Carta vs Pulley: the honest comparison
The short answer
Edition v2026.Q3 · pricing and status verified 2026-08-06.
Choose Carta for the default for a US venture-track C-corp — every investor, lawyer, and acquirer already speaks Carta, and the free tier covers you to $1M raised. Choose Pulley for founders who want listed prices, an anti-Carta data stance, and the only serious token + equity cap table in one product.
On the elems table, Carta holds seat #1 of the Equity element and Pulley holds #2 — this is the closest call in the category, and the honest answer depends on which trade-off you can live with.
The case for each
1CartaCarta (eShares, Inc.)
Launch free (≤25 stakeholders, ≤$1M raised, incl. SAFE closings) · Build/Grow/Scale contact-sales · 409A included Grow+Best for The default for a US venture-track C-corp — every investor, lawyer, and acquirer already speaks Carta, and the free tier covers you to $1M raised.
Watch 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.
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.
Carta vs Pulley: side by side
Edition v2026.Q3 · verified 2026-08-06.
| Carta | Pulley | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | Free → contact-sales | $1,200/yr |
| Free tier | Yes (≤25 stk, ≤$1M raised) | No |
| 409A path | Included Grow+; 16k/yr in-house | Included Growth ($3.5k) |
| SAFE admin | Yes, incl. closings on free | Yes, templated |
| Home turf | US + UK/EU/MEA | US + crypto |
| AI / agents | Claude plugins, agentic monitoring | — |
| Beyond the cap table | Fund ERP, Carta Law, liquidity, comp | Token cap tables, distributions |
What each side won't tell you
Carta: 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.
Pulley: 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.
If it's neither
The rest of the top five: Cake Equity (free start, cheapest paid) · Mantle (ai-native, unlimited free stakeholders) · Ledgy (europe's equity standard). The complete field — 14 more tools including the graveyard — is on the element page.
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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