Desk review, prices verified 28 October 2026
Carta Pricing 2026: Free to 25 Holders, Then a Quote
Published tiers, Vendr contract data, four review platforms and a verdict for founders and funds.
Summary
Carta pricing, October 2026: Carta Launch is free for up to 25 stakeholders and $1M raised, while Build, Grow and Scale are quoted by sales. Vendr's data on 406 purchases shows a median of $15,450 a year and a range of $2,947 to $55,413. G2 rates Carta 4.3/5 on 233 reviews, Trustpilot 2.0/5 on 20. Cost, onboarding and support are the recurring complaints. Cake Equity's $2,750 Team plan is 5.6 times cheaper than the median.
Carta is the default cap table and its pricing is the weak point. Launch is free up to 25 stakeholders and $1M raised, but Build, Grow and Scale are quote-only. Vendr's data on 406 purchases puts the median at $15,450 a year, within a range of $2,947 to $55,413. G2 gives 4.3/5 across 233 reviews, and cost is its most-cited complaint.
- Cap table and equity core
- 9/10
- Compliance and 409A depth
- 8.5/10
- Free tier
- 8/10
- Pricing transparency
- 3.5/10
- Value for money
- 5.5/10
- Support and onboarding
- 5.5/10
- Launch is free up to 25 stakeholders and $1M raised, with phone support
- Feature stack grows from 11 to 28 listed items across four tiers
- G2 holds 4.3/5 on 233 reviews, 91% of them at four or five stars
- Build, Grow and Scale show no dollar price, so every quote starts with a sales call
- Vendr's deal data spans $2,947 to $55,413 a year, an 18.8x spread
- Trustpilot sits at 2.0/5 and G2 reviewers flag onboarding and support gaps
Free Launch plan. Paid tiers by demo request.
How this review was built
- Version tested
- Published plans and public pages as of 28 October 2026
- Test period
- 2026-10-27 → 2026-10-28
This is a desk review, not a hands-on trial. Carta sells paid plans through a demo and quote, so we did not run it on our own cap table and we claim no usage hours. What we did: read Carta's plans page and Launch page on 28 October 2026 and counted the features each tier lists; read Vendr's Carta buyer guide, which reports 406 purchases; read G2's rating distribution and ten most recent written reviews, the 25 most helpful Capterra reviews, TrustRadius' 67 listed reviews and Trustpilot's 20; and priced Cake Equity from its own pricing page. Reddit threads were found through search, but our scraper cannot load Reddit, so only the snippet text is used and labelled that way. Ledgy and Eqvista prices come from a third-party roundup because Ledgy's pricing URL returned a 404. Four screenshots were captured live on 28 October 2026. Vendor claims are labelled as such.
Should you pay for Carta?
YES if you...
- Companies with a priced round on the horizon, where investors often expect the cap table to live on Carta
- Teams that need 409A valuations, Form 3921 and ASC 718 reporting from one vendor
- Venture funds and SPVs that want fund administration and the cap table in one place
- Founders under 25 stakeholders and $1M raised, who get the full Launch tier free
NO if you...
- Seed companies with 40 to 100 stakeholders that only need a cap table and e-signed grants, where Cake or Eqvista list lower prices
- Buyers who need a price in writing before a sales call, since only Launch has one
- UK teams: Trustpilot reviewers report a forced move to the US product after the Capdesk acquisition
- Anyone planning to negotiate nothing: Vendr buyers saved 13% on average, so the first quote is rarely the last
Carta plans for private corporations
Tiers and features from carta.com, read on 28 October 2026. Only Launch lists a price.
Launch
Up to 25 stakeholders and $1M raised
- 11 listed features
- Cap table, securities issuance, exercising and repurchasing
- 83(b) form, ISO management, equity reporting
- SAFE modeling, SAFE fundraising and closings
- Email, chat and phone support
Build
Up to 50 stakeholders
- 16 listed features
- Adds priced round modeling, Deal Closings and Deal Pro Forma
- White-glove onboarding
- Add-ons available
Grow
Flexible stakeholder limit
- 20 listed features
- Adds board meetings and Form 3921
- 409A valuations and audit support
- Everything in Build
Scale
Flexible stakeholder limit
- 28 listed features
- Adds ASC 718 and IFRS reporting with audit support
- Rule 701 management, exit modeling, IPO advisory
- SSO for admins
ROI breakdown: Vendr's median of $15,450 a year is 5.6 times Cake Equity's $2,750 Team plan, which includes two 409A valuations. At 100 stakeholders the Cake Team plan computes to $6,350, against a $10,000 floor for Carta's 100 to 300 stakeholder band in Vendr data.
