The Taurus looks good but I would want to wait for a while to see how it holds up. The Shield is a worldwide proven platform, extremely reliable, quality built. I bought my Shield Plus for $500. The history it carries makes it well worth the extra hundred bucks to me. If you want the shield plus, maybe you can cut some lawns for the hundred bucks. Lol Not knocking the Taurus, I have owned quite a few of them too.

Have to roll with the GX4 myself. Quality firearm that is a brand new platform for Taurus. The Shield is just a retread of the Shield. I feel they should have come out with a new gun for the micro 9 category. The Shield plus is larger than all of the other micros and in some instances costs more. GX4 FTW in my opinion.

I own both of these micro's. I don't like manual safey's on my edc's. I bought the GX4 because of how streamlined it is. I bought the version of the shield Plus without a manual safety. I would never carry a defensive weapon with a manual safety.

Excellent review

I bought the Shield Plus optic ready version when it came out in October. Managed to get it for $550. MSRP $595.

Have an addiction problem with micros. Already own the Shield Plus. It's my EDC with a pinky extension on the 10 mag. Was considering the GX4 as well. Your comparison made it very clear there would be no extra advantage in purchasing the GX4. Was thinking the GX4 was smaller, yes but only by a fraction. Will stick with the Plus and be happy.

I bought my GX4 for my NEW EDC. Wasn't looking for a firearm that was Red Dot Optics ready or had a 'rail'. I wanted a small 9mm that would be the best for self defense, concealment, yet have quality and be dependable. I wasn't going to be in any shooting competition with the GX4 as I have other firearms for that. Purchased the GX4 at my local Scheels and got the last one in stock at that time. 329.00 Put the Amerigo Glow Dot front sight on and a big+ over the white factory front sight. 29.95 Received the pinky extentions (2) for the two 11 rd mags that were included and that completed the grip for me....good to go with my pinky on board. 9.98 Of course my 13 rd mag has the extension. That's all I needed to do get the GX4 the way I wanted it on my hip.

Good overview but you need to take to range. There have been You Tubers who have issues with the trigger! Failure to fire or going off after they failed to clear it! Taurus has taken some guns back to inspect! I love Taurus (G3C) and was considering getting a GX4!

Another nice comparison 👍. The GX4 is solid, I think S&W pulled a Glock move on the Shield plus. They did however make some nice improvements to a model that was already great. With that being said I don't really feel like the Shield is a micro, its more comparable to the G3c. I'd still take the shield plus, hard to beat.

Liked and subscribed!

Sooo, as I look at the comments, they are all a year old. Today, I can buy the GX4 for $250, after a $50 rebate. The same store has the Shield+ for $300. You talk about tough decisions. Well, I'm slightly leaning towards the GX4. For the $50 difference, I can install an Ameriglo front sight and a mag spring kit to convert one or even both mags to 13 rounders and still have some change left over. The only knock on the GX4 is there are some negative reports on a few triggers' issues. The Shields reliability has proven rock solid, although their trigger is new too. So, it still needs to prove itself. It's never easy, is it?

Oh, I don't know to many people that don't have a multi-tool, which includes a screwdriver head, on their belt or in their carry bag.

I've carried Shields for years from Gen 1 and 2 now the Plus. So Shield is a natural for me they feel like an old friend in my hand. However I've decided to buy a GX4 soon. It looks like a shooter. Actually it looks like an ankle gun. I'll find out.

Got my plus,, 425$ optic ready!

GX4 capacity is 11/13

I went for the GX4, already own a shield 9 first gen; Love the shield, superior design quality all over and incredibly accurate, but men those prices, weight and high bore axis makes it a little expensive / unconfortable to carry on light pants or no belt, would it love to get the shield plus performance center 4" barrel edition but for almost 900 bucks i could it just get a glock 19 for a lot less money. taurus just beat S&W in this one, the gx4 (a light fusion of a beretta nano-sigp365-glock43) square profile makes it a lot easier to rack the slide, is lighter smaller and +1 capacity over the shield, shield indented slide gets really slippery making it hard to rack that slide / unock the breach with the heavy recoil spring it have, plus the shield rear sight is ramped at the front making it almost imposible to rack or clear one handed in a emergency. for people like me with some type of range of motion or some kind of hand/finger disability then the gx4 is the winner imho, ... the gx4 is now my bad chiguagua/edc .... agreed 100% with your review....only thing I personally didn't like about the gx4 is the soft plastic followers in the mags they are alredy getting marked/marred and the accuracy problems, shooting low/left for a lefty, I thought it was the gun but suprisingly it came with sights very well aligned from factory as I had tested with a laser bore sighter device, so i think its was me and not the gun ..am guessing getting use to it's light weight/quick trigger break and small size a factor here so more practicing and getting use to it is mandatory if this weapon is your intended EDC or home/vehicle protection main firearm...another thing that i did like a lot was that for us lefty's right eye dominant the blackout rear sight makes faster and easier for both eyes/blurred rear target adquisition.