CartavsEntityEngine

Carta vs EntityEngine: Cap Table vs Entity Record

Carta runs the cap table. EntityEngine runs the entity record around it. Carta is an SEC-registered transfer agent built for private-company equity administration; EntityEngine is the governance, compliance, and formation record for the company that issues the equity.

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Why teams compare these

Where EntityEngine takes a different approach

Board Operations, Not Only Board Consents

Carta documents board consents, consent templates, and storage for consents executed elsewhere. EntityEngine covers the rest of the boardroom: meetings with built-in video, committees with their own quorum, packets, minutes, resolutions, and decision history.

The Entity Record Beside the Ownership Record

Formation documents, entity details, state filing calendars, and good-standing work sit outside a cap table by design. EntityEngine keeps them in one place with the governance record that produced them.

Documents and Signature in the Same System

A role-scoped document vault with an e-signature workflow for resolutions, consents, and policies — connected to the entity and board records they belong to, not filed separately after the fact.

AI Across the Whole Record

EntityMax answers from entities, board decisions, documents, and compliance deadlines together. It drafts and explains; it does not file with any agency on your behalf.

What Carta does well

A regulated, deep system of record for private-company equity

Carta is the reference implementation of its category, and the depth is real rather than marketed. eShares, Inc. dba Carta is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a transfer agent, which is a regulatory standing an ordinary software vendor does not have. Its documented product surface spans company administration and equity issuance, 409A valuations, employee portfolios and option exercises, fund administration, total compensation, LP portfolio analytics, an AI-enabled CRM, a dedicated LLC product, and resources built for law-firm partners.

SEC-registered transfer agent; Carta is explicit that it is not a registered broker-dealer, which is the kind of precision auditors and counsel look for
Carta Launch is genuinely free for early startups — under $1,000,000 raised in aggregate and 25 or fewer security holders — and covers common and founders stock, option grants, convertible notes, SAFEs, and preferred stock
409A valuations are requested, tracked, and accepted inside the same product that holds the cap table, with the request form adapting to the company’s stage
SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports, bridge letters, and an ISO 27001 certificate are available to customers through Carta’s trust center
Stakeholder operations run deep: cap table access control, terminations, RSA repurchases, PIU holders, K-1 delivery, audit confirmation requests, and signature reminders

Where teams outgrow the fit

Equity is one record; a company keeps several others

Carta’s scope is ownership and the financial machinery around it — issuance, valuation, tax, funds, and compensation. That is a deliberate boundary and the right one for an equity platform. It simply does not extend to the corporate filings, board operations, and entity records that live beside ownership, and Carta does not claim that it does.

Carta’s documented support categories cover equity, funds, compensation, LLCs, and law-firm workflows — not entity formation, registered agent service, state annual reports, business licenses, or beneficial-ownership obligations
Board tooling in Carta’s documentation is consent-centric: creating consents, approving them, managing templates, and storing consents executed outside Carta. Agendas, packets, minutes, and committee structure are not part of it
Paid pricing is not published as a rate card. Launch terms are written down, and exceeding the stakeholder or financing threshold obliges an upgrade at Carta’s then-current pricing, quoted per company
Third-party procurement data describes paid Carta pricing as quoted rather than listed, scaling with stakeholder count and selected modules — a sensible meter for equity, and an odd one for filings or board seats

How EntityEngine approaches it

One record for the entity, the board, and the filings

EntityEngine starts from the entity rather than the ledger. Board directory and committees, meetings with built-in video, packets, minutes, resolutions and voting, decision records, the document vault, e-signature, and the compliance calendar are live today for a paying account. Our equity engine is in private beta and is not enabled for production accounts, so today most teams run EntityEngine beside Carta rather than instead of it.

Board member directory, committees with per-committee quorum, meetings with built-in video, packet building, and minutes
Resolutions and voting with decision records that carry a lifecycle lock and full audit history — records with provenance, not cryptographic seals
State filing deadline tracking, formation for Delaware and Florida LLCs, and a document vault with e-signature as a paid add-on
EntityMax answers across entities, decisions, documents, and deadlines — one assistant over the whole operating record
Stated plainly: no cap table, no 409A, no transfer agent function, and no SOC 2 or ISO certification on our side today

How to choose

Which one fits your situation

Choose Carta if

You need a regulated record of ownership. eShares, Inc. dba Carta is an SEC-registered transfer agent; EntityEngine is not, and no amount of software design substitutes for that standing.
You want the 409A from the same vendor that holds the cap table — requested, tracked, and accepted in-platform, against a cap table the valuation team can already see.
You are early and cost-sensitive: Carta Launch is free under $1,000,000 raised and 25 or fewer security holders, and covers founders stock, options, convertible notes, SAFEs, and preferred.
Your investors, law firm, and auditors already work in Carta, and your security reviewer wants a SOC 1, SOC 2, or ISO 27001 document they can actually read.

