Pulley vs Carta: the comparison is over

For years “Pulley vs Carta” was the default cap table question: the challenger with the cleaner modelling interface and the friendlier early-stage price, against the incumbent with the broader platform and the bundled 409A.

That comparison ended in September 2026. Pulley is shutting down on December 8, 2026, after seven years and more than $50 million raised from Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Stripe and 8VC. Carta is taking the migrations. If you landed here choosing between the two, the choice has been made for you.

If you are on Pulley today

Your decision is not whether to move — it is which path.

• The assisted path: opt in by November 30, 2026 and Carta migrates your cap table data, documents and transaction history, honours your current Pulley pricing for your first full year, and credits prepaid balances. You sign a new Carta agreement, and monthly billing converts to quarterly or annual.
• Anywhere else: entirely possible, but Pulley says it cannot assist a migration to another provider in any capacity, so the export and the reconciliation are yours. We wrote both the export checklist and the alternatives comparison.

Either way, export before December 8. The limited-format window after that ends January 31, 2027.

If you were choosing between them

Buy on what Pulley was good at, from a vendor that will still be here:

Modelling you can actually read. Pulley’s rounds and waterfall interface set the bar founders now expect. Ask for a live demo with your own numbers, not a sample cap table.

Early-stage pricing that does not punish hiring. The failure mode is a stakeholder-count tier that steps up exactly when you grow. Price the next two years at your projected headcount.

409A economics. Bundled or not, the valuation is the biggest swing in total cost. Compare subscription plus valuation, never the subscription alone.

And add the criterion this shutdown just made unavoidable:

Portability and durability. Ask what a complete export contains, in what format, including vesting schedules and documents. Ask who funds the vendor. A system of record holding a legal ledger is a long-term dependency, and 2026 demonstrated what happens when that dependency ends.

What it says about the category

Pulley did not fail because cap table software is a bad business. It failed because a system of record with an entrenched incumbent is nearly impossible to displace on price and interface alone. Switching costs protect the leader; every challenger has to be enough better to justify a migration that carries legal risk.

The result is a more concentrated US market, with the remaining competition happening regionally — Ledgy in Europe, Cake Equity in APAC — or at the edges of price and segment. Our full map is in Carta alternatives in 2026.

The one thing to take from it

Your equity data outlives whatever product holds it. Keep your own export, quarterly, in a format you can read without the vendor. That is the difference between a forced migration being a week of work and being a crisis.

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ESOP.fyi is an AI-native cap table, ESOP and liquidity platform opening its first cohort in Q4 2026 — which makes us an interested party here, and is why the advice above is about what to demand from any vendor rather than a pitch. Join the waitlist for one email when we open.