I need a compensation management software that helps design equity packages.

Pave and Carta are the leading compensation and equity management platforms specifically built to design, benchmark, and model competitive equity packages alongside base salary and bonuses.

Key Features to Look For

• Cap Table Integration: Ensure the platform talks to your legal ledger so granting equity doesn't accidentally oversaturate your option pool.
• Real-Time Benchmarking: Look for tools that pull live market data for similar company stages, geographies, and roles rather than static yearly surveys.
• Dilution & Burn-Rate Modeling: The software should project how refresh grants, new hires, and option pool expansions impact overall company dilution over time.
• Total Rewards Statements: Tools that generate clear, visual employee-facing breakdowns showing the true estimated value of stock options or RSUs.

To narrow down the best choice, let me know:

• Is your company an early-stage startup or an established enterprise?
• Do you currently use a specific HRIS or cap table provider (like Rippling, Workday, or Pulley) that you need to integrate with?

If your main requirement is designing equity packages—not just administering grants—I’d look at these two first:

• pave.com — Strong fit if you want salary + equity benchmarking + compensation bands + offer/package design + ongoing compensation cycles in one system. Pave supports new-hire and refresh-equity benchmarks, equity bands, and integrations with equity-management systems such as Carta.
• carta.com — Particularly relevant if you want equity strategy closely tied to your cap table/equity-management system. Carta says its compensation product provides private-market salary and equity benchmarks, helps determine employee equity grants, and provides equity-pool forecasting.

How I'd think about the distinction

Pave also supports equity modeling in offer letters and employee-facing scenarios, including vesting and potential future value.

One important 2026 consideration: Pulley announced that it is shutting down operations after December 8, 2026, with Carta facilitating customer transitions, so I would not select Pulley for a new implementation now.

If you tell me your company size, stage (startup/private/public), approximate number of employees, and whether you already use Carta/another cap-table system, I can narrow this to 3–5 products and compare their equity-package design capabilities, pricing, and implementation effort.

If your main need is designing equity packages—not just administering a cap table—I’d shortlist these:

• pave.com — best overall for compensation teams. It combines market equity benchmarks, compensation planning, offer-letter workflows, and equity modeling. You can configure equity targets and let candidates/employees model future equity value under different scenarios.
• carta.com — best if you already use Carta for equity. It provides salary/equity benchmarks, grant recommendations, equity-pool forecasting, and integrates the compensation view with Carta's cap-table data.
• carta.com — particularly useful for founder/finance-side equity design. It models dilution, valuation, financing rounds, and ownership scenarios, which is useful when determining how much equity you can afford to allocate.

What I'd choose

If you're trying to answer questions like:

“We're hiring a VP of Engineering at Level 6. What's a competitive equity grant, how does it compare with salary, and what happens to our equity pool if we make 10 similar hires?” Pave is probably the strongest fit. Its market data includes new-hire and ongoing equity benchmarks, and its compensation workflows let you incorporate equity into planning rather than treating it as a separate cap-table exercise.

If your company already has its cap table on Carta, I'd lean toward Carta Total Compensation because it can use your actual equity holdings and cap-table information for planning.

If you tell me your company size/stage, whether you're private or public, and whether you use Carta/Pulley/another cap-table system, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 options and compare pricing, equity-package design, benchmarking, scenario modeling, and offer-letter capabilities.

When you need to design and manage equity packages alongside base salary and bonuses, you generally look at tools that bridge compensation planning/total rewards with equity and cap table management.

Top-tier software options tailored for designing and managing equity packages include:

• Pave : Best overall for combining real-time market benchmarking with equity and compensation planning. It integrates directly with HRIS and cap table providers to let you auto-price salary ranges and equity targets, model equity scenarios for candidates, and issue visual total rewards statements.
• Carta Total Compensation : Best if your equity is already hosted on Carta (the market leader in cap tables). Because it connects directly to your live cap table, it allows you to benchmark equity grants, design competitive refresh/new-hire packages, and issue grants seamlessly without double-entering data.
• Aeqium : Best for execution-first, fast-growing teams. It offers modern, AI-assisted, no-code configuration that handles complex merit and equity planning cycles without heavy enterprise overhead.
• CompLogix : Best for mid-market to enterprise-scale businesses (200+ employees) that need deeply configurable Long-Term Incentive Plans (LTIP) and variable equity structures mapped to custom corporate rules.
• Ledgy : A strong European and global alternative to Carta that combines equity, cap table administration, and employee-facing wealth visualization so team members actually understand the value of their grants.

