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Cap Table / Equity Management · Rank #1 of 10

Carta

Most complete cap table platform, with a real trust gap to address.

By Carta, Inc. (formerly eShares) · Founded 2012 · San Francisco, CA · private

Carta is the cap table category leader, founded 2012 as eShares. Last primary valuation $7.4B (2021 Series G); 2024 secondary tender implied a meaningful markdown. The product covers cap table + equity grants + 409A valuations + ESPP + secondary transactions + post-IPO transfer agent. The defining event of the category in this period: the January 2024 customer-data scandal, in which Carta was publicly accused of using customer cap table data to broker secondary share sales without explicit disclosure. CEO Henry Ward apologized publicly, Carta announced exit from secondary trading, and material customer migration to Pulley and other competitors was reported through 2024-2025. The product is still the most complete cap table platform, largest installed base, deepest feature set, full lifecycle from formation to IPO. But the trust gap is real. Strengths: deepest cap table feature set in category, largest venture-backed installed base, mature 409A valuation services, full IPO/post-IPO transfer agent integration. Trade-offs: the 2024 scandal materially impacts vendor trust scores, pricing has crept up over 2024-2025, Support response times vary as company scaled, and buyers must explicitly evaluate data-handling policies and audit trail. Buyers must do this evaluation; it is no longer optional.

Visit Carta Vendor pricing Compare to Pulley
Best for

Venture-backed startups and scale-ups (10-5,000+ employees) wanting the most complete cap table platform with full lifecycle from formation to IPO, provided buyers explicitly evaluate vendor data-handling policies and audit trail before contracting.

Worst for

Buyers who weight vendor data-handling policies heavily (Pulley clearer post-scandal positioning), European startups needing GDPR-native architecture (Ledgy better fit), APAC startups (Qapita better fit), or budget-conscious early-stage founders (Eqvista cheaper).

Vendor Trust Score

Is Carta a trustworthy vendor?

6.0/10
Mixed
Pricing transparency
Published rates; no hidden fees
6.0
Contract fairness
Reasonable terms; no auto-renew traps
6.5
Incident response
How they handle outages and breaches
4.5
Post-acquisition behavior
Customer treatment after M&A or PE
7.0
Executive stability
Leadership churn over 24 months
6.5
Roadmap honesty
Public commitments held
5.5
Trust signal log
  • 2021-08-09
    Series G raised $500M at $7.4B valuation
    Andreessen Horowitz-led; established Carta as cap table category leader.
  • 2024-01-05
    Customer-data scandal, central trust event in category
    Carta was publicly accused of using customer cap table data to broker secondary share sales without explicit disclosure. Founders surfaced the practice through Twitter/X and LinkedIn; material customer migration to Pulley followed.
  • 2024-01-07
    Henry Ward (CEO) public apology
    Ward issued a public apology and announced Carta would exit the secondary trading business. The trust gap, however, persisted in founder community sentiment.
  • 2024-04-22
    Material customer churn to Pulley reported through 2024
    Pulley publicly reported customer wins; Carta did not publish offsetting churn data, but founder community sentiment remained materially worse than pre-scandal.
  • 2025-09-22
    Carta secondary tender implies valuation markdown
    Secondary tender activity in 2024-2025 implied a markdown from the 2021 $7.4B primary valuation, though no public primary round confirmed.
Vendor Trust is scored independently of product quality. A great product from an unfair vendor still earns a low trust score.
Review Intelligence

What 1,480 reviews actually say

Synthesized from G2, Capterra, Reddit, Trustpilot. Patterns >15% prevalence shown.

Last synthesized
2026-04-29

Praise patterns

  • Deepest cap table feature set in category
    87% →
  • Largest venture-backed installed base
    78% →
  • Mature 409A valuation services
    71% →
  • Full IPO/post-IPO transfer agent integration
    64% →

Complaint patterns

  • 2024 customer-data scandal materially impacts trust
    71% ↑
  • Pricing crept up over 2024-2025
    51% ↑
  • Uneven support quality
    47% →
  • Data-handling policies require explicit evaluation
    41% ↑
Sentiment trend (6 months)
68/100 +1 pts
12
01
02
03
04
05
Representative voices

  • “Still the most complete cap table tool we evaluated, but post-scandal we now require an explicit data-handling addendum in the contract. That conversation did not happen pre-2024.”

    CFO, Series C SaaS· G2 · 2026-03-14

  • “We migrated to Pulley in mid-2024 specifically because of the secondary scandal. Feature parity is now close enough that the trust difference matters.”

    COO, Series B fintech· Reddit r/startups · 2026-02-22

Patterns are extracted from review corpus and human-verified. We surface trends, not anecdotes.
Verified Pricing

What buyers actually pay

387 anonymized deal disclosures · last updated 2026-05-01

Contribute your deal price
Company size Median annual
10-50 employees $4,800
50-500 employees $24,000
500+ employees $96,000
Verified pricing is crowdsourced from buyers under anonymity guarantees. Vendor-listed prices are validated against actual deals quarterly.
Compliance & Security

Auto-verified certifications

Verified 2026-05-01
SOC 2 Type II
ISO 27001
HIPAA
GDPR
CCPA
PCI DSS
FedRAMP

Editorial: Strengths

  • Deepest cap table feature set in category
  • Largest venture-backed installed base
  • Mature 409A valuation services
  • Full IPO/post-IPO transfer agent integration
  • Comprehensive ESPP administration
  • Comprehensive RSU/ISO/NSO accounting
  • Mature secondary transaction infrastructure (now operated as separate entity post-2024)

Editorial: Weaknesses

  • January 2024 customer-data scandal, central trust event in category
  • Pricing crept up over 2024-2025
  • Support is hit-or-miss
  • Material customer churn to Pulley reported 2024-2025
  • Data-handling policies require explicit buyer evaluation
  • Founder community sentiment materially worse post-scandal

Key features & integrations

  • +Cap table management with full audit trail
  • +Equity grant administration (ISO/NSO/RSU)
  • +409A valuation services (in-house)
  • +ESPP administration
  • +Secondary transaction infrastructure (post-2024 operated separately)
  • +Post-IPO transfer agent integration
  • +Investor portal
  • +Fund administration (Carta LLC)
  • +100+ integrations
100+ integrations
QuickBooksNetSuiteWorkdayBambooHRRipplingGustoSequoia Capital portala16z portal
Geography supported
Global; strongest in US; EU presence via Capdesk acquisition
Best fit
10–10,000+ employees · Venture-backed startups through pre-IPO and public
Editorial deep-dive

Read our full ranking of Cap Table / Equity Management

Carta ranks #1 in our editorial review of 10 cap table / equity management platforms. The deep-dive covers methodology, comparison tables, decision matrix, migration scoring, and FAQs.

Read the full ranking

Closest alternatives in Cap Table / Equity Management

#2
Pulley
Modern Carta alternative; won material business after the 2024 scandal.
★ 4.7 public
#3
Shareworks by Morgan Stanley
Public-company-anchored equity management with bank relationship.
★ 4.2 opaque
#4
Eqvista
Affordable cap table for early-stage founders.
★ 4.5 public
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