Pulley vs Carta 2026: What Pulley Customers Should Do Before December 8

Pulley is no longer a choice in 2026: it shuts down on December 8, 2026, and Carta is its exclusive transition partner. A new company should compare Carta with the other cap table vendors still selling. A Pulley customer who opts in by November 30, 2026 keeps its Pulley price for a first full year on Carta, which means $1,200 a year on Startup or $3,500 on Growth.

Pulley's figures come from Pulley's pricing page and its shutdown FAQ, and Carta's from Carta's pricing page, all read on October 21, 2026. Toolradar data: as of October 2026, over the preceding 90 days, visitors ran 121 side-by-side comparisons that included Carta and 31 that included Pulley, the top two among the 11 entity management tools Toolradar tracks. Carta is listed as an alternative to 36 other tools in that directory, Pulley to 5.

At a glance

A cap table platform, for a finance team, is the system of record for who owns what: shares, options, SAFEs and notes, plus the filings and valuations that hang off them.

The decision is now Carta's offer or another vendor

For a company that is not on Pulley, this page has one answer: do not sign with Pulley. Its pricing page still lists Startup and Growth, but the same page carries the shutdown notice, so any contract signed today would end within weeks. Compare Carta with the vendors still taking new customers; our cap table software pricing comparison prices them at 25, 50 and 100 stakeholders, and the free cap table software guide covers the free plans.

For a Pulley customer, the real comparison is Carta's transition terms against a move you run yourself. Pulley's FAQ says it will not assist a migration to any provider other than Carta and gives no guarantee that another vendor will honor your current price. Taking Carta means a migration that Carta and Pulley run together, with your cap table, documents, transaction history and equity records moved for you. Going elsewhere means your own export, your own reconciliation and your law firm's time.

Carta's offer is strongest on year one and silent on year two. The FAQ says Carta matches your Pulley pricing for the first full year and credits any prepaid, unused Pulley balance. Carta's pricing page publishes no per-stakeholder rate and no minimum annual fee for Build, Grow or Scale, so nobody outside a Carta quote can tell you the renewal price. Ask for the year-two rate in the same order form as the year-one match.

How each Pulley plan maps to a Carta package

The plan you are on decides which Carta package you are buying into. Matching features, not price, avoids paying for a tier you do not need or losing one you use.

Pulley Startup lines up with Carta Launch or Build. Startup bundled the cap table, share certificates, templated SAFE, option and RSA agreements, and a fundraise modeler. Carta's Launch includes the cap table, securities issuance, investor management, SAFE modeling, SAFE fundraising and closings, and an HRIS and payroll integration, which already covers most of what a Startup customer used. Build adds priced round modeling, deal closings, a deal pro forma and white-glove onboarding, for up to 50 stakeholders. A seed company planning a priced round in the next twelve months will want those modeling tools, because Launch models SAFEs, not priced rounds.

Pulley Growth lines up with Carta Grow, with one gap. Growth added 409A valuations, option exercises, Rule 701, Form 3921, board approvals and HRIS integrations. Carta Grow includes board meetings, Form 3921, 409A valuations and 409A audit support. Rule 701 disclosure management is listed on Scale, not Grow, which is the one place a like-for-like move lands a tier short. A Growth customer that grants options to enough employees to need Rule 701 disclosures should confirm in writing whether the matched year-one package includes it.

Pulley Enterprise lines up with Carta Scale. Enterprise was the plan for ASC 718 stock-based compensation reporting, custom reporting and managed equity administration. Carta Scale includes ASC 718 and US GAAP reporting, ASC 718 audit support, IFRS reporting, exit modeling, IPO advisory and single sign-on for admins. A controller who closes stock comp expense every quarter should confirm the ASC 718 package moves with the contract, because it sits on Carta's top tier.

Carta also sells add-ons on any paid plan: Total Compensation, Equity Advisory, Liquidity for tender offers and QSBS Attestation. None carries a printed price. Pulley's secondary liquidity sat on Enterprise, so a Pulley Enterprise customer that ran a tender offer is looking at Carta's Liquidity add-on.

The stakeholder count can change on the move

Pulley counted small angels as half a stakeholder; Carta's pricing counts equity holders. Pulley's page says an angel investor writing a check of $50,000 or less counts as half a stakeholder. Carta's pricing page describes the stakeholder number as the number of equity holders on your cap table, with no half-count.

That difference moves a company across a limit. Take a cap table of 20 employees and founders plus 10 angels who each wrote $25,000. On Pulley that counts as 25 by our arithmetic, inside the Startup allowance. On Carta's definition it is 30, five above the Launch cap, so the free plan is out before any money question comes up. The second limit is money raised: those 10 angels put in $250,000, so the next round only has to bring in more than $750,000 to push the company past Launch's $1M line.

Carta's own FAQ words the Launch limit slightly differently from its plan card. The plan card says up to 25; the FAQ says under 25. A company sitting exactly on that line should ask which reading applies before it plans around a free year.

409A, ASC 718 and the audit trail

Your current 409A survives the move. Pulley's FAQ says Carta can accept Pulley's existing 409A and fair market value as they stand, given a copy, and that Carta will support the defense of Pulley's prior 409A work. Once that valuation expires, Carta's 409A team becomes the provider.

A Pulley Startup customer never had a 409A in the plan, and that matters at renewal. On Carta, 409A valuations come with Grow. A company that needs a fresh strike price after the year-one match either moves up to Grow or buys the valuation elsewhere. Our guide to what a 409A valuation costs lists published prices from providers that sell one.

