Sharesight is a performance tracker that produces tax reports. Sched3 is a Canadian tax engine purpose-built for CRA compliance — superficial losses, T5008 reconciliation, T3/ETF adjustments — at $129/yr vs. Sharesight's $216+/yr.
Sharesight is excellent at what it was built for: tracking the true performance of a portfolio — dividends, currency, benchmarks — across multiple markets. It supports the CRA’s adjusted cost base method and produces a Canadian capital gains report, with plans from about $7 to $23 per month (roughly $84–$280 per year), and a Business tier for advisors at $13.50 per portfolio per month.
Sched3 was built for the other question: “what does the CRA expect on my Schedule 3, and can I defend it?” That means the Canadian-specific machinery — superficial losses across affiliated accounts, T5008 box 20 reconciliation, T3 box 42 return of capital, ETF phantom distributions, per-trade Bank of Canada FX — is the core product, not a report at the end.
If your main need is performance analytics — money-weighted returns, dividend income tracking, benchmarking, multi-country portfolios — Sharesight is the stronger product and Sched3 doesn’t try to compete there.
Plenty of investors run both: Sharesight to understand returns during the year, Sched3 to produce the defensible tax numbers at the end of it. If you hold most assets in registered accounts and your taxable account is simple, Sharesight’s tax report may be all you need.
| Capability | Sched3 (Active, $129/yr) | Sharesight (Investor, ~$216/yr) |
|---|---|---|
| Performance & returns analytics | Basic (realized/unrealized gains) | ✓ Its specialty — MWR, benchmarks, income |
| CRA pooled ACB method | ✓ | ✓ |
| Superficial-loss detection | ✓ Windows, affiliated accounts, safe rebuy date | ✗ |
| T5008 reconciliation against broker slips | ✓ | ✗ |
| ETF return of capital & phantom distributions | ✓ Per-fund Canadian data, auto-applied | Partial (manual adjustments) |
| USD/CAD conversion | ✓ BoC rate per trade date | ✓ Multi-currency engine |
| RSU / ESPP / options cost base | ✓ | ✗ |
| Crypto (swaps as dispositions, CAD-valued) | ✓ | Limited |
| Corporate actions | ✓ Splits, spin-offs, mergers with ACB carry-through | Partial |
| “What if I sell?” tax simulator | ✓ | ✗ |
| Schedule 3-ready accountant package | ✓ PDF + audit trail | CRA capital gains report |
| Multi-client tools | ✓ Pro $499/yr, 20 clients incl. (+$15/client) | ✓ Business, $13.50/portfolio/month |
| Price for one investor | $129/yr | ~$216–280/yr |
A performance tracker computes your gains from the transactions it holds, then formats a report. That works until a Canadian-specific rule changes the number itself: a loss denied by the superficial-loss rule, an ACB quietly reduced by box 42 return of capital, a phantom distribution that should have raised your cost base, or a broker T5008 whose cost field is blank or wrong. Those aren’t formatting concerns — they change what you owe.
Sched3 treats each of those as a first-class feature with its own detection, data, and workflow. That is the practical difference between “supports the ACB method” and “was built around Canadian capital gains.”
Sharesight’s useful Canadian tax reporting starts at its paid tiers — roughly $216 to $280 per year, billed monthly, for one investor. Sched3’s Active plan is $129 per year and includes the whole tax stack: reconciliation, ETF adjustments, equity compensation, crypto, corporate actions, and the accountant-ready package.
For professionals the gap widens: Sharesight Business runs about $162 per portfolio per year, while Sched3 Pro covers 20 clients for $499 with each additional client at $15 — under $25 per client at a 50-client book.
Yes, and some investors do: Sharesight for performance analytics year-round, Sched3 for the tax-season numbers. Both import from the same broker files, so there is no double data entry.
No — Sharesight’s Canadian capital gains report uses the ACB method but does not detect superficial losses. If you tax-loss sell and repurchase within the 30-day window (in any account you or an affiliated person controls), you must catch and adjust that yourself. Sched3 flags it automatically with the safe rebuy date.
Sharesight. Sched3 shows realized and unrealized gains but is not a performance-analytics product. Our honest advice is to pick the tool built for the question you are actually asking.
You don’t need to export from Sharesight at all — Sched3 imports directly from your brokers’ CSV/activity files (Wealthsimple, Questrade, IBKR, TD, RBC, National Bank), which are the original source of truth.