# Cap table management for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

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

**Standing:** Pulley leads with 30% of first choices; verdict contested. 56 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pulley | 30% | 18% | 57 |
| 2 | Cake Equity | 20% | 0% | 44 |
| 3 | Eqvista | 16% | 7% | 41 |
| 4 | Carta | 16% | 44% | 62 |
| 5 | Qapita | 5% | 7% | 15 |
| 6 | Ledgy | 0% | 3% | 29 |

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

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Mantle; alternatives Cake Equity, EquityList
- GPT-5.4 mini: Eqvista; alternatives Carta
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Carta; alternatives Cake Equity, Eqvista, Ledgy, Mantle
- Perplexity Sonar: Pulley; alternatives Carta, Qapita
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Cake Equity, Eqvista; alternatives Carta, Pulley
- Mistral Small: Pulley; alternatives Cake Equity, Carta
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Pulley; alternatives Cake Equity, Eqvista, Gust Equity Management
- Llama 4 Maverick: Pulley; alternatives Carta
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Pulley; alternatives Carta, Eqvista
- Kimi K2: Carta, Pulley; alternatives Eqvista
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Pulley; alternatives Cake Equity, Carta
- MiniMax M2.5: Carta; alternatives Cake Equity

## Sources the answers cite

63 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- cakeequity.com: 51 answers, 63 citations
- eqvista.com: 39 answers, 56 citations
- guideflow.com: 34 answers, 37 citations
- waveup.com: 34 answers, 34 citations
- qapita.com: 28 answers, 41 citations
- cheqly.com: 24 answers, 24 citations
- pulley.com: 22 answers, 40 citations
- carta.com: 19 answers, 21 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://cakeequity.com/guides/best-cap-table-software (39 answers)
- https://waveup.com/blog/best-cap-table-management-software (34 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/cap-table-management-software (27 answers)
- https://eqvista.com/cap-table-management-software-startups (26 answers)
- https://cheqly.com/best-cap-table-software-startups (24 answers)
- https://aifundingtracker.com/best-cap-table-management-software (17 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-equity-management-software (17 answers)
- https://valueaddvc.com/blog/best-cap-table-management-tools-in-2026-carta-pulley-angellist-capdesk-ranked (17 answers)
- https://qapita.com/blog/best-cap-table-management-software (14 answers)
- https://zipdo.co/best/cap-table-management-software (13 answers)

## Warned against

- Carta: 27 of 62 labels negative. "Avoid Carta unless your investors explicitly demand it" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Pulley: 10 of 57 labels negative. "You should avoid signing up for Pulley, and if you are currently using it, you need to initiate a migration immediately." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct prompt)
- Shareworks: 6 of 9 labels negative. "Shareworks may not be suitable for small businesses or early-stage startups due to its complexity and higher cost" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- AngelList Stack: 5 of 6 labels negative. "stopped accepting new customers in August 2026, so it's no longer a viable choice for new teams" (Kimi K2, comparative prompt)

## 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, September 2026 Edition, finance-ai-index.com.