September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Finance › Equity and corporate › Cap table management · September 2026 Edition

Cap table management

Asked as “cap table management software”, and as “equity management platform”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 59 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
44%
Clear leader
44Carta Equity14Qapita12Eqvista31others

44% of first choices, clear leader.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Carta Equity44%22%65endorsed leader
02Qapita14%4%26accepted challenger
03Eqvista12%0%35accepted challenger
04Pulley8%30%56criticized challenger
05Cake Equity7%0%38accepted challenger
06Ledgy3%6%36accepted challenger
07Shareworks3%27%26criticized challenger
08Fidelity Private Shares2%0%14accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
C01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Carta Equity44%
02Qapita14%
03Eqvista12%
04Pulley8%
05Cake Equity7%
06Ledgy3%
07Shareworks3%
08Fidelity Private Shares2%

What they warned about

Five of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Perplexity Sonar, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Carta Equity
22%
14 of 65 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Skip enterprise tools like Carta's paid plans (Build/Grow can run $3,000–$12,000/year” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
Pulley
30%
17 of 56 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 12 hard negative
“When to avoid: Immediately if considering now—migrate risks data loss or disruption... obsolete.” Grok 4.20, negative prompt
Shareworks
27%
7 of 26 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“treat any enterprise-level platform (Shareworks, Morgan Stanley) as a contract trap for early-stage companies” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Spreadsheets
100%
3 of 3 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“These are risky because: No audit trail, Formula errors can cause costly mistakes, Version control chaos” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt

What they cite

Twelve of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited and eight the search results they consulted.

Sites the answers cite

64 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 857 links across 145 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Cake Equity49 answers · 60 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Qapita36 answers · 50 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Guideflow34 answers · 36 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Eqvista32 answers · 42 citations · 11 models
31 answers · 31 citations · 11 models
28 answers · 37 citations · 11 models
21 answers · 21 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Pulley19 answers · 25 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Carta18 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
vendor site · G218 answers · 18 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Worldmetrics17 answers · 26 citations · 8 models
17 answers · 20 citations · 6 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best cap table management software”, “cap table management software”, “cap table platforms”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Carta Equity carta.com44%206506,905$2,839291
Qapita qapita.com14%66720417,649$12211
Eqvista eqvista.com12%121720695,715427
Pulley pulley.com8%17349,50026,01322,480372
Cake cakeequity.com
Cake Equity 7%
7%847201213,070242
Ledgy ledgy.com3%145720523,5632
Shareworks morganstanley.com
Shareworks 3%, Morgan Stanley at Work 0%
3%9122,2002981,187,677$46774
Fidelity Private Shares fidelityprivateshares.com2%4072026,507236
Mantle withmantle.com2%1560,50019,77543613
Gust gust.com
Gust Equity Management 2%
2%6

