What Sharesight Does Well
Let's start with the facts: Sharesight is an excellent portfolio tracking tool that has served investors well for over a decade. If you're looking for solid performance reporting and tax documentation, it's a strong choice.
Sharesight's Strengths
- Comprehensive performance reporting with TWRR (time-weighted return)
- Strong tax reporting for multiple countries including Australia, NZ, UK, US
- Multi-currency support for international portfolios
- Dividend tracking and reinvestment modeling
- Historical data preservation and long-term records
- Manual trade entry for any asset type
- Established platform with proven reliability
Where Sharesight Falls Short
- No real-time risk alerts or proactive warnings
- Limited AI capabilities for pattern detection
- No correlation analysis across holdings
- No news monitoring or event-driven alerts
- Primarily backward-looking (reports what happened)
- No concentration risk warnings
- Limited support for US 401(k) and IRA tracking
💡 The Core Difference
Sharesight is a portfolio tracker. Guardfolio is a portfolio risk monitor. One tells you where you've been. The other warns you about where you're headed.
Why You Might Need More Than Sharesight
Sharesight was designed in a different era—before AI, before real-time data feeds, and before algorithmic trading changed market dynamics. It excels at answering questions like:
- "What's my total return this year?"
- "How much dividend income did I earn?"
- "What's my capital gains tax liability?"
But it can't answer the questions that prevent losses:
- "Is my portfolio dangerously concentrated right now?"
- "Are my supposedly diversified stocks all about to move together?"
- "Is there breaking news about my holdings I should know about?"
- "Am I in a drawdown that's about to accelerate?"
When Sharesight Is the Right Choice
You should use Sharesight if:
- You primarily need tax reporting and performance history
- You're a buy-and-hold investor who checks your portfolio monthly or quarterly
- You invest internationally and need multi-currency support
- You want to manually track assets that don't connect to brokers
When You Need Guardfolio Instead
You need Guardfolio if:
- You want to prevent losses before they happen, not just track them afterward
- You manage significant wealth and can't afford to miss early warning signs
- You have multiple accounts (401k, IRA, taxable) that need unified risk monitoring
- You want AI to analyze thousands of data points you'd never catch manually
- You need real-time alerts, not monthly reports
The Guardfolio Advantage
While Sharesight shows you the scoreboard, Guardfolio coaches you during the game. Our AI monitors your portfolio 24/7, analyzing risk factors that would take hours to check manually—and alerts you the moment action is needed.
See How It Works →Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | Sharesight | Guardfolio AI |
|---|---|---|
| Performance Tracking | ✓ Excellent | ✓ Complete |
| Tax Reporting | ✓ Multi-country support | ~ US-focused (coming) |
| Real-Time Risk Alerts | ✗ | ✓ AI-powered 24/7 |
| Concentration Risk Detection | ✗ | ✓ Automatic alerts |
| Correlation Analysis | ✗ | ✓ Real-time tracking |
| News & Event Monitoring | ✗ | ✓ AI scans thousands of sources |
| Drawdown Warnings | ✗ | ✓ Proactive alerts |
| 401(k) / IRA Support | ~ Limited | ✓ Full integration |
| Multi-Account Aggregation | ✓ | ✓ With unified risk view |
| Mobile Alerts | ✗ | ✓ Push, SMS, email |
| AI/ML Capabilities | ✗ | ✓ Core technology |
| Manual Asset Entry | ✓ Extensive | ~ Broker-focused |
| International Assets | ✓ 200+ exchanges | ~ Major markets |
| Price | $15-30/month | $29-79/month |
Who Should Choose What?
Choose Sharesight if you're:
- A passive investor who checks in monthly
- Focused primarily on tax documentation
- Investing in international markets with complex currency needs
- Happy to manually review risk yourself
Choose Guardfolio if you're:
- An active investor protecting significant wealth
- Managing retirement accounts (401k, IRA) that need monitoring
- Want to prevent losses, not just document them
- Need real-time alerts when risk spikes
- Value AI doing the analysis you'd never have time for
💭 Can You Use Both?
Absolutely. Some investors use Sharesight for tax reporting and historical records, while relying on Guardfolio for daily risk monitoring and alerts. They serve complementary purposes.
The Bottom Line
Sharesight is a mature, reliable portfolio tracker that excels at performance reporting and tax documentation. It's particularly strong for international investors and those who need detailed historical records.
Guardfolio is an AI-powered risk monitoring system designed to prevent losses before they happen. It's built for investors who can't afford to wait until month-end to discover their portfolio was at risk.
The question isn't which is "better"—it's which solves your specific problem:
- Need a report? → Sharesight
- Need protection? → Guardfolio