Transitioning off Pulley: Free Options vs. Paid Cap Table Providers

Why This Decision Cannot Wait

Pulley is winding down. The equity management platform announced that it is shutting down, with a final day of operations of December 8, and it has partnered with its rival, Carta, to transition customers and is redirecting prospective clients to Carta. For a Pulley customer this is a records problem with a calendar attached, and the default answer (Carta) is not the only one. This comparison looks at which Pulley features founders actually use, which of those can be rebuilt for free in Google Sheets, and where a spreadsheet stops being enough.

The timeline is tight and the dates are not interchangeable. Pulley's shutdown FAQ dated September 15 sets November 30, 2026, as the cutoff for opting into the collaborative Carta migration, ends the normal app experience and customer support on December 8, and promises only limited access to customer data through January 31, 2027. Every Pulley customer is weighing the same options: take the assisted move to Carta, roll the ledger into a spreadsheet to cut costs, or move to a document-driven provider such as Story.law. The goal here is to make that call deliberately rather than by default.

One question worth asking Pulley directly: where is the refund for the portion of your contract term Pulley can no longer fulfill?

The Problems an Equity Management Product Actually Has to Solve

• Keeping an accurate legal record of who owns what, tied to actual signed documents
• Handling terminations, vesting cascades, and grant lifecycles without silent gaps
• Producing diligence-ready outputs (data room, pro forma, board consents) on demand
• Doing all of the above cheaply enough that a pre-Series A company can afford it

What to Look for in a Pulley Replacement

The temptation after a shutdown is to grab the first product that looks like Pulley and move on. That can mean an expensive CSV export, ongoing work to maintain it, and larger legal bills later to clean up mistakes. Many Pulley ledgers were wrong not because of random data-entry error, but because the platform did not validate prerequisites (409A, equity plan, signed agreements) before generating documents on a founder's request, and founders often did not know those prerequisites existed. Gaps compounded silently for months. Replacing one leaky bucket with another carries the same problem forward.

Features that matter after Pulley:

• Document-driven ledger: the system reads signed papers and extracts the ledger, rather than asking you to type numbers into a form
• Prerequisite checking: the system blocks a board consent or option grant until the underlying plan, valuation, and signatures actually exist
• One-click terminations that cascade vesting across every related grant
• Built-in e-signature and clickthrough that is enforceable, not a bolt-on DocuSign bill
• Real-time sync between the ledger, the data room, and every stakeholder view
• Month-to-month billing, so switching is not another 90-day cancellation notice
• Lawyer-in-the-loop review, so the numbers are defensible when a diligence firm actually reads them

How Pulley Customers Are Moving to Story.law

Story.law's onboarding for Pulley customers works as follows: export the Pulley data room as a zip and upload it to Aegis. Processing runs at roughly one to two days per fifty documents, including time for humans to confirm the data. Story.law offers a free trial during which it reconciles the ledger against the source papers and flags prerequisite gaps. For Pulley customers it waives its standard $1,000 onboarding fee.

Once live, Story.law says customers can:

• Terminate an employee once and have Aegis cascade the vesting stop across every related grant. Carta handles this as two separate steps.
• Draft a board consent in about 30 seconds instead of the 30 minutes it takes to build one by hand.
• Sign new instruments, with the ledger and data room updating in real time.
• Give every counterparty (equity holders, employees, contractors) a free stakeholder account scoped to their own documents.
• Query their own data in natural language through Slack, Linear, or MCP integrations.

Evaluation Rubric for Post-Pulley Equity Management Providers

A reasonable weighting for choosing where to land after Pulley:

• Accuracy of the ledger against signed documents (30%): does the system read your papers or ask you to guess
• Prerequisite checking before drafting (20%): does the system block bad drafts or generate them anyway
• Legal defensibility (15%): is a lawyer responsible, or just a vendor
• Pricing transparency and lock-in (15%): month-to-month or a 90-day cancellation window
• Diligence readiness (10%): can you hand the data room to an equity holder's counsel without cleanup
• Migration mechanics (10%): does the provider handle the transfer, or do you

Competitor Comparison: Post-Pulley Equity Management Options

The table below is a quick side-by-side of the realistic options for a Pulley customer today. It is not exhaustive; it is the shortlist most Pulley customers are weighing.

Story.law is the only entry on this list that is a law firm; the others are software vendors. That distinction matters more than any single feature checkbox.

Story.law (Aegis) vs Carta vs Cake Equity vs Eqvista vs Google Sheets

• Story.law (Aegis)

  story.law

  Story.law is an AI-native law firm whose Aegis platform takes a customer's Pulley exports and returns an automated ledger, a diligence-ready data room, a pro forma, and a health check score, using lawyer-defined rules. Story.law says it is 70% cheaper than BigLaw. The firm positions Aegis for Pulley customers whose ledger numbers may have quietly drifted from their signed documents.

