Carta alternatives, 2026.Q3: every real option, ranked
The short answer
Edition v2026.Q3 · pricing and status verified 2026-08-06.
Pulley is the strongest Carta alternative for most — founders who want listed prices, an anti-Carta data stance, and the only serious token + equity cap table in one product. Then: Cake Equity · Mantle · Ledgy. Below, all 11 real options in the equity category, with pricing and honest watch-outs — plus the 7 "alternatives" other lists still recommend that are dead, renamed, or sunsetting.
Why people look past Carta at all: Trust deficit is self-inflicted: exited secondary trading in 2024 after customers caught it using their cap-table data to broker deals; founders reported cancellation friction (Dec 2024); multiple discrimination suits settled through Feb 2025. Paid-tier pricing is opaque contact-sales, and the free tier's $1M-raised cap arrives fast.
The top Carta alternatives, ranked
2PulleyPulley (Prolific Labs)
Startup $1,200/yr (25 stakeholders) · Growth $3,500/yr (40, incl. 409A) · Enterprise custom · token cap table $4,500/yrBest for Founders who want listed prices, an anti-Carta data stance, and the only serious token + equity cap table in one product.
Watch No free tier — Carta Launch, Cake, and Mantle all start at $0. Scale claims are vague ("thousands of companies"), and 409A requires the $3,500 Growth tier.
3Cake EquityCake Equity
Free (5 stakeholders) · Build $1,000/yr (25) · Team $2,750/yr (40, incl. 2× 409A/yr) · Pro custom · 409A add-on $1,500Best for Cost-sensitive early teams — the cheapest credible paid tier in the category, with a genuine free plan and global (US/AU/UK) reach.
Watch Scale claim is self-reported and thinner than Carta's; least US-investor brand recognition of the top four — some VCs will still ask you to move to Carta at the priced round. Per-stakeholder overage fees ($1–5) add up.
4MantleMantle (Canada)
Starter free (unlimited stakeholders) · Essentials $1,200/yr · Growth $3,000/yr (incl. annual 409A) — no per-stakeholder feesBest for AI-led startups that want the cap table itself to be agentic — and the only free tier with no stakeholder cap.
Watch Youngest and least proven of the five — no disclosed company counts or funding scale, and investor-side brand recognition is near zero; a lead VC may still push you onto Carta. AI extraction of legal documents deserves human spot-checks.
5LedgyLedgy AG (Zurich)
Free starter (1 round, 2 admins) · paid tiers custom by stakeholders · 50% off yr 1 under €5M raised · 20% climate discountBest for European and UK companies managing multi-jurisdiction ESOPs — from seed through post-IPO share plans.
Watch Paid pricing is opaque (contact-sales, sized by stakeholders); 409A is a US instrument — a US Delaware C-corp is better served by the four above. No published scale metrics.
Every other live option in equity
| Tool | Maker | What it is | Entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fidelity Private Shares | Fidelity (ex-Shoobx, acq. 2023) | All-in-one equity + data room + financing automation with Fidelity's brand behind it; strong law-firm channel, contact-sales pricing | custom |
| Vestd | Vestd Ltd | UK specialist — EMI/CSOP/growth shares with Companies House sync; Self-Serve from £2,200/yr, valuations from £700 | £2,200/yr |
| SeedLegals | SeedLegals (UK) | Legal-docs-plus-cap-table for UK startups: Access £649/yr, unlimited EMI valuations on Options plan £2,699/yr; overlaps element Lg | £649/yr |
| Qapita | Qapita (Singapore) | Asia/MEA leader — claims $185B+ equity under management, 2,700+ private companies, 60+ countries (self-reported, Aug 2026) | custom |
| Eqvista | Eqvista | Free cap-table tool with quote-based 409A valuations attached; budget option, quote-only pricing | free + quotes |
| Morgan Stanley Shareworks | Morgan Stanley (ex-Solium, acq. 2019) | Enterprise equity-comp platform for late-stage private and public companies; overkill before Series C | custom |
| Capbase | Capbase | Incorporation + cap table + compliance at $999/yr; site live and selling (Aug 2026) despite earlier wind-down reports — verify support responsiveness before committing | $999/yr |
The "Carta alternatives" to avoid — no longer what they were
Listicles still recommend these. As of 2026-08-06, they are not what the listicles think.
| Tool | Status | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| AngelList (legacy cap table) | sunsetting | Sunset Aug 6, 2025 — no new features, new access restricted to RUV/CV users; official migration partners: Pulley and J.P. Morgan Workplace Solutions. RUVs themselves live on under element Cp |
| J.P. Morgan Workplace Solutions | renamed | globalshares.com now redirects to jpmorganworkplacesolutions.com; enterprise share-plan admin, an AngelList migration partner |
| LTSE Equity | dead | Gone — product no longer appears anywhere on ltse.com (Aug 2026); shutdown communicated to users circa 2024, exact date unverified |
| Easop → Remote Equity | acquired | Global stock-option administration for EOR/international employees, folded into Remote's platform; the EOR side lives in element Hr |
| Capdesk → Carta Europe | acquired | The UK/EU challenger, absorbed and rebranded as Carta's European arm |
| Capshare | dead | Early Carta rival, absorbed into Shareworks; brand retired |
| Carta Liquidity / CartaX | dead | The cautionary tale within the leader: private stock exchange launched 2021, exited Jan 2024 after data-misuse allegations, business sold Aug 2024 |
How to choose
- If you just incorporated a Delaware C-corp — under 25 stakeholders, under $1M raised
- Carta Launch, free. SAFE modeling and closings are included, and being where your investors and lawyers already work is worth more than any feature.
- If opaque contact-sales pricing offends you, or you have tokens and equity on the same cap table
- Pulley — $1,200/yr listed on the site, an explicit no-data-monetization stance, and the only mature token cap-table product (LayerZero, Bitwise run on it).
- If you're past 25 stakeholders but pre-revenue, or allergic to per-stakeholder fees
- Mantle — the only free tier with unlimited stakeholders, and its AI extraction ingests a messy existing cap table from raw documents.
- If you're a UK/EU company issuing EMI options or running ESOPs across borders
- Ledgy (multi-jurisdiction, Revolut-grade) — or Vestd/SeedLegals if you're UK-only and want Companies House sync and scheme setup bundled.
- If you're Series B+ heading toward audits or an exit
- Carta Grow/Scale — ASC 718 with audit support, Rule 701, Form 3921, exit modeling, and the 409A shop auditors see most often. Fidelity Private Shares is the credible non-Carta enterprise path.
This analysis is drawn from the Equity element dossier — the ranked top 5, the comparison matrix, and the complete field of 14 more tools live there, with every source. Data: eq.json (CC BY 4.0).
Every claim above is dated and sourced from the elems dossiers — 1,421 tools tracked across 58 categories, verified 2026-08-06, including the 276 we found dead, renamed, acquired, or sunsetting. Rankings are editorial, never paid — the charter.
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