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Accounting · head to head

Carta vs Ottimate

Carta logo

Carta

Accounting

Cap table, equity and 409A valuation software built around United States private company practice

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Ottimate logo

Ottimate

Accounting

Invoice capture and accounts payable automation trained on food and beverage distributor formats

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Carta pricing scales with the number of stakeholders on the cap table, so a company that grants options broadly pays a rising annual fee for employees and small angels who sign in once a year, and the cost keeps climbing after the round that justified it is spent.; Ottimate nothing is published about price, and quotes are structured by location and invoice volume, so a group with a few high-volume sites and one with many low-volume sites can receive very different numbers for the same total spend
  • They diverge on capability: Carta covers Cap table of record, Ottimate covers Line-item invoice capture.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Carta and Ottimate actually diverge.

Attributes where Carta and Ottimate differ
AttributeCartaOttimate
Starting price$29/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
Founded2012Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), platforms (Web, Ios, Android), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Accounting).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Carta

  • Cap table of record
  • 409A valuations
  • Electronic issuance
  • Vesting and exercise
  • Employee portal
  • Scenario modelling
  • Waterfall analysis
  • ASC 718 expense reporting

Only in Ottimate

  • Line-item invoice capture
  • GL coding
  • Approval routing
  • Supplier payments
  • Price change alerts
  • Purchase order matching
  • Digital invoice retrieval

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Carta

  • A startup that has just closed a priced round and whose investors and counsel expect the cap table to live somewhere they can read itnot Ottimate
  • A company issuing options to employees for the first time and needing a defensible 409A before it can set a strike pricenot Ottimate
  • A finance team preparing its first audit and needing ASC 718 stock compensation schedules that tie to the grant recordsnot Ottimate
  • A venture fund that wants LP reporting, capital calls and SPV administration handled outside a spreadsheetnot Ottimate

Ottimate

  • A 40 site restaurant group whose bookkeepers key distributor invoices line by line to track food costnot Carta
  • An operator that wants to know within a week when a supplier raises the price of an item outside the contracted schedulenot Carta
  • A hotel group standardising accounts payable approvals across properties that each have their own general manager sign-off rulesnot Carta
  • A finance team migrating from paper invoice files that needs digital retrieval from supplier portals rather than chasing branches for copiesnot Carta

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Carta

  • Pricing scales with the number of stakeholders on the cap table, so a company that grants options broadly pays a rising annual fee for employees and small angels who sign in once a year, and the cost keeps climbing after the round that justified it is spent.
  • The cap table is a legal record assembled from years of board consents, so migrating to another provider means re-entering historical transactions and having counsel confirm the rebuilt table matches the signed documents, which is why most companies stay whatever they think of the service.
  • The product is built around United States company law and tax practice, Delaware entities, 409A and ASC 718, so a company incorporated in the United Kingdom, Europe or elsewhere gets a record keeping tool while the valuation and compliance features that carry the price are of limited or no use.
  • 409A valuations are delivered on a cadence and require a refresh after each material event or every twelve months, so a company that raises or changes materially is repeatedly back in a valuation process with fees and turnaround time attached, and a late valuation blocks option issuance.
  • Carta drew sustained criticism in 2024 over how customer cap table data intersected with its secondary trading business, and although it exited that activity the episode is a live reason to check what a vendor holding your ownership record is permitted to do with it.