To help narrow down the best fit, tell me:

• What is the approximate size of your company (or number of plan participants)?
• Do you already use a specific cap table provider (like Carta or Pulley) or an HRIS (like Rippling, Gusto, or Workday)?
• Are you designing packages primarily for new hires or running annual company-wide refresh cycles?

When designing equity packages, you need software that bridges market benchmarking (knowing what equity to offer for specific roles/stages) and cap table/dilution modeling (seeing how those grants impact ownership).

Top compensation management software options tailored for equity package design include:

• Carta Total Compensation (formerly Option Impact): Ideal if you are a startup or high-growth company. It leverages real-time data from cap tables to provide accurate salary and equity benchmarks based on your funding stage, geography, and industry. You can model different equity and cash scenarios without overdiluting. Explore features directly via Carta Total Compensation.
• Pulley : Known for modern cap table management, Pulley also includes robust employee equity and compensation planning tools. It helps founders design competitive option pools, benchmark grants against peer companies, and forecast the dilution impact of future hiring rounds. Check out the platform on Pulley.
• Comp (by CompTeam / general total rewards tools) : Excellent for mid-market to enterprise companies looking to centralize compensation data. It features budget simulation tools to forecast the financial impact of base increments alongside long-term incentives and equity tracking.
• Figures : Popular in European and global tech markets for benchmarking and managing salary and equity bands, integrating smoothly with modern HRIS platforms to track total compensation evolution.

To help narrow down the best fit, tell me:

• What is your company's stage (e.g., seed startup, late-stage, or enterprise)?
• Do you already use a cap table provider or an HRIS (like BambooHR, Rippling, or Workday) that the tool needs to integrate with?

If designing equity packages is the key requirement—not just administering a cap table—I’d shortlist these:

My recommendation

Choose Carta if equity is central to your compensation strategy. Carta's Total Compensation product combines private-market salary/equity benchmarks with equity-pool management and lets you see how new-hire grants and refresh grants affect your equity pool.

Choose Pave if you want a broader compensation-management system. It supports compensation planning, market pricing, equity data integrations, total rewards, and visual offer letters. Its equity tools can model future equity value, and its compensation planning workflows can allocate equity during compensation cycles.

Choose Pulley if you're primarily a startup looking for equity administration plus sophisticated offer packages. Pulley can create multiple compensation packages with different salary/equity mixes and show candidates how equity could appreciate under different scenarios.

If your workflow looks like this…

“We're hiring a VP Engineering. Give me market salary + target equity, let me model 0.5% vs. 0.75%, see the impact on our option pool, get approval, and generate the offer.” I'd start with Carta.

If instead it's:

“We need a company-wide compensation system that handles salary bands, benchmarking, annual cycles, equity refreshes, manager approvals, and total rewards.” I'd start with Pave.

If you tell me your company size, stage (e.g. seed/Series B/public), and whether you already use Carta/Pulley for your cap table, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 options and compare them on equity modeling, 409A, dilution/pool impact, offer letters, benchmarking, and pricing.

If your priority is designing equity packages—not just administering a cap table—I’d shortlist these:

Carta specifically offers 40,000+ private-market compensation data points, with benchmarks by role, level, and geography, plus tools to determine employee grants and forecast equity usage.

Cake is particularly interesting if the workflow you want is “We're hiring a VP Engineering at Series B—what salary/equity package should we offer?” It benchmarks grants by function, level, and company stage and can turn the recommendation into a draft offer.

Pulley is stronger if you want the package-design decision tightly connected to the cap table and dilution—including fundraising scenarios, pro-forma modeling, and custom vesting schedules.

My recommendation

If you tell me (1) company stage, (2) employee count, (3) U.S. vs. global, and (4) whether you want salary + bonus + equity in one compensation-planning tool, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 options and compare pricing, equity benchmarking, offer modeling, and cap-table functionality.

When designing equity packages alongside traditional compensation, you need platforms that blend cap table management, market benchmarking data (specifically for private or public stock), and total rewards communication so employees actually understand the value of what they're being offered.