  Key Features

  • Document-driven ledger: signed papers are split into a graph of sections and types, fit into a legal taxonomy, and extracted into a legal event ledger, a legal asset ledger, and a stakeholder ledger
  • Prerequisite checking: Aegis blocks a board consent or option grant until the underlying plan, valuation, and signatures exist
  • One-click terminations that cascade vesting across every related grant
  • Built-in clickthrough e-signature, which Story.law describes as the most enforceable form its lawyers will do short of a pen on paper
  • Free stakeholder accounts for every counterparty, scoped by attorney-client privilege
  • Slack, Linear, and MCP integrations for querying data in natural language
  • Month-to-month billing with cancellation at any time

  Pulley Migration Offerings

  Zip export from Pulley uploaded to Aegis, with roughly 1 to 2 days of processing per 50 documents. A free trial before any charge. The standard $1,000 onboarding fee is waived for Pulley migrations. Story.law says data is kept for seven years under attorney-client privilege, never sold, and never used to train a model against the customer.

  Pricing

  Cap table only: $199/month or $2,000/year. Aegis Start: $349/month, or $320/month ($3,839/year) on the annual plan with two months free. Aegis Raise, which adds pro forma modeling and heavier support: $1,000/month, or $10,000/year on the annual plan with two months free.

  Pros

  • Lawyer-in-the-loop review.
  • Ledger built from the customer's actual documents.
  • Month-to-month billing.
  • Attorney-client privilege on customer data.
  • Positioned to replace Clerky, Carta, DocuSign, ChatGPT, and ad hoc BigLaw work in one subscription.

  Cons

  • No modeling of a hypothetical unsigned SAFE against a future priced round yet.
  • No stock-based compensation accounting entry report yet.
  • No tax form generation yet.
  • US-only for on-platform employee hiring; international hires go through a contractor agreement.
  • Unusual manual recapitalizations (for example, shares moved into an unrelated trust) are not supported.

• Carta

  carta.com

  Carta is the default path Pulley is pointing customers toward. Moving to Carta is the path of least resistance and the highest cost, and for many companies without near-term IPO aspirations it will be the right call. Pricing is matched for the first year, but a new contract with Carta must be signed. Companies on a monthly billing plan will need to move to quarterly or annual terms, since Carta does not offer monthly billing.

  Key Features

  • Equity management, 409A valuations, equity plan administration, fund administration, secondary transactions, and an equity holder network

  Pulley Migration Offerings

  After the contract is signed, Carta and Pulley coordinate the technical migration of ledger data, transaction history, equity records, and documents; the customer then reviews the resulting account and flags discrepancies before accepting it for use. Pulley's published arrangement also allows Carta to accept an existing Pulley 409A valuation and fair market value when the customer supplies a copy, with Carta taking over when that valuation expires.

  Pricing

  Free Launch tier up to 25 stakeholders; paid tiers on annual or quarterly contracts.

  Pros

  • Brand recognition with equity holders and law firms.
  • Broad feature set.
  • Mature 409A practice.

  Cons

  • In January 2024, Linear's CEO accused Carta of misusing confidential data from a customer's ledger to build out its own order book for secondary stock trading.
  • Annual contracts with a 90-day cancellation window.
  • Customers still pay lawyers to operate the software correctly.

• Cake Equity

  Cake positions itself as a mid-market alternative to Carta and Pulley, with a stronger focus on the employee equity experience.

  Key Features

  • Equity management, vesting management, options management, and compensation management for equity administration
  • Equity holder reporting, valuation management, portfolio management, and deal management
  • Document management, role-based permissions, workflow management, real-time analytics, customizable reports, and audit trail features

  Pulley Migration Offerings

  Cake is offering a free transition from Pulley within 48 hours.

  Pricing

  Cake Equity plans start free for up to 5 stakeholders. The Build plan starts at $1,000/year for up to 25 stakeholders (or $375/quarter), and the Team plan starts at $2,750/year with 409A valuations included.

  Pros

  • Free tier for small ledgers.
  • Free migration support.
  • Focus on employee equity experience.

  Cons

  • Software vendor, not a law firm.
  • Customers still need outside counsel to interpret and defend the output or do data entry.
  • No prerequisite checking that blocks bad drafts.

• Eqvista

  Eqvista bundles equity management software with an in-house 409A valuation practice, which is unusual in the category.