Ottimate

  • Nothing is published about price, and quotes are structured by location and invoice volume, so a group with a few high-volume sites and one with many low-volume sites can receive very different numbers for the same total spend
  • The line-item extraction advantage is trained on food and beverage distributor formats, so accuracy on long-tail suppliers, service invoices and one-off vendors falls back to general OCR and needs human review
  • It is an accounts payable layer, not an inventory or recipe costing system, so operators still need Restaurant365 or an equivalent for true plate costing and the value depends on that integration behaving
  • The company has rebranded once already from Plate IQ, and much of the third party comparison material still uses the old name or wrongly attributes it to AvidXchange, which makes independent due diligence unusually hard
  • Payment execution through the platform introduces a dependency on Ottimate for supplier relationships, and moving away later means re-establishing payment details with every vendor rather than simply exporting data

Pricing, plan by plan

Carta

$29/month
  • LaunchFree
    • Cap table
    • Stakeholder management
  • Seed$360/year
    • 409A valuations
    • Option exercising
    • Scenarios

Ottimate

On request
  • Ottimate$undefined/year
    • Quoted by location count and invoice volume
    • Payment rails may carry separate transaction charges
    • Implementation and accounting system integration scoped separately

Which should you pick?

Choose Carta if

  • You need cap table of record.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want 409a valuations.
Carta review

Choose Ottimate if

  • You need line-item invoice capture.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want gl coding.
Ottimate review

Questions people ask

Is Carta or Ottimate better?
Neither clearly leads. Carta starts at $29/month and Ottimate at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Carta or Ottimate?
Carta starts at $29/month and Ottimate at On request.
Does Carta or Ottimate run on more platforms?
Carta runs on Web, Ios, Android. Ottimate runs on Web, iOS, Android.
What is Carta best used for?
Carta is most often used for a startup that has just closed a priced round and whose investors and counsel expect the cap table to live somewhere they can read it, a company issuing options to employees for the first time and needing a defensible 409a before it can set a strike price, a finance team preparing its first audit and needing asc 718 stock compensation schedules that tie to the grant records, a venture fund that wants lp reporting, capital calls and spv administration handled outside a spreadsheet. Of those, a startup that has just closed a priced round and whose investors and counsel expect the cap table to live somewhere they can read it and a company issuing options to employees for the first time and needing a defensible 409a before it can set a strike price are not what Ottimate is typically brought in for.
What can Carta do that Ottimate cannot?
Carta covers Cap table of record, 409A valuations, Electronic issuance, Vesting and exercise. Ottimate covers Line-item invoice capture, GL coding, Approval routing, Supplier payments.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Carta: Do I need Carta before I have employees with options?

No. Before options exist a spreadsheet reviewed by your lawyer is usually enough. The pressure to move normally comes at a priced round, or the first time you need a 409A to set a strike price.

Ottimate: Is Ottimate owned by AvidXchange?

No. Ottimate is the rebranded Plate IQ and operates as an independent venture-backed company. AvidXchange is a competitor, not the parent.

Carta: Is the 409A included in the subscription?

The subscription tiers bundle valuations differently and refreshes after material events can carry additional cost. Check what triggers a chargeable revaluation before you sign, because raising a round is exactly the moment you will need one.

Ottimate: What was it called before?

Plate IQ. The company kept the same product and renamed it Ottimate.

Carta: Can my accountant get the stock compensation numbers out of it?

Yes, it produces ASC 718 expense schedules and exports. If your accounts are prepared under a different framework, expect the schedules to be a starting point that your accountant reworks rather than something they post directly.

Ottimate: Does it work outside restaurants?

It will process any invoice, but the line-item extraction accuracy that justifies the price is tuned to food and beverage distributors. Other industries should test carefully before committing.

Carta: Is it useful for a company outside the United States?

It can hold the share register and grants, and it does support some non United States structures. The 409A and United States tax workflow will not apply to you, so weigh it against local alternatives that understand your filings.

Ottimate: Does it replace Restaurant365?

No. It handles invoice capture, approval and payment. Recipe costing and restaurant-specific inventory stay in Restaurant365 or an equivalent.

Carta: How hard is it to leave?

Harder than the export button suggests. You can export the data, but the receiving system has to reproduce every historical grant, cancellation and transfer, and someone has to verify the result against the original signed consents.

Carta: Who normally pays for it, the company or the investors?

The company, even though investors and counsel are frequent users. That is the usual complaint about the pricing model: the party paying is not the only party benefiting.

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