Carta

• Best for: Seed to pre-IPO companies managing complex cap tables, plus VC/PE funds needing administration.
• Free tier: Yes — Carta Basic covers very early teams at no cost.
• Pricing model: Annual subscription scaled by stakeholder count and entity complexity — verify a live quote.
• Standout strength: 409A valuations, ASC 718 reporting, and the largest private equity data network.
• Watch out for: Per-stakeholder pricing climbs fast past 100+ holders; some advanced features are gated to higher tiers.

What is Carta?

Carta is a private market equity infrastructure platform. Founded in 2012 (originally as eShares), it has grown into the de facto cap table software for the venture ecosystem, tracking more than $2 trillion in equity value across tens of thousands of companies, funds, and stakeholder accounts. If you've signed an option grant, received a SAFE, or backed a startup in the last five years, there's a high chance the underlying ownership record lives in Carta.

Beyond cap table management, the platform handles the entire equity lifecycle: founder share issuance, SAFE and convertible note modeling, priced-round modeling with dilution scenarios, stock option grants, RSU tracking, vesting schedules, exercise flows, 409A valuations, ASC 718 expense reporting, waterfall modeling for fund investors, tender offers, secondary transactions, and IPO readiness. Carta also operates a Fund Administration business for VC and PE managers, a Compensation benchmarking product, and a private-market liquidity venue called CartaX.

In short: for the accounting of equity — the thing most general-purpose bookkeeping tools handle poorly — Carta is the category-defining product.

Key features of Carta

Carta pricing explained

Carta's pricing model is modular, which means your bill depends on which products you activate, how many entities you have, and how many stakeholders sit on your cap table. Always verify a live quote before signing — published list prices shift, and so do startup-style discounts.

Carta Basic (Free): Designed for very early-stage companies. Covers a single entity and a small cap table (typically up to ~25 stakeholders). Includes basic cap table modeling and stakeholder records, but most advanced features — 409A, ASC 718, fund admin, advanced reporting — are gated to paid tiers.

Carta Launch: Positioned for seed and Series A teams. Expect a starting price in the rough range of $1,500–$3,000/year (verify current pricing), scaling with the number of stakeholders. Adds full cap table modeling, document storage, basic compliance exports, and stakeholder portal access.

Carta Scale: For Series B+ and pre-IPO companies. Pricing commonly lands in the $5,000–$10,000+/year range and climbs with stakeholder count and entity count. Includes advanced scenario modeling, multi-entity support, ASC 718 reporting, and dedicated support SLAs.

Carta Enterprise: Custom-priced for public companies and large private issuers. Adds SOX-grade controls, advanced audit trails, custom integrations, and a named customer success team.

Add-on services:

• 409A valuation: typically $1,500–$3,500+ per valuation depending on company complexity (verify current quote).
• Fund administration: usually priced as a basis-points fee on AUM or a flat annual fee per fund.
• Cap table cleanup / migration: one-time project fees, often $2,000–$10,000 depending on cap table messiness.

The key pricing watch-out: as you pass ~100 stakeholders (advisors, ex-employees, small angels, plus all VCs), the per-stakeholder model can produce real sticker shock. Run a quote with your actual stakeholder count before assuming Carta is the cheapest path.

How to set up a cap table in Carta

1. Step 1 — Create your company profile and verify your entity. Add your legal name, jurisdiction, formation date, and authorized share structure (common, preferred, option pool). Carta will use this as the spine of every scenario you model later.
2. Step 2 — Import or clean your existing cap table. Upload a CSV, paste from a spreadsheet, or invite a Carta migration specialist. This is the most painful step for companies that started in Excel — the ROI shows up immediately when you stop reconciling share counts by hand.
3. Step 3 — Stakeholder onboarding. Invite founders, employees, advisors, and investors by email. They get a self-serve portal to confirm their holdings, accept grants electronically, and (when relevant) e-sign 83(b) elections.
4. Step 4 — Issue equity and model future rounds. Issue ISOs/NSOs with vesting schedules, model SAFE conversions, run dilution scenarios ahead of a priced round, and refresh the option pool to see post-money cap table snapshots.
5. Step 5 — Run a 409A and activate ASC 718. Kick off your first 409A valuation, set strike prices on option grants at or above fair market value, and turn on stock-based-comp expense reporting for your finance close.

Carta vs alternatives: how it compares

If you're evaluating equity management software, these are the names that come up most often alongside Carta. The table below is a snapshot — verify feature details and pricing before committing, because all three competitors are moving fast.

How much does Carta cost compared to Pulley? For a small private company with 30 stakeholders, the two are often close. For companies past 200 stakeholders, Carta's data network and compliance tooling usually justify the premium — but Pulley's UX is widely considered snappier, so if your team is very lean and cap-table-light, it's a real alternative.

Who should (and shouldn't) use Carta

Is Carta worth it? The bottom line

Is Carta worth it in 2026? For the majority of venture-backed companies between seed and pre-IPO, the answer is yes. The platform has network effects that competitors can't easily replicate: when a VC invests, they expect the cap table to live in Carta. When a new CFO joins, they already know the UI. When a law firm runs a 409A, they push the data straight into Carta. That gravitational pull is the real moat — and it's why Carta remains the default even as leaner challengers like Pulley gain traction.

The honest caveats: pricing is opaque and scales aggressively with stakeholder count. Customer support quality varies by tier — Enterprise customers get white-glove treatment, Basic and Launch users should expect a more self-serve experience. And a few advanced features (complex waterfall modeling, certain compliance exports) are gated above what some smaller teams can reasonably pay.

For early-stage teams, the smartest move is to start on Carta Basic for free, get your cap table migrated out of Excel, and only upgrade once your stakeholder count and round complexity justify it. For anything past Series A with a real cap table, the upgrade pays for itself the first time a clean dilution model saves a board meeting.