Choose EntityEngine if

The bottleneck is board operations rather than the ledger: meetings, committees, packets, minutes, resolutions, and a durable decision history.
The entity itself needs a home — formation records, state filing deadlines, good-standing work, and the documents everyone signed.
You want an assistant that answers across entities, board decisions, documents, and deadlines instead of equity events alone.
You are happy leaving the cap table where it is. Our equity engine is in private beta, and Carta is a good place to leave it.

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Feature	EntityEngine	Carta
Equity & Cap Table
Cap Table Management	Equity engine in private beta, not enabled for production accounts
Electronic Securities Issuance		Common, founders, options, notes, SAFEs, preferred
SEC-Registered Transfer Agent		eShares, Inc. dba Carta, registered with the SEC
SAFEs & Convertible Notes
Equity Plans, Grants & Vesting
409A Valuations	Not offered and not brokered	Requested and accepted in-platform
Stakeholder & Employee Portals
Equity Tax & Audit Support		K-1 delivery, audit confirmation requests
Fund Administration, SPVs & LP Analytics		Separate Carta product lines
Governance & Board Operations
Board Consents		Consents, templates, and externally executed documents
Board Member Directory		Board members as stakeholders
Committees with Per-Committee Quorum
Meeting Management with Built-In Video
Board Packet Builder	Assembly onlyPacket assembly; the in-app PDF reader and annotation are not enabled yet
Minutes
Resolutions & Voting	Full board resolutions	Board consents
Decision Records	Lifecycle lock + audit historyRecords with audit history, not cryptographic sealing	Executed consents stored
Entity & Corporate Compliance
Entity Formation	Delaware & Florida LLCOther states and entity types are not yet purchasable	Outside Carta’s documented product scope
Annual Report Deadline Tracking
BOI / Beneficial Ownership	Deadline tracking onlyNo filing workflow — we do not file for you
Good Standing Monitoring	BetaDerived from your tracked obligations, not scraped from Secretary of State records
Business License Intelligence	Beta
Registered Agent	BetaFulfillment is not yet generally available
Compliance Calendar & Notifications		Equity tax and 409A compliance
Documents & AI
Document Vault		Equity and board documents
E-Signature	Paid add-on	Built into securities and consent workflows
AI Assistant Across the Record	Organization-wideEntityMax answers and drafts; it does not file with any agency	AI-enabled CRM product
Pricing & Trust
Published Price List	Quote via Package Builder	Launch terms published; paid packages quoted
Free Entry Point	Self-serve signup	Carta LaunchUnder $1M raised and 25 or fewer security holders
SOC 2 / ISO 27001	Designed for SOC 2 readiness; not certified	SOC 1, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 documents via its trust center
Pricing Meter	Engines + seats	Stakeholders + modules
Entities Per Plan	One entity per plan	Not metered by entity

Pricing Approach

A written free tier, then a quote — on both sides

Carta publishes the terms of its free Launch plan precisely, and quotes everything above it: crossing 25 security holders or $1,000,000 raised triggers an obligation to upgrade at Carta’s then-current pricing. EntityEngine does not publish a public rate card either — pricing is assembled from the engines and scale blocks an organization actually turns on.

EntityEnginePackage Builder

EntityEngine assembles a package from the engines an organization needs. There is no public rate card today; the Package Builder produces a quote.

Choose engines: governance and meetings, compliance, formation, documents, and AI
Scale with user, entity, and board-seat blocks; e-signature is a paid add-on
Each plan covers one entity — additional entities are separate plans
Built for board members, operators, counsel, accountants, and owners
Honest caveat: there is no cap table or 409A in the package today — the equity engine is in private beta

Configure your package →

CartaFree Launch tier, then quoted

Carta Launch is free for startups with less than $1,000,000 raised and 25 or fewer security holders. Above that, Carta’s published terms require an upgrade at its then-current pricing rather than a listed plan price.

