Compare · Last updated
MainStreet alternative for startup founders
MainStreet was the best known name in startup R&D credits. It charged up to 20% of the credit it found. In May 2025 it was acquired by Employer.com, and as of July 2026 its original site no longer shows the R&D credit product, though its customer dashboard still runs.
Claimship does the job founders came to MainStreet for. It finds and documents the R&D credit, but from your engineering work record instead of a questionnaire, for a flat fee of $1,500 to $3,000 per year. Your own CPA files it.
| Claimship | MainStreet | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Independent and taking new customers. | Acquired by Employer.com in May 2025 and folded into a broader back-office brand. As of July 2026 mainstreet.com shows a holding company page, not the credit product. The customer dashboard still runs. |
| Pricing model | Flat fee. $1,500 to $3,000 per year, published on the pricing page. You keep 100% of the credit. | Historically capped at 20% of the credit savings. Its archived FAQ gave the example of a $20,000 fee on a $100,000 credit. Current pricing is not published anywhere we could find. |
| 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. | Payroll and accounting data pulls plus a founder questionnaire, reviewed by an in-house tax team. |
| Audit support | Every qualified dollar links to the commit, PR, or ticket that earned it. Primary evidence, not reconstructed interviews. | Its archived FAQ promised reimbursement of up to $1,000,000 for costs caused by a MainStreet error. Whether that guarantee still stands after the acquisition is not published. |
| What your CPA gets | A finished study and Form 6765 package. Your CPA reviews it and files it with your return. Claimship never files taxes. | The same hand-off model. MainStreet sent Form 6765 and a study for your CPA to file with the return. |
| Integrations | GitHub, Linear, Jira, Slack, Gmail, Outlook, Notion, Rippling, Gusto. All read-only. | Payroll and accounting: Gusto, Rippling, ADP, Paychex, Namely, TriNet, QuickBooks, Sage. No dev-tool connections. |
| Time from the founder | About 15 minutes to connect your tools, then a short weekly review. | Claimed about 15 minutes of setup and roughly an hour at filing time. |
MainStreet's original marketing pages are offline, so the pricing, guarantee, and process descriptions above come from its archived FAQ (September 2024) and product pages (March 2025). We checked the live site, the acquisition coverage, and the archives in July 2026.
Sources: TechCrunch: Employer.com acquires MainStreet · MainStreet FAQ (archived, Sept 2024) · MainStreet on Trustpilot
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 MainStreet is a better fit
MainStreet built something real, and parts of it may serve you well inside its new home. It is worth a look when:
- You want one vendor for the whole back office. Employer.com is assembling payroll, bookkeeping, entity formation, and tax credits into one platform. If that bundle lands, it covers far more ground than a single-purpose R&D tool.
- You want credits beyond R&D. MainStreet's model searched many federal, state, and local credits, including retirement plan and accessibility credits. Claimship does the R&D credit only.
- You are already a MainStreet customer. The dashboard still runs, and your filing history lives there. Ask the team, in writing, what happens to your studies, your fee terms, and the guarantee before you move.