Head-to-Head
Pulley vs Carta: Which Cap Table Platform Is Right for You?
Both platforms manage equity, but they serve different markets. Pulley is the modern challenger; Carta is the incumbent. Here's how they compare.
Quick Answer
For seed-stage startups: choose Pulley — it's simpler, cheaper, and has a free tier for up to 25 stakeholders. For established companies or VC funds needing full fund administration: choose Carta — it has the deepest feature set and largest ecosystem. Pulley is catching up fast on fund features but Carta still leads for complex multi-entity structures.
Key Takeaways
- 1.Pulley offers a free tier (25 stakeholders); Carta requires paid plans from the start
- 2.Carta dominates fund administration; Pulley's fund features are newer but rapidly improving
- 3.Both offer 409A valuations — Pulley's is often 30-50% cheaper than Carta's
- 4.Pulley's UI is cleaner and more modern; Carta has more features but steeper learning curve
- 5.Migration from Carta to Pulley is straightforward — Pulley offers white-glove migration support
| Metric | Pulley | Carta |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | Yes (25 stakeholders) | No |
| Paid Plans | From $50/mo | From $100+/mo |
| 409A Valuations | From $500 | From $1,000+ |
| Fund Management | Newer, growing | Mature, full-service |
| Cap Table | Clean, modern UI | Feature-rich, complex |
| Integrations | Growing ecosystem | Largest in market |
| Target Market | Seed to Series B startups | Seed to IPO + VC funds |
| Migration Support | White-glove included | Self-service + paid |
| Employee Portal | Simple, mobile-friendly | Full-featured, complex |
| International Support | Limited (US-focused) | 130+ countries |
| Investor Portal | Basic reporting | Full LP portal + K-1s |
Paying $3K+/mo for fund management?
Carta charges enterprise prices for features most emerging managers never use. Archstone is purpose-built for GPs, at $297/mo instead of $1,500.
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Pricing Comparison: Pulley vs Carta in 2026
Pricing is one of the biggest differentiators between Pulley and Carta, and it's where Pulley has carved out a clear advantage for early-stage companies. Pulley offers a genuinely free tier supporting up to 25 stakeholders, which covers most pre-seed and seed-stage startups. Their paid plans start at $50 per month for the Growth tier (up to 50 stakeholders), scaling to $200 per month for the Scale plan that supports unlimited stakeholders and includes priority support. Custom enterprise pricing is available for companies with complex multi-entity structures.
Carta, by contrast, has no free tier. Their Launch plan starts around $100 per month and is designed for companies with fewer than 50 stakeholders. The Grow plan runs approximately $275 per month for up to 200 stakeholders, and their Scale plan for larger companies can exceed $500 per month. Carta also charges separately for add-ons like fund administration and advanced reporting. At every tier, Pulley is roughly 30 to 50 percent cheaper than the equivalent Carta plan, making it the clear budget-friendly choice for startups watching their burn rate. However, Carta bundles more features into their higher tiers, so the total cost of ownership depends on which add-ons you actually need.
Cap Table Management: Depth and Flexibility
Both Pulley and Carta handle the fundamentals of cap table management well: tracking share classes, option pools, convertible notes, SAFEs, and warrants. Where they diverge is in complexity handling and user experience. Pulley takes a design-first approach, presenting cap table data through clean visualizations and intuitive waterfall analyses. Modeling a new funding round in Pulley takes minutes, and the scenario-modeling tool lets founders compare multiple term sheets side by side with clear dilution impacts.
Carta's cap table features run deeper, particularly for companies with complex capital structures. Carta supports multi-class stock with custom rights and preferences, advanced liquidation preference waterfalls, and detailed pro forma modeling that accounts for option pool shuffles, anti-dilution adjustments, and ratchet provisions. If you have a straightforward cap table with common stock plus a single preferred class, Pulley delivers a better day-to-day experience. If your company has gone through multiple rounds with participating preferred, senior liquidation preferences, or complex warrant structures, Carta's depth becomes a genuine advantage. For most startups through Series B, Pulley's cap table features are more than sufficient.
409A Valuation Services: Cost, Speed, and Quality
A 409A valuation is a legal requirement for any startup issuing stock options, and both Pulley and Carta offer this as an integrated service. Pulley's 409A valuations start at approximately $500 for early-stage companies, with turnaround times averaging 5 to 10 business days. Their process is streamlined because they already hold your cap table data, reducing the back-and-forth that standalone valuation firms require. Pulley uses a combination of automated analysis and human review from ASA-certified appraisers.
