Top Carta Alternatives in 2026

Pulley was built specifically as a Carta alternative, and it shows in both pricing and onboarding. Startup is $1,200/year for your first 25 stakeholders, and Growth is $3,500/year for 40 stakeholders with 409A valuations, option exercises, and Rule 701 and Form 3921 support included rather than sold separately. Both prices sit on the public pricing page, so you can compare against a Carta quote before you commit. Switching teams get a free trial with their existing cap table data already migrated in, and onboarding is concierge-assisted. The tradeoffs are real: there's no free plan, so a 25-stakeholder cap table costs $1,200/year from day one, and stakeholder caps mean you can outgrow Startup or Growth into a quote-only Enterprise tier. One G2 reviewer also flagged that cancelling isn't self-service. For teams that want the closest thing to a drop-in Carta replacement with visible pricing, Pulley is the strongest starting point.

Ledgy is the tool most often positioned against Carta for European companies, and it backs that up with a genuinely free Launch plan covering up to 50 stakeholders, not a trial. That plan includes cap table management, equity plan automation, and employee dashboards, though support is self-serve only. Past 50 stakeholders, every tier (Scale, Enterprise, Public) is a custom quote, though Ledgy's own site gives a rough floor of about 4,000 euros a year for Scale. Scale adds 70+ HRIS integrations, a vesting tranche builder with performance conditions, and DocuSign, and the Public tier extends into share plan administration for listed companies, which most competitors here don't touch. Reviewers consistently rate it easier to use and better value than Carta. The gaps are no phone support or 24/7 coverage, and some limits on bulk editing and custom reporting compared to larger platforms. For a European buyer or anyone who wants a real free tier past 25 stakeholders, Ledgy is the closest match.

Mantle takes a different angle on the Carta problem: instead of competing on which stakeholder tier is cheapest, it charges a flat annual fee that doesn't move when you add people. The free Starter plan includes unlimited stakeholders, SAFE signing, vesting schedules, and cap table exports, no cap at all. Essentials is $1,200/year for e-signing, board actions, and option exercising, and Growth is $3,000/year with one 409A valuation bundled in and VIP support. All three prices are posted, no sales call needed. Mantle also shipped Mantle Clerk, an AI assistant that reads legal documents like offer letters and board resolutions and drafts the resulting cap table updates. The downsides: no monthly billing, only annual, some users report an irritating login-link-only auth flow instead of persistent sessions, and it's missing a stock-based compensation calculator that bigger platforms include. For teams that expect to keep growing headcount and don't want that growth to cost more, Mantle is the pick.

Cake Equity covers the same core job as Carta, cap table, SAFEs, option grants, vesting, e-signing, and 409A valuations, priced by stakeholder count rather than a flat per-seat fee. The free plan covers up to 5 stakeholders with real cap table and SAFE features, not a demo. Build is $1,000/year for up to 25 stakeholders, and Team at $2,750/year bundles two 409A valuations a year plus a custom contract editor, which most competitors sell as separate line items. My Cake, its employee portal, lets staff see and exercise their own vesting without going through finance. The catch is that costs climb fast past the included stakeholder count, $5 per extra person on Team, and the top Pro tier is quote-only like Carta's higher plans. Reviewers also note the option distribution workflow takes real effort to learn. For very early founder-heavy cap tables that want 409A bundled in early, Cake Equity is a solid, cheaper starting point.

Eqvista's pitch is doing the cap table and the 409A valuation under one roof, with its own NACVA-certified analysts producing the valuation instead of routing you to an outside firm. The Freemium tier covers real cap table and ESOP management under 20 stakeholders with no credit card required. Premium Cap Table is $2 per stakeholder per month, and the 409A bundle starts at $990/year pre-revenue, stepping up to $2,590 at Series A, with unlimited valuation updates and renewals included in the price rather than billed per report. That's the cheapest published per-seat number of any tool in this set. The tradeoffs: pricing goes custom once you pass 50 stakeholders or hit Series B, support is email-only with no live chat or phone, and one reviewer reported being billed for a month after cancelling with no refund. For cost-sensitive early-stage teams that want cap table and 409A from a single, transparently priced vendor, Eqvista is worth a look.

Vestd solves a different version of the Carta problem: it's built for UK companies running EMI, CSOP, growth share, or unapproved option schemes, with HMRC valuations and submissions handled inside the platform rather than through 409A-style US workflows. There's no free tier. Self-Serve is 2,200 pounds a year but is only sold to existing customers, and Guided at 4,200 pounds a year adds scheme setup support, unlimited valuations, and live HMRC submission support. Every plan carries a 12-month minimum term with VAT on top, and Full Service is quote-only. Direct Companies House integration for filings is a real advantage for UK founders, and reviewers consistently praise the account management and support. Capterra reviewers do call the pricing high relative to other cap table tools, and the Self-Serve plan's name is a bit misleading since some reviewers say it still needs legal know-how to run. For a UK company whose main need is EMI or CSOP compliance rather than 409A, Vestd is the closest fit, not a general Carta substitute for everyone else.