# Carta vs Shareworks: which do AI models recommend for cap table management, September 2026

Finance AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, Cap table management. Eleven of twelve models named Carta first on the direct prompt; one named Shareworks. Page: https://finance-ai-index.com/corporate/cap-table-management/carta-vs-shareworks/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carta | 44% | #1 of 8 | 22% | 65 | 12 of 12 |
| Shareworks | 3% | #7 of 8 | 27% | 26 | 10 of 12 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- MiniMax M2.5: both first (first choices: Carta, Shareworks) (alternatives: EquityZen, Ledgy)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: carta first (first choices: Carta) (alternatives: Cake Equity, Pulley, Qapita)
- GPT-5.4 mini: carta first (first choices: Carta) (alternatives: Eqvista, Ledgy, Shareworks)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: carta first (first choices: Carta) (alternatives: ClosingWell, Ledgy, Pulley, Qapita)
- Perplexity Sonar: carta first (first choices: Carta) (alternatives: Qapita)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: carta first (first choices: Carta) (alternatives: Ledgy, Pulley)
- Mistral Small: carta first (first choices: Carta, Qapita)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: carta first (first choices: Carta, Qapita) (alternatives: Ledgy)
- Llama 4 Maverick: carta first (first choices: Carta, Pulley, Qapita)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: carta first (first choices: Carta) (alternatives: Pulley, Qapita)
- Kimi K2: carta first (first choices: Carta) (alternatives: Cake Equity, Eqvista, Ledgy, Pulley)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: neither named (first choices: Qapita) (alternatives: Cake Equity, Capshare, Mantle, Pulley)

## What the models said about Carta

- "Skip enterprise tools like Carta's paid plans (Build/Grow can run $3,000–$12,000/year" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt, hard negative)
- "Several industry voices explicitly recommend *not* working with Carta." (Kimi K2, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Avoid Carta for core trust reasons" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Carta (Scale/Enterprise Tier): The institutional default... highly capable for late-stage secondary transactions, but it is also the most expensive and has faced scrutiny over aggressive pricing hikes." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt, first choice)
- "The industry standard... the platform that virtually every institutional investor, auditor, and law firm recognizes as the *authoritative* equity record." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, comparative prompt, first choice)
- "Institutional trust & full compliance depth | Carta... you'll likely end up there for credibility and compliance depth despite the cost" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, direct prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about Shareworks

- "treat any enterprise-level platform (Shareworks, Morgan Stanley) as a contract trap for early-stage companies" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "and Shareworks, which are overkill and overpriced for a budget-conscious company" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt, hard negative)
- "### 3. The One to Skip (with a caveat): Shareworks by Morgan Stanley" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, paraphrase prompt, hard negative)
- "Carta or Shareworks are typically the most balanced choices" (MiniMax M2.5, direct prompt, first choice)
- "Strong for your profile, but quote-only pricing" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, scale prompt, first choice)
- "The gold standard if your company is actively planning an IPO within the next 12 to 24 months... generally considered heavy and slow" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt, alternative)

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; rank is within the category. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.