Cap-table software looks cheap on the day you buy it. You have a handful of founders, one SAFE, maybe an advisor. Every vendor's entry tier covers that. The real bill shows up two years later, and its size depends less on the sticker price than on the shape of the pricing model you signed up for. This post walks through that shape with real math, because the difference compounds exactly when you can least afford surprises: right after you start hiring.
The two shapes of cap-table pricing
Almost every tool on the market prices one of two ways:
- Per-stakeholder (or size-banded) pricing. The bill is a function of how many people are on your cap table, directly (a fee per stakeholder) or in bands (up to 25 stakeholders, up to 50, up to 100). Most US incumbents price this way. We won't quote their numbers here because they change and depend on your tier; check their current plan pages.
- Flat per-company pricing. The bill is a constant. Vquity is built this way on purpose: $990 a year, or $99 a month, per company workspace, with unlimited stakeholders. Free covers your first 10 stakeholders on one company.
Neither shape is dishonest. But they behave very differently against the one thing every startup intends to do: grow the roster.
A worked example: 40 stakeholders in Riyadh
Take a concrete, common case. A Saudi startup incorporates with 3 founders, raises a pre-seed from 4 angels on convertible instruments, and closes a seed with 2 institutional investors. That's 9 stakeholders before the first hire. Now it does what seed-stage companies do: it grants options. Twenty-five employees over two years, plus 4 advisors and a small ESOP top-up round that brings 2 more angels. The cap table now holds 40 stakeholders, which is not a big company. It's a normal Series-A-ready company in Riyadh, Dubai, or Doha.
Model the two shapes against that growth curve, with the per-stakeholder tool indexed at 1x for the starting roster:
- At 9 stakeholders, both models cost roughly the same. This is the moment you choose a vendor, and the moment the models look interchangeable.
- At 20 stakeholders, a banded model has typically crossed its first tier boundary. Indexed cost: about 2x. The flat model: still 1x.
- At 40 stakeholders, you're two or three bands up. Indexed cost: 3x to 4x. Flat: 1x.
- At 80 stakeholders (a healthy Series B roster with a broad ESOP), banded pricing commonly lands at 6x to 8x the starting rate. Flat: still 1x.
The exact multipliers vary by vendor and year, which is why we show indexed shapes rather than someone else's price list. The structure is the point: per-stakeholder pricing turns your hiring plan into your software vendor's revenue plan. Every option grant to a new engineer nudges the bill. You start asking whether an advisor really needs to be on the cap table, or whether employees really need portal access. Those are exactly the wrong questions to be optimizing.
The three costs that don't appear on any pricing page
1. The admin hours. Whatever tool you pick, someone (usually a founder) reconciles rounds, uploads documents, chases signatures, and answers investor questions. A tool that meters stakeholders also meters your willingness to delegate: fewer seats and portals means more questions flow through you personally. Count your own hours at whatever your time is worth and the "cheap" plan gets expensive fast.
2. The migration tax. Switching cap-table tools mid-life means re-papering trust: re-verifying every grant, every conversion, every certificate against source documents. It's why companies stay on tools they've outgrown, and why the pricing model you pick at 9 stakeholders is effectively a decision about what you'll pay at 80. Pick the shape, not the sticker.
3. The exit toll. Some tools make leaving expensive by making exporting hard. Ask any vendor two questions before you sign: what exactly exports, and does exporting cost extra? (Vquity's answer: XLSX and JSON cover the company, share classes, shareholders, rounds, grants, and warrants; CSV exports the register; the Data Room downloads as a zip. Exports work on the free plan. That's a deliberate policy: exit rights shouldn't be a hostage negotiation.)
Why this bites harder in the GCC
Regional founders face two extra frictions. First, most per-stakeholder tools price in USD against a US feature set, so you're paying US-market rates for 409A and Rule 701 workflows your ADGM or CMA entity doesn't use (see our guide to startup equity in the GCC). Second, ESOP adoption in the region is accelerating, and the whole point of a modern ESOP is breadth: grants for many employees, portals so they can see what they hold. A pricing model that charges per head is a structural argument against the very ESOP culture you're trying to build.
A 5-question checklist before you sign anything
- What does this cost at my projected roster in 24 months, not today's?
- Which actions cross a billing threshold: a grant? a portal invite? an extra company entity?
- What exports, exactly, and does exporting cost extra or require a call?
- Are investor and employee portals included, or a per-seat line item?
- Is the price on the website, or behind a demo call? (If a vendor won't publish it, model the worst band.)
Vquity's answers are on one page: flat $990 a year or $99 a month per company workspace, unlimited stakeholders, every module included, exports always free, and a founding rate of $490 a year for the first 15 companies. Run the same checklist against anyone else, and pick the shape that doesn't punish you for growing.