Best ESOP Management Software in India

For most early-stage companies, ESOP (Employee Stock Options Plan) operations sit between HR and finance teams, which means no single team owns the workflow. 

HR updates vesting schedules, records forfeitures, and handles employee questions. Finance tracks exercises and payments, reconciles option counts with the authorized pool, and prepares ESOP summaries for reviews. During audits, both teams must verify vested and unvested balances, confirm exercises, update SH-6, and ensure the Register of Members reflects the correct share allotments. 

But when these records live across emails, folders, and multiple spreadsheet versions, even simple checks take days and errors go unnoticed.

ESOP management software removes this coordination burden. It gives every team a single source of truth and automates the operational steps that usually consume the most time.

What is ESOP management software? 

ESOP management software helps companies track, issue, manage, and report employee stock options throughout their lifecycle. 

Common tasks handled by ESOP software include:

• Storing the approved ESOP scheme and all supporting documents in one place
• Real-time ESOP pool tracking, including authorized, utilized, and remaining pool balances, with automatic updates for new grants and forfeitures
• Creating grant templates, assigning them to employees, and tracking acceptance
• Automating time-based and performance-based vesting schedules, including cliffs, graded vesting, and adjustments
• Creating allotment summaries for exercised options
• Keeping SH-6, allotment summaries, and other statutory records
• Managing SARs, RSUs, and RSAs alongside ESOPs
• Recording buyback and surrender events and updating option balances
• Storing valuation reports or requesting them from registered valuers or merchant bankers
• Supporting accounting teams with ESOP expense recognition (Ind AS 102 reporting) and related reporting
• Maintaining a complete audit trail of every grant, vest, exercise, allotment, and change with timestamps and user history

How is an ESOP managed?

Below is the typical lifecycle of an ESOP and how software streamlines each step.

‍1. Scheme creation

Companies begin by drafting the ESOP scheme. This document defines the size of the pool and sets out the rules for eligibility, vesting, exercise, and separation. Vesting rules include specifics such as cliff periods, graded vesting percentages, performance milestones, and treatment during terminations.

Software stores the approved scheme and ensures every grant follows the exact rules defined in it. 

2. Board and shareholder approval

Once the ESOP scheme is drafted, it must first be approved by the Board, which signs off on the scheme, the pool size, and the authority to issue grants. After this, the scheme must be adopted by shareholders through a special resolution.

Software links these approvals directly to the scheme, making them easy to access during audits or diligence instead of relying on scattered folders or email threads.

Note: Companies cannot issue ESOP grants until the scheme has been formally approved.

3. Grant issuance

Once approvals are in place, companies create individual ESOP grants for employees. Each grant specifies the vesting schedule, grant date, number of options, exercise price, cliff, and conditions for performance-linked vesting (if applicable).

Software generates grant letters from templates, applies the correct vesting logic from the scheme, records acceptances, and ensures the total pool utilized never exceeds what has been authorized.

4. Vesting tracking

Vesting is where complexity builds up over time. Companies typically use two structures:

• Time-based vesting: Options vest according to a schedule, usually with a mandatory one-year cliff followed by monthly or quarterly graded vesting
  
• Performance-based vesting: Vesting is tied to KPIs such as revenue milestones, individual ratings, or project outcomes, which must be reviewed and approved before vesting is released

Software automates this by applying the mandatory one-year cliff accurately and tracking vesting across multiple grants an employee receives.

5. Exercise and liquidity events

Employees who have vested options may be able to exercise them during the company’s designated exercise window or during specific liquidity events such as buybacks or surrenders. 

Each exercise triggers operational work across HR, finance, and CS teams. This includes verifying vested balances, collecting payments, updating employee summaries, reviewing tax implications, and preparing data for allotment.

For employees, software gives a clear view of how many options are vested, eligible for exercise, or forfeited. For admins, it tracks payments, records confirmations, and provides accurate allotment data. 

6. Ongoing reporting

ESOP reporting is where HR and finance teams spend the most time when everything is maintained in spreadsheets. Teams need accurate, recurring reports for day-to-day operations and audits. 

Software keeps all this data updated in real time and generates reports in consistent formats.

Common reports include:

• Monthly and quarterly vesting reports
• Vested, unvested, exercised, and forfeited option balances
• ESOP pool utilisation and remaining pool for leadership reviews
• Exercise history and pending exercises for finance and investor reporting
• Allotment summaries that CS teams use to update the Register of Members
• Buyback and surrender records for audit and accounting requirements
• Grant-level audit trails showing the full history of every change
• Employee-wise equity summaries
• Reports for auditors, valuation firms, and due diligence teams during funding rounds or compliance reviews
• IFRS 2 / IND AS 102 compliant expense reports
• SH-6 registers (for Indian statutory filings)

Best ESOP management software in India

Now, let’s assess some of the top ESOP management software based on the above parameters:

1. EquityList

EquityList is one of the leading ESOP management softwares globally, streamlining workflows for grants, vesting, exercises, allotments, reporting, and shareholder management.