Carta's 409A valuations are more expensive, starting around $1,000 for their standard tier and climbing to $3,000 or more for complex valuations involving multiple entities or international subsidiaries. However, Carta has the advantage of scale: they've completed over 80,000 valuations and maintain one of the largest compensation datasets in the private market. This means their benchmarking data is extremely robust, which can matter during IRS audit defense. Carta also offers expedited 409A turnaround (as fast as 2 business days) for an additional fee. Both platforms deliver audit-ready reports, but Pulley's pricing makes it the better value for straightforward early-stage valuations. If your company has unusual assets, international operations, or a complex capital structure, Carta's deeper expertise may justify the premium.
Employee Equity Management and Option Administration
Managing employee stock options is a core function of both platforms, but the experience differs significantly. Pulley provides a clean employee portal where team members can view their grant details, vesting schedules, and estimated current value based on the latest 409A valuation or preferred price. The interface is mobile-friendly and requires minimal onboarding. Pulley handles option grant generation, board consent templates, and exercise workflows, including early exercise and net exercise where applicable. Their tax estimation tool helps employees understand the difference between ISO and NSO treatment.
Carta's equity management platform is more comprehensive but also more complex. Carta supports electronic option grant acceptance, automated 83(b) election reminders, tender offer facilitation, and a secondary marketplace (CartaX) where employees at later-stage companies can sell shares. Carta also offers equity education resources and customizable total compensation statements that HR teams can use during recruiting. For companies with 200 or more employees, Carta's HR integrations with platforms like Workday, Rippling, and BambooHR become a significant time-saver. Pulley is building out similar integrations, but Carta remains ahead for enterprise-grade equity administration.
Integrations and Ecosystem
The breadth of integrations can make or break your equity management workflow. Carta has the largest integration ecosystem in the cap table space, with native connections to accounting platforms (QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite), HR and payroll systems (Gusto, Rippling, ADP, Workday), legal document tools (DocuSign, Ironclad), and banking platforms (SVB, Mercury, Brex). Carta's API is mature and well-documented, making custom integrations straightforward for companies with engineering resources. Their data feeds directly into audit workflows, which simplifies year-end processes with your accounting firm.
Pulley's integration ecosystem is smaller but growing rapidly. They offer native integrations with Gusto, Rippling, and QuickBooks, and their API has reached general availability as of 2025. Pulley also supports direct imports from Carta, Shareworks, and spreadsheet-based cap tables. Where Pulley excels is in developer experience: their API is RESTful, cleanly designed, and easier to work with than Carta's legacy endpoints. For startups using modern financial tooling like Mercury or Ramp, Pulley's integrations cover the essentials. But if your company relies on enterprise systems like NetSuite or Workday, Carta's ecosystem is more mature.
Verdict: Which Platform Wins at Each Company Stage?
Pre-seed and Seed (1-25 employees): Pulley wins decisively. The free tier covers everything you need, the UI is intuitive enough that non-technical founders can manage their own cap table, and the 409A pricing is unbeatable. There is no reason to pay for Carta at this stage unless your lead investor specifically requires it, which is exceedingly rare.
Series A to Series B (25-200 employees): Pulley still has the edge for most companies. The cost savings compound as you grow, and Pulley's feature set handles standard venture-backed capital structures without issue. Consider Carta if you have international employees needing equity grants in multiple jurisdictions or if your board includes investors who strongly prefer Carta's reporting format.
Series C and Beyond (200+ employees): Carta becomes the stronger choice. The HR integrations, enterprise-grade compliance features, secondary marketplace access, and deeper support for complex capital structures justify the higher price. Companies at this stage typically have finance teams that need Carta's advanced reporting and audit trail capabilities.
VC Funds and Fund Managers: Carta is the clear winner for fund administration. Their LP portal, capital call management, K-1 distribution, and fund accounting features are mature and widely trusted by institutional LPs. Pulley has launched fund management features, but they are still in early stages compared to Carta's decade-long head start. If you're managing a fund, see our guide to Carta alternatives for a broader comparison of fund admin platforms.
Choose Pulley if...
