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End-to-end platforms for managing and planning equity, providing liquidity and helping manage personal finance include Secfi, Carta, and Shareworks.
While most tools focus specifically on either company administration or simple tracking, choosing the best option depends on whether you need a system of record for the employer or a financial operating system that helps you optimize your personal bottom line.
There are few platforms that do it all in one, so we will break down the different providers across various categories:
Secfi: across all categories
Equity management platforms
Liquidity providers
Personal finance and equity planning platforms
Since we’re the ones writing the article, we’ll start with a deep dive into our own product and how we designed it to fulfill the criteria above.
Secfi is the only platform designed to provide an end-to-end solution specifically for the individual holder rather than the issuing company.
It functions as a comprehensive toolkit for executives who need to navigate complex tax planning and secondary market transactions simultaneously.
Secfi is the odd one out in this landscape as it operates as an equity management platform, liquidity provider and equity planning platform all in one.
We built Secfi around one core idea: Helping employees and executives make better decisions about their equity. That means combining:
Equity modeling
Tax modeling
Financing
Liquidity solutions
Secondary support
Wealth management
Market intelligence
All of these features are housed in one place to reduce the friction of manual data entry and fragmented advice.
Secfi’s platform includes:
Access non-recourse financing for exercising options: You can finance the cost of your exercise and the associated tax bill without putting your personal assets at risk.
Use AI-powered equity planning through Maeve: Gain instant insights from Secfi’s AI equity assistant running through our calculations engine.
Receive secondary sale support: Access a network of institutional buyers if you prefer to sell shares outright rather than finance them.
Model tax and alternative minimum tax (AMT) liability: Use a proprietary tax engine to calculate your AMT exposure.
Perform equity scenario analysis: Visualize how different exit prices and timelines impact your take-home pay.
Access wealth management and financial planning: Work with a fiduciary financial advisor who specializes in startup equity.
Review private market insights and valuation data: View latest market signals to understand what your shares are actually worth today.
Rather than acting as a system of record for companies, Secfi acts as a financial operating system for employees with equity. And that distinction matters. Because for employees, the hardest part is rarely tracking equity. It is knowing what to do with it.
Here’s how Secfi compares to other solutions on the list:
| Platform | Best for | Key focus | Capital provider |
|---|---|---|---|
Secfi | Executives at Series B-E startups | Personal liquidity & tax optimization | Direct funding |
Carta | Finance teams & HR | Cap table administration & compliance | Marketplace/Secondary |
Pulley | Early-stage startups (Seed-B) | Simplified cap table administration | None |
Shareworks | Late-stage & public companies | Global equity plan administration | Morgan Stanley broker |
ESO Fund | High-value options exercises | Non-recourse exercise financing | Direct funding |
EquityBee | Marketplace funding | Connecting employees with investors | Third-party investors |
GetQuid | Founders & liquidity seekers | Equity-backed financing | Direct funding |
Compound | Integrated wealth advice | Holistic financial & investment planning | Advisory only |
Granted | Offer evaluation | Compensation analysis & education | None |
Vested | Equity visibility | Position tracking & tax insights | None |
These platforms are primarily built for companies, not employees. Their core function is managing cap tables, issuing grants, handling compliance, and administering equity programs.
Carta is the best-known equity management platform for startups and private companies.
What Carta offers
Cap table management
Equity grant administration
409A valuations
Investor reporting
Employee equity dashboards
Compliance workflows
Best for: We believe Carta is best for startups and finance teams managing company equity at scale.
What Carta doesn’t cover: Carta helps companies administer equity, but it is not designed to help employees make complex financial decisions about:
Exercising stock options
Financing exercises
Tax planning
Liquidity timing
Selling shares
For most employees, Carta is where they view their equity, not where they decide what to do with it.
Pulley is a cap table platform focused on startups earlier in their lifecycle.
What Pulley offers
Cap table management
Simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) and convertible note tracking
Employee equity grants
Scenario modeling for founders
409A support
Best for: We believe Pulley is best for Seed to Series B startups that want simpler equity infrastructure.
What Pulley doesn’t cover: Pulley focuses heavily on company administration workflows rather than employee liquidity or financial planning. It is optimized for founders and operators, not employees trying to:
Exercise options
Model AMT
Finance exercises
Access secondary liquidity
Morgan Stanley Shareworks is an enterprise-grade equity administration platform.
What Shareworks offers
Global equity administration
Employee stock plan management
Compliance and reporting
Public-company equity workflows
Employee portals
Best for: We believe Shareworks is best for late-stage private companies and public companies with complex global equity programs.
What Shareworks doesn’t cover: Like Carta and Pulley, Shareworks is fundamentally infrastructure for employers. It is not designed as a decision-making platform for employees navigating:
Taxes
Financing
Liquidity
Wealth planning
Secondary sales
These platforms focus on helping employees unlock liquidity or exercise stock options.
“There is a massive catch-22 in equity: the more successful your company becomes, the more expensive it is to actually own your piece of it. If you wait for the 'perfect' time to exercise, you might find that the AMT bill has grown so large that you can no longer manage the transaction without outside financing.” – John Klingler, Equity Strategist at Secfi
ESO Fund focuses on non-recourse financing for startup employees.
What ESO Fund offers
Stock option exercise financing
Liquidity solutions
Downside protection structures
Best for: We believe ESO Fund is best for employees who want to move quickly.
