Best Cap Table Management Software in 2026: Carta vs Pulley vs AngelList

Your cap table is the single most important document your company will ever maintain. It records who owns what, how ownership dilutes across rounds, what every option grant and SAFE converts into, and who gets paid when there is an exit. Get it wrong and you usually find out at the worst possible moment: a fundraise, an audit, or an acquisition.

In 2026 the cap table software market has fragmented. There is a tool for startups, a tool for funds, a tool for Europe, and a tool for founders who just want something cheap that works. The right choice depends entirely on who you are and what stage you are at.

This guide ranks the platforms worth your attention, with honest pricing, real strengths, and the trade-offs nobody puts on their marketing site. We start with the pick that does the most for the people who read VC Beast: fund managers. Here is the field at a glance.

The Best Cap Table Software in 2026, at a Glance

Why Cap Table Accuracy Matters More Than You Think

Cap table errors are far more common than founders expect. A 2023 Carta study found that 38% of startups had at least one material error in their cap table before their Series A. These are not rounding mistakes. They are wrong ownership percentages, missing option grants, and miscounted fully diluted shares.

Here is what tends to go wrong when equity is managed in a spreadsheet:

• Formula errors and version drift. A spreadsheet passed between a founder, an attorney, and a new investor almost always diverges. Everyone edits their own copy, and reconciling them later is painful and error-prone.
• Missing or incorrect option grant data. Option grants require precise records: grant date, vesting schedule, strike price, and 83(b) election status. Spreadsheets rarely capture all of it cleanly.
• Incorrect fully diluted share counts. Founders confuse issued shares with authorized shares, or forget option pool reserves, warrants, and SAFEs. The headline ownership number ends up wrong.
• No audit trail. Spreadsheets do not record who changed what and when. In a dispute, or during routine diligence, the inability to show a clean transaction history is a real liability.

Modern cap table software solves all of this by maintaining a single source of truth that tracks vesting, exercises, conversions, and transfers automatically. The hard part is picking the right one.

What VCs Look for in a Cap Table

Before comparing tools, it helps to know the audience. When an investor reviews a cap table, they are trying to answer a handful of questions:

• What is the fully diluted ownership structure? They want the exact percentage they are buying, accounting for every outstanding option, warrant, and SAFE.
• Is the option pool sized correctly? Most institutional investors expect a 10-15% pool in place before they close, and they want it modeled into the pre-money math.
• Are there unusual provisions? Pro-rata rights, side letters, super-voting shares, and information rights all add complexity that investors need to see clearly.
• Is the transaction history clean? Gaps, informal transfers, and missing round documentation are yellow flags that slow diligence.
• How seriously does the team take governance? Using a recognized platform is a small signal, but it is a signal. It tells an investor you will not be a cleanup project.

When Do You Actually Need Cap Table Software?

Let us save some of you money. You do not need cap table software yet if you have two or three co-founders, no outside investors, and have not issued a single stock option. Your lawyer's spreadsheet template is fine for now.

You need cap table software once you close a priced equity round, issue your first options and need a 409A valuation, or cross roughly 10-15 stakeholders. For most startups that moment arrives right after a seed round. If you run a fund, the trigger is earlier: the day you accept your first LP commitment, you have a fund cap table to manage, and a spreadsheet is already a risk.

The Best Cap Table Software in 2026, Ranked

We ranked every platform on what actually matters: pricing transparency, ease of use, depth of equity features, and whether the tool fits how you actually operate. Here is the order.

1. Archstone: Best Overall for Fund Managers

Best for: VC fund managers and emerging GPs running $3M-$30M funds who need to manage their fund's cap table and run the entire fund alongside it.

Most tools on this list manage a startup's cap table. Archstone manages a fund's, and then keeps going. It is the only platform here that treats the cap table as one part of running a fund rather than the whole product. For the emerging managers who make up most of VC Beast's readers, that is why it takes the top spot.

Archstone tracks your fund's ownership and capital accounts (which LP committed what, how much has been called, what each position is worth) and connects that directly to the operations that move those numbers: capital calls, distributions, LP reporting, and K-1 preparation. With Carta you buy cap table software and fund administration as two separate products. With Archstone it is one platform, built for funds from day one rather than retrofitted from a startup tool.

The other differentiator is Archie, Archstone's built-in AI. It drafts capital call notices, assembles LP updates, and reconciles positions, which removes most of the manual fund-ops busywork that emerging managers otherwise do by hand or pay an administrator to handle.

Pricing: Starter at $297/mo and Pro at $497/mo with unlimited AI, plus custom Enterprise pricing. One subscription replaces a stack of fund-ops tools that typically runs $1,500+/mo.

Strengths: Purpose-built for emerging fund managers. Cap table, capital calls, distributions, LP portal, and reporting in a single platform. Archie automates the operational grunt work. Transparent pricing with none of the data-monetization baggage that has dogged the incumbents.

Weaknesses: Archstone is the newest platform on this list. It launched in 2026, so it has a shorter public track record than Carta or Pulley. Its value compounds when you run the whole fund on it, so if you genuinely only ever need a bare cap table and nothing else, you will not use everything you are paying for.

Want the side-by-side detail? Read our full Archstone vs Carta comparison.

2. Carta: The Startup Standard

Best for: Series A and later startups with budget that want the platform investors and lawyers already know.