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 20 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (cakeequity.com, carta.com, eqvista.com, pulley.com). The first result for “best cap table management software” is threads.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
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ModelDirect“What is the best cap table management software for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which equity management platform would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top cap table platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best cap table management software for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a cap table management software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which cap table platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Carta Equity
Three alternativesCake Equity, Pulley, Qapita
no first choiceChangedCarta Equity
Three alternativesCake Equity, Eqvista, Ledgy
against: Pulley
Eqvista, Gust Equity Management
Two alternativesCake Equity, Mantle
no first choiceagainst: Carta Equity, Pulley
GPT-5.4 miniCarta Equity
Three alternativesEqvista, Ledgy, Shareworks
against: Pulley
Carta EquityHeld
Three alternativesEqvista, Ledgy, Shareworks
Carta Equity
Three alternativesEqvista, Ledgy, Shareworks
against: Pulley
Eqvista
Two alternativesCarta Equity, Pulley
no first choiceagainst: Carta Equity
Gemini 3.5 FlashCarta Equity
Four alternativesClosingWell, Ledgy, Pulley, Qapita
Carta EquityHeld
Four alternativesCake Equity, Eqvista, Ledgy, Pulley
against: Shareworks
Carta Equity
Five alternativesCake Equity, Eqvista, Fidelity Private Shares, Ledgy, Mantle
against: Pulley
Mantle
Three alternativesCake Equity, Eqvista, Fidelity Private Shares
against: Carta Equity, Pulley
Carta Equity
Four alternativesLedgy, Pulley, Qapita, Shareworks
against: Carta Equity, Pulley, Spreadsheets
Perplexity SonarCarta Equity
One alternativeQapita
QapitaChanged
Four alternativesCarta Equity, Eqvista, Ledgy, ShareForce
Carta Equity
Seven alternativesCake Equity, Eqvista, Fidelity Private Shares, Ledgy, Pulley, Qapita, Shareworks
Cake Equity
One alternativeEqvista
against: Pulley
no first choiceagainst: AngelList Stack, Carta Equity
Grok 4.20Carta Equity
Two alternativesLedgy, Pulley
against: Google Sheets, Spreadsheets, Trusted Insight
Carta EquityHeld
Four alternativesCake Equity, Ledgy, Pulley, Qapita
Carta Equity
Four alternativesCake Equity, Eqvista, Ledgy, Pulley
Eqvista
Three alternativesCake Equity, Carta Equity, Fidelity Private Shares
against: Ledgy, Pulley
Carta Equity, Ledgy, Pulley
One alternativeQapita
against: Shareworks
against: Carta Equity, Pulley, Shareworks
Mistral SmallCarta Equity, QapitaCarta Equity, QapitaHeld
One alternativeCake Equity
Carta Equity
Four alternativesCake Equity, Ledgy, Pulley, Shareworks
Carta Equity, Eqvista, Pulley
Two alternativesCake Equity, Fidelity Private Shares
no first choiceagainst: Carta Equity
DeepSeek V4 FlashCarta Equity, Qapita
One alternativeLedgy
against: Pulley
AstrellaChanged
One alternativeCarta Equity
against: Pulley, Qapita, Shareworks
Carta Equity, Pulley
Five alternativesCake Equity, Eqvista, Fidelity Private Shares, Ledgy, Shareworks
against: AngelList Stack
Carta Equity, Eqvista, Fidelity Private Shares
Three alternativesCake Equity, Capboard, Pulley
against: AngelList Stack, Carta Equity, Shareworks
Carta Equity, Qapita, Shareworksagainst: LTSE Equity, Pulleyagainst: Carta Equity, Ledgy, Pulley, Shareworks
Llama 4 MaverickCarta Equity, Pulley, QapitaEqvistaChanged
Three alternativesCarta Equity, Fidelity Private Shares, Qapita
Carta Equity
Four alternativesCake Equity, Eqvista, Ledgy, Pulley
Cake Equity
Three alternativesCarta Equity, Ledgy, Pulley
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashCarta Equity
Two alternativesPulley, Qapita
PulleyChanged
Two alternativesCaptable Software, Carta Equity
Carta Equity, Pulley
Three alternativesCapboard, Eqvista, Ledgy
Capsule
Three alternativesAngelList Stack, Google Sheets / Excel, Shareworks
against: Carta Equity
Carta Equity
Three alternativesCapshare, Pulley, Shareworks
against: Broadridge
against: AngelList Stack, Carta Equity, Microsoft Excel, Pulley
Kimi K2Carta Equity
Four alternativesCake Equity, Eqvista, Ledgy, Pulley
Carta EquityHeld
Two alternativesPulley, Qapita
Carta Equity, Pulley
Six alternativesAngelList Stack, Cake Equity, Eqvista, Ledgy, Qapita, Shareworks
Carta Equity, Eqvista
Two alternativesCapbase, Pulley
Carta Equity
Two alternativesPulley, Shareworks
against: Carta Equity, Pulley, Shareworks
GLM 4.7 FlashXQapita
Four alternativesCake Equity, Capshare, Mantle, Pulley
against: Carta Equity
Cake Equity, QapitaChanged
Two alternativesCarta Equity, Ledgy
Carta Equity
Six alternativesEqvista, Ledgy, Mantle, Morgan Stanley at Work, Pulley, Qapita
Carta Equity, Pulley
Four alternativesCake Equity, Capboard, Eqvista, OpenCap Stack
no first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5Carta Equity, Shareworks
Two alternativesEquityZen, Ledgy
Carta Equity, LedgyChanged
One alternativeOptio Incentives
Carta Equity
Five alternativesCake Equity, Ledgy, Pulley, Qapita, Shareworks
Cake Equity
Two alternativesCarta Equity, Pulley
no first choiceagainst: Carta Equity, Pulley, Spreadsheets
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:43yes910 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:20yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:03yes1324 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:01yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 19:11yes2017 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:10yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:01yes1320 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:38yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:29yes529 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:38yes1530 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:58yes2957 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:58no011 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:31no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:17yes37 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:26yes1723 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:40yes167 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 21:08yes2914 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:47yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 17:56yes2773 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:36yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:01no026 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:02yes1241 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:42yes1532 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:24yes821 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:03yes1010 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:01yes614 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:24yes2226 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:47yes2013 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 18:56yes2016 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:13yes912 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:49yes1619 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:47yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:42yes520 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:46yes945 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:43yes1486 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:41yes920 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:13yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:29yes28 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:35yes2322 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:00yes207 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:30yes2012 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:13yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:13yes813 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:05yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:31no031 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:08yes832 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:30yes918 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:34yes1134 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:21no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:41no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:01yes1229 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:09yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:32yes1210 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:52no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:36yes1726 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:53yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:47no029 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:18yes1527 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:54yes1022 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:05yes514 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:35yes179 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:11yes16 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:02yes1319 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:01yes167 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 18:53yes4020 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:03yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 19:09yes2471 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:16yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:00yes2549 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:01yes2957 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:53yes2748 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:08yes2034 s

Noise floor in this category

Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat. Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.

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Claude Haiku 4.5
1 of 3 flipped
GPT-5.4 mini
1 of 4 flipped
Gemini 3.5 Flash
1 of 5 flipped
Perplexity Sonar
2 of 4 flipped
Grok 4.20
5 of 6 flipped
Mistral Small
4 of 5 flipped
DeepSeek V4 Flash
5 of 6 flipped
Llama 4 Maverick
4 of 5 flipped
Qwen 3.7 Flash
3 of 5 flipped
Kimi K2
5 of 6 flipped
GLM 4.7 FlashX
4 of 5 flipped
MiniMax M2.5
4 of 4 flipped

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
AngelList read as AngelList Stack
AngelList (Wellfound) read as AngelList Stack
Cake read as Cake Equity
Carta read as Carta Equity
Carta Go read as Carta Equity
Carta Launch read as Carta Equity
Carta's paid plans read as Carta Equity
Excel / Spreadsheets read as Microsoft Excel
J.P. Morgan read as J.P. Morgan Workplace Solutions
Unresolved, counted raw
Blackbaud
Capsule
Captable Software
ClosingWell
EquityPoint
EquityZen
Keela
Proshare
Sharesight
Sharing
Trusted Insight
Wiso
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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