all units of the same token are held in one pool at an averaged cost, and a disposal draws from that average rather than from a specific purchase. This is why the UK does not have a FIFO-versus-LIFO debate in the way the US does. You do not choose; the pool decides, once the matching rules above it have been applied.
Maintaining the pool by hand is where spreadsheets break down. Every acquisition changes the average, so the cost of a disposal in November depends on a purchase in March that itself changed the average set in January. Across a few hundred transactions on several venues, the arithmetic is not hard so much as unforgiving: one missed acquisition shifts every subsequent disposal. CryptaTax maintains the pool automatically and keeps the working behind each figure so you can see which acquisitions produced a given average.
Same-day and 30-day (bed and breakfasting) matching rules
Before anything reaches the pool, HMRC's method matches a disposal in this order:
- Same day, acquisitions of the same token made on the same day as the disposal.
- Next 30 days, acquisitions made in the 30 days *after* the disposal, taken in order. This is the bed and breakfasting rule, and it is the one that catches people who sell and rebuy to realise a loss.
- Section 104 pool, whatever quantity is left over is matched against the averaged pool.
The consequence worth understanding: if you sell at a loss and buy back within 30 days, the disposal is matched against that repurchase rather than against your pooled cost, so the loss you were trying to realise largely disappears. It is not disallowed the way a US wash sale is, it is *re-matched*, which produces a different number rather than a rejected one. A tool that applies these rules in the wrong order, or skips them, will hand you a loss that is not there.
The 3,000 pound capital gains allowance and 18% / 24% rates
The annual exempt amount is 3,000 pounds for 2025/26 and 2026/27. Net gains within it are tax-free. Above it, capital gains are taxed at 18% if you are a basic-rate taxpayer and 24% if you are a higher- or additional-rate taxpayer, the rates that have applied since 30 October 2024.
There is a second threshold worth knowing about, because it decides whether you have to report at all rather than how much you pay: total proceeds above 50,000 pounds bring a reporting requirement even where the gain sits under the allowance. CryptaTax flags both, so "do I even need to file this" is answered before you start filling anything in. The UK crypto tax guide sets out how they interact.
Staking, DeFi and airdrops under HMRC rules
Earning crypto and disposing of it are taxed under different regimes in the UK, and the join between them is where tools most often go wrong. Three things have to be right:
Rewards recorded as income at receipt
Rewards from staking and most airdrops are income at the value they had when you received them. If a receipt is not recorded as income, you underreport now, and no amount of accuracy on the capital gains side compensates for it.
The receipt value carried into the Section 104 pool
That same receipt value becomes the cost base of the units received, which then enter the pool. If it is not carried through, you overreport later: the eventual disposal is taxed on a cost base that ignores the amount you already paid income tax on. This is the quieter of the two failure modes and the more expensive one, because it does not show up until you sell.
DeFi, where the treatment is genuinely contested
DeFi is contested rather than merely fiddly: whether a particular lending or liquidity arrangement is a disposal depends on what actually happened to beneficial ownership. That is a question about your arrangement, not about software. CryptaTax records the events and their values so an adviser can apply a treatment; it does not pretend the ambiguity is settled. Read the DeFi tax guide for where the lines currently sit.
SA108 and SA100-ready reports
Crypto reaches a UK return in two places: disposals go on the SA108 Capital Gains Summary, in the cryptoassets section, and crypto income goes on the main SA100 as miscellaneous income. CryptaTax produces SA108-ready capital gains figures for the tax year with the transactions visible behind them, and separates income so it lands in the right place rather than inflating your gains.
Detail on each: Capital Gains Summary SA108 and the SA100 Self Assessment return. When you evaluate Koinly, check the outputs it provides today against those two forms.
Pricing compared for UK filers
Check Koinly's current plans, transaction limits and add-ons on its own site; pricing is the part of any comparison that goes stale fastest. CryptaTax's pricing is published and scales with transaction volume rather than penalising it.
Compare at *your* real volume rather than at the entry tier. A year of DeFi activity produces far more transactions than most people estimate, and volume is where the cost difference between tools usually appears.
Switching before the 31 January deadline
The UK tax year runs 6 April to 5 April, and the online filing and payment deadline is 31 January after it ends. For 2025/26, which ended 5 April 2026, that means 31 January 2027. Paper returns are due earlier, on 31 October.
- Export your history from Koinly, with any manual adjustments, so you have a record of how prior years were treated.
- Connect the same wallets and exchanges to CryptaTax and let it rebuild the pool from source data.
- Compare the overlap year, paying particular attention to any disposal followed by a rebuy within 30 days, since that is where the two tools are most likely to differ.
- Resolve any difference before you file. A gap is almost always a classification disagreement on a specific transaction, and identifying which one is the point of the exercise.
Because both tools read the same blockchain and exchange data, a clean migration should reproduce your history rather than rewrite it. If you are amending an earlier year, rebuilding it from a complete history with the matching rules applied correctly is what makes the revised figures defensible.
Related comparisons and UK guides
Looking wider? See the general Koinly alternative comparison for the jurisdiction-neutral view, the best crypto tax software roundup for the full shortlist, or the UK crypto tax guide for the rules themselves. The same regional depth for the other two markets: Koinly alternative for Australia and Koinly alternative for Canada.
FAQ
The one that applies HMRC's share identification rules in the right order. A UK gain depends on matching a disposal against same-day acquisitions first, then acquisitions in the following 30 days, and only then against the Section 104 pool. CryptaTax applies that order automatically and shows the working. Test it against Koinly on a period of your own history where you already know roughly what the answer should be.
Yes. CryptaTax maintains an averaged Section 104 pool per token, updated on every acquisition, and applies the same-day and 30-day matching rules before drawing from it. Each figure links back to the acquisitions that produced it, so you can see why a given average is what it is.
If you dispose of a token and reacquire the same token within the following 30 days, the disposal is matched against that reacquisition rather than against your pooled cost. It means selling at a loss and buying straight back does not realise the loss you expected. Unlike a US wash sale the loss is not disallowed, it is re-matched, which changes the number rather than rejecting it.
The annual exempt amount is 3,000 pounds for 2025/26 and 2026/27, so net gains within that are tax-free. Above it, gains are taxed at 18% for basic-rate taxpayers and 24% for higher- and additional-rate taxpayers, the rates in force since 30 October 2024. Note that total proceeds above 50,000 pounds can create a reporting requirement even when the gain is under the allowance.
Disposals go on the SA108 Capital Gains Summary, in the cryptoassets section. Crypto income, such as staking rewards, goes on the main SA100 Self Assessment return as miscellaneous income. CryptaTax produces SA108-ready capital gains figures and keeps income separate so it lands in the right place.
For the tax year running 6 April to 5 April, the online filing and payment deadline is 31 January afterwards; paper returns are due by 31 October. Rebuilding a full transaction history is the slow part, so starting well before January is worth more than any tool choice.