Carta vs. Pave: Side-by-Side Comparison
CARTA TOTAL COMPENSATION VS. PAVE
Why companies choose Carta over Pave
Power smarter forecasting, hiring, and retention decisions with access to the largest set of private market equity and cash compensation data.
See Carta Total Comp in action
Compare Carta vs. Pave
Grow on one platform
Manage your cap table, comp data, and board approvals in one connected place.
Tap into trusted data
Access proprietary benchmarks informed by 50K+ companies and 1.6M+ equity holders.
Make informed decisions
Stay in control by understanding the equity impact of each offer or grant before you hit send.
Real-time data from the source of truth
Carta pulls equity information directly from over 50K+ cap tables—so benchmarks reflect actual ownership, not estimates or surveys. With data refreshed quarterly, you get the most complete, up-to-date picture of total compensation.
One platform from offer to board approval
Make faster, data-informed comp decisions without managing multiple fragmented tools. With Carta, your cap table, equity plans, valuations, board approvals, and compensation benchmarking are connected in a single system.
Comp strategy and equity planning, in sync
Don’t just see what to pay—understand what each decision means. Because Carta is built on your live cap table, you get built-in reports that show you how each new hire, refresh grant, or pay adjustment affects your equity pool.
Trusted by 50K+ companies
“Implementing Total Comp had the unintended effect of also streamlining our whole offer process because we could introduce automatic offer approvals and no longer rely on the CEO for the final decision. It has given us the structure that we needed to drive the hiring process independently.”
Alex Rose
VP of People & Operations, Lightning AI](/content/resources/customer-stories/lightning-ai/index.html)
“We saw the cap table and the auxiliary functionality—tax, compliance, the total comp—all coming around the Carta ecosystem, and we felt Carta has this network effect that we wanted to buy into.”
Troy Sultan
Co-founder and CEO, Guide](/content/resources/customer-stories/guide/index.html)
“Carta Total Comp has been a huge help in creating base levels to build our processes on. Before we onboarded, the company didn’t have official levels for each employee. By using Total Comp, we were able to create that process and scale a lot faster.
Jesse Kao
Head of Finance, Gauntlet](/content/resources/customer-stories/dynasty/index.html)
FAQs
You have questions, we have resources and answers.
Does Carta offer compensation tools for early-stage startups?
Yes. Carta Total Compensation is available to companies of all sizes. If you’re just getting started, Carta Launch includes free equity management and access to early-hire benchmarks so you can make confident first offers.
What can I expect from onboarding with Carta Total Compensation?
Getting up and running is a simple, self-guided process. If you have questions, our comp experts are here to help.
I’m not a comp expert—can Carta still work for me?
Absolutely. Carta is built for founders, finance teams, and HR teams who need fast, reliable guidance—not heavy workflows. You don’t have to be an expert to benefit from Carta’s benchmarks and reporting tools.
Can I see how offers or refresh grants affect my equity pool?
Yes. Carta includes equity runway, refresh, and hiring forecast reports that show how every grant impacts your equity pool and dilution.
Does Carta include compensation planning features such as merit cycles?
No, but Carta integrates with compensation planning platforms like Rippling, Sequoia, and Complete, which support merit cycle planning.
Pricing Plans
Free
- Launch
- Free for new customers with up to 25 stakeholders and up to $1M raised
- Cap table management
- Fundraising benchmarks
- SAFE financings
Build
- End-to-end fundraising tools and equity management
- Everything in Launch
- White glove onboarding
- Premier support
Grow
- Industry-leading valuations and tax support
- Everything in Build
- 409A valuations
- 83(b) form
Scale
- Best-in-class compliance and financial reporting
- Everything in Grow
- GAAP Financial Reporting (ASC-718)
- IFRS Financial Reporting
Carta Total Compensation
Now sold separately—every company can now build a competitive, holistic compensation strategy that leverages millions of private market data points to create real-time salary and equity benchmarks.
Tap into the largest compensation datasets
Get private market benchmarks for every role, level, and region to help you forecast, hire, and retain talent.