- →You're a seed-stage startup wanting simplicity
- →You want a free tier to start
- →Price is a major factor (Pulley is 30-50% cheaper)
- →You value clean UX over feature depth
- →You need fast, affordable 409A valuations
- →Your team is under 200 people with a standard cap table
Choose Carta if...
- →You need full fund administration
- →You're Series C+ heading toward IPO
- →You need the largest integration ecosystem
- →Your investors or lawyers already use Carta
- →You have international employees needing equity grants
- →You need secondary market access for employee liquidity
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I migrate from Carta to Pulley?
Yes. Pulley offers free white-glove migration from Carta. Their team will import your full cap table, option grants, vesting schedules, convertible instruments, and stakeholder data. Most migrations complete in 1 to 2 weeks. Pulley assigns a dedicated migration specialist who handles the data export from Carta, validates every record, and walks you through a side-by-side reconciliation before going live. There is no downtime — you can run both platforms in parallel until you are confident the migration is complete.
Does Pulley support fund administration?
Pulley launched fund management features in 2024, supporting basic fund setup, capital call tracking, and investor reporting. However, their fund admin offering is still maturing compared to Carta's decade-long head start. Carta supports full fund accounting, automated K-1 distribution, LP portal access, waterfall calculations, and multi-fund management across vintage years. If fund administration is your primary need, Carta remains the stronger choice. Pulley's fund features work well for emerging managers running a single fund, but institutional LPs will likely expect the reporting depth that Carta provides.
What about international cap tables and global equity?
Carta has a significant advantage for international equity management, supporting equity grants and compliance in over 130 countries. Their platform handles local tax reporting, currency conversion, and jurisdiction-specific vesting rules. Pulley is primarily US-focused, though they support basic international stakeholder tracking. If you have employees in the EU, UK, or APAC who are receiving stock options, Carta's global compliance engine will save you from needing a separate international equity provider. For US-only companies, this difference is irrelevant.
Which platform has the better investor portal?
Carta's investor portal is more feature-rich, offering LPs and investors a self-service dashboard with real-time portfolio valuations, document access, K-1 downloads, capital call history, and distribution tracking. Pulley's investor view is cleaner and simpler, showing stakeholders their ownership percentage, vesting progress, and basic company updates. For startups where investors just need to check their ownership stake, Pulley's simplicity is an advantage. For VC funds where LPs expect institutional-grade reporting with quarterly letters, IRR calculations, and TVPI/DPI metrics, Carta's portal is significantly more capable.
How does pricing compare at 50 vs 200 vs 500 employees?
At 50 employees, Pulley's Growth plan costs approximately $50 per month versus Carta's Launch plan at roughly $100 per month — Pulley saves you about $600 per year. At 200 employees, Pulley's Scale plan runs around $200 per month while Carta's Grow plan costs approximately $275 per month, a savings of about $900 per year with Pulley. At 500 employees, both platforms move to custom enterprise pricing, but Carta's list price typically starts around $500+ per month while Pulley's enterprise tier begins closer to $350 per month. Factor in 409A valuations (Pulley saves $500 to $2,000 per valuation) and add-on fees, and Pulley's total cost advantage can reach $3,000 to $5,000 per year for a mid-stage company.
Which has better 409A valuations?
Both offer quality 409A valuations, but Pulley is typically 30-50% cheaper ($500 vs $1,000+). Carta's 409A is faster for existing customers since they already have your cap table data. Carta has also completed far more valuations (80,000+), giving them a larger benchmarking dataset for audit defense. For straightforward early-stage valuations, Pulley offers the better value. For complex valuations involving international assets or unusual instruments, Carta's deeper expertise may be worth the premium.
Do VCs prefer Carta or Pulley?
Most VCs are platform-agnostic for cap table management. Carta has a slight edge because more companies use it (larger network effect), but no VC will reject you for using Pulley. Some investors appreciate Pulley's cleaner data exports and simpler interface for due diligence reviews.
Is Pulley or Carta better for issuing stock options to new hires?
Both platforms handle option grant workflows well, including generating grant agreements, tracking board approvals, and managing electronic acceptance. Pulley's workflow is faster to set up and more intuitive for first-time founders. Carta offers more advanced features like automated 83(b) election reminders, integration with HR onboarding tools, and customizable total compensation statements that help with recruiting. For companies hiring at scale (20+ hires per quarter), Carta's HR integrations provide meaningful time savings.