Hidden costs & gotchas
- Build, Grow and Scale list no dollar price: each quote starts with a sales call
- 409A is listed as included from Grow, yet Vendr reports it quoted separately at $2,000 to $5,000 per valuation in its deal data
- Per-stakeholder overages of $20 to $50 above the contract cap, a Vendr estimate
- Annual escalators of 5% to 10% at renewal, a Vendr estimate
- Onboarding or migration fees of $1,000 to $5,000 reported, often negotiable
- Add-ons sold separately: Total Compensation, Equity Advisory, Liquidity and QSBS Attestation
What we measured
Every value is read from a public page or computed from published or reported prices. The source is in each note.
- Free tier ceiling
- 25 stakeholders Carta Launch page; also capped at $1M raised
- Listed features, Launch to Scale
- 11, 16, 20, 28 features Counted per tier on carta.com/plans, cumulative
- Median annual cost
- 15,450 USD per year Vendr, 406 purchases, buyers saved 13% on average
- Lowest and highest contract
- 2,947 to 55,413 USD per year Vendr range, an 18.8x spread
- Median vs Cake Equity Team
- 5.6 x $15,450 against $2,750, the Cake plan with two 409As included
- Cake Team at 100 stakeholders
- 6,350 USD per year $2,750 for 40 stakeholders plus 60 more at $60 each
- G2 rating
- 4.3 out of 5 233 reviews: 170 five-star, 42 four, 6 three, 2 two, 13 one
- G2 four and five-star share
- 91 % 212 of 233 reviews
- Capterra rating
- 4.2 out of 5 66 reviews; ease of use 4.0, customer service 3.8
- TrustRadius score
- 8.2 out of 10 67 reviews and ratings
- Trustpilot score
- 2.0 out of 5 20 reviews, 7 in the last 12 months
- Days to Pulley opt-in deadline
- 33 days From 28 October to the 30 November Carta offer cut-off
Scenario shown: compare the four plans on the official pricing page
Scenario shown: check what the free tier is for
Scenario shown: read the aggregate rating on G2
Pros and cons in detail
Pros
- The free tier is a complete starter cap table Launch covers cap table, securities issuance, 83(b), SAFE modeling and phone support for up to 25 stakeholders and $1M raised. No card is needed.
- Compliance depth scales with the tier Form 3921 and 409A arrive at Grow, then ASC 718, IFRS, Rule 701 and IPO advisory at Scale. Most rivals stop earlier.
- Reviewers praise the interface On G2, ease of use is the top positive with 26 mentions, ahead of equity management with 24 and user interface with 15.
- One vendor spans company and fund Carta lists fund administration for 8,800+ funds and SPVs, a vendor figure we did not verify.
Cons
- Paid tiers have no published price Build, Grow and Scale are demo-only, so a founder cannot budget before a sales call. Rivals such as Cake publish every tier.
- Contract values vary 18.8x Vendr's low is $2,947 and its high $55,413 a year. The median is $15,450. Stakeholder count and add-ons drive the gap.
- Cost is the top G2 complaint Expensive carries 12 mentions on G2, ahead of onboarding issues at 9 and poor support and complex reporting at 7 each.
- Support and cancellation draw heavy criticism Trustpilot averages 2.0/5, with reviewers describing hard cancellations and slow replies. Capterra rates customer service 3.8 against ease of use at 4.0.
Final verdict: strong product, opaque price
Carta earns its place as the default because the product works and investors know it. The Launch tier is a real offer: under 25 stakeholders and $1M raised, a founder gets a full cap table, SAFE tools and phone support for nothing. G2's 233 reviews, 91% at four or five stars, back the product itself.
The price is the problem. Nothing above Launch is published, Vendr's contract data runs from $2,947 to $55,413 a year, and the median of $15,450 is 5.6 times Cake Equity's Team plan. Trustpilot at 2.0/5 and the G2 threads on onboarding and support suggest service does not always match the price.
Our score is 6.8/10. Start on Launch, expect to leave it at 25 holders or $1M, and get a competing quote before the Build or Grow call. If a priced round is close, or you run a fund, Carta's depth is worth paying for. Otherwise price Cake and Eqvista first.
- Cap table and equity core 9/10 Top G2 praise
- Compliance and 409A depth 8.5/10 Grow and Scale tiers
- Free tier 8/10 25 holders, $1M raised
- Pricing transparency 3.5/10 Only Launch is priced
- Value for money 5.5/10 5.6x Cake Team at median
- Support and onboarding 5.5/10 Capterra support 3.8
Common questions
How much does Carta cost in 2026?
Is Carta free?
Does Carta include 409A valuations?
What do customers say about Carta?
Is Pulley shutting down, and does Carta take its customers?
What is the cheapest Carta alternative?
Can you negotiate Carta pricing?
Is Carta worth it for a seed-stage startup?
Update log
- Initial publication: pricing read from carta.com, contract data from Vendr, ratings from G2, Capterra, TrustRadius and Trustpilot.