Limitations: ESO Fund is primarily a financing provider rather than a full equity planning platform. Employees often still need separate tools or advisors for:
Tax modeling
Equity analysis
Scenario planning
Broader wealth management
EquityBee connects employees with investors who fund stock option exercises.
What EquityBee offers
Option exercise funding
Marketplace-style financing
Shared upside structures
Best for: We believe EquityBee is best for employees who cannot afford exercise costs upfront.
Potential limitations EquityBee focuses mainly on financing transactions rather than holistic equity planning. It is less focused on:
Personalized tax modeling
Long-term wealth strategy
Secondary liquidity
Integrated equity analysis
Quid provides financing and liquidity solutions for startup employees and founders.
What GetQuid offers:
Equity-backed financing
Liquidity solutions
Founder and executive financing
Best for: We believe Quid is best for employees and founders seeking liquidity without immediately selling shares.
Potential limitations: Quid focuses primarily on capital access rather than being an end-to-end equity decision platform.
You may like: ESO Fund vs EquityBee vs Secfi: Which stock option financing provider is right for you?
These platforms help employees understand and manage the financial side of equity compensation.
Compound is a wealth management platform designed for tech employees.
What Compound offers
Financial planning
Tax planning
Equity compensation guidance
Best for: We believe Compound is best for tech professionals looking for integrated financial advice.
Potential limitations: Compound is primarily a wealth management platform rather than an equity execution platform. It does not specialize in:
Non-recourse financing
Secondary transactions
Dedicated liquidity infrastructure
Granted focuses on helping employees understand and optimize equity compensation.
What Granted offers
Equity education
Compensation analysis
Equity planning tools
Best for: We believe Granted is best for employees evaluating startup offers and compensation packages.
Potential limitations: Granted is more educational and advisory than transactional. It is not a liquidity or financing platform.
Vested helps employees manage and understand equity compensation.
What Vested offers
Equity tracking
Tax insights
Financial planning support
Best for: We believe Vested is best for employees seeking visibility into their equity position.
Potential limitations: Vested focuses more on organization and planning than liquidity execution.
Choosing the best platform for your equity is not about finding a single tool that does everything. Instead, it is about aligning your choice with your current career stage and your immediate financial goals.
If you are at a high-growth startup: Using a platform that prioritizes your personal bottom line is often the priority. At this stage, your focus is likely on navigating complex tax laws and finding ways to access liquidity before the company goes public.
If you are focused on simple administrative tracking: You might prefer sticking with the cap table software your company already uses. These tools are excellent for viewing your vesting schedule and keeping your basic grant information synchronized with company legal records.
If you are at a large public company: You will likely need enterprise-grade software. These environments often involve global compliance requirements and specialized reporting that require a platform built for large-scale corporate infrastructure.
For most executives, the right path involves a combination of tools. You might use one platform for global administration and another specialized partner to help you model your taxes or secure financing for an exercise. By picking the right partner for each specific problem, you can ensure that your equity transitions from a line item on a dashboard into a realized financial asset.
The tool shown here uses artificial intelligence and is for illustrative purposes only and not necessarily indicative of future results and there is no guarantee that similar results can be achieved. The information provided by the tool is not professional advice and is not intended by Secfi, Inc., its affiliates, and Secfi representatives, to be deemed as investment, legal, tax or other professional advice or recommendations of any kind, or to form the basis of any decision to do or to refrain from doing anything. Secfi does not review the accuracy or completeness of the information provided to us within the tool.
No, they solve different problems. Cap table platforms like Carta, Pulley, and Shareworks are systems of record for the company. They track cap tables, issue grants, handle 409A valuations, and show you your vesting schedule. Personal equity platforms work on the individual side: deciding when to exercise, modeling the tax bill, financing the exercise, and planning liquidity. Most executives keep using whatever cap table software their employer provides to view their grants, and use a separate tool to decide what to do with them.
Not really. Cap table tools are built for finance and HR teams administering equity at scale, so they show your grant details and vesting but stop short of personal decision-making. They won't model your AMT exposure, run exit scenarios against different IPO prices, finance an exercise, or plan the tax timing. For those decisions you need a platform built for the individual holder, or a financial advisor who specializes in startup equity.
Both help you cover the cost of exercising options without using your own cash, but the structure differs. Non-recourse providers fund the exercise directly, and repayment is tied to your company's outcome rather than your personal assets. Marketplace platforms connect you with outside investors who fund the exercise in exchange for a share of the upside. One is direct funding from the provider; the other is matchmaking with third-party investors.
Often, yes. Few tools cover company administration, tax modeling, financing, and liquidity in one place. A common setup is to use whatever cap table software your employer already runs for tracking, then add a specialized partner for the decisions that platform doesn't handle, like AMT modeling or financing an exercise. The right mix depends on your career stage and whether your immediate priority is tracking, tax planning, or accessing liquidity.
Sources:
https://carta.com/software/cap-table/
https://pulley.com/cap-table-management
https://www.shareworks.com/solutions/equity-plan-administration
https://www.esofund.com/how-it-works
https://equitybee.com/how-it-works/
https://www.quid.com/solutions
https://compoundplanning.com/equity-compensation/
https://www.withgranted.com/
https://www.withgranted.com/blog
https://vested.co/equity/