Keep your own copy of the audit evidence. Once the Pulley app stops, your records are readable only in a limited format and only for a few more weeks. Before migration, export the cap table, every signed SAFE, option and RSA agreement, board approvals, 409A reports, and any ASC 718 expense schedules your auditors relied on. Pulley's FAQ says differences after migration are most likely display or terminology, not data loss, but an auditor will ask for the original.

Pulley also ran token products: a Token Cap table and Distributions, each $4,500 a year with 25 stakeholders included. Carta's private-company pricing page lists no token product. A company with a token cap table on Pulley needs a written answer from Carta on what moves before it opts in.

The dates, in order

1. Opt in from inside the Pulley app by November 30, 2026. This only shares your contact details and contract data with Carta: plan, stakeholder count, share classes, equity plans, security types and transaction types. Pulley's FAQ says it is not an agreement to migrate, so opting in early costs nothing.
2. Sign within two weeks of receiving Carta's agreement. Carta's 12-month contract and your year-one price start the day you sign, whatever the date of the technical migration.
3. Migration takes a few business days for most accounts once the contract is signed and your window opens. Complex cap tables take longer, which is the main reason not to leave the opt-in to the last week.
4. December 8, 2026: the Pulley app and support stop. Without a new provider in place, you lose access to a working cap table.
5. January 31, 2027: limited read access to Pulley data ends.

Miss the opt-in and you can still open a Carta account, but without the collaborative migration and with no guaranteed pricing or credits.

A monthly Pulley subscriber moves to quarterly or annual billing on Carta at the same year-one rate. Quarterly and semi-annual subscribers can keep a similar cycle. For cash planning, that means a larger first invoice if you were paying month to month.

Who should pick which

Take Carta's transition offer if your lawyers and investors already work in Carta, you need ASC 718 or 409A support without a second vendor, or the team has no time to run its own migration before the shutdown. Sign early: every week of delay shortens the time to check the migrated cap table while Pulley still answers questions.

Run a migration to another vendor if year-two cost matters more than year-one convenience and you can export and reconcile the cap table yourself. Carta prints no paid-plan price, so get a written year-two quote from Carta and compare it with vendors that publish theirs in our pricing comparison. Start that export now; Pulley's team will not help with it.

Check Carta Launch first if your cap table is small enough to fit Launch's stakeholder and funding caps on Carta's count. Launch is free, so ask Carta whether the migrated account can sit on Launch rather than a paid package at your old Pulley price.

For where the cap table sits in the wider stack, see the finance stack for a Series A company and the tools for a first finance hire. Board consents and meeting packs often move at the same time; the cheapest board portal software and board reporting software cover that line, and the CFO software pricing index lists published prices across finance categories. If the cap table move lands in the same quarter as a close, the month-end close checklist keeps the equity entries on the list.

How we compared

We read Pulley's pricing page, Pulley's shutdown FAQ and Carta's pricing page, including its plan comparison and FAQ, on October 21, 2026, and quoted only figures printed there. The stakeholder example is our arithmetic on Pulley's half-count rule and Carta's plan limits. Carta publishes no paid-plan price, so no Carta total appears on this page and none was estimated. How we weigh vendors is on how we rate. Toolradar's side-by-side page is Carta vs Pulley. This page is general information, not personalized financial advice; confirm contract terms, stakeholder counts and dates with Carta and Pulley before you sign.

FAQ

Pulley vs Carta: which should a startup use in 2026?

Carta, or another vendor still selling, because Pulley is closing and takes no part in any move except the one to Carta. Carta Launch is free up to 25 stakeholders and $1M raised, and its Build, Grow and Scale packages are priced per stakeholder through sales. A new company should not sign a Pulley contract.

Is Pulley shutting down?

Yes. Pulley's FAQ says it shuts down on December 8, 2026, when the app and support stop, with Carta as its exclusive transition partner. Pulley data stays viewable in a limited format until January 31, 2027, and Pulley will not assist a move to any other provider.

What does Carta charge a Pulley customer?

Your current Pulley price for the first full year on a new 12-month Carta contract, plus a credit for any prepaid, unused Pulley time. That applies when you opt in by November 30, 2026. Carta publishes no year-two rate, so ask for it in writing before you sign.

Which Carta package matches Pulley Growth?

Carta Grow is the closest match: it includes 409A valuations, 409A audit support, Form 3921 and board meetings. Rule 701 disclosure management sits on Carta Scale, while Pulley Growth included it, so confirm that feature is in your migrated package.

Will Carta accept my Pulley 409A?

Yes. Pulley's FAQ says Carta can accept Pulley's existing 409A and fair market value as they stand, given a copy, and will support the defense of that prior work. When the valuation expires, Carta's 409A team becomes the provider, which on Carta's plan list means the Grow package.

Can I stay on monthly billing after moving from Pulley to Carta?

No. Carta offers annual, semi-annual and quarterly billing, not monthly. A monthly Pulley subscriber starts on quarterly or annual billing at the year-one matched rate, so the first Carta invoice covers more months than a Pulley monthly charge did.

What happens if I miss the November 30 opt-in?

You can still open a Carta account, but without the collaborative migration and without guaranteed pricing or credits. If no new provider is in place when Pulley shuts down, you lose access to a working cap table, with read-only access in a limited format until January 31, 2027.

Cite this: CFOpresso, "Pulley vs Carta 2026: What Pulley Customers Should Do Before December 8", November 2026.

Some offers on this page may be paid placements or contain affiliate links.