Octelligence vs. Ownr: incorporation tool, or corporate records platform?

Ownr (an RBC Ventures product) is one of the most popular ways to register a sole proprietorship or incorporate a federal or provincial Canadian corporation online. Sole proprietorship registration and incorporation are both one-time fees that vary by jurisdiction, with the first year of a basic minute book included, plus the option to open an RBC business account and pick up cashback. It's a clean, well-marketed front door.

Octelligence is built for the years after that. The job is keeping a structured corporate records book, share register, share certificates, and cap table accurate, verifiable, and ready for diligence, across the whole life of the corporation. We assume the corporation already exists. We don't file with Corporations Canada or REQ. We're not a registered agent.

For most Canadian founders, the right setup is: incorporate through Ownr (or counsel), then move the ongoing record into a platform built for it. Many founders find Ownr's recurring maintenance costs about the same as Octelligence Starter or Growth, but covers a narrower slice of what they actually need by year two.

Ownr charges in two pieces: a one-time incorporation fee that varies by province, then a recurring subscription on either the Online Minute Book Plan (free for the first year) or the Managed Corporation Plan. Sole proprietorship registration is a one-time fee with no recurring subscription.

Octelligence Starter covers one corporation with the structured minute book, share classes, cap-table view, QR-verified certificates, and audit-ready exports, starting with a 14-day free trial. Growth adds cap table scenarios, SAFE notes, options, and warrants. Scale covers up to 5 corporations under one organization, which Ownr does not offer at any price. Current plan prices are on the Octelligence pricing page.

For pure recordkeeping the two land in a similar range, and currency moves the answer around anyway. The real question isn't who is cheaper; it's what scope each platform covers, and whether you need cap table + multi-jurisdiction + verifiable certificates in the next 24 months.

Ownr's "minute book" is a labelled set of PDF folders with templates: articles of incorporation, bylaws, blank resolutions, a directors register, a shareholders register, certificate templates. The contents are real documents, and for a single-shareholder Canadian corporation with no equity activity, it works. The structure is, fundamentally, organized file storage.

Octelligence is a structured ledger. Every share class, issuance, transfer, redemption, conversion, option grant, vesting event, and resolution is a typed object, linked to the others. When you issue 100,000 Class A common shares to a founder, the system writes the share register entry, generates a certificate with a QR-verifiable URL, ties both to a director resolution, and updates the cap table in one transaction. When diligence asks "how do these 8 shareholders fully reconcile to your articles," the answer comes out of one query.

For a founder who'll never raise outside capital, the folder approach is fine. For anyone raising a single SAFE, granting a single option, transferring a single share, or expecting an exit or audit, the structured ledger is the work the folder approach was always going to require eventually, just done up front.