Carta, Inc. vs Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.): Strategic Comparison

This in-depth comparison examines Carta, Inc. and Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.) across revenue, market value, business model, competitive positioning, and long-term growth strategy. Whether you are researching Carta, Inc. on its own, evaluating Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.), or weighing the two companies side by side, the breakdown below highlights where each company leads and where the gap between Carta, Inc. and Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.) is widest.

On the headline numbers, annual revenue is $442.0M (unaudited) (FY2024) for Carta, Inc. and $1.0B (FY2026) for Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.), while their respective market capitalizations stand at N/A and N/A. Both Carta, Inc. and Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.) are headquartered in United States. Their local markets and applicable rules may still differ.

Carta, Inc.: Carta is the system of record for who owns what in private companies and funds. Founders use it to issue options and model funding rounds, employees use it to see and exercise their equity, and VC, PE, and private credit managers use it to run fund accounting and LP reporting. That position between companies and investors is what lets Carta sell valuations, fund administration, and legal services. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.): Gusto is a payroll and HR company built for US small businesses. Its customers range from restaurants and dental offices to agencies and startups, and the product handles paychecks, tax filings, benefits, onboarding, time tracking and retirement plans in one place. Founded as ZenPayroll in 2011 and renamed in 2015, it is still led by co-founder Josh Reeves and remains private. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Carta, Inc. and Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.) pursue distinct approaches to generating revenue, and understanding how each company operates is the foundation of any fair comparison between Carta, Inc. and Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.).

Carta, Inc. business model: Carta sells annual software subscriptions plus service fees on both sides of the private market. Companies pay for cap table management, equity plan administration, and 409A valuations, with prices rising as stakeholder counts and funding stages grow. Investment firms pay for Fund ERP products: fund administration (software plus dedicated fund accountants), fund tax and K-1s, portfolio valuations, CRM, forecasting, and loan operations for private credit. Since May 2026, Carta Law adds outcome-based legal and compliance work such as NDAs, KYC, investor onboarding, and LP transfers. Sacra estimates that in 2023 cap tables and 409A valuations made up about 67% of ARR, fund administration about 27%, and private equity products about 5%. Carta shut its secondary trading business in January 2024, so brokerage is no longer part of the model.

Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.) business model: Gusto earns most of its money from recurring software subscriptions: each customer pays a monthly base fee plus a per-employee fee, with higher tiers (Simple, Plus, Premium) adding HR, time tracking and advisory features. On top of that it earns commissions as a licensed health insurance broker, fees on workers' compensation and benefits administration, 401(k) plan fees (now in-house after buying Guideline in 2025), revenue from Gusto Embedded, which lets other software platforms offer payroll under their own brand, and interest on payroll funds held briefly before they are paid out. Accountants and bookkeepers are a major distribution channel. Gusto does not disclose the revenue split between these streams.

The durability of a company's moat often decides long-term winners. Here is how the competitive advantages of Carta, Inc. stack up against those of Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.).

Carta, Inc. competitive advantage: Carta's main advantage is its two-sided network. Startups put investors on their Carta cap tables, investors adopt Carta for fund administration, and those funds steer portfolio companies to Carta. As a registered transfer agent holding the legal record of ownership, Carta is also costly to leave: switching means migrating years of grants, vesting schedules, and investor records. Its cap table data feeds 409A valuations, compensation benchmarks, and portfolio valuations for funds.

Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.) competitive advantage: Gusto's edge is a self-serve product that a non-specialist owner can set up and run without an implementation team, backed by in-house payroll tax technology (it bought tax-engine maker Symmetry in 2021) that files federal, state and local payroll taxes automatically. Bundling payroll with health insurance brokerage, workers' comp and now owned 401(k) plans raises switching costs, and its accountant partner program brings in customers through trusted advisers rather than outbound sales.

Future prospects matter as much as current results. The growth strategies below explain how Carta, Inc. and Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.) each plan to expand from here.

Carta, Inc. growth strategy: Carta grows by selling more products to the firms already on its ledger. The playbook is to take a professional service (409A valuations, fund accounting, legal work), automate it, and tie the output to Carta's system of record. Fund ERP bundles fund administration, fund tax, portfolio valuations, data collection, forecasting, and CRM. Acquisitions fill gaps: Tactyc (fund forecasting), Sirvatus (private credit loan operations, October 2025), Accelex (AI data extraction, October 2025), ListAlpha (CRM), and Avantia (legal and compliance, May 2026).

Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.) growth strategy: Gusto grows by adding small business customers through accountants, partners and self-serve sign-up, then raising revenue per customer with benefits, workers' comp, HR tiers and 401(k) plans. The 2025 Guideline acquisition brought about 65,000 retirement plan customers and roughly $140M in ARR. Gusto Embedded extends payroll into vertical software platforms, and international contractor payments, built partly on the 2021 RemoteTeam deal, address US companies hiring abroad.

A closer look at the financial trajectory of Carta, Inc. and Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.) rounds out the comparison.

Carta, Inc.: Carta does not publish audited financials. Henry Ward has said the company was approaching $500 million in annual recurring revenue in 2025. Sacra estimates revenue of about $373 million in 2023, $442 million in 2024 (+19%), and $515 million in 2025 (+16.5%), with growth slowing after the end of zero-rate venture funding. Carta raised its last primary round, a $500 million Series G led by Silver Lake and Lightspeed, at a $7.4 billion valuation in August 2021; a January 2022 employee secondary sale reportedly priced it at $8.5 billion. Total equity funding is roughly $1 billion.

Gusto (ZenPayroll, Inc.): Gusto does not publish audited financials, but it has disclosed several milestones. CNBC reported more than $500 million of annualized revenue as of 2023. In May 2026 the company told TechCrunch it had surpassed $1 billion in revenue over the trailing twelve months, a recognized-revenue figure rather than ARR, that growth had accelerated for five consecutive quarters, and that it had been cash-flow positive for several years. Gusto has raised roughly $700 million in primary equity, including a $175 million Series E in 2021 at about $9.5 billion. A $200 million-plus employee tender offer led by Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan in June 2025 valued it at $9.3 billion, close to its early-2022 level. Its largest deal, the 2025 Guideline purchase, cost about $600 million according to TechCrunch sources. Gusto is a dominant American software platform for HR and payroll, holding a robust private market valuation of approximately $9.5 billion.