Carta for startups: why it's our cap table
Founder Stack · Slot 04 of 5 · Cap Table & Equity · Reviewed
Short answer: Carta, starting on Carta Launch: free for companies with 25 stakeholders or fewer and under $1M raised, covering SAFEs, cap table administration, and electronic securities issuance.
Spreadsheet equity management breaks during your first priced round. Establish clean governance, SAFEs, and option pools correctly on day one.
Scorecard
- Seed cost
- Free on Launch (≤25 stakeholders, <$1M raised)
- Setup (est.)
- 1–2 hours
- Keyboard
- No
- Reviewed
Why Carta holds the slot
Cap tables kept in spreadsheets break at the first priced round, when lawyers, investors, and auditors all need the same numbers. Starting on a proper system costs nothing on Carta Launch, which covers SAFE generation and tracking, cap table administration, electronic securities issuance, and stakeholder access.
Pulley, a cap table rival, is shutting down on December 8, 2026, and has named Carta its exclusive transition partner.
What it costs a startup
Carta Launch is free for companies with 25 stakeholders or fewer that have raised less than $1M. Past either limit, a company moves to a paid plan.
We couldn't check Carta's paid prices on its own pages, so we don't quote them. Ask for a quote before you cross the Launch limits, so the cost isn't a surprise.
Pulley customers who opt in by November 30, 2026, can move to Carta at their current Pulley price for 12 months; our Carta vs Pulley page has the dates.
Where Carta falls short
Carta is the right first cap table for most venture-backed startups. Its weak points:
- Paid prices aren't something we could verify, which counts against it under our published-pricing criterion.
- No keyboard shortcuts are documented.
- It takes longer to set up than the rest of the Founder Stack: our estimate is 1–2 hours to enter existing SAFEs, grants, and stakeholders.
What would cost Carta the slot
If Launch's free limits shrank, or getting the cap table out of Carta got harder, we would reopen the slot. A rival with published prices covering the same ground from formation to a priced round would get a hearing.
Compared with alternatives
- Carta vs Pulley
Carta. Pulley is shutting down on December 8, 2026; existing customers can move to Carta at their current Pulley price for a year if they opt in by November 30.
Facts are checked against each vendor's own pages, listed below; the slot decision is our opinion. Prices change, so confirm on the vendor's site. How slots are won and lost is in the methodology; see also disclosures.