Polar
Open-source monetization for developers
Quick Verdict
Best For
- Open-source projects monetizing with sponsorships
- Developer tools needing GitHub-integrated licensing
- Solo developers wanting MoR simplicity
- SaaS products with usage-based or subscription billing
Consider Alternatives If
- Enterprise requiring extensive integrations
- Businesses needing lowest possible fees
- Physical product sales
Top Alternatives
Pricing & Coverage
Payment processing details for Polar
Transaction Fees
+1.5% international cards, +0.5% subscriptions
Merchant of Record
They handle tax compliance, invoicing, and act as the seller of record.
Payout Speed
Tax Compliance
Accepted Payment Methods
Geographic Coverage
View all supported countries
Also supports payouts
Subscription & Billing Features
Fraud Protection
- Stripe Radar integration
- Chargeback monitoring (~0.7% threshold)
- Dispute handling by Polar
Score Breakdown
6 dimensions evaluated with transparent methodology
Built on Stripe infrastructure with reliable processing
- Stripe-powered payment processing
- Global payment acceptance via Stripe
- Webhook-based real-time notifications
- −3 Depends on Stripe's infrastructure
- −3 International card fees (+1.5%)
Developer-first with GitHub integration and simple API
- Native GitHub integration for repo access
- Simple 6-line integration code
- TypeScript SDK available
- −8 Smaller SDK ecosystem than Stripe
- −8 Documentation still maturing
Growing but limited integrations compared to established players
- GitHub access control integration
- Discord role management
- API/webhooks for custom integrations
- −17 No native accounting integrations (Xero, QuickBooks)
- −17 Limited no-code platform support
- −17 Smaller community than Stripe/Paddle
Modern codebase with active development
- Open-source codebase (MIT license)
- Active GitHub development
- Clear API versioning
- −6 Young platform (2023), less battle-tested
- −6 Smaller team than established competitors
Higher fees but includes MoR tax handling
- No monthly platform fee
- MoR handles all tax compliance
- Transparent pricing (4% + $0.40)
- −7 4% + $0.40 base fee (higher than Stripe's 2.9%)
- −7 +1.5% for international cards
- −7 +0.5% for subscriptions
Full MoR with automatic tax calculation and remittance
- Merchant of Record (handles all liability)
- Automatic EU VAT calculation and remittance
- GST handling for applicable regions
- −8 US sales tax handling less comprehensive
- −8 Limited tax documentation by region
Compare Alternatives
How Polar stacks up against similar technologies
Sources & Methodology
How we calculate these scores: transparent and reproducible
GitHub
Repository activity, stars, contributors, issue resolution time
NPM Registry
Weekly downloads, package dependencies, version history
OSV Database
Known vulnerabilities, security advisories, CVE tracking
Community Signals
Stack Overflow activity, Discord engagement, developer surveys
2.0.0 Last updated: 2026-01-29 Confidence: 85%