If you run your company on Pulley, you probably found out the way everyone else did: an email you did not ask for, landing in a quarter that was already full. Pulley will cease operations after December 8, 2026, as reported by TechCrunch (16 September 2026). A transition to Carta is on the table, and you do not have to take it.
I should be upfront about who is writing this. I co-founded Fairmint, so treat me as an interested party. We are an SEC-registered transfer agent. Fairmint has recorded $1.6B+ in private equity for 180+ issuers and funds, and for Pulley customers we migrate the cap table at no charge and keep cap table management free now and throughout 2027. What follows is the same thing I say to founders on the phone, including the parts that hold no matter who you pick.
This page is the decision guide. If you already know what you want, Moving from Pulley is where you book it, and Fairmint vs Pulley is the side-by-side.
Do Pulley customers have to accept the default transition?
No. Every company gets to choose where its ownership records go next, and a default is not a decision.
Business Insider (September 2026) reported that Pulley arranged a Carta transition program. It is a reasonable option, and plenty of companies will take it. The thing worth avoiding is drifting into it because the deadline is close, since you will be living inside whichever answer you pick for years.
Here is what happens on our side, so you know what you are agreeing to before you book anything. You send what you have. Our cap table experts rebuild the table from the Pulley export and the supporting documents, and they tell you where the gaps are rather than quietly guessing. Nothing goes live until you have looked at it and said yes. You do not need files to book a call.
Moving your cap table wasn’t on your roadmap. But choosing what comes next is still your decision. Your ownership records should stay under your control.
Joris Delanoue, co-founder of Fairmint
Should you still pay a subscription for cap table software?
Probably not.
Open standards changed the economics. A cap table is a ledger: who owns what, and what happened to get there. Keeping that ledger inside proprietary software used to be a defensible business. It is not much of a moat now.
The genuinely hard work is what happens to the register. Raising a round. Issuing equity. Moving shares between people. Getting ready for liquidity, which is usually when a mistake from three years ago finally introduces itself.
So our view is that cap table management should be free, and revenue should come from the transfer-agent and transaction services companies use when they raise capital or change ownership. You pay when we do something for you, not for permission to read your own ledger.
How should you evaluate the next provider?
Ask how they make money, then ask how you leave. Those two questions tell you more about where you might move your data than any feature comparison.
A free migration is worth taking seriously, and it is not the same thing as a good long-term deal. Here is the list I would run through in your position.
| Question to ask | Why it matters | Fairmint’s answer |
|---|---|---|
| How do you make money? | Subscriptions, transaction fees, and professional services create different incentives after year one. | Cap table management is free for all of our customers. Revenue comes from optional transfer-agent and transaction services. |
| Can I leave with my records intact? | Ownership history needs to outlast any software contract. | Records use the Open Cap Table Format (OCF) and remain exportable. Keep original Pulley files too. |
| What does the migration actually cost? | “Free move” offers can hide renewal pricing. | Consultation, migration, onboarding, and cap table management cost nothing. |
| Who maintains the official register? | Software is not the same job as an SEC-registered transfer agent. | Fairmint is an SEC-registered transfer agent. Appointment is optional and priced separately. |
| What happens when we raise or transfer shares? | Every financing and share transfer depends on an accurate record, then changes that record. | Recordkeeping and liquidity can run on the same rail when you want them to. |
Put those questions to whoever is offering to move you, and put them to us too. The answers should be specific, and you should not have to dig for them.
What does provider stability mean after Pulley?
It means portability. After this year, “they seem like they will be around” is not a plan, so the real question is whether you can walk out with a complete, usable record if the next vendor also stops.
Two things make that true in practice:
- A complete original archive. Cap table, stakeholder ledger, issuances, grants, SAFEs, notes, 409A reports, board approvals, and signed documents. Keep these yourself even after someone else rebuilds the table for you.
- A structured, open current record. Fairmint stores ownership on the Open Cap Table Format, so the live register is not sitting in a private database shape that only one company can read.
The test is easy to run. Could you hand that package to your lawyer, your board, or a new provider tomorrow, and could they work from it without asking you to screenshot anything? If the answer is no, you are not portable yet, whatever the marketing page says.
Why do open standards matter when you switch providers?
Because they make the second switch possible, not just this one.
Fairmint works with the Open Cap Table Coalition, whose members include Cooley, Gunderson Dettmer, Orrick, and Fenwick. The idea behind a shared format is unglamorous and useful: any competent provider should be able to read your data.
Lock-in here is rarely a clause in a contract. It shows up as an export that quietly drops half the history, screenshots standing in for a ledger, and a sequence of events that only the incumbent system can replay correctly. Usually nobody planned it. It is just what happens when the format belongs to the vendor.
An open format does not replace your source documents, so keep those as well. What it means is that the live register is not a hostage.
Is Fairmint only a Pulley software replacement?
No, though if all you need right now is a free and portable home for the cap table, that is a completely fine reason to use us.
The longer answer is that we think the record and the events that change the record belong on the same rail. You start with a free register. Later, when a priced round or a secondary or a liquidity event arrives, the financing and the share transfer and the official ledger are not three disconnected systems stitched together over email.
Appointing us as your transfer agent is optional and priced separately. Plenty of companies do not need one yet. You will know when you do.
What is the difference between Fairmint and Pulley?
Pulley sold subscription cap table and equity management software, and it stops operating after December 8, 2026.
Fairmint migrates those records at no charge, keeps cap table management free, stores the register on the Open Cap Table Format so you can leave later, and can act as your SEC-registered transfer agent if that becomes useful.
If you want help with the move, book it on the Pulley migration page. Bring your files if you have them. If you cannot find them, come anyway and we will work out what is missing together.
Terms change, ours included, so confirm current terms with any provider before you decide. Shutdown facts follow TechCrunch (16 September 2026) and Business Insider (September 2026).