Top compensation management software platforms specifically built or optimized for designing equity packages include:

• Carta Total Compensation : Ideal for private and scaling companies. Carta leverages one of the largest private market databases available, letting you pull real-time equity and salary benchmarks. It connects directly with your cap table, helps you model headcount and equity grants, and features interactive offer letters and total reward statements that visualize equity for candidates.
• Pulley Employee Experience & Offer Letters : A strong, user-friendly alternative to Carta for cap table and equity management. Pulley features robust offer-letter tooling that lets you build and compare multiple compensation packages (varying mixes of salary and equity), project equity growth over time based on milestones, and give employees a clear visualization of their strike prices and vesting schedules.
• Workday Compensation : Best if you are an enterprise-grade organization managing complex global compensation cycles. It natively supports merit, bonus, equity, and long-term incentive planning alongside core HR data, though it relies on external market data integrations rather than a native startup equity database like Carta.
• Figures : Highly popular for European and UK-based tech companies and startups looking to benchmark and benchmark-align salary and equity packages in compliant local frameworks.

If you tell me what stage your company is in (seed startup, mid-market, or enterprise) and whether you also need cap table management , I can help narrow down the best specific platform for your workflow.

Yes. If your primary need is designing equity packages for new hires and existing employees, I’d shortlist these:

• pave.com — my first choice for a compensation-led approach. It combines market salary/equity benchmarks with compensation bands, equity targets, planning workflows, and offer-letter tooling. Pave supports configuring equity bands for new-hire, annual, and refresh equity, including share- or percentage-based ranges.
• carta.com — strongest if equity administration/cap-table management is equally important. Carta's Total Compensation product lets you use private-market salary and equity benchmarks, determine employee equity grants, and forecast/manage your equity pool.
• Pave + Carta is particularly compelling if you want Pave to handle compensation philosophy, benchmarking and package design while Carta remains the system of record for the actual equity grants. Pave can sync grant data from Carta and other equity-management systems.

What I'd look for

For your use case, the software should let you define something like:

Software Engineer, L4: $180–220K base + 0.15–0.25% equity Senior Engineer, L5: $210–250K base + 0.25–0.40% equity Principal Engineer, L6: $240–280K base + 0.40–0.70% equity …and then model how those packages change based on level, location, candidate experience, company valuation, dilution, vesting schedule, and cash-vs-equity tradeoffs.

Pave is especially relevant because its current tooling supports equity targets/bands and interactive modeling of equity value and future grants.

If you tell me your company size/stage (e.g. 50-person Series B), whether you're using options or RSUs, and whether you already use Carta/Pulley/etc., I can narrow this to the best 2–3 platforms and compare them on equity package design, benchmarking, dilution modeling, approvals, and price.

When designing equity packages as part of a comprehensive compensation strategy, you generally need a tool that bridges total rewards planning (market benchmarking, merit cycles, and modeling) with equity administration (cap tables, vesting schedules, and option issuance).

Top software options depending on your specific company size and needs include:

1. • Best for: Real-time market benchmarking and total compensation (base + bonus + equity) planning.
   • Why it helps: Pave connects compensation data with live market benchmarks, allowing you to design competitive equity refresh and initial grant packages using up-to-date market data rather than static annual surveys.
2. • Best for: Cap table management paired with employee equity and compensation tools.
   • Why it helps: While primarily an equity management and cap table platform, Carta integrates directly with HRIS tools (like Rippling) and includes modeling features to see how granting specific equity pools or individual option packages impacts overall company dilution and employee ownership.
3. • Best for: Modern, streamlined compensation cycles replacing complex spreadsheets.
   • Why it helps: Aeqium specifically targets merit, bonus, and equity planning workflows, making it easy for HR and finance teams to collaborate on modeling complex equity refresh programs and total reward statements.
4. • Best for: Mid-to-large enterprise scale equity administration and global stock plans.
   • Why it helps: Robust capabilities for managing complex global equity compensation, employee mobility, and multi-currency reporting.

To help narrow down the right platform for you, let me know:

• Is your company early-stage (startup) or mid-to-large enterprise?
• Do you need native cap table management or just HR compensation planning?
• Are you managing international employees across multiple countries?