Carta is the dominant name in cap table management. It launched as eShares in 2012 and grew into a full equity-management platform with more than 40,000 companies and over two million stakeholders. For a venture-backed startup, it is the safe, expected choice.

Pricing: The Launch plan starts around $3,000/year for 1-25 stakeholders, Growth around $6,500/year for 26-50, and Scale at $10,000+/year beyond that. 409A valuations are typically bundled into the higher tiers.

Strengths: The market standard, so investors and counsel already know it. A deep feature set covering cap table management, equity plan administration, electronic option grants, in-house 409A valuations, investor reporting, and data rooms. Strong integrations.

Weaknesses: It is the most expensive option here, and pricing scales aggressively with stakeholder count. Carta also carries reputational baggage: in 2023 it faced backlash for using customer cap table data to pitch its secondary-market product to shareholders without clear consent. It walked that back, but the trust hit lingers.

3. Pulley: The Founder-Friendly Alternative

Best for: Pre-seed through Series A startups that want clean, core cap table management without enterprise pricing.

Pulley was built explicitly as a Carta alternative for early-stage startups. Founded in 2020 and backed by Stripe, it positions itself as the simpler, more affordable, more founder-friendly option, and it largely delivers on that.

Pricing: Free for up to 25 stakeholders with basic cap table management. The Startup plan is around $2,000/year and Growth around $4,000/year. 409A valuations start near $2,500. Roughly 30-40% cheaper than Carta at comparable tiers.

Strengths: A genuinely pleasant interface that is clean, fast, and intuitive. The free tier is actually useful rather than a crippled demo. Migration from Carta or a spreadsheet is straightforward, and support is responsive.

Weaknesses: Smaller and less recognized, so some lawyers and investors will not know it on sight. The feature set is narrower than Carta's, with no secondary-market product and lighter late-stage tooling.

4. AngelList Stack: Best for Syndicates and Rolling Funds

Best for: Startups raising through AngelList, and companies with complex investor structures involving SPVs or syndicates.

AngelList Stack is the equity-management product inside the AngelList ecosystem. It is strongest when you are already raising through AngelList syndicates or rolling funds, where the cap table and the investor structure live in the same place.

Pricing: Free cap table management for US-incorporated companies. AngelList monetizes through fund administration fees on the investor side, not the startup side. 409A valuations are available as a paid add-on.

Strengths: Free for startups. Seamless if you are already in the AngelList ecosystem. Genuinely good at handling SPVs, syndicates, and rolling-fund structures.

Weaknesses: Less polished than Carta or Pulley for pure cap table work. The product has been through several iterations and can feel inconsistent. Weaker fit if you are not using the rest of AngelList.

5. Ledgy: Best for European Startups

Best for: Startups incorporated in the EU, UK, or Switzerland.

Ledgy is the leading equity-management platform for European startups. If you are incorporated outside the US, it understands your legal framework in a way the US-centric tools simply do not.

Pricing: Free tier for up to 25 stakeholders. The Essential plan starts around EUR 2,000/year, with Growth and Enterprise tiers above that. Pricing is transparent and published.

Strengths: Purpose-built for European equity structures. Supports ESOP and VSOP plans common in Germany, France, the UK, and Switzerland. GDPR-compliant by design, with a clean, modern interface.

Weaknesses: Not the right tool for US-only companies. Carta and Pulley have stronger US-specific features, and Ledgy does not natively offer 409A valuations. Less name recognition with US investors.

6. Capshare: The Budget Workhorse

Best for: Budget-conscious companies with straightforward cap tables that need more than a spreadsheet but less than Carta.

Capshare has been around since 2014 and sits deliberately between spreadsheets and enterprise cap table software. It is not flashy, but it is reliable and affordable.

Pricing: Starts around $300/month for basic cap table management, with 409A valuations available as add-ons. Pricing is straightforward and monthly billing is available.

Strengths: Affordable, with solid waterfall analysis and competent option-grant management. Works well for companies with simple, stable cap tables.

Weaknesses: The interface feels dated next to Carta and Pulley. Fewer integrations, lighter reporting, and a smaller support team. Less recognized by investors and counsel.

Other Platforms Worth Knowing

Two more names come up often enough to address briefly. Shareworks by Morgan Stanley is an enterprise equity-management platform aimed at late-stage and pre-IPO companies. It is powerful, but overkill and overpriced for most venture-stage startups. LTSE Equity (formerly Captable.io) offers free cap table management and is a reasonable early-stage option, though it has a narrower feature set and a smaller ecosystem than the platforms ranked above.

The Bottom Line: Recommendations by Stage

• Running a fund of any size: Archstone. It manages your fund's cap table and the operations around it in one platform, built for emerging managers.
• Pre-seed (SAFEs, two or three founders, no options): A spreadsheet. Do not spend money until you have real equity to track.
• Seed (first priced round, 10-25 stakeholders): Pulley's free tier or AngelList Stack. Both handle this stage well at no cost.
• Series A and beyond (25+ stakeholders, complex structure): Carta if you value the ecosystem and can absorb the price, or Pulley if you want to save 30-40% and accept a narrower feature set.
• European startups: Ledgy. Do not force a US-centric tool onto European equity structures.

Whatever you pick, the playbook is the same: start on a free or entry tier, migrate your spreadsheet cleanly, and upgrade only when you genuinely outgrow it. Cap table software should remove headaches, not add a line item. And if you are running the fund rather than the startup, start with Archstone. The cap table is the easy part, and it handles the rest too.