Sharesight vs Snowball Analytics: a tax report against a dividend calendar

Both products read as the same purchase from the outside: a multi-currency tracker on web, iOS and Android, a free plan capped at ten holdings in one portfolio, and broker links that partly run through the same aggregator — SnapTrade carries Sharesight's direct connections for Robinhood, Fidelity, E*TRADE, Public, Webull, Questrade and Coinbase, and it sits behind Snowball's broker linking alongside Yodlee. The difference is not in the plumbing. It is in the two numbers each one exists to produce, and one of them only exists in three countries.

The deciding question is where you file

Sharesight builds tax reports a revenue authority recognises for exactly three jurisdictions: an Australian capital gains report on the ATO discount method, a Canadian one on adjusted cost base, and the New Zealand FIF and traders tax reports. Each runs only in a portfolio set to that tax residency, and each lives on a particular tier — Standard for the Australian and Canadian capital gains reports, Premium for the New Zealand ones. Australia alone also sells the reports without the subscription: a Tax Pack at A$59 a year covers one portfolio with unlimited holdings and the taxable income, capital gains and all trades reports.

Everywhere else, Sharesight's tax output is a taxable income report and a sold securities report on average cost. For a UK investor that is not Section 104 pooling; for a US investor it is not wash-sale handling and not a Form 8949. Snowball Analytics produces no tax report at all — withholding rates feed its after-tax yield, and that is where tax stops.

So for a reader in Australia, New Zealand or Canada, Sharesight is doing a job Snowball does not attempt. For everyone else the two are a much closer call, and Snowball is cheaper.

The two return figures are not the same number

This is the trap for anyone who tries both before choosing. Sharesight reports a money-weighted return and nothing else: a variation of Modified Dietz, whose result depends on when you added and withdrew money. Its documentation says a time-weighted return is for judging fund managers, not investors, and offers none. Snowball shows a time-weighted return and an internal rate of return together.

Load the same trades into both and the headline percentages will differ, and neither is wrong. If the question you are asking is "did my timing help", Sharesight's figure answers it. If it is "did I beat the index fund I could have bought instead", only Snowball's time-weighted figure is comparable with the fund's published return.

What the money buys on each

The two price ladders meter different things. Sharesight's tiers meter holdings and portfolios and gate the tax reports by tier; Snowball's meter capacity — holdings, portfolios, watchlists, backtest depth — around features that are mostly the same on every paid plan.

• Unlimited holdings, one portfolio. Snowball Starter at $79.99 a year or $7.99 a month. Sharesight's Starter at $7 a month annually or $9.33 monthly caps at 30 holdings, including sold ones, so an active account outgrows it; unlimited starts at Standard, $18 annually or $24 monthly.
• Several portfolios. Snowball Investor, $149.99 a year for ten. Sharesight Standard for four, Premium at $23.25 annually or $31 monthly for ten.
• Free. Both stop at ten holdings in one portfolio. Sharesight's free plan counts sold positions against the ten, but it imports trades from confirmation emails and applies dividends automatically. Snowball's free plan cannot link a broker at all.

Sharesight bills in the currency of the regional site you sign up on, with prices set per region rather than converted; the figures above are the US dollar ones.

Where the broker link runs out

A broker connection is not a full history on either product. Snowball's own help page says transaction history through a broker connection is usually limited to 90 to 200 days for most brokers, which silently guts dividend history and every period-based return until you backfill from statements. Sharesight's SnapTrade connections import historical trades at setup — up to 24 months of them, on its Fidelity page — but its IBKR connection takes ongoing trades only, and none of its direct connections imports short or cover trades. Either way, plan on one file import of your history before the numbers mean anything.

Neither tracks options. Snowball holds bonds only as a manually priced custom holding; Sharesight tracks bonds, property and unlisted assets, but values them by hand too.

The recommendation

If you file tax in Australia, New Zealand or Canada, Sharesight — on the tier where your report lives, which is Standard for Australian and Canadian capital gains and Premium for the New Zealand FIF report, or the A$59 Tax Pack if you are in Australia, keep one portfolio and want only the reports. That report is the product; everything else about the two trackers is close.

Anywhere else, Snowball Analytics on Starter, because Sharesight's advantage outside those three countries is a sold-securities report on average cost, and Snowball costs less for unlimited holdings and gives you a return you can hold against an index. The one exception is a reader who will not pay at all: Sharesight's free plan keeps itself current from confirmation emails, until the tenth holding, sold ones included.

The rest of the category is on the portfolio trackers page.