Guide
409A valuation cost: $990 to $3,500 on published prices
Updated
A 409A valuation is the same statutory exercise wherever you buy it: an independent appraisal of common stock fair market value, giving the board IRS safe harbour when it grants options. The published price for that exercise runs from $990 to $3,500 a year, and almost none of the difference is about the valuation.
Three routes, three prices
The cheapest published route is a standalone subscription priced by stage. Eqvista's pre-revenue tier is $990 a year for a company in business under a year, rising through $1,290 at angel stage, $1,990 at seed and $2,590 at Series A.
The middle route is an add-on. Cake Equity sells a 409A for $1,500 on top of any plan, including its free one, so a company that wants only the valuation pays $1,500 and gets basic cap table software thrown in.
The dearest route is a bundle. Pulley includes 409A valuations on its Growth plan at $3,500 a year and not on Startup at $1,200, so the valuation effectively costs the $2,300 gap between the two plans.
Why the bundle costs three times the standalone
Because you are not buying the same thing. Pulley's Growth plan carries cap table management, custom SAFE, option and RSA agreements, option exercises, Rule 701, Form 3921, board approvals and HRIS integrations. The valuation is one line on that list.
That is a fair deal if you need the platform. It is a poor one if you need a number for your board minutes, and the mistake companies make is comparing $3,500 against $990 as though they were quotes for the same job.
The refresh is where the real money is
A 409A goes stale after twelve months or on any material event, and a priced round is a material event. So the question that decides your annual cost is not what one valuation costs, it is what a second one costs in the same year.
Eqvista includes unlimited refreshes within the subscription year on its startup, angel and Series A tiers. Cake Equity's Team plan includes two a year. Cake's $1,500 add-on buys one, so a company that raises mid-year buys it again. Pulley lists the valuation as a plan feature without stating a count, which is the thing to pin down before signing.
For a company expecting to raise, unlimited refreshes at $990 is a materially different product from one valuation at $1,500.
Speed is priced separately, and steeply
Eqvista publishes 5 to 10 working days as standard and an expedite of 1 to 5 days at $490 and up. On the $990 tier that is a 50% surcharge to halve the wait, and it is the only turnaround figure published by any provider here.
Nobody else publishes a turnaround at all. If you are granting options to a hire who starts in two weeks, that absence is the first question for the sales call, not the price.