  Key Features

  • Combines 409A valuations from in-house NACVA-certified professionals with Real-Time Company Valuation technology
  • Manages common stock, preferred shares, options, RSUs, warrants, and convertible securities with advanced vesting and real-time updates
  • Every stakeholder gets portal access to their equity information
  • Every 409A valuation includes lifetime audit support and full IRS defense, integrated with the ledger at no additional cost
  • Handles ASC 718, 83(b) elections, QSBS attestation, and IRS filings

  Pulley Migration Offerings

  Migrate a ledger from another provider or spreadsheet to Eqvista with white-glove onboarding from a dedicated team.

  Pricing

  Tiered plans starting free for up to 20 shareholders, then $2 per shareholder monthly for premium features.

  Pros

  • In-house 409A team.
  • Free tier scales further than most competitors.
  • Compliance filings covered.

  Cons

  • Software vendor plus valuation firm, not a full law firm.
  • Customers still need counsel for equity plan drafting, board consents, and diligence review.
  • Support for complex transaction structures is unclear, but is understood to require lawyer bills to structure data for correct entry.

• Google Sheets

  This is the option nobody sells you but plenty of operators actually use. A former Pulley employee reportedly said on record that Pulley was not so much competing with Carta as it was with spreadsheets. A spreadsheet can carry more of the load than most vendors will admit. It also cannot carry everything, and the parts it cannot carry are the parts that cause problems in diligence. But for a company with a simple cap table and no budget, paying for software that duplicates what Google provides for free is hard to justify.

  Key Features

  • A grid. Formulas. Version history. Sharing permissions. Free forever.

  Pulley Migration Offerings

  No migration service. You export your Pulley data and rebuild the ledger yourself.

  Pricing

  Free.

  Pulley Feature Coverage in Google Sheets

  • Basic ledger of stakeholders, share classes, and outstanding amounts: yes, trivially
  • Waterfall and dilution modeling for a priced round: yes, if you can build the formulas and are honest about the assumptions
  • SAFE conversion math: yes, with a template
  • Vesting schedule tracking: yes, if you accept it will not cascade on termination
  • Board consent drafting: no, this is not a spreadsheet job
  • E-signature: no, requires DocuSign or similar
  • Prerequisite checking against signed documents: no, the spreadsheet does not know what you signed
  • 409A valuation: no, requires a separate provider
  • Data room and diligence outputs: no, requires a separate provider
  • Stakeholder portal for equity holders and employees: no
  • Legal defensibility when a diligence firm audits your numbers: no, the spreadsheet is not the record; the signed documents are

  Pros

  • Zero cost.
  • Fully under your control.
  • Everyone already knows how to use it.

  Cons

  • No prerequisite checking.
  • No document-driven ledger.
  • No lawyer in the loop.
  • No enforceable e-signature.
  • No 409A.
  • Every mistake is silent until a diligence firm finds it.

  What You Can Get Free in Google Sheets

  • The static ledger of shares outstanding by holder and class
  • Waterfall and dilution modeling if you can write the formulas
  • SAFE conversion math with a well-built template
  • Vesting schedule tracking, though only as a static calculation

  What Requires More Than a Spreadsheet

  • Prerequisite checking that blocks a bad board consent or option grant before it is generated
  • One-click termination that cascades vesting across every related grant
  • Enforceable clickthrough e-signature integrated with the ledger
  • Real-time sync between the ledger, the data room, and stakeholder views
  • 409A valuation that will survive an IRS or audit challenge
  • A diligence-ready data room an equity holder's counsel will accept
  • Board consent drafting in seconds instead of half an hour by hand
  • Attorney-client privilege on equity records
  • A lawyer who is actually responsible when something is wrong

How to Choose

The honest dividing line is complexity. A ledger with fewer than five stakeholders, all operators, and no signed paper beyond incorporation can live in Google Sheets. Once a company has signed even one SAFE, hired an employee on options, or expects to raise a priced round in the next 18 months, the ledger becomes a legal record and a spreadsheet is no longer enough. Among the paid options, Story.law is the only law firm on this list: it builds the ledger from signed documents, checks prerequisites before drafting, and bills month to month. Carta, Cake Equity, and Eqvista are software vendors, and customers of each generally still need outside counsel to operate and defend the output.

• Choose Story.law (Aegis) if you have signed even one SAFE, hired an employee on options, or plan to raise a priced round in the next 18 months, and you want the ledger built from your signed documents with a lawyer in the loop and month-to-month billing.
• Choose Carta if your equity holders and law firms already know the brand, and you are comfortable moving to annual or quarterly terms with a 90-day cancellation window.
• Choose Cake Equity if you want a free tier for a small ledger, free migration help, and a product focused on the employee equity experience.
• Choose Eqvista if you want an in-house 409A team alongside basic equity management and a free tier that scales to 20 shareholders.
• Choose Google Sheets if your ledger is under five stakeholders, all operators, with no signed paper beyond incorporation.