Trusted by companies across India, the US, MENA, and Southeast Asia, it supports organizations of all sizes, including early-stage startups, large enterprises and listed entities such as Tata Consumer Products, Bajaj Auto, BlackBuck, and Bluestone.

Key capabilities include

1. Scheme creation: EquityList provides dedicated ESOP advisory for companies setting up or refining their equity plans. Our team helps define the pool size, design vesting logic aligned with organisational goals, structure performance-based vesting, set exercise price, and plan for termination scenarios. This support also extends to other equity award types, including SARs, RSUs and RSAs
2. Board and shareholder approvals: Integrated workflows for board and shareholder consents, with built-in signature tracking
3. Grant issuance: End-to-end lifecycle management for ESOP, SAR, RSU and RSA grants from creation to allotment, with full support for bulk actions
4. Vesting tracking: Automated vesting that manages cliffs, graded schedules and performance-based structures. We also allow you to pause vesting during sabbaticals or parental leave
5. Exercise and liquidity events (buybacks and surrenders): Built-in support for ESOP buybacks and surrenders, with an integrated payment gateway to handle exercise costs and tax liabilities
6. Ongoing reporting: Audit-ready reports including:

• Ind AS 102 (share-based payment accounting)
• Ind AS 15 (employee benefit disclosures)‍
• IFRS-2 ‍
• SH-6 (Register of Employee Stock Options)
• ESOP financial year vesting report

Additionally, EquityList also has:

• Fully customizable employee dashboards that show grants, vesting progress, exercise eligibility, and other important information
• A comprehensive cap table management module tracking the fully diluted cap table, SAFEs, convertible notes, and all shareholders and share classes
• Multi-entity support for companies with holding structures or subsidiaries
• Support for valuation reports from registered valuers and merchant bankers
• Detailed dematerialisation workflows to consolidate relevant documents and track progress

EquityList supports over 550 companies and 40,000 stakeholders, with more than $5 billion in options managed on the platform.

Teams often highlight its speed of onboarding and the clarity it brings to otherwise heavy HR–Finance–CS coordination.

Pricing: Starts at $11 per stakeholder per year. EquityList also offers a free plan for companies with less than $1Mn in funding, covering up to 25 stakeholders.

2. Qapita

Qapita provides basic workflows and is typically used by companies seeking a simple ESOP system without the need for extensive statutory compliance or multi-entity support.

Key capabilities

1. Scheme creation: Not offered for Indian companies
2. Board and shareholder approvals: Available in beta
3. Grant issuance: Supports ESOP grant creation
4. Vesting tracking: Available
5. Exercise and liquidity events: Available. However, customers have reported a fragmented experience
6. Ongoing reporting: Support for India-specific reports are not mentioned on the website

Considerations for Indian companies

• Lacks support for the dematerialisation mandate by MCA for Indian companies
• Multi-entity management is not available
• Support is primarily email-based, whereas some teams prefer multi-channel availability

Learn why EquityList is the #1 Qapita alternative

Teams that have switched from Qapita to EquityList

Pricing: Free for up to 25 stakeholders with less than $1Mn in funding, which EquityList also offers. Qapita’s Surge plan then starts at $1,600 per year for up to 40 stakeholders.

3. Trica (now part of Vestd)

Trica, now acquired by UK-based Vestd, continues to offer tools for issuing grants, tracking vesting, and managing basic ESOP workflows.

Key capabilities

1. Scheme creation: Available, but typically templated rather than customized
2. Board and shareholder approvals: Not available
3. Grant issuance: Supports ESOP grant creation, although SARs are not supported
4. Vesting tracking: Available
5. Exercise and liquidity events: Exercising is handled outside the platform and relies on manual workflows
6. Ongoing reporting: Available, but it’s unclear which reports are supported

Considerations for companies

• Multi-entity management is not supported
• No support for dematerialisation mandate by the MCA for Indian companies
• Support is primarily email-based
  

Teams that have switched from Trica to EquityList

Pricing: G2 says that their starter plan is free for up to 10 stakeholders. The standard plan then begins at $25 per year for 25 stakeholders. However, these plans have limited functionality, and you will need to upgrade to access advanced features.

4. Carta

Carta’s acquisition of ZenEquity, whose customers have since migrated to the platform, expanded its presence in India.

However, the core product remains primarily tailored to US regulations and workflows, which may limit its alignment with local compliance and operational requirements.

Key capabilities

1. Scheme creation: Unavailable for India. Companies will need external legal or CS support to draft plan documents
2. Board and shareholder approvals: Available
3. Grant issuance: ESOP grants can be created using US ISO and NSO rules. If you follow US compliance, EquityList also allows you to do this
4. Vesting tracking: Automated vesting schedules that handle basic time-based vesting
5. Exercise and liquidity events: Supported
6. Ongoing reporting: India-specific compliance and reporting, including statutory registers, and dematerialisation coordination, is not supported natively and requires external involvement

Pricing: Carta’s pricing is not publicly disclosed and is often higher than other platforms. 