Launch covers common and founders stock, equity-plan issuances such as option grants, convertible notes, SAFEs, and preferred stock
Launch also includes cap table administration, electronic issuance, stakeholder portals, SAFE benchmarking, and direct expert support
Crossing 25 aggregate security holders or $1,000,000 raised is a qualifying event that obliges an upgrade; access may be limited until the upgrade is paid
Paid packages are quoted per company; third-party procurement data describes pricing scaling with stakeholder count and selected modules
Add-on services such as 409A valuations and fund administration are priced separately from the platform subscription

See how Carta prices →

Carta is priced around equity and metered by stakeholders and modules. EntityEngine is priced around governance, compliance, formation, documents, and AI, metered by engines and seats. If you need both, budget for both — they are not substitutes for each other.

In depth

Carta vs EntityEngine: a deeper look

Carta is the right answer when equity is the job

If the question is who owns what, what it is worth, and who has to sign, Carta answers it inside one regulated system. eShares, Inc. dba Carta is an SEC-registered transfer agent — not a broker-dealer, and Carta says so plainly in its own regulatory disclosures. Around that sit company administration and issuance, 409A valuations, employee portfolios and exercises, fund administration, total compensation, LP portfolio analytics, an LLC product, and a law-firm partner surface.

Carta Launch is free under written terms: less than $1,000,000 raised in aggregate and 25 or fewer security holders, covering founders and common stock, option grants, convertible notes, SAFEs, and preferred stock.
The 409A request form collects historical and forecast financials plus qualitative business detail, and requires the cap table on Carta to be current — the valuation and the ledger are checked against each other.
Stakeholder administration is unusually complete: access control, terminations and termination-date corrections, RSA repurchases, PIU holders, K-1 delivery, audit confirmations, and signature reminders.
Security documentation is available to customers: SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports, bridge letters, and an ISO 27001 certificate through Carta’s trust center.

What sits outside a cap table by design

Ownership is one of several records a company has to keep current. The others — the entity itself, the board’s decisions, the state’s filing calendar, the documents everyone signed — are not cap table problems, and Carta’s documentation does not present them as Carta problems either.

Entity formation, registered agent service, state annual reports, business licenses, and beneficial-ownership obligations do not appear in Carta’s documented support categories.
Board coverage in Carta’s documentation is consent-centric: create a consent, approve it, manage templates, store consents executed outside Carta. Agendas, packets, minutes, and committee structure sit elsewhere.
Formation and entity records precede the cap table and typically outlive any single equity platform, which is why they tend to end up in a separate system or in counsel’s files.

What EntityEngine covers today, and what it does not

EntityEngine is the entity and governance record: board directory and committees with per-committee quorum, meetings with built-in video, packets, minutes, resolutions and voting, decision records with lifecycle locking and audit history, a document vault, e-signature as a paid add-on, a compliance calendar with deadline notifications, and Slack notifications.

Entity formation is purchasable today for Delaware and Florida LLCs; other states and entity types are not yet chargeable.
The equity engine, including the 409A workspace, is in private beta and is not enabled for production accounts — EntityEngine is not a cap table substitute today.
EntityEngine holds no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification. Our security program is designed for SOC 2 readiness, which is not the same thing as an audited report or a certificate.
Good standing and license intelligence are in beta, and good standing is derived from the obligations you track with us rather than scraped from Secretary of State records.

FAQ

Carta vs EntityEngine: FAQ

When is Carta the better choice?

Whenever the cap table is the actual problem. If you need issuance, vesting, SAFEs, exercises, a 409A, equity tax documents, or fund administration, Carta does that work today and EntityEngine does not — our equity engine is still in private beta. Carta is also an SEC-registered transfer agent and makes SOC 1, SOC 2, and ISO 27001 documentation available, which matters if you have a diligence or security review to clear.

Is EntityEngine a replacement for Carta?

Not today. EntityEngine covers the entity, board, document, and compliance records around ownership; the equity engine is in private beta and is not enabled for production accounts. Teams that use both keep the cap table in Carta and run governance and corporate compliance in EntityEngine.

Can I migrate my cap table from Carta to EntityEngine?

Not at the moment. Because the equity engine is in private beta, there is no production cap table migration path, and moving off a registered transfer agent is a decision to make with counsel rather than a CSV import. If you want to join the beta when it opens, tell us during onboarding.

Does EntityEngine offer 409A valuations?

No. EntityEngine does not perform or broker 409A valuations. Carta takes the request in-platform, checks it against the cap table it already holds, and delivers a report you accept before issuing options. If you need a 409A, get it from Carta or another valuation provider.

How does EntityEngine pricing compare to Carta?

Neither of us publishes a full rate card. Carta publishes the terms of its free Launch plan — under $1,000,000 raised and 25 or fewer security holders — and quotes everything above it, with pricing scaling on stakeholder count and selected modules. EntityEngine pricing is assembled from the engines, users, entities, and board seats you turn on, and each plan covers one entity.

