# Cap table management: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Finance AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "cap table management software" and as "equity management platform", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://finance-ai-index.com/corporate/cap-table-management/

**Standing:** Carta leads with 33% of first choices; verdict contested. 51 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carta | 33% | 32% | 74 |
| 2 | Pulley | 18% | 39% | 66 |
| 3 | Qapita | 12% | 3% | 29 |
| 4 | Cake Equity | 12% | 12% | 32 |
| 5 | Eqvista | 12% | 16% | 31 |
| 6 | Ledgy | 2% | 5% | 39 |
| 7 | Shareworks | 2% | 24% | 29 |
| 8 | Fidelity Private Shares | 2% | 0% | 11 |
| 9 | AngelList Stack | 2% | 57% | 21 |
| 10 | Capboard | 0% | 0% | 11 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Qapita; alternatives Cake Equity, Carta, Pulley
- GPT-5.4 mini: Carta; alternatives Eqvista, Ledgy, Shareworks
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Carta; alternatives Ledgy, Mantle, Qapita
- Perplexity Sonar: Carta; alternatives Cake Equity, Pulley, Qapita
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Carta; alternatives Ledgy, Pulley
- Mistral Small: Qapita; alternatives Ledgy, Pulley
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Carta, Pulley; alternatives Shareworks
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Carta; alternatives Pulley, Qapita, Shareworks
- Kimi K2: Cake Equity, Pulley; alternatives Eqvista, Ledgy
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Carta; alternatives Fidelity Private Shares, Pulley, Qapita
- MiniMax M2.5: Cake Equity, Qapita; alternatives Carta, Shareworks
- GPT-6 Luna: Carta; alternatives Shareworks
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Carta; alternatives Cake Equity, Ledgy, Qapita

## Sources the answers cite

78 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- qapita.com: 45 answers, 74 citations
- guideflow.com: 43 answers, 47 citations
- cakeequity.com: 36 answers, 47 citations
- waveup.com: 30 answers, 30 citations
- valueaddvc.com: 29 answers, 35 citations
- eqvista.com: 26 answers, 45 citations
- resources.rework.com: 25 answers, 45 citations
- ctacquisitions.com: 25 answers, 25 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://guideflow.com/blog/cap-table-management-software (34 answers)
- https://qapita.com/blog/best-cap-table-management-software (32 answers)
- https://cakeequity.com/guides/best-cap-table-software (30 answers)
- https://waveup.com/blog/best-cap-table-management-software (30 answers)
- https://valueaddvc.com/blog/best-cap-table-management-tools-in-2026-carta-pulley-angellist-capdesk-ranked (29 answers)
- https://ctacquisitions.com/best-cap-table-software-2026 (24 answers)
- https://qapita.com/blog/best-equity-management-software (19 answers)
- https://resources.rework.com/tools/equity-cap-table/best-cap-table-software-2026 (18 answers)
- https://hirechore.com/startups/best-cap-table-management-solutions-for-startups-top-vendors (17 answers)
- https://thecfoclub.com/tools/best-cap-table-management-software (15 answers)

## Warned against

- Pulley: 26 of 66 labels negative. "Pulley is closing - The platform announced it will cease operations on December 8, 2026 ... If you're considering Pulley, you'll want to evaluate Carta or other alternatives." (MiniMax M2.5, comparative prompt)
- Carta: 24 of 74 labels negative. "Carta — Approach with Caution ... Data misuse for secondary trading: Carta was caught using confidential customer cap table data to solicit secondary share sales" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- AngelList Stack: 12 of 21 labels negative. "AngelList stopped taking new standalone cap table customers in 2026, so free AngelList is no longer an option for new companies." (Muse Glimmer 30B, budget prompt)
- Shareworks: 7 of 29 labels negative. "more appropriately sized than enterprise-first options like Shareworks / Morgan Stanley at Work... Choose Shareworks only if you are already at enterprise complexity" (Perplexity Sonar, paraphrase prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 10 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Carta at 32%.

- Carta: 44% to 32%, −12. Cleared the floor by 2 points · rank 1 of 39, unchanged.
- Pulley: 8% to 20%, +12. Cleared the floor by 2 points · rank 4 → 2 of 39.
- Cake Equity: 7% to 14%, +7. Inside the floor by 3 points · rank 5 → 4 of 39.
- Shareworks: 3% to 0%, −3. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 7 → 11 of 39.
- Eqvista: 12% to 9%, −3. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 3 → 5 of 39.
- AngelList Stack: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 38 → 10 of 39.
- Ledgy: 3% to 2%, −1. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 of 39, unchanged.
- Fidelity Private Shares: 2% to 2%, +1. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 8 → 7 of 39.
- Qapita: 14% to 14%, ±0. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 2 → 3 of 39.
- Capboard: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 13 → 12 of 39.

## Record

- Method: https://finance-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://finance-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Finance AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, finance-ai-index.com.