Teams that have switched from Carta to EquityList

Of the companies that switched from another platform to EquityList—roughly 70% are from Carta. These companies span across India, the US, Singapore and the UAE, and range from pre-seed to Series F enterprises. This breadth makes EquityList one of the most trusted Carta alternatives. 

Many of these teams have shared their migration experience, and the case studies below show what improved for them after moving to EquityList.

• [Case study] How Flow Networks Found the Right Equity Management Solution
• [Case study] Scaler’s Fast Path to Simpler Equity Ops with EquityList
• [Case study] Transforming Equity Management at Fincent

5. Xumane 

Xumane is another equity and ESOP management platform focused on helping companies digitise their stock option and cap-table workflows.

Key capabilities

1. Scheme creation: Available
2. Board and shareholder approvals: Available, but it’s unclear whether it is within the platform or offline
3. Grant issuance: Available
4. Vesting tracking: Available
5. Exercise and liquidity events: Supported, but the extent of the functionality is unclear
6. Ongoing reporting: Their website does not list the specific reports

Pricing: Their starter plan begins at about $350 per year for 20 stakeholders. They don’t have a free tier. 

6. ESOP Guardian

ESOP Guardian offers essential workflows for maintaining and organizing option-related data.

Key capabilities

1. Scheme creation: Available
2. Board and shareholder approvals: Available
3. Grant issuance: Available
4. Vesting tracking: Available; however, some users have reported issues with the experience
5. Exercise and liquidity events: Not supported
6. Ongoing reporting: Their website doesn’t specify the reports they offer

Pricing: Not available on the website.

7. Hissa

Hissa is a platform that helps companies keep track of their ESOP-related information and maintain organized records for grants and vesting.

Key capabilities

1. Scheme creation: Available
2. Board and shareholder approvals: No information on the website
3. Grant issuance: Available
4. Vesting tracking: Available
5. Exercise and liquidity events: The maturity and robustness of these workflows are unclear
6. Ongoing reporting: No information on the website

Pricing: Not available on the website.

Why companies choose EquityList

Of the platforms listed, companies often choose EquityList as a comprehensive solution, offering both local and global ESOP compliance and reporting, along with advisory and secretarial support.

1. India-specific reporting and statutory readiness

EquityList generates all major India-required ESOP reports, including:

• Ind AS 102 (share-based payment accounting)
• Ind AS 15 (employee benefit disclosures)
• IFRS-2 
• SH-6 (Register of Employee Stock Options)
• CS-ready data for allotments, shareholder registers, and MCA filings
• Valuation reports from registered valuers and merchant bankers, as required under Indian rules

This level of India-native reporting is rarely supported by other equity platforms and removes weeks of manual work for teams during audits, valuations, and due diligence.

2. ESOP plan advisory and scheme design

EquityList provides specialized ESOP advisory services for companies looking to design or optimize their employee stock option program. Our advisors partner with you to:

• Determine the right pool size
• Develop vesting structures that support your organization’s objectives
• Design performance-linked vesting frameworks
• Create or refine ESOP policies and documentation

3. Company secretary support for India compliance

EquityList’s CS team helps companies stay compliant with India’s secretarial requirements by: 

• Convening board and shareholder meetings
• Preparing resolutions and statutory documents
• Supporting filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA)
• Ensuring ESOP-related actions (pool increases, allotments, modifications) are completed accurately

This bridges the gap between software and statutory execution, something other platforms do not offer. 

4. Multi-entity and cross-border support

Many organisations operate with multiple entities, for example, an Indian private limited company with a US C-Corp parent, or a Dubai holding company with India and Singapore subsidiaries, and need a single system to manage grants, vesting, and equity records across all of them.

EquityList allows companies to maintain separate cap tables and ESOP pools per entity, set entity-level permissions for teams, and generate consolidated or entity-specific reports. Cross-border grants and inter-company equity movements are also structured cleanly through put-call agreements, reducing manual reconciliation.

EquityList handles these structures while still supporting local regulatory workflows for each region.

5. Full US-compliant infrastructure for global teams

For companies that operate in the US or plan to expand there, EquityList provides the same level of compliance coverage expected from US-focused equity platforms. This includes:

• ASC 718 share-based payment reporting, required for US GAAP audits
• 409A valuations, issued in line with IRS expectations and accepted by auditors and US boards
• Support for ISO, NSO, and international grants

Choosing the right ESOP management software comes down to one question: can it support your day-to-day operations while staying compliant with the markets you operate in? Most platforms solve one side of the equation but struggle with the other, which creates more work for HR, finance, and CS teams.

EquityList does both reliably. Book a demo now.