Does Carta handle board meetings and minutes?

Carta’s documentation covers board consents: creating them, approving them, managing consent templates, and storing board documents executed outside Carta. Meetings, agendas, packets, committee structure, and minutes are not part of that documentation. EntityEngine covers those, including meetings with built-in video and per-committee quorum.

Is EntityEngine SOC 2 certified?

No. EntityEngine has no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification; our program is designed for SOC 2 readiness, which is a different claim. Carta makes SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports, bridge letters, and an ISO 27001 certificate available to customers through its trust center. If audited documentation is a hard requirement for you right now, that is a real advantage on Carta’s side.

Sources, accessed 2026-08-12

Every Carta price and capability on this page comes from a page we fetched and read. Where we could not verify a claim, we say so instead of asserting it.

Carta Support — help center hubhttps://support.carta.com/s/Carta’s documented product areas: company administration and equity issuance, 409A valuations, employee portfolios and exercises, fund administration, total compensation, legal/law-firm resources, Carta Launch, LLCs, LP portfolio analytics, and an AI-enabled Carta CRM. Also the absence of formation, registered agent, and state filing categories.
Terms and Conditions: Carta Launchhttps://support.carta.com/kb/guide/en/terms-and-conditions-carta-launch-Af6obUXpsb/Steps/3725163Launch eligibility: up to twenty-five (25) aggregate security holders and less than US $1,000,000 raised in aggregate; covered securities (common, founders, equity-plan issuances, convertible notes, SAFEs, preferred); the qualifying-event upgrade obligation at Carta’s then-current pricing and possible access restriction until payment.
Frequently asked questions about Carta Launchhttps://support.carta.com/kb/guide/en/frequently-asked-questions-about-carta-launch-qZhwW88UXI/Steps/3707441Launch described as a free platform for startups with less than $1M raised and 25 stakeholders or fewer; included capabilities: cap table administration with electronic issuance, stakeholder access portals, SAFE generation and benchmarking, fundraising analytics, and direct expert support.
Regulatory & Legal Disclosures | Carta Supporthttps://support.carta.com/kb/guide/en/regulatory-legal-disclosures-efOc2DMZqh/Steps/3724856eShares, Inc. dba Carta, Inc. is a transfer agent registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and is not registered as a securities broker-dealer; plus Carta’s Singapore, UK, Luxembourg, and Abu Dhabi registrations.
How to create and manage board consents, templates, and documentshttps://support.carta.com/kb/guide/en/how-to-create-and-manage-board-consents-templates-and-documents-qYoyhECRy9/Steps/3724449Scope of Carta’s board tooling: creating and approving board consents, managing consent templates, downloading consents, and storing board documents executed outside Carta — with no documented coverage of meetings, agendas, packets, or minutes.
How to access Carta’s SOC reports & bridge lettershttps://support.carta.com/kb/guide/en/how-to-access-cartas-soc-reports-bridge-letters-IOge1g9qj0/Steps/4263786Availability of SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports, SOC bridge letters, an ISO 27001 certificate, and a security DDQ to customers via Carta’s Conveyor trust center.
How to request a 409A valuation | Carta Supporthttps://support.carta.com/kb/guide/en/how-to-request-a-409a-valuation-hMxyj7SPDI/Steps/3724495The in-platform 409A request workflow: historical and forecasted financials, qualitative business information, and a requirement that the company’s cap table on Carta is up to date; a stage-adaptive request form introduced in 2023.
409A valuations | Carta Supporthttps://support.carta.com/kb/en/409a-valuations-426264Carta’s 409A resource hub: requesting a valuation, viewing valuation status, adding material events, and viewing and accepting the 409A report before issuing options.
Managing stakeholders | Carta Supporthttps://support.carta.com/kb/en/managing-stakeholders-424066Depth of stakeholder administration: cap table access management, terminations and termination-date corrections, RSA repurchases, PIU holders, board member management, K-1 delivery, audit confirmation requests, and signature reminders.
Carta Software Pricing & Plans | Vendr Marketplacehttps://www.vendr.com/marketplace/cartaThird-party procurement view that Carta does not publish transparent list pricing for paid plans, and that quotes scale with company stage, stakeholder count, and selected add-on modules such as 409A valuations and fund administration.

See EntityEngine for yourself

Choose the governance, compliance, formation, and document engines your organization needs. Keep your cap table on Carta — the two records are meant to sit beside each other.

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