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Claimship vs Fondo
Fondo is a CPA-led service that bundles bookkeeping, corporate tax filing, and the R&D credit. Its credit fee is performance based. Fondo's own FAQ caps it at 20% of the savings found, and you pay nothing if no credit is claimed.
Claimship does one job. It builds the R&D study from your engineering work record and charges a flat $1,500 to $3,000 per year, so a $60,000 credit costs $2,500 instead of up to $12,000. Your CPA stays, and your CPA files.
| Claimship | Fondo | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat fee. $1,500 to $3,000 per year, published on the pricing page. You keep 100% of the credit. | Performance based. Fondo's FAQ says fees never exceed 20% of the savings claimed, with $0 owed if no credit is found. Its pricing page also lists R&D studies as a tax add-on starting at $500. The exact schedule is not published in one place as of July 2026. |
| Product scope | One thing: the R&D credit study and Form 6765 package, plus tracking until the cash lands. | A bundle: bookkeeping from $399 per month, corporate tax filing (TaxPass) from about $1,450 per year, and tax credits. |
| Who gathers the evidence | Software reads your GitHub, Linear, Jira, and Slack with read-only access. You confirm edge cases in a short weekly review. No interviews or timesheets. | Fondo's CPAs work from guided questions plus your payroll and ledger data. |
| Audit readiness | Every qualified dollar links to the commit, PR, or ticket that earned it. Primary evidence, not reconstructed interviews. | Markets audit-ready, CPA-built documentation. No separate audit representation service is described on its site. |
| Who files | A finished study and Form 6765 package. Your CPA reviews it and files it with your return. Claimship never files taxes. | Fondo can file your corporate return itself through TaxPass. If you keep an outside CPA, Fondo says it sends the paperwork to your CPA at tax time. |
| Integrations | GitHub, Linear, Jira, Slack, Gmail, Outlook, Notion, Rippling, Gusto. All read-only. | Payroll: Gusto, Rippling, ADP, QuickBooks, Justworks, Paychex, Namely, TriNet, Sage, OnPay. No dev-tool connections. |
| Time from the founder | About 15 minutes to connect your tools, then a short weekly review. | Claims about 15 minutes of onboarding and no more than an hour of paperwork for most applications. |
Claims about Fondo were checked against fondo.com, including its pricing page and R&D credits FAQ, in July 2026. Fondo's 20% figure is its own stated maximum; your quote may be lower.
Sources: Fondo tax credits · Fondo pricing · Fondo R&D credits FAQ
How Claimship works
From connected repos to cash collected in four steps
Pricing is a flat fee of $1,500 to $3,000 per year based on team size. You keep 100% of the credit. Estimate yours with the credit calculator.
When Fondo is a better fit
Fondo is a good product for a specific kind of startup. It is the better choice when:
- You want one vendor for books, taxes, and credits. Fondo bundles bookkeeping, the corporate return, Delaware franchise tax, and the R&D credit. One relationship covers all of it.
- You do not have a CPA yet. Fondo files the return itself through TaxPass. Claimship assumes you have an accountant to file, because it never files taxes.
- You are in an accelerator with Fondo deals. Fondo offers discounts through YC and other portfolio programs, which changes the math on the bundle.
- You only want to pay on success. If the credit turns out to be zero, Fondo's credit fee is zero. Claimship charges its flat fee either way, which is why we tell you on the first